Studio Journal: Ian Gillan Sessions
by Allen Farmelo, Engineer

Allen & Ian at The Nipple Farm, 2005.

Monday, 2-7-05
Met Ian and his mates at Chameleon West's Studio A to track vocals for "Highway Star" for something related to School of Rock, which I thought was fitting for me, since I feels as if I've enterted a a kind of elite academy of rock myself. Ian laid down his vocals in one inspired take, and the doubles were dead on. My first impression: Holy $&!#, this guy can sing! Had fun running long delays on the killer screams that open the tune.

Tuesday, 2-8-05
Today began at 9am with setting up a remote studio where I would be working with Ian and his gang. Turned out to be a fine set up, making use of Chameleon West Studios' gear. We'll be tracking guitars and vocals through a brand new Pro Tools HD system, using Trident Series 80 preamps and eq's, Bogner and Orange amps (to name just two), Neumann, Senheizer and Shure mics. By 3pm, we were tracking guitars, and getting amazing tones. A guitar geek's dream set-up. This is pure rock, and there's something about the sound of those Trident preamps that just fits perfectly. It'll be nice to go in and just turn things on and run. Vocal tracking begins in earnest in the morning. Oh, and Nick Blagona's track record is something else! Just a few of his jobs include The Police, The Stones, Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, The Village People...the list is insane. Check out Nick's creds here.

Wednesday, 2-9-05
Well, we did run into some techincal issues that emphasized my role a bit more than usual. So much for "just going in and turinging things on." It was computer stuff. Got them sussed out just fine and put the system to the test with great results. We tracked vocals and guitars. There's so much to learn from such talented and experienced people. As a producer/engineer, I'm soaking everything I can from Nick. I'm not going to reveal any secrets (wink wink), but here's a tip: if you can afford a Neumann M-147 tube mic, get one. Ian's voice is leaping out of the monitors as if there were no glass between us. Here's nick doing a little rough mixing in the control room.

Thursday, 2-10-05
Hugely productive day. Our system is not just running well, but kicking ass. The control room we're in sounds fantastic. Our days begin with vocal tracking, and we did a whopping five songs in short time. Ian nails his takes so solidly that we just keep moving on to the next tune. At one point we got confused and thought that we must have tracked one of todays vocals yesterday. I think that speaks volumes about the kinds of sessions these are. Guitar tracking took up the post-dinner hours. Huge sounds, and some very cool mic-ing techniques coming into play. Great day.

Friday, 2-11-05
A solid 14 hour day, without leaving the studio, and the energy built up and up the whole day and into the wee hours. This was easily the most amazing single recording session I've experienced. I think we did 4 full vocals and many, many guitar tracks. Awesome day.

Saturday, 2-12-05
I have no idea what we did today, since I was too wiped out to get to this journal, and then was in bright and early the next day. Having skipped a day of writing, the calendar has blurred from a neat grid into a swirling smear of time.

Sunday, 2-13-05
Blurrrrrrrrrrr........ a very productive day, but again no journal, so I've lost the details.

Monday, 2-14-05
Happy Valentine's Day! We finished up around 9pm, in time for me to watch a documentary on Dr. Alfred Kinsey, a fitting bit of television given the "holiday", and then straight to bed. To be honest, I can't remember exactly what we worked on today; there's just so much of it happening in rappid sucession. And, it doesn't matter. Nick keeps good track of what's done and what needs doing. Working with Nick and Ian, a rhythm is opening up between us. I now know when to roll, according to Ian's subtle, often humorous, cues through the mic, and as Nick and I do our edits and such, we are down to nods and grunts to acknowledge each move of the mouse. A real team feeling has emerged, and I'm finding this to be an exceptionaly easy-going session interpersonally, and a very work-intensive one as well. That is: it's all about the music and getting things done.

Tuesday, 2-15-05
Nick and I are working more and more swiftly together, building up a better understanding of what needs to be done in the big picture. The tracking list is getting a lot of check marks along the columns. What would have involved detailed explanation three days ago is now a matter of Nick saying, "Ok, clean those tracks and back it up," or "we'll use three mics this time." He's such an easy person to work with, and provides me with just enough guidance at just the right times. We did the vocals for "Smoke on the Water" today. I had an eerie feeling during this part of the session, mostly because I kept having to look up to realize this wasn't the radio playing. How many people have played that song on guitar the first time they acutally fret more than one note at the same time. I had a pleasant time watching Ian play that riff on my Jaguar.

Wednesday, 2-16-05
As each day goes by, I say to myself, "this was the coolest session I've been involved in." And guitarist, Michael Lee Jackson, keeps saying, "well, that's the best guitar sound I've ever had." Today was a monster seession. We began at 11am and finished at 2am. The wee hours were spent laying down some Hammond C3 parts that were absolutely gorgeous. We used 57's on the top and a 421 in the hole. Through the Trident pre's, this organ just sang. Rick McGurr, a local musician, played beautifully, and we all swooned.

Thursday, 2-17-05
Another monster day as we finished off the lead vocal recording. There is something truly amazing about Ian's voice, which is something countless people and journalists have said over and over, but to be getting it in such an intimate setting, and often solo-ed loud through the monitors, is like looking at a diamond through one of those little lenses a jewler stickes in his eye. Forty years of singing, touring, and a fair share of cigarettes later, Ian's voice is as rich and resonant and high and screaming as ever. His range alone is enough to make your jaw drop, but the stylings that he can switch between, from word to word, is unreal. Go back and listen to Speed King and you'll know what I mean, then, when this record comes out, listen again. Holy shit! We also recorded congas today, as well as a local bass legend (do the math) on the "Smoke on the Water." This version is already becoming a monster track. In my humble opinion, it's going to out-do the original version. Now that has got to be one of the most amazing things to be involved in. This is the rock guitar song.

Friday, 2-18-05
The blurring effect of time has me a bit confused again as to what we've done each day, but I think today was vocals again, some more guitars, cajun accordian and Hammond C3. We are getting amazing sounds in this room, and Nick and Ian both claim that this is one of the best sounding studios they've ever worked in. The room sound here is freakin' great. Just bringing up the vocal mic in the center of the room during guitar tracking is a study in reverberating beauty. We've got at least 20' ceilings, probably more. Damn, this is fun.

Saturday, 2-19-05
Ian laid down some tastey tamborie and harmonica this morning, as well as some harmonies. Rough mixing / editing began in earnest today, in preperation for our listening party. Nick and I worked all day long getting things tighter and tighter. The rough mixes sound amazing. Just lovely intimate, orchesteral, hard, in-your-face rock. For those of you with any political leanings in any direction, go listen to "Men of War." Quickly becomming my favorite track, if only for it's searing relevance. I dumped our mixes down to stereo files and dragged them into a Pro Tools session, unlatched the solo buttons and showed Ian how to select the song of his choice. Then we headed down to a local bar, had a few coctails, food, and sat quite quietly. I got a very relaxed, blissful feeling at the bar, probably a combination of fatigue, a couple drinks, and the knowledge that we would be chilling out tonite, enjoying what we've done. Needless to say, the party was a great time for all. Nick and I did a little headbanging from he couch behind the board. Around 2am, folks headed for some tavern, while Nick, his lovely better-half, and his dog Motzart, Eric, our trust runner, and I kicked back and enjoyed the post-party ambience.

Sunday, 2-20-05
The siltent session. Converting, consolidating, backing up. For those who know what this means, we've got about 24 gigs of 24bit files. And that's it for a while. We'll reconvene in a couple of weeks and do more and more. Can't wait.

Sunday, 3-6-05
Emails are pouring in about the upcoming sessions. I'll be setting the studio up again for Tuesday, including drum tracking, more vocals, guitars, perhaps bag-pipes and more. Nick's requested a Neve pre-amp rental, 1073's or 1081's. Should be fun to try those out.

Monday, 3-7-05
Spent the morning and early afternoon getting the studio set up again. It was a heck of a lot more clear what needed to be done the second time around, and the various tweeks of the previous weeks are now just assumptions. We'll be tracking drums and backing vocals tomorrow. Also, we ordered a pair of vintage Neve 1081 preamps which will arrive in the morning. Those will be fun to play with, I'm sure. Happy to be back in our cozy studio.

Tuesday, 3-8-05
What a wonderfully fun session, given that Nick's lovely wife MJ sang some beautiful stuff. From a technical point of view, this was beautiful, too. Robby (of the Goo-Goo Dolls, and Chameleon West Studios) loaned us an Neumann M-149 Tube mic, which we ran into the Neve 1081's, and then through my Drawmer 1960 compressor. Wow, what a sound, and MJ's singing really blew me away. She did complex four-part harmonies without listening to her previous tracks at all, and they were dead on in pitch and phrasing. Wish I could do that.

Wednesday, 3-9-05
Guitar tracks went down today, and we did a lot of editing and technical work. I got to do a good amount of work on snare's and other fun stuff. Nick, having great forsight, started collecting samples of snares and other drums, back in the late 60's. My fav is the Ludwig Black Beautiy with a hide skin on it saturating the tape it landed on. Fat. Great day, lots of work done, lots left to do.

Thursday, 3-10-05
Today begins as an air-play extravaganza: I learned that my own band, The Neighbors, are getting airplay on the esteemed indie station WFMU out of NYC; and when I stopped for coffee I am hearing 99 Red Baloons, which was produced by none other than Nick Blagona. More later, gotta eat and run. *** Ok, I'm done for the day, and had a wonderful experience of playing cowbell on "Smoke on the Water." Shit, if I had to appear in any capacity on any recording in rock... well, today was the day!!

Friday, 3-11-05
Here's a study in signal-path. 1970 Les Paul Black Beauty --> Bogner Exstacy Head --> Marshall limited edition 4x12 with Celestion spkrs --> Senheizer 421 mic --> Vintage Neve 1081 preamp/eq --> Drawmer 1960 Tube Compressor --> Protools 192 HD Converter --> Mac G5 to hardisc. This kind of signal path is why most home recordings don't get "that sound." Of course, you could buy all of that gear, but you're at least $25,000 deep for just one channel of guitar. Working with this kind of set up has me thinking about the kind of advertising that goes on today for the home recordist. Shit like: "vintage type tube warmth for the price of a night on the town," or "finally get that sound that's in your head into your ears without breaking the bank." Well, like most advertising, honesty isn't really the name of the game. I used to be a head-strong believer in the home studio, but once you add up what's involved in making a prefessional record, the hourly rates at a professional studio start to seem reasonable. But I digress. Along that signal-path travele guitar solos today, and some freaking monster riffology was coming outta the fingers of Michael Lee Jackson today. Oh, did I mention the musician at the beginning of that signal-path?

Saturday, 3-12-05
Trashy drums with the Neumann tube mic, driven hard on the Neve 1081, slammed with the Drawmer compressor. We got that overdriven lo-fi sound in about three seconds. Note: it's the same signal-path as the day before, just a different mic and on the drums. Lots of work on loops today, working with different ideas as we went, especially subtle percussion loops, like shakers and such, dropped just below perception in the mix to act as groove-glue. Nick is a blast to work with, especially since he tries shit that seems ridiculous, which makes it a lot more fun. Interestingly, and perhaps predictably, it's the "out there" ideas that work the best. I got to tune drums to pitch for a timpany sound and for a tabla sound. It's nice to bring those skills from my early days as a drummer to these sessions. Starting to generate ruff-mixes for Ian, who is back home in England.

Sunday Morning, 3-13-05
Last day together. We'll be doing vocals with Nick's wife MJ again, and well as more guitar solos. Mostly we'll be doing file management, burning stemm mixes for the guests that will record their stuff at their own studios, and finishing ruff-mixes. I have to get some track lists together for Nick, since they're off to England and then California, and I wont be with them on those sessions. Tomorrow I return to the projects I'm producing, including vocal tracking for the Da'Loris record, and final overdubs and mixing of Hastings' new release. It's good to have two full-length rock records on deck to keep me satisfied once these Gillan sessions are over. I'll be breaking down the studio after work today and reassembling it back at Chameleon West.

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