porcupine tree fear of a blank planet

[Bierce85]

I think the main reason FOABP sounds so good is Steven Wilson's unique way of layering tracks and textures.. he's certainly a genius when it comes to creating a "soundscape".. it's defenitely a great mix as well.

Anyway, I heard somewhere it was mixed and mastered ITB in Logic by Steven Wilson. It was recorded in like 5 different studios, including SW's home studio. I think the guitars were recorded through a Vintech pre and Digidesign converters since red room recorders are credited with engineering the guitars and their website states that they mainly use Vintech pres and Digi 192s and SW uses Bad Cat amps (which are freakin' badass). The distorted guitar sound on that album is totally balls. Aside from that, I don't know.

[lamp]

This is an old link but I think Gavin Harrison tracked a lot or all of his drums on Absentia cd with this set up. READERZONE Open link and scroll way down.

Im a fan of the drummer and the recorded sound also , although sometimes the snare is a little too compressed for my taste. Great live too.

[bleen]

Drums were all tracked through a Mackie 8-bus into a pair of Apogee Rosetta 800's into Logic. If no fan of the Mackie, but those are some great drum sounds.thumbsup

[santibanks]

and gavin has a large collection of microphones and also a huge drumroom which contribute to the sound.
Though I believe he tracked the drums in the control rooms and left the doors to the big room open with some roommics placed there.

But its all mackie 8 bus preamps, direct output to an apogee rosetta 800.

He stated that he couldn't hear much difference between the mackies and more exotic preamps.

Personally, I love his drumsound and I love the album. The upcoming DVD-A (which has bonus tracks, the previous version didnt have those) is really recommended...

[Blast9]

The Studio

Gavin's website has some info about his gear and his room

[Omicron_9]

Greetings.

There is an article about this, along with a brief interview with Steven Wilson in the current issue of EQ magazine.

-0.9

[Anaon]

I like the sound too, I would love to get close to this kind of drum sound... It seems so close, and everything around the drum kit...

Did you listen to Nil Recurring? Great sound too!!

Any idea about mixing techniques to make the drums sound a bit like that?

[Sqye]

definitely a nice record.

[Bierce85]

Originally Posted by Anaon

Any idea about mixing techniques to make the drums sound a bit like that?

The drums don't sound very "mixed" to me. More like very high end Sonor drums tuned, mic'd and played with a lot of care and precision. I doubt SW did much besides light EQ and maybe a little compression.

[Froombosch]

I listened to the record now om more larger systemes and there is a bit to much low end. There is an article i read in Sound on Sound before i knew it was their studio :-)

Amazing how some pieces of information can fall together.

Thank you all for the information given


Harrie

[santibanks]

If I compare the sound from FOABP/Deadwing and In Absentia I find In Absentia the best balanced album soundwise. FOABP and Deadwing sound a bit like if there is a light blanket put over them.

In absentia has a lot of clarity and air.

I love the sound from gavins drums and its usually not much processing at all. He plays with his roommics (he in fact now plays in the control room and he leaves the big room open with ambience mics there, like on Sleep Togheter) and if he uses compression, its waves (though gentle and little)

[Anaon]

Thanks, knowing that there's not so much production on the drums is still a good information for me...

I listen to "Cheating the Photograph" (Nil Reccuring), it's a good example and a good reference as the drums are nearly alone sometimes...

[Junoh]

Steve's using the Focusrite plugins for EQ and compression pretty exclusively as per an interview i saw floating around. But overall a lot of the Tree stuff post-Absentia isn't tampered much at all, and it's all the better for it!

I'd love to know what softsynths he's using though, since he's even playing an M-audio controller live these days!

[rectifier]

Not talking about production for a sec, but how come this record is so nichey, a lot of people I meet, friends etc have never heard of this band but this record is a piece of beautiful art. It never makes lists of great records from 2000's. It's an incredible record. I don't get it. Too emotive (is this ever a negative point though)? There is a lot of talent in this band, yes the production is stellar but the songs speak for themselves. Shocking. Mind you they played here last year and sold out pretty quick but I guess concert goers know their stuff so maybe I am wrong. I would probably put it on my desert island top 10.