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Jaycee 02:24 am UTC 01/08/10 |
| Further down the board there was a discussion under the heading ‘Dead Ringer’. It mentioned the recording of Bat 2 and ‘I’d do anything for love’ and Ryan mentioned the contact I had with David Thoener while producing a study peace on the song for my advanced diploma at SAE. With out going through and picking the pieces out of the posts already made, I thought I would just share with you the initial email David sent me with regards to the ‘mixing’ of IDAFL. I hoping it will answer a few of the questions/theories you guys had. I must add that it was Ryan that helped my track down David in the first place and David was kind enough to reply to my first email while he was on holiday with his family. He was due to head back into the studio after his holiday to work with ‘Weeser’ (sp) and wouldn’t have had the chance to reply. ---------------------------------- David’s email….. March 23rd 2006 Hi Jacinta, I received your inquiry about the song “I’d do anything for love’…..I was bough in at the mixing stage. I knew Jim for several years and he thought I’d be able to deal with the amount of tracks recorded. There were three analog multi-tracks. Naturally a sync track on #24 for each multi but still 69 tracks of information. We mixed in L.A. at Record One in the valley. I think the console was two Neve consoles put together. Still it had only 80 channels. All the songs were roughly 69 tracks and when you have several stereo effect returns we ran out of faders. So I used the monitor section to return some of the effects that didn’t require movement. The console was automated of course. (Just to add: The Record One recording studio was considered the best of its kind at the time with the most up to date equipment and facilities. The studio was fitted out with 2 Neve 8087, 40 channel flying fader automated analog consoles linked together with 32 monitor tracks each.) It would take about two or three days to get the song ready to automate. Jim had recorded a lot of parts that weren’t needed. Sometimes strings and horns would go throughout the entire song. Decisions had to be made as to where and when certain things would happen. Jim was so burnt on the recording process many times he left it to me to make the decisions. The problem was he knew when certain string or horn parts happened and I’d make decisions to take things out and he would come in after three days of my decision making and say “hey, weren’t there horns there?” and I say “yes but there is so much happening in that section I took them out, it needs to breath a little.” Then he’d ask to put them back in to see what it sounded like so I’d have to automate parts back in then when he had heard it he’d say “you were right take then out” so then I’d have to redo what I’d just done. It was not as easy as it sounds. Nowadays we have ProTools and leave the faders open then if we decide to put stuff back in, just unmute. This was a similar process but more complicated. The automation was flying faders which was very primitive compared to todays automation. So by the fourth day I’d have Jim’s input and finish the final details and he’d listen at night and we would do all the different versions on the fifth day. We would do a lot of versions too. Example, do a mix with the lead vocals up, then do a version with lead vocals down, then backing vocals up and down, horns up and down, strings up and down, drums up and down, guitars up and down, anyway you get the idea. We would have 20 versions or more. This all went to ½” analog tape so we went through boxes and boxes of tape. The other problem was I am a day person. I like working 10am to midnight. Jim was a night person, he woke up at 7pm came to the studio at 8 or 9pm and started to focus on the song by 10 or 11pm. So the day of him listening and me making small changes meant I was usually there from 10am until 9 or 10am the next morning. Yes…24 hours straight. There were 12 songs I think, so it took about three months at this pace. ‘I would do anything’ was a long song about 7 or 8 minutes I think, there were no edits, meaning we didn’t do it in sections. It went from beginning to end just as you hear it. The automation was mandatory, faders jumped up and down all the tie it was very cool to watch and listen to the final product. It was a labour of love on all our parts and Meat Loaf was seldom there. He had to go and take care of business and meetings and such and it was between me and Jim. I’m including a picture they gave me when the album went #1 for you to include in your thesis, if you want. Take care and good luck. If you have any questions in particular, let me know. Sincerely David Thoener -------------------------------------- I did ask David some more involved audio engineering questions after I received this email, but trying to pick his memory on specific details on one particular song from what was then 13 years ago after having done some 100 albums since, was a bit difficult. Some of the other things David did divulge to me with regards to IDAFL was…. Balance in the song…. Jim came in to listen to the balance of the instruments and make sure the parts he’d written were loud enough when he felt they should be loud, but he left all the other concepts to me. It was a lot of work it took 5 days to complete. Usually a mix takes 8 to 12 hours. Use of Bova Synths…. We worked Jeff’s (Bova) parts in with the real instruments many times to fill out or support. Hope that helps settle a few queries.. Happy New Year Jaycee | |
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