Strother Bullins is a North Carolina-based freelance writer specializing in the professional audio, music and entertainment industries.
ENGINEER'S DIARY
Single: "Tanis"
Album: Slave To The Machine (DRT Entertainment/Universal)
Dates Recorded: Summer 2005 Synchromesh Studios in Birmingham, Alabama. Re-mixed Summer 2006 by Machine.
Single Producers: Jason Elgin and Jacob Lynam
Single Engineer: Jason Elgin
Single Mixer: Jason Elgin (original version, MySpace mix, and audio-for-video mix) and Machine (album and radio mix)
Mastering: Roger Lian at Masterdisk in New York City
Single Songwriter: Jacob Lynam
Consoles: "Heavily modified" Oram BEQ-32
Recorders: Pro Tools|HD with four Digidesign 192 I/O
Monitors: ATC SCM20 ASL Pro and Yamaha NS-10
Vocal Microphone: Manley Reference Cardioid
Vocal chain: Great River MP-2NV Mercenary Edition, Manley Labs ELOP Limiter, Crane Song HEDD 192
Other processing: Neve 33609 compressor/limiter, Manley Labs Massive Passive EQ, Empirical Labs Distressor
Plug-ins: Crane Song Phoenix, Waves C4 multiband compressor
Lynam, an arena rock-style indie band from Birmingham, Alabama, is now experiencing some of its favorite era's "bigness." As of August 2006, the first single from Slave To The Machine - entitled "Tanis" - is generating enough buzz to land the band at #19 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
"It's a big deal for us," confirms Jacob Lynam, the youthful leader of the rock trio whose members share a surname. But they're not really brothers. They're just clever.
"MySpace has helped us tremendously," Lynam continues. "Five years ago, we were playing little clubs for 12 people. Slowly we built our fanbase to where every club show is a big club show, sold out. Now we're doing gigs, like, opening for Poison/Cinderella in front of 14,000 people."
For Lynam's obviously Def Leppard/Robert John "Mutt" Lange-influenced sound - think Pyromania and Hysteria - producer and engineer Jason Elgin generously piled on the vocals, guitars, and every hook imagined between the studio team of he and Jacob Lynam. "He always had radio in mind for it," explains Elgin of Lynam's production motivations. "Oh, and putting in as many hooks as we could fit into a three and a half minute space. That was the main thing."
Originally recorded for a self-released CD, "Tanis" garnered attention from Universal subsidiary DRT Entertainment and soon, another mixer was remixing the song for its inclusion with a batch of new songs for the first Lynam label-supported release. "We try to make everything larger than life," explains Lynam on the motivations behind a label requested (and rather compressed) remix by noted producer/mixer Machine.
We stack the vocals. We do it all. But - for radio and what's current now - the label wanted it to be a little less polished and rawer. That was their change."
While plenty of first class recording gear was used for the project, three specific microphones played a most notable role in the process, together giving Elgin room to stretch and manipulate the guitar tracks: the Royer Labs R-121, the Blue Mouse, and an AKG C 414 off-axis with a Little Labs IBP. "I love the Royer because I can dump EQ on it and it never breaks up or gets harsh," says Elgin.
"The Mouse gave me the FET 47 thing without putting an expensive 47 in front of an amp. The 414 was used just for an effect - for EQ."
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