Born Into War – Article 15

Band: Article 15 Recorded in: 2015

Article 15 is born from the thirsty earth of northern New Mexico. Through a melding of folk and anarcho-punk, their music is a battle cry against hate-mongering fascists and a tool to help build a new world based on peace, justice, and an egalitarian autonomy of the planet and its inhabitants

“Born Into War” was recorded remotely using the DSO rig in the living room of the lead singer’s house. This is a classic old Taos Adobe, but has a great wide open living room with 14 foot ceilings, wood floors, and adobe walls. I have always wanted to record in this space. They host some great house performances with touring bands and its always got a good sound and a great feel. We set the Lou, the drummer, up at the far end of the living room and we isolated the amps in other rooms, there is still a fair amount of bleed. Jeff and Boone were able to stand in the living room so that everyone could see each other. We did all of the basic tracks live. Though the guitars were doubled or tripled we used the live track on every final track. I was able to setup a pretty comfortable engineering station in a bedroom.

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Recording Specifics

The Drum Setup

  • Snare – Beta 57 into Neve 511.
  • Kick – AKG D112 into API 312.
  • Sub Kick – Old KRK sub.
  • Hi Tom – SM57 into API 312.
  • Lo Tom – Beta 52 into API 312.
  • Overheads – Neuman KM184 into Avalon VT-737sp.
  • Stereo Room – Custom Stereo Ribbon into Audient.
  • Far Room – Custom Built U87 into Audient.

Guitar Setup

  • Modified Fender Twin.
  • SM57 into LaChapell 583s into Summit Audio TLA – 50.
  • Custom built Ribbon into API312.
  • Each track was run through a different set of pedals, but throughout the weekend, The Big Red made it on to the most tracks. That is a kick-ass pedal.

Bass Setup

  • I’m not totally sure what his bass rig was. Some form of tube head I had never heard of, into an Ampeg cab.
  • Blue KIWI on the cab into Radial PowerPre.
  • DI from head into Telefunken v72.

Vocals

  • All of the vocals were tracked through the custom U87 into Neve 511 and the LaChappelle  then through the Avalon compressors.
  • All of the backing tracks are tracked in omni with both yelling at the same time.

Other notes

  • On Eleven Minutes of Fame I had the group backing vocals start far away from the mic and move in closer with each line near the end of the song. It creates a subtle closing in effect… I would have liked to have made that ‘less’ subtle.
  • The guitar solos and feedback are all tracked in the big room with the Kiwi about 20 feet from the cab with its volume cranked.
  • Right after tracking I received my API 527 compressor and I took some time printing the kick drum through the compressor and into the Avalon for it’s EQ’s
  • For reverb I sent the vocal tracks through a JBL speaker into an odd round shaped room in the house and stereo tracked the room.

Mixdown

  • I used the QUAD EIGHT as a summing and routing box.
  • Most of the effects and EQ were digital except for the vocals. I ran them through a NEVE 2254 and into one side of the iTi EQ.
  • I also paralleled a stereo mix of the drums back through NEVE 2254
  • I used the delays and echo through the board and rode the levels in real time.
  • I didn’t automate much digitally, I rode the faders on the board when things needed to shift… so I guess it wasn’t just a summing box.

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