slothhammer – Declared Sound

The first release that I recorded in my new Declared Sound studio is out now… Bass, 2 drums, 2 voices and 2 noise makers, improvising live and very very very very loud, no overdubs… I recorded the bass through my classic old school Marshall bass cabinet, using a combination of D112, a vintage ribbon mic for those sweet warm tones in the deliberate dirge, an SM57 to capture the dark tones, and a DI just to make sure it was fat as fuck, live mixed to two stereo channels via a Drawmer 1960 vacuum tube compressor.

The two drum kits were close mic’d, including SM57’s mounted on the beater side of the kick for additional whack, and positioned facing each other in the middle of the live room beneath a pair of overheads and two large diaphragm condensers, all mixed live to two stereo channels via a combination of hardware EQ, gate, expander, compression/limiter.

The two singers wanted to be in the room at the same time, holding the microphones as they would at a show to fully immerse themselves in the improvisation, so I used an SM58 and a Beta 57a through an 80s Korg vocal processor and a vacuum tube pre-amp.

The two noise makers used homemade spring and plate reverbs and circuit bent toys on the floor either side of me in the mastering suite/control room, sometimes placing their contact mics near my speakers to create insane feedback and delays, fed directly into my allen&heath and mixed live to two stereo channels.

I then used the four pairs of stereo mixes as stems, mixed with fairly minimal post-production mostly just bringing out the stereo width and giving the drums some additional punch, and then mastered out through my usual mastering chain.

The band had no idea what they were going to take out of the recording, and i’m super happy they cranked out a total of no less than 5 releases from one session… at least I can offer value for money!! For fans of #sludge, #metal, #doom, #noise and ridiculous fast #grind … #SlothHammer

https://slothhammer.bandcamp.com/album/part-1-the-tease ••• #recordingstudio #musicstudio #musicproducer #musicproduction #mastering #masteringstudio #masteringengineer #leeds #declaredsound
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkN2UIxnG8s/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cqldy815xkcy

Eventful day! Open! Sloth Hammer improvising live in the studio on opening day, absolutely monstrous sound!Two drum kits with added kick mic on the floor tom for extra weight, shattering heavy bass guitar (mic’d with a vintage ribbon, sm57, Akg d12 and DI from the Orange amp running through my old school Marshall 4×10 with the deeper cabinet, routed via a klark teknik EQ and drawmer 1960 from the matrix of the allen and Heath), two vocalists (both of whom insisted on holding the mic’s, and i can tell why, demonising it for hours on end to their cores and beyond) and two noise makers with all sorts of spring and plate reverbs, circuit bent electronics and drills and saws and for a minute there I thought i was still building! Full studio pics on the way when I can get a camera better than my phone to do it all justice.
#studiobuild #studioopening #recordingstudio #masteringstudio #masteringengineer #mastering #music #musicstudio #musicproducer #musicproduction #slothhammer #leeds Grateful beyond belief to Lecky and Si @templeofboomleeds @anxiousdad Adam for all the hours of joinery and everyone else who’s lent a hand along the way, it’s been a long six months of learning curves and curveballs but it’s all sounding incredible, glad I spent so long not cutting corners, it really looks like I’ve spent a lot more money than I actually have, even if that is every penny I do have. #diyordie #declaredsound
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfFGTwyHTiF/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1uyw5hgl9vo3s