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Spirit by Soundcraft
It's been a good year for M-People - as if the critical and commercial success of both 'Elegant Slumming' and the singles it produced wasn't enough, the band has just won top honours in the Mercury Music Prize. But behind the scenes there's been precious little resting on laurels. As work on their third album, 'Bizarre Fruit', drew to a close, we caught up with Paul Heard, who shares writing and production duties in the band with Mike Pickering.
HOW TO RECORD A HIT ALBUM THE M-PEOPLE WAY
"We've been pretty much writing and recording constantly since June," he explains. Extensive pre-production and recording in the band's private studio, where a 16-channel Spirit Studio has pride of place, is followed by final mixing in the big Neve room at Strongroom.
" It's been quite intense. We generally work on songs three at a time - Mike comes down and we spend a week or so writing, then we spend the next week with Heather laying down vocals on ADAT. We might perhaps bring in one or two other musicians when we record guitar and bass parts. After that, it's down to Strongroom for a couple of weeks to add stuff like percussion - the live room's really good there - and work on the mix."
VOCAL RECORDING
As on 'Elegant Slumming', all of Heather's vocals were recorded on the Spirit, in the band's own studio. "We've been more than happy with the sound we get in here. The combination of the Spirit and the AKG414 mic that we use on her voice is fantastic. We go into Strongroom and transfer the ADAT tracks - lead and backing vocals, perhaps with some guitar and bass as well - to 2" analogue, and even with the one generation loss of quality, it always sounds really clear. We've had problems with stuff like sibilance when we've recorded in other studios and on other big desks - no names! - but not with anything we do on the Spirit.
"I don't use compression or other effects when we're recording vocals, and I've never had any problems with headroom . The most important thing to get down on tape is the lead vocal . Because we're using ADAT, you can really hear what the desk does to your sound, and Heather's voice comes across so well - very clean."
WHAT'S SO COOL ABOUT SPIRIT ?
"Apart from the sound quality, the Spirit is just so easy to use. When I'm working on a track I like to be able to do things without really thinking about them. On the Spirit you can just do it, without hanging around wondering how to route this to that."
Plentiful inputs also come in handy: "Although we don't record instruments to tape, I need a lot of inputs for keyboards and samplers in the writing stage. Using the monitor in/outs gives 32 in all, even though it's a 16-channel desk. And again, although I don't use effects when I'm going down to tape, I need plenty of FX sends to give Heather the best possible mix when she's recording.
"Ultimately, the time we spend in our own studio with our own gear means that we can get the album to sound just how we want, and Spirit is very much a part of that sound."
Reference: http://194.202.195.237/famousus/artists/mpeople.htm
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