MAKING OF AATH ATHARA

Making Of Aath Athara

I had never imagined, one day I will be part of 1974 AD. I really had a life long remembering experience with the Legends. I am not good at writing article/blog. But still, I wanted to share something, "How the Album was really made?" I know,  no newspaper or magazine will really explain you more than i can do. I will try to keep the language as simple as possible as many of you are not familiar with Music Production world. 

About the background of the album, the album name Aath Athara, was named after band members birth dates, two member date falls on day 8 and rest two on 18th. Moreover, its their eighth album followed by eight tracks. Luckily my phone number also has 88...88.. haha...!!

Track List:

1. Timi Bina
2. Yaha
3. Aaja Kha
4. Bardhaan
5. Ma Ko Hoon
6. Rain Song
7. Chu Tada
8. Bhijaya Hu

Anyway coming down to the point, we used two leading music production software, LOGIC PRO 9 ( www.apple.com/logicstudio/logicpro ) and PRO TOOLS 8 ( www.avid.com/products/Pro-Tools-8-Software ). And numbers of high definition microphones, outboard gears, and  plugins. 

The best thing of this album is all instrument is LIVE and recorded live. No samples no midi sequences used. So you can imagine how hard must have been to bind everything and get it together in a mix. Usually, Nepal is very bad at recording LIVE DRUMS and guitars than western country. But we did a satisfactory job. You can listen the album to judge that. We used SONAR collection shop DRUM SET and different FENDER collection models guitars, which i will try to remember as i give song by song information.

Microphones used were :

Neumann TLM 103 - <span> </span>VOCALS

AKG D112 & Sennheiser e604 - KICK 

Earthworks SR69 & Shure SM57 - SNARE

Sennheiser Clip mikes - TOMS

AKG 414 - High Hats

Earthworks SR30 - OVERHEADS

Shure SM57 and AKG 414 - GUITAR AMP

Earthworks SR30 - ACOUSTIC GTR

Now I will give you track by track personal review

TIMI BINA

Timi bina was one of the first track, i worked on. This song was done on Pro Tools, as in beginning I was not that much familiar with Logic Pro. And this is the track, I spent longest time on. The track starts with the delay guitar played from Manoj dai's FENDER STRAT collection shop guitar, very warm and clean tone. Than follows slowly with a bass guitar and than side drum. After that vocals.. and slowly becomes heavy till the end. 

As the song demanded a dreamy feelings, I had a delay - reverb on the vocals so it really smoothen outs in the mix, properly balancing different vocals  thanks to Adrain Dai.. he is really - really strict with his vocal parts balancing and processing. Best part was I used Abbey Roads Brilliance plugins, which really gives a smooth high frequency around 10 k also, which is supposed to be irritating to human ears. I used some pinch of the vocals so it opens in the crowded mix. 

Guitar has another story in this song, Manoj dai, he is another guitar perfectionist. He really manage to get a tone, which at last became the theme of the song. I didn't touch anything for guitars, as it already sounded so warm and appealing. May be had a little reverbs in middle guitars. The solo part, he used a ebow, which gives a feedback sound that part was pushed back in the mix, so we get a far away playing sensation. 

On drums, i would say, had a hard time getting the kick out at the end of the song, where lot of instruments are playing together. I had to go for automation, subtracting some instrument frequency at last. The whole kit,  side drum was my main focus, as it carries the song... in the beginning part. I spent over days getting that side drum pumping out. Finally managed to get it by cutting some frequency at 200 - 300 Hz removing the honkness, and boosting at around 3-4 k, with exact compressor SOFTUBE TUBE TECH on it. Than the side drum started pumping nicely on the mix. Last part of the songs two more side drums kicks off, which took me days to get it right on the mix. I had to find the drummer articulation frequency, and cleverly boost it up till its slight hearable and than get the compressor on it, so it comes up the mix, without disturbing main drum kit and guitars.

Bass Guitar was simple, nothing much to do. As we directly injected on MACKIE ONYX 800R, very nice pre - amp, not much of Harmonics distortion, thanks to Mr Andy. Boosting around 6-7 k, adding some presence, so it can be easily hearable on IPODs headphones. 

"The main focus of all the  mix was to make it IPOD APPLE earphone compatible, as 60% percent of the world listens on iPOD today and frequency response of these earphones very bad under 200 - 300 hz."

Yaha

This track, is all about 70s rock n roll. which was also mixed in PRO TOOLS, second track in this album in PRO TOOLS. For me this song was perfect rock song.

As Manoj Dai tries his Vintage FENDER tone, miking MARSHALL VALVE - STATE AMP, using AKG 414 and Shure SM57 and Neumann TLM 103 for room ambience. I didnt have small problem processing his guitars on the mix. I just had some 4-7 K boost so i get some presence, using Abbey Road  EMI RS127 ( my best plugin for brilliance EQing - really emulates analog Transformer Equalizer with really messing up those highs and no irritation to ur ears, very smooth). And had a little Compressor so tht it doesnt jump out of the mix. Solo guitar in this track had to be raw, nothing done on solo guitar, may just had a pinch of delay, it smoothen out a little.

Drums was all about getting the punch from the close mikes of SNARE and KICK. ROCK n ROLL man..!! no punch no sale..of ur record. Basically, on SNARE as always, I worked on upper-snare mike, done with Earthworks SR69 ( best cardioid microphone in world - my view.. thanks to Mr Andy), i boosted the raatle/ringing section that was around 6-10 k.. had a good boost on that and did come cutting around 400-600 hz, where i was getting SNARE body, which was sounding too bad like a big block hitting on your head in the mix. KICK was most interesting in this mix, thanks to Antet BANANA who reminded my of parallel compressing the kick. So i took a PRE - AUX copy of the kick, got into another channel and main thing compressed it hard as a rock... i remember the needle was nearly all the way till 20 dB, pretty too much, anyway and than added some brilliance may be around 3.5 to get the click sound of Beater and boosted around 200 - 300 for the body - bass punch. And than balanced it with the real kick which was softly compressed. It worked simply killllllller...!!! Nothing much from rest of the kit, just simple balancing.

"Drums was all about getting the punch from the close mikes of SNARE and KICK... and parallel compression.. ROCK n ROLL man..!! no punch no sale......"

Vocals, no comment, nothing done, little reverb and balancing of all vocals in the track. Adrain dai's vocals i found out.. " DO NOT TOUCH IT" no need to.

Bass guitar had a same process like in Timi Bina. 

Aaja Kaha

Aajaa Kaha.. travelling song what Manoj Dai named it. This song was done in Logic Pro which has mostly acoustic guitar layers and cool drum pattern with kick and bass guitar locking each other so perfect. 

Manoj dai used a super collection shop acoustic guitar made of NORTH WOOD, as i remember. Very clean and crispy sound. And we used EARTHWORKS SR30, now if u have best musician, guitar and mike.. what u need others for a good recording. The tracking guitar went very good, with Manoj dai carefully layering the tracks. 

For me mixing this song was very easy. I was really confused where to start the guitar mixing .. as it sounded so perfect fresh from the recording. But I tried some EQing, may be removing the rumbles around 100 - 200 hz, carefully not affecting the original sound of acoustic sound, cause you know bass guitar will come and will be fighting in tht range, survival of fittest.. and mix.. turns out very boomy. Nothing much done after on the guitar after slight compression. SIMPLE AND CLEAN mixing for guitars.

Drums was also not so much of pain mixing it, I used more of overheads than the close mikes, as the track demands soft articulation of drum kit, still had some compressed closed mike SNARE and KICK balanced with the overheads. All drum tracks were routed to LEXICON REVERB plugin, to get some room ambience. 

Vocals again nothing much, just adding some 10k EMI RS127 boost for some air, sounds good in apple earphones. And some balancing over back vocals and side vocals. Having it kicked back, covered with reverb, and compressed with WAVES CLA BUNDLE... to comes out in the mix evenly and clearly.

"Vocals, no comment, nothing done, little reverb and balancing of all vocals in the track. Adrain dai's vocals i found out.. " DO NOT TOUCH IT" no need to...."

Best part was bass guitar pumping with kick drum. I checked the compressor needle, TUBE TECH ( SOFTUBE ) adjusted the attack - release time with the kick, it looked like i was compressing kick in bass compressor, needle was really moving with the kick. This gave me some dynamic of Kick and bass guitar. Sounds like its locked with each other. Whole concept came to my mind, as this song had perfect kick - bass gtr combination and pattern.

Bardhaan

This is a special track in this album, this was recorded long time back, before me joining the studio. This track has very powerful lyrics and heavy layers of guitars, miked from Manoj Dai's amp. This is the third track done in Pro Tools.

Talking about the guitar, it starts with clean guitar in the intro, i remember, while i was mixing the intro part.. i pushed the guitar really back, as my concept was to give it a ambience, sensation as if the guitarist is playing from the top of the mountain.. haha..!! Anyway, Manoj dai didn't liked that much, so had to stick on simple clean guitar tone. The best part of this band is, they try to keep things as simple as possible. After few seconds of intro, delay guitar solo kicks in, which was supposed to be main theme of the song. After few bars.. suddenly everything comes in... with a BANG!!.. nice style.. There is a acoustic rhythm playing panned most extreme ends. I used ACOUSTIC FEEDBACK plugin from SOFTTUBE, I was impressed the way, plugin handled the fullness of acoustic guitar, giving more richness and fullness to the mix, problem was, if u didnt set the WET ratio correctly, it gave a feedback... haha...! Anyway thats point to be noted. Other guitars simple, nothing much.. i removed some 200 - 100 Hz from overdrive guitar. As every time sweet bass note slide came in with distortion guitar together really sounds nice.

Drum a simple mix, had some boost around 5-6 K, for the raatle/ringing on upper SANRE channel. With lower snare channel nicely balanced, this gave a very thick snare sound, kind of suiting the song. Kick was again done same parallel compression to really get the punch out of it. This time kick.... we wanted was a vintage one for this track, which you do not listen but you feel it, i would say no click - beater sound added. For some variety on the album, it works out good. I believe every track's drum kit should sound different with the theme of the track. If its live drum it will surely sound different everyday of recording, that is what SOUND all about about !!!.

Flute, very interesting, it comes really like a blast in the song, i bet if you are listening the track first time, it will blow you head off.. haha...!! On flute i had TRIDENT - A RANGE EQs from SOFTUBE, very easy to use - select the frequency cut - boost it. And must say very powerful analog-emulated EQ plugin. I had some boost around 3-4 K, as in the track it comes very aggressively. And 3-4 K is a good frequency to create tension to your brain.... And intensionally had little compressor on it cause... i needed the dynamics of flute as it comes suddenly in the song, and playing very aggressively. And delay on flute with some feedback.. really gave psychedelic feel.

"I had some boost around 3-4 K on flute, as in the track it comes very aggressively. And it is a good frequency to create tension to your brain.... And tensionally had little compressor cause i needed the dynamics of flute to come and vary because of its aggressive playing style"

Bass guitar has a important role, i wanted bass guitar to sound clear on the mix, as i left the KICK for the lower frequency. I had my best pal - ABBEY ROAD EMI 127 play the role, and gave a really good amount of boost... i remember 4-6 dB boost around 10 K. After that i could hear the bass guitar really combining with other guitar. My main intension for bass guitar bringing up to higher frequency spectrum was for the slide note that Nirakar dai plays. Brilliant work!!

Maan Ko Hoon

This song was made from renowned poet Lekhnath Paudel. I remember i studied this poem when i was in class 5-6. Heavy Rock track. The main part of this song is the DRUM kit, we used DW signatured SANRE, very loud and powerful. It starts with a matra may be 7-8 layers of Adrain dai vocals with different scales.. really sounds a heavy intro...

Guitar used in this song was PRS collection shop guitar. Very heavy tone.. I could just find out the guitar quality from the waveform recorded on Logic.. so detailed waveform, never seen that much detail and dark waveform from any guitar. Manoj dai used his overdrive analog peddle, i forgot the name.. and routed to SOFTUBE METAL ROOM amp, what crunch - heavy sound it gave. I did not have to EQ, this song has raw guitar tone.. no EQ.. just had a standard compression. So overall was easy for me to deal with guitar, one part a solo kind of thing comes.. i compressed it hard, as it was too loud and heavy tone .. still no touching with EQ..

Drums my best part in this song... Earthworks magic again.. I just had overheads.. i was surprise to see that it captured every kit so properly from the KICK to HI - HATS.. you can imagine that covers whole frequency spectrum for music. Impressive and stunning performance by Earthworks SR30 omini - microphone. This one is on my future investment list. Coming down for close mikes.. not much.. compressed and balanced with OVERHEADS and ya power of AKG D112 on kick with parallel compression... than the DRUM kit was really talking.. All the drum channel was routed to LEXICON REVERB where i tried emulating the DRUMMER in a big hall.

"Impressive and stunning performance by EARTHWORKS SR30 OMINI MICROPHONES. This one is on my future investment list."

Vocals has some sonical variation... what I worked on, I am talking about lead vocals, in slow part of the song I had a radio voice.. cutting everything the lower end and the high end and boosting around 1 k.. and routing it through Guitar - amp so i get tht mono - distorted feeling. When I first applied this.. i really did a lot of distortion to the vocals, band was not happy, so i had to again re - do the mix and make it lighter radio effect.. anyway sounds better this way. After that nothing much may be critical balancing of Mantra around 8 vocals coming together, creating that environment thanks to Manoj dai and Adrian dai. One more thing, the devil laugh of Adrian dai was mistakenly recorded.. Sounds good but.. haha..!

Rain Song

This was the last song we worked on. The main theme of the song was flute, very easy melody but really catchy one. Its not really so complex song as it used to be in case of 1974 AD, like Irish Coffee track for an example.

It starts with an acoustic guitar very simple, Manoj dai played with a CAPO, simple chords.. layered some more acoustic guitar layers thats it guitar layering was done. From my side nothing much done, may be I had some Brilliance added around 10 K, so that acoustic guitar sparkles and delays on a lead guitar. Standard compression with WAVES CLA compressor. That was it.

Main part was flute. There were two flutes recorded one at lower register another the higher register one. The beginning part has lower register flute, which sounds really excellent i had some 6-7 K on flute to get the breathy feeling worked fantastic and with synced reverb and delay... really smooth. At second part of the song comes the higher register flute i compressed like hell and had more of delay - reverb than dry signal, result was it went really far back in the mix. Sounds really beautiful with the front lower register flute.

Drums, are just for some bars where it kicks in with the vocal. Nothing much done on drums, same setting mostly like did in above tracks. The important thing was..... i got all drum kit to LEXICON REVERB and this time i didn't look for room ambience.. for me it was trying the to get the same reverb ambience of like vocals and pads.. try matching it.. Really if u can match the pads with the drums ambience or any front track it really blends with each other, now you hear everything one and tight.

'Really if u can match the pads with the drums ambience or any front track ambience... it really blends with each other, now you hear everything one and tight....."

Vocal was easy, nothing much done. One part when the vocals comes in.. i had some modulations matched with the pads on the background, and i just remembered even that small part was recorded accidently....!! After that stuck my head for, why dont I give really dreamy effect... humming matches with the pad's character..

Bass guitar nothing much, same thing as did in other songs.

Chu Tada

Chu Tada is only the love song in this whole album. Track is kept very simple... with powerful vocals of Adrain dai, song is really carrying some weight. This song has mostly acoustic guitar part, a flute solo and powerful bassline.

Guitars were again recorded from Earthworks SR30, if you hear the song, you can really feel that the guitars has full body rather than just taking above the 700 - 800 Hz, of the guitars. I had whole frequency on the mix, may be just cut some 100 - 200 Hz, for the bass space. And some brightness to the top end around 10 K. There are 3-4 layers of guitar, middle guitar - plugging is really compressed inside with TUBE TECH compressor. Rest is just a standard compression on all guitar.

Drum is cool thing in this, i just used Overheads signal, and the close KICK. As the song demanded peace and softness. It was better to put drums little backward with a LEXICON REVERB - room ambience. Drums is not really on the notice now. Main subject on this song was Vocals and bass.

"As the song demanded peace and softness. It was better to put drums little backward with a LEXICON REVERB - room ambience. Drums is not really on the notice now....."

Vocals the main part of the song. I kept it simple. I had a 10 K boost with EMI 127, vocals really started opening up and cutting the mix on the centre. And WAVES CLA bundle with just a pinch of REVERB - DELAY ambience. If you listen you hardly notice the REVERB - DELAY effects on vocals.

Bass was just compressed with the kick reference. And had some really nice boost around 4-5 K, so that you can hear critical bass notes.

All above not much of effects used in this song.. all intension was to keep simple and sweet... JAZZ way...!!

Bhijaye Hu

Last but not the least. Here comes a heavily layered instrument song. The grand ending of the album. Really cool stuff in this track. Starts with Manoj Dai's classical piece on acoustic guitar.... rest i should keep secret for this song. If tell it right now, no charm when you listen the song.

PLUGINS USED

SOFTUBE BUNDLE

LEXICON REVERB BUNDLE

WAVES CLA COMPRESSOR BUNDLE

ABBEY ROAD EMI BUNDLE

BASIC LOGIC AND PRO TOOLS PLUGINS

I think making of Aath Athara my part gets over here. Rest was the Mastering and CD Duplication... and the release on Aug 18.....

I hope you enjoyed reading till the end of this article. I really want to thank Manoj dai, and the whole band member Adrain dai, Nirakar dai and Sanjay dai..... truly 1974 AD rocks, on stage and in studio too. I learned many small - small problems which comes in music production stage... Main part i learned was " SATISFY YOUR CLIENT", as Mr Greg says.... if the client satisfies with 70 %... may be you worked hard for that or you just got it in a blow, lucky... stick there dont have to go 30 % more.... which may take months again...

Thanks to Antet Banana coming over to studio and helping with all the tracks for final revision... And ya my pal.. Manzil who was there everyday with me, commenting on how the mix was going... And not to forget Sameer dai for his wonderful suggestions...

Thanks to Mr Greg, for encouraging me to write second part too.

So this is how the album was made... HAVE FUN WITH THE ALBUM... I would say "ACTION PACKED ROCK ALBUM...." of this year.

GO 1974 AD... all my best wishes..!!!

Have fun..

Samir

Studio Engineer

KATJAZZ SCHOOL OF RECORDING ARTS / 1974 AD