THE MUSIC CELLAR
A world class recording studio on the Central Coast of NSW that
is in constant demand for recording, mixing and mastering.
Owned and operated by Rod & Jeff McCormack. Clients include
- Kasey Chambers, Shannon Noll, Australian Idol, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes,
Troy Cassar-Daley, Gina Jeffries, Adam Harvey, Beccy Cole and many others.
IN THE STUDIO
20 October 2010
I had sent Bill a very mechanical sounding
computer generated version of the songs on CD plus a copy of the sheet
music some weeks before our day in the studio and I met him for the first
time when I arrived at the studio
I gave Elizabeth a copy of the same CD and the words
to the songs when I met her at a gig in North Sydney
Elizabeth said she found it a challenge to learn the
songs especially Strive To Do Right and after spending a lot of time practicing
them she had then felt they should be sung like hymns.
As they began to run through the first song to record
Elizabeth said she was being thrown by the vast difference between the
mechanical sound of the CD she had practiced with for weeks and sound
of Bill's playing
So to some extend Elizabeth had to rethink all the songs
as she sang them to fit in with Bill's playing and Bill in turn had to
sight read key changes on some songs to suit her voice
The vocal track for most of the songs was done in two
takes with a couple of drop-ins while one song went to three takes with
a number of drop-ins
To Walk By Faith was one of the last songs recorded and
we used the second vocal take with no drop-ins
Apart from one song all the piano parts were done in
one take
I recorded two harmonica tracks and both were done in
two takes, like Elizabeth I was also thrown by Bill's playing but more-so
by the fact that Elizabeth's vocal was different again to what I had practiced
with. This was my second time in a recording studio the first time being
in 2001
Bill is often in the studio and has been involved in
recording many albums while Elizabeth is now never in the studio as her
focus is only on live performance
We began recording at about 11am and had finished all
9 songs by around 4.30pm and the mixing and mastering was finished at
about 8.20pm with the Album Production Master and Reference discs finished
at 9pm
Over the following week I played the
CD almost non-stop and decided to removed two tracks one of which included
a harmonica solo
I feel the 7 tracks I have chosen while
perhaps not perfect from a record company point of view capture the essence
of my songs and show the exceptional talent of Elizabeth Geyer as a vocalist
and the brilliance of Bill Risby as a pianist for accomplishing what they
did working as a team during those few hours in the studio
LIz said she didn't feel confident with her singing to which Bill replied
'I work with backing singers all the time and what
you did in one take would take them three or more takes because they cannot
read music'
This CD was recorded, mixed and mastered
over 12 hours on a single day, there was NO prior practice of the songs
together before they were recorded
SESSION REPORT
by Jim Turner
20 October 2010
10am-9pm
The Location
Erina, N.S.W. Australia
Studio
The studio consists of four rooms purpose built for high
quality recording along with a control room and kitchen/reception area
Soundproofing is provided by double insulated walls and
ceiling which use Sound-check board on a concrete slab with a parquet
wood floor.
The walls in each room have wooden panels installed which
act to trap or reflect different frequencies.
The window areas in each room are double glass with a 10cm air-gap
between the glass and the doors are airtight
The Engineer has Pro Tools HD with an
Apogee converter. The 40 channel mixing consol is a hybrid with 12 Neve
channels the remainder being Auditronics with Lexicon 480L reverb
Staff
Producer - Jim Turner
Engineer - Jeff McCormack
Artists
Elizabeth Geyer - Vocals
Bill Risby - Piano
Jim Turner - Harmonica
Session
The purpose of this session was to record 9 songs during
two 3 hour calls and then to mix and master all 9 tracks the same day
with the finished CD to have a raw live sound
The Set-up
The piano was tuned by Brian Higgins at around 10.50am
and recording began as soon as that was completed
Recording Process
Jeff had already set up the microphones for the piano
along with a microphone for vocals in the adjacent room so that Elizabeth
and Bill
could see each other
A microphone for harmonica was set up in a third room
where I had visual contact with the engineer
Musicianship
I wrote the words and music for all 9 songs to be recorded
The songs were all written specifically for a solo female
vocalist to be backed by piano and for this session harmonica was added
to two tracks
Bill was brilliant and the piano part for 8 of the songs
was recorded in one take with only one song recorded twice
Elizabeth used the first take as a warm up to get a feel
of each song with Bill playing it
then Bill sat in the control room and followed the music as Elizabeth
sang the second take.
This take was then played back with Elizabeth in the
control room, anything she did not feel happy with was sung again as a
drop-in
Because of the time available for recording only the
most obvious problems were addressed which I feel works with the aim of
recording an album with a raw live sound
The second vocal take of To Walk by Faith was used with
no drop-ins required
At least two songs needed a key change because Elizabeth
could not sing them in the key I had written them in so she discussed
it with Bill through her headphones
Bill then wrote the key change on his music (10-14 pages)
which took a few of minutes and then sight read the music in the new key
as he played it for her
Both of the harmonica tracks were done in two takes
Before we arrived at the studio everyone had practiced
the songs using a CD I had provided
However the first time the songs were actually played
together was when recording them in the studio
Jeff was very focused on attention to
detail during all aspects of recording, mixing and mastering so that the
finished recording would be the best it could possibly be
Evaluation
I was very pleased with the songs resulting from this
day in the studio,
Bill was brilliant on piano
I feel Elizabeth
did and amazing job though she was very nervous from not practiced the
songs at all with Bill before recording them
I had not had a chance to hear her sing any of the songs
before she recorded them
I had heard these songs in my head for so long and it was nice to finally
have a singer
to sing them for me
Thank you once again you are both inspired musicians.
Equipment used during recording
Piano –
Yamaha Grand S-400B
Microphones used on the piano were Rode K2 and Rode Classic
Vocal –
Microphone was a Neumann U67 with popper stopper and Telefunken V76 preamp
Harmonica –
Microphone was a Neumann FET47
The harmonica I used was a Hohner Special 20 (key
of D)
IN THE STUDIO
16 November 2010
Time 9am - 1.30pm
I travelled up to Erina to make a few final changes to
the tracks
I had 3 tracks which each needed two words dropped in and as we did this
Jeff and I went through all 7 tracks and checked for anything we had overlooked
on 20 October
Finally Album Reference Discs were burnt along with a
new Album Production Master ready for manufacturing the CD
