REVISING HISTORY was recorded, mixed and produced by beats the hell out of me’s own Chris Bailey. Chris has worked with such artist as: Tyrese, Wayman Tisdale, Robert Brookins, and Derek (D.O.A.) Allen. Chris is also an instructor at THE CONSERVATORY OF RECORDING ARTS in Tempe AZ.

For those of you interested in the technical aspects and methods used in the construction of REVISING HISTORY; Chris has shared some of his notes from the recording process of beats the hell out of me latest album, REVISING HISTORY.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This recording showcases the potential quality of inexpensive microphones. Combined with digital recording, attention to detail and proper use, a relatively inexpensive microphone can capture warm, brilliant tones. With exception for vocals, no expensive preamps were utilized in this recording. A channel preamp was used for vocal dynamics and de-essing. For the most part all songs were tracked, edited and mixed in Logic Pro 6, utilizing the built in Compressor, Channel EQ, and Space Designer (as well as few other secret stock weapons from the program). I strongly believe the plug-ins inside Logic to be very high quality and the tones and fullness of REVISING HISTORY will attest to that.

The drums were tracked into pro-tools through stock preamps on a focusrite control 24. Audio files were transferred into Logic to continue tracking at home.

On the Kick Drum – a Senheiser E-602 was used inside about 2” from the beater but on a few tracks right next to the beater on the drummer side. The low tuning on track #4 the Promise really shines with the beater side sound. Track #2 Move Along features it also.

On the Snare - a SM-57, just one on top. I did a bunch of experiments, and always came back to this. There were a many snare drums available for the recording, and they all sounded different. For a few songs there was a second mic below to pickup the snares that were hard to use because of phase issues. Instead of mixing both together, I would switch just to that mic on a specific part of song (e.g. end of track #3 Ongoing Criminal Investigation). The ending of that track is the bottom mic for the marching drum sound out.

Knee Highs
The majority of the Drum kit sound was from a Stereo pair of Knee-High Mics placed out in front of the kit. My favorite is a pair of Radio Shack PZM microphones. These are designed by Crown, and a dumbed down by Realistic. They can sound awesome. You can hot rod the mics by using 2 6volt batteries in each of the mics instead of the 1.5volt AA. It really improves the sound. There is an article on the internet somewhere about rewiring them for 48v phantom and XLR. Mine are stock, I will have to find some others to risk to the experiment some day. Mounting them on a larger surface improves their low end response, so I used a pair of Gobos with a flat wood reflective side and made an inverted V in front of the kit about 6-8 feet away on each side. Microphones were taped at about Knee height, one on each side. This technique was featured on a many tracks; #2 Move Along, #4 The Promise, #7Transmission, #10 Check the Mirrors, #11 She Lay There.

The other microphones used on the other tracks are homemade microphones from a Tape-Op article. Here is the link
http://prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/buildmic/buildmic_16_1.shtml
These "Bullet" mics were used as over heads on many of the other tracks. They have a surprisingly good quality to them for about $20 in parts each.

Guitar
Most of the guitars were played through Krank Amplifiers. A new company from Tempe, AZ. Tom plays through the amp stock. I use the clean settings and use a variety of pedals.

Mics on the Cabinet - Favorite is a Sennheiser MD421, second favorite is MD504, third is Shure SM-57, fourth for flavor is Beyer M-88 (lots of high end and bottom) only one microphone was used at a time. But multiple passes were tracked with different mics, then panned and mixed in Logic.

Bass
I setup three options on the bass each time and would pick the sound depending on the track. These options were never really blended them together because it always sounded better with one. However, having access to other options is always good.
On the Cabinets - Top Cabinet with 2-10's - a Stedman N-90, Bottom cabinet 1-15 - AKG D112.
D.I. - a SansAmp Bass Driver, this thing is an amazing device for bass. It emulates the sound of an amplifier very well and has so much bottom end. Great for a 5 string bassist.

Vocals
The majority of the vocals were recorded with a Marshall Electronics Condenser Mic modified with a kit from David Royer. I put this kit together and was surprised at the quality of the sound. Here is the link to the article in Tape Op.  http://prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/tube_mic_25_1.shtml

The Modified Tube Mic was recorded through a Focusrite Platinum Vocal Master Preamp, and straight into a Mark of the Unicorn 828mkII firewire interface, right into Logic. Logic has an awesome cycle recording feature which is great for tracking vocalists. Lots of backgrounds were recorded and panned out to fill out the sound of the vocals, and many tracks feature doubling of the main vocal. I don't like using preset doubling effects and prefer the singer to perform it.

The mixing was done inside Logic for most tracks, however, for a few I broke out stems of drums, guitar, bass, vocals onto a Mackie 24-8 analog console. The output of the mixer was digitized through a Sony A-6 DAT machine (using super bit mapping) into a PC with an M-Audio D-I/O card into Sound Forge 4.5.
The more I mix inside Logic itself the better and better it starts to sound. All effects and EQ (Digital or Analog) have a learning curve and now I'm starting to get past the learning and into making more music. CGB