At last.... The Dodos

[LX3]

Hey Guys. I don't know about you, but a depressing proportion of the recordings we do for people seem to sink without trace. For whatever reason... politics, money, artist whim... I understand that, and it's fine. It's just sad sometimes.

So I was pleasantly surprised today to discover that a video clip of my favourite gig from last year has appeared on the web. It's only a small bit of the show. Really hope the whole thing comes out some time, because the gig was complete genius. Variously thought-provoking, funny, touching, exciting, and consistently inventive. Well, I thought so.

Try this link, select "performance" from the list of categories, and scroll all the way to the left, to reach "Dodos Live at ULU, September 2008".

us3 productions

If anyone wants to know anything about the recording, fire away.

[mixedupsteve]

WOW, thats great. Sound and video production.
Is the reverb on the main vocal a room mic or is added in post?

Love the drums!!
Steve

[LX3]

Meric (lead vocals) has two mics - one clean, the other fed through an fx pedal onstage, which does eq, echos, loops and freezes, etc. (Sorry I can't tell you exactly what was being used, I didn't manage to get down on stage much at all as we were recording at FOH in the balcony. There is no space at all near the stage at that venue).

There is a fair old amount of eq and compression going on to make everything sit the way I thought it should sit. It was mixed pretty quickly. I guess the label were happy with my "creative choices", because I didn't get any complaints

If I remember correctly, I used a little ambience in post (probably VSS3) on vocals. But most of the vocal reverb you're hearing on that particular clip is probably Meric's effects, plus room mics. The ambience in the recording as a whole is primarily from the room mics.

Other "effects" are in fact spill! There was a premeditated decision to keep some mics open throughout the gig, in particular Meric's effected vocal mic. That's why you hear a bit of an echo on the trash can in particular. There's also a lot of guitar in the drum mics, because one guitar amp is positioned directly to the drummer's left - for monitoring I assume.

The trick was deciding which spill was nice (or unavoidable) and which spill it was best to try and minimise. No different to any other mix I suppose.

[Remoteness]

Paul, I love it!

Tell us a little more about your equipment set-up and technical methods for this production.

[videoteque]

Music sounds pretty fresh and the audio quality is top-notch!!!thumbsupthumbsup

[mixedupsteve]

Paul,
I listened again and I could here the echo effect. I usually don't like on stage vocal effects because they're almost always overdone. This one is very nice though. Well done.
And yes, tell about your gear!!

Steve

[LX3]

Glad you like it so far. Give me a while and I'll dig up my notes and the mix files so I can tell you what was going on mix-wise.

I've just found out that that the entire gig has just been released, on a bonus DVD that comes with a new special edition of the Dodos' "Visiter" album. I've placed my order. Does anyone else always have to buy the commercial DVD to see how the job turned out?

I must say a big thank-you to Darren, Greg, and everyone at US3 Productions - super-talented video people, and great fun to work for.

I can at least tell you the recording chain was:

* Lundahl transformer splitter (passive) at front of house
* to Audient ASP008 preamps
* analog outs to Tascam X-48
* ADAT outs to Profire Lightbridge and MacBook Pro (safety recorder)
* Monitoring and rough mix for video via Yamaha 01v96 (from Tascam analog outs)
* timecode and word clock from Ambient Lockit, wordclock distribution via Lucid GenX192, timecode distribution on an SR15 Distripalyser.

I'll figure out what the room mics were when I dig the track sheet up, but it was likely to have been AT4073s onstage, possibly a pair of 4053s up there as well, and maybe ORTF 4051s at the FOH mix position.

Don't recall exactly how many tracks it was, but more than 24, less than 33.

It's a tricky venue to record in, with no space at all at monitors or backstage. There are various bars adjacent to the main room, but they're either open to the public, or they have to be locked for security, and there are quite a few issues caused by fire doors and exits. We weren't allowed to use any of the separate little production rooms upstairs. At one stage we seriously considered splitting on stage and running a multicore down three flights of stairs to the backstage men's lavatory

In the end we chose to set up in the balcony, about 30 feet away from the FOH board. This effectively cut me off from fixing anything on stage, but that's where assistants and comms systems come in handy. As ever, Ed Thomas, you're a star. The balcony was closed to the public for this gig, although during the show we were joined by a few guests and industry people, so it was just as well we spent some time taping down cables. There were a fair number of people stumbling around in the dark up there.

The show was mixed the following day in Nuendo on a Mac Pro.

Of course, what also makes this gig is that the band and the songs are great It's always easier to mix when the music fundamentally "works"... despite the fact there's no bass guitar and no kick drum! Can't wait to see the whole show when the DVD arrives.

[LX3]

Actually, I don't know why I titled this thread "At last...", because when I think about it, this show has come out on DVD incredibly quickly. Less than three months from gig to being on the shelves.