It's on BC for now, but all the regular streaming spots are coming soon after.
This is a recording I am particularly fond of; it's a part of our DIY recording series of singles for 2021, and unlike February's "Blackout," which was recorded and mixed in 6 days, I was able to spend a little more time mixing and mastering this song. We're still adjusting to our new rehearsal/recording space, so doing this series is kind of our way of exorcising the gremlins we need to address to thoroughly know what works (and what doesn't) in our new workspace.
Nerd Stuff:
Every mic choice was different for Harmless Metaphors than it was for Blackout. For this one, Joe's drums had a D112 on the kick, an SM58 on the snare top, an AT2021 on the bottom, a pair of matched small cap condensers as overheads in an X/Y configuration, and an omni pointed at the front of the kit (compressed as hell and brought in periodically to help with boominess of the toms, which sadly are under-represented here). This setup sounded much better, I think, than Blackout's drum take. However, I'm not thrilled with the X/Y config because of it's limited stereo image, even if it did sound better than the last experiment. But hey, that's why we're doing this! To see what's possible with our new digs.
Bass was recorded remotely by Evan, with a mic on his bass amp rather than our usual way of recording DI from a Sansamp live with the drums. It was by far the easiest thing to mix, because he did the bulk of the work capturing a fantastic sound on his home rig.
I recorded my guitars as two takes on both a vintage Guild Thunderbird amp and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe combo (and added some more on the bridge, including the solo). For mics, I used a Sennheiser 609 (Fender) and a Sennheiser MD421 (Guild). They live mostly in the left channel. Most of Amelia's guitars (right channel, everything except the intro/outro) were recorded from a single take as a stereo output into both an Orange Tiny Terror (MD421) and the Fender amp (609), blended to taste in the mix. The intro/outro was done as two separate takes, overdrive and fuzz.
Vocals were captured through the MD421 for lead and backup, and an RE20 for the high harmonies. I used a few compressors/plugins, and finally got around to using Izotope's "Nectar," which really sweetened the vocals in all the right spots.
There were a decent amount of outboard compressors and EQs used for all of the recording process, and a conservative amount of software plugins for almost every track. Going forward, we're going to be using yet another unique setup for our upcoming single - our studio was recently upgraded with a tape machine, more outboard gear, and a bunch of great mics. Keep an ear out for it!
-KJS