Recording XFM Radio Sessions

Buy PDF

Chris Denman

Published in SOS April 2008
Printer-friendly version

People + Opinion : Artists / Engineers / Producers / Programmers
 
Working straight to DAT, with a minimum of equipment, Chris Denman records more bands in a year than most engineers manage in a lifetime.
Sam Inglis
One day, the world may hear a lot more of a four-piece indie band from West London called Dega Breaks. However, it's safe to say that on their first visit to the XFM studios they're a pretty well-kept secret. I've never heard of them, and more to the point, neither has XFM's resident session producer, Chris Denman. Yet it's up to him to listen to their debut single, figure out the production tricks that make up their sound, load in their gear, mic them up and record four of their songs — all in the space of three hours. And after lunch he'll be doing it all over again, perhaps for another bunch of newly signed hopefuls, or perhaps this time for rock royalty like the Cure or Queens of the Stone Age.
XFM is London's alternative music radio station, and as part of its licence remit is committed to playing a lot of live music. Denman is the man whose job it is to put that commitment into action, and in 2007 alone he recorded 341 different bands.
Everyone who finds themselves lugging their equipment to the fourth floor gets the same treatment. There's simply no time to do things any other way. "We do one pre-recorded session at 12, then an hour lunch, then our next band comes in at four. Each session's an hour setup, so we're done and dusted by half-two, loaded out by three, I have my lunch, four — next band in. That's how tight it is, so you have to get it bang on, there and then."
Two-track Mind
The combination of time and budget constraints means that all these sessions are done using the barest minimum of equipment. "It is, basically, me, on a set of headphones out of the desk, mixing straight to a DAT tape. No multitracking involved. It comes down to the age-old art of two-tracking, which is a skill in itself. I don't have any outboard, so it's just the desk. Originally we had a Yamaha O2R, and we upgraded to the DM2000 in 2002. Nothing has actually been changed on it. I've still got version 1, still got the old internal effects."
All of which makes Denman's ability to replicate a band's sound on the basis of a 10-second flick through their recorded output even more impressive. In Dega Breaks' case, that sound is an edgy indie-rock production that owes much to the Killers, but previous sessions have covered every conceivable style, from dusty blues to cutting-edge electro, from balls-to-the-wall metal to delicate folk.
"I've touched on quite a lot of different production techniques, because I've had to. About a year ago, there was a trend for quite a lot of slap-back on vocals, stuff like that, and drums are my favourite thing, because they will basically lead a mix. You have your room mics, and it depends on how you're compressing your room mics, depends on how much you're mixing your close mics into your room mics. I close-mic all the drums — snare top, snare bottom, kick, rack toms, floor toms, two overheads. I never mic up the hat, because unless you're really recording an album and you want to use it in a certain production technique, you don't need to.
"We'll all set up, and I'll mic up, and we'll run through drum sounds. So the drummer will play, and I'll get him to actually play the tracks — I don't like any drum techs playing, because they play totally differently from the drummer, and the drummer will have his own style and his own dynamics that come through. So I'll get that set up, get the bass and guitar sounds right, fit it all in, get the vocal sounds right, and the only thing you normally end up playing around with — the only thing you can play around with, really — is basically reverbs coming in and out. Maybe if they're coming into a chorus I'll wind in more delay, stuff like that.
"If you're doing covers, or if it's acoustic or stripped-back, then you'll go with something different. But otherwise you'll naturally go towards the album, because that's how they want their finished product. So if you go towards that sound, they're very happy, they're happy to play, so they do a great take. It's basically a big bit of karma you've got to deal with to make the session go well. I'm working with one hour setup, two hours mixdown. I've got to push them as a producer in getting that right. And if you go towards that, everyone's on the right path and everyone's happy. We have such a high turnover that I can't be sitting back going 'Maybe we should try that, maybe we should try this.'
"We don't have front-of-house engineers come in, because they will bring in their two reverbs that they used on tour, and I can pull up more reverbs and get closer to an album mix, even though it's a live session, a lot more quickly than they can. Obviously, this is a studio session, we're not in a venue, and when front-of-house hear stuff, they will let things go, but I'm too anal, I'll rein them in."
Tones To DI For
All the sessions are recorded in a converted radio studio at XFM's headquarters in Leicester Square. A small, soundproofed live area is available for drums, but everyone else in the band plays in the control room. Originally, guitar amps were dumped into the corridor outside, but this caused serious problems with bleed into the adjacent radio studio, and Chris's preferred approach now is to DI guitars and basses. "Because everything is muted in the room, it's funny, because the only thing you'll hear is a vocal and the guitar strings going!"
Two DI'ing options are available, thanks to endorsements from Line 6 and Sequis: a selection of Pod digital amp modellers, and a Motherload dummy load/speaker simulator. Guitarists who insist on using their own amps can be directed to the latter, while Denman has become adept at dialling in people's signature sounds on the XT Floor Pod, using the Gearbox utility on his Mac.
Chris uses his Line 6 Floor Pod XT to mimic most bands' recorded guitar tones; using the Gearbox utility on his Mac to program the Line 6 hardware, he has built up a huge collection of signature sounds.
Chris uses his Line 6 Floor Pod XT to mimic most bands' recorded guitar tones; using the Gearbox utility on his Mac to program the Line 6 hardware, he has built up a huge collection of signature sounds.
"If we're using the Pods, I'll go 'What amps did you use?' Then I'll know which amps to dial up, and I'll tweak it accordingly. Basically I just plug in my laptop and off I go, because it offers a deeper well of editing that you can get to easily. If guitarists haven't used the Pod before, sometimes they get freaked out about it, so it's nice just to go 'OK, I am going to sort this out, don't worry.' I've plugged it into the laptop and they can see what I'm doing, because the visual reference is there. It's a lot clearer on the software."
Nevertheless, he finds there can be psychological hurdles to be overcome when guitarists are confronted by digital technology. "Initially, guitarists get like "Oh, it's a Pod." And if you're producing someone, that brings them down, and you're like 'I don't want you to be down about this. I want you to be thinking: I'm going into a session, I'm going to get the right sound.' And then you have to work them up again, so once you've got the right sound, they go 'Oh, right, these do work!' Showing that to them is a big step to making them feel better and getting a really good take."
Closing Things Down
When it comes to vocals and drums, Chris's mic locker is not exactly bulging, and he is very thankful for another endorsement deal, this time for Sennheiser's Evolution series of microphones. "I've literally got one set of mics," he says. "They're all dynamics. You find that condensers in here are a bit too much; they just seem to be a bit too open and you get spill from other things — even hearing [electric] guitar strings over vocal mics. In the drum room I use a couple of condensers, but again a lot of it's dynamics, just going for a closer sound, I suppose."
In most respects, Chris's studio is simply a re-purposed radio studio, but he's added these custom wallboxes, which have an unusual feature: speaker connectors allowing the speaker outputs from valve amps to be patched directly to his rackmounted Sequis Motherload dummy load and speaker simulator.
In most respects, Chris's studio is simply a re-purposed radio studio, but he's added these custom wallboxes, which have an unusual feature: speaker connectors allowing the speaker outputs from valve amps to be patched directly to his rackmounted Sequis Motherload dummy load and speaker simulator.
As well as Chris's AKG C451EB small-diaphragm condensers, which serve as drum overheads, he also puts up an ancient Sony C38 in the corner of the drum room as an ambient mic. However, he warns against using too much room ambience in a radio mix. "Mixing it right for the radio is about knowing what's going to happen with the on-air compression. A lot of it is tightening up the mixes slightly more, not letting room mics open up so much, because the on-air compression will bring them out. You might think that compression will help control it on endings and so on, but when you do that, the on-air compression can make the mix sound really muddled. Basically, the theory is to make tight mixes."
Because the musicians are performing in the control room, Chris is forced to mix on headphones. "These are the ones from the radio station, the Beyer DT770s. I mix on these because they were what was given to me, but I think they're a great headphone." However, he does make use of the studio's PMC monitors for getting drum and guitar sounds together, and for checking mixes on playback. "I don't have any nearfield monitors — I've asked! — but I love the PMCs. I love Genelecs, too, but I find they sweeten things up a little bit too much, and the PMCs are very, very honest. You can hear if anything's going to trip you up or embarrass you, if something's jumping out of the mix. So I love listening back on them, getting a good reference, and then going back to the headphones again and tweaking stuff."
Setting up one mix is challenging, and there's certainly no time to create separate monitor mixes for different band members, so everyone hears exactly what is going to tape. "Everyone has a stereo mix for monitoring, which for some bands is quite funny, because they get so used to calling on what they want in a monitor mix. Initially, I will go 'OK, that's cool, but try this, see how you go,' and nine times out of 10, if they have a nice stereo mix in their headphones, which is basically what I'm mixing, they're like 'Oh, I can hear everything, that seems fine!' There's a few occasions where singers really want their vocals over the top, and then I tell them 'Slip a can off your ear slightly.' And that's it.
"I will go 'Let's run through the track two or three times,' and then we'll go for a take. From there on in, it's up to them how many times they want to do the take, and I'm listening out for how they play. I'd love to have a big studio with lots of multitracking and time to play around, but I don't get that, so I've gotten used to being extremely quick and being very accurate and getting the end result fast."
Dega Breaks (well, some of them!) in action.
Dega Breaks (well, some of them!) in action.
True to form, Dega Breaks have laid down their four session tracks by half past two, and the results sound uncannily similar to the original versions they sweated over in the recording studio. It's business as usual for Chris. "I've had bands going 'We want to record the album in here,'" he laughs, "'cos we'd get it done so quickly!'"
You can hear some of Chris Denman's recordings on the new XFM Debut Sessions compilation album, and at his Myspace page: www.myspace.com/chrisxfmliveproducer  0

People Skills
Chris makes much use of the DM2000's scene memories.
Chris makes much use of the DM2000's scene memories.
Unlike a producer or engineer on an album session, or someone who's touring with a band, Chris Denman has hardly any time to get to know the people he's recording, so he has no choice but to make snap decisions about how to get the best from them. "I've become very good at seeing the dynamics of a band, like who leads the band, and you work with those people to help move along a session. I also help to load in the bands' gear. It's part of the actual process of meeting the band and crew. If I'm helping crew with the load-in, they don't think I'm an arsehole producer, and that's part of it.
"I will also talk things through with the band — how did they feel doing the album? Because sometimes you'll find they've actually let things go that they didn't like: "I didn't think this was right, I kind of wanted it a bit more like this". And you end up going 'OK, I'll take that on board'. The great thing about being at XFM is that I'll actually see a signed band about twice, maybe three times a year, because of the release of singles. They'll come in about three or four times, and it's a lot easier because I've met them before. You build up a relationship, and you know what they sound like.
"Of course, none of this is much use if the bands themselves aren't capable of playing live. There's always an element of risk here, especially given XFM's policy of giving exposure to new bands, but Chris is generally impressed with what he finds. "Because albums aren't selling, a lot of bands know that live is a key thing to getting their music over and making a little bit of money as well. Even the younger bands are going out and playing a lot more, so when they do sessions like this, they're actually a lot tighter."

Behind The Scenes
Chris Denman's straight-to-DAT recordings may represent "the ancient art of two-tracking", but they make full use of the modern features offered by the Yamaha PM2000 digital mixer. Not only does it supply all his effects, EQs and dynamics, but its recall facilities are invaluable. "The scene selections are brilliant. If I have done tweaks to mixes on different tracks, I can scene-save and go back to them, and get the band to play through the actual mix on the desk again, in case they didn't feel the take was good enough and we might have a little bit of time left over. For [XFM's live broadcast] Live at Leicester Square, which is live to air, I'll actually be flicking through scenes while they're playing live, so it's quite hair-raising sometimes. I'll have different mixes for when they're talking to the DJ and obviously when they're actually playing, so it's all about getting them to cue at the right time."

Published in SOS April 2008

 

Home | Search | News | Current Issue | Digital Editions | Articles | Forum | Subscribe | Shop | Readers Ads

Advertise | Information | Links | Privacy Policy | Support

In this article:
Two-track Mind
Tones To DI For
Closing Things Down
People Skills
Behind The Scenes

Gnarls Barkley & The Atlanta Sound

Ben Allen

Thumbnail for article: Gnarls Barkley & The Atlanta Sound

Their combination of Southern soul and hip-hop gave Gnarls Barkley one of the biggest hits of the year, thanks in part to the mixing wizardry of Ben Allen.

Steve Hodge

Mixing R&B

Thumbnail for article: Steve Hodge

After 17 years mixing almost everything that came out of Jam & Lewis's Flyte Tyme Studios, there's very little Steve Hodge doesn't know about making R&B records work.

Scissor Sisters: Recording Ta-Dah

Babydaddy • Dan Grech-Marguerat

The Scissor Sisters' first album, recorded in a Manhattan apartment, sold 3.5 million copies worldwide. The follow-up sees them expanding their horizons, while keeping their DIY ethos very much intact.

John Cale

Artist/Producer

Thumbnail for article: John Cale

As a solo artist, producer and member of the Velvet Underground, John Cale has had a hand in some of the most influential records ever made.

Stephen Duffy

Writing & Producing With Robbie Williams

Despite his best efforts, Stephen Duffy's solo work never quite made him a superstar — but it did get him one of the best co-writing gigs around.

Jim Abbiss

Producing Kasabian & Arctic Monkeys

Thumbnail for article: Jim Abbiss

Jim Abbiss decided to go back to basics and make records the way he wanted to make them. The result? The fastest-selling debut album in history...

Uwe Schmidt: Recording Yellow Fever!

Yellow Magic Orchestra goes Latino

Yellow Magic Orchestra helped pioneer the use of electronic instruments and sampling. Now Uwe Schmidt, aka Señor Coconut, has used the same techniques to render their greatest hits as Latin dances, with contributions from all three original YMO members.

Donald Fagen

Recording Morph The Cat

Thumbnail for article: Donald Fagen

Morph The Cat, Donald Fagen's third solo album in 24 years, sees Fagen and engineer Elliott Scheiner continue their quest for the best possible sound quality — which, it seems, comes only from analogue recording.

Jim Moray

Folk Music For The 21st Century

The idea of bringing folk music up to date is not a new one, but few people have taken it quite as far as Jim Moray. His material may be traditional, but his approach to music technology is as modern as it gets.

Recording David Gilmour's On An Island

Andy Jackson

David Gilmour's chart-topping solo album was recorded on his own Astoria houseboat, a floating slice of studio heaven. Engineer Andy Jackson describes the making of the album.

Producing Eminem & Fiona Apple

Mike Elizondo

Thumbnail for article: Producing Eminem & Fiona Apple

Mike Elizondo has gone from being Dr Dre's right-hand man, co-writing some of the biggest hip-hop hits of recent years, to being an innovative producer in his own right.

Roger Nichols: Across The Board

The Current State Of Affairs

What can we, as engineers or musicians, do to prevent our recorded legacy being lost?

Joe Boyd

Record Producer

Thumbnail for article: Joe Boyd

When British traditional music got a dose of rock & roll excitement, it was an American who sat in the producer's chair. Oh, and Joe Boyd also discovered a little-known band called the Pink Floyd...

Recording 24: The Game

Richard Aitken of Nimrod Productions

Thumbnail for article: Recording 24: The Game

In the past, tie-in video games have had to use samples to recreate real orchestral soundtracks from the original TV series or film. With 24: The Game, however, it was the other way around.

The Matrix

Writing & Producing in LA

The success of Avril Lavigne's debut album Let Go catapulted The Matrix to the front rank of songwriters and producers. Since then, they've moved in ever wider musical circles, culminating in their work with nu-metal pioneers Korn.

Cool & Dre

Producing Hip-Hop

Miami is now a hip-hop centre to rival New York and LA, and Cool & Dre are two of its most active beatmakers, songwriters and producers.

Recording & Mixing Kanye West

Craig Bauer

Craig Bauer has been part of Kanye West's career from the beginning, and as a mix engineer on the smash hit Late Registration album, he had to marry West's artistic perfectionism with his own technical standards.

Producing The Darkness's One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back

Roy Thomas Baker

Thumbnail for article: Producing The Darkness's One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back

Recording the One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back album, Roy Thomas Baker and the Darkness used 400 reels of tape, up to 1000 tracks per song and a year in the studio — not to mention custom-made panpipes. Find out more...

From 4AD To Nine Inch Nails

John Fryer

Thumbnail for article: From 4AD To Nine Inch Nails

The likes of Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins and Nine Inch Nails all owe a sonic debt to engineer/producer John Fryer, who explains his approach to production.

Composing For Films

Harry Gregson-Williams

Thumbnail for article: Composing For Films

Harry Gregson-Williams's drive to explore original ideas and sounds has made him one of Hollywood's leading composers, scoring everything from romantic comedies to spy thrillers and historical dramas.

Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Mike Poole | Angel Dance

Inside Track

Thumbnail for article: Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Mike Poole | Angel Dance

Thirty years after Led Zeppelin ended, Robert Plant has reached a second career high. His latest hit album was tracked and mixed by Mike Poole, using a mouth-watering selection of vintage equipment.

Nashville Guitars

Recording Today's Country Guitar Sounds

Thumbnail for article: Nashville Guitars

With country guitars, what you hear on the record is what was played in the studio. We asked Nashville's leading engineers how they capture those tones.

Mike Vernon: Producing British Blues

Interview | Producer

Thumbnail for article: Mike Vernon: Producing British Blues

Mike Vernon produced some of the greatest blues records of all time. A full decade after retiring, he's back in the studio with some of the British blues scene's brightest lights.

Happy Birthday Sound On Sound!

Milestones

Some of the friends we've made over the years share their congratulations on our 25th birthday!

Labrinth | Producing Tinie Tempah

Interview | Music Production

The man behind the biggest UK single of the year — ‘Pass Out’ by Tinie Tempah — is 21-year-old musical prodigy and maverick Labrinth.

Oval (aka Markus Popp): Recording Oh And O

Electronica Production

One of electronica’s most adventurous spirits, Markus Popp has returned with an album that sounds surprisingly... musical. But is everything as it seems?

Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Mike Strange Jr

Inside Track | Eminem

Thumbnail for article: Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Mike Strange Jr

Eminem’s Recovery has been one of the biggest hit albums of the year, spawning two number one singles — all recorded and mixed by Eminem’s long-term engineer, Mike Strange.

Proper Noise

Jon Burton: Mixing & Recording The Prodigy Live

Thumbnail for article: Proper Noise

As the Prodigy’s chief live sound engineer, Jon Burton gets to unleash untold kilowatts of bass power on an unsuspecting world. He has also made multitrack recordings of every show on their 26-month world tour.

Silver Apples

Early electronica !

Thumbnail for article: Silver Apples

Silver Apples jammed with Jimi Hendrix, counted John Lennon as a fan, and produced extraordinary electronic music — with nothing but a drum kit and a pile of electrical junk.

Devo | Mark Mothersbaugh

Four Decades Of De-evolution

Thumbnail for article: Devo | Mark Mothersbaugh

Pioneers of everything from circuit-bending to multimedia art, Devo have always belonged to the future.

MGMT

Andrew VanWyngarden & Ben Goldwasser: Recording Congratulations

MGMT could have followed up their smash hit debut album with more of the same. Instead, they headed straight into left field, with help from a legend of British psychedelia.

Faust: Hans Joachim Irmler

40 Years Of Krautrock

Thumbnail for article: Faust: Hans Joachim Irmler

In 1969, Faust used their massive record company advance to build a unique studio and a collection of weird, custom-made effects units. The same experimental spirit lives on in their new album, Faust Is Last.

Plan B

Producing The Defamation Of Strickland Banks

Plan B entered the public eye as a rapper, but it’s as a soul singer that he has conquered the charts. He and his production team revisit the tortuous story behind The Defamation Of Strickland Banks.

Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: David R Ferguson

Inside Track: Johnny Cash | American VI: Ain’t No Grave

Thumbnail for article: Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: David R Ferguson

Sometimes the simplest-sounding music takes the most work to get right, and so it was with Johnny Cash’s posthumous hit album American VI: Ain’t No Grave. Engineer and mixer David R Ferguson was on hand at every stage of Rick Rubin’s production.

Porcupine Tree

Steven Wilson: Recording & Marketing Porcupine Tree

Every new Porcupine Tree album sells over a quarter of a million copies. And with founder Steven Wilson in control of everything from songwriting to shrink-wrapping, there’s no middle man to take a cut. Read his valuable advice for SOS readers wishing to do likewise...

Phil Thornalley: Torn

From Rock Producer To Pop Songwriter

Thumbnail for article: Phil Thornalley: Torn

Phil Thornalley learned his trade as a rock engineer and producer in the ’80s. Then he co-wrote a little-known song called ‘Torn’...

Ray Davies

Five Decades In The Studio

Thumbnail for article: Ray Davies

Legendary songwriter and Kinks frontman Ray Davies got his first taste of recording in 1964, and he’s never looked back.

The Stargate Writing & Production Team

Mikkel Eriksen

From humble beginnings in provincial Norway, the Stargate team have gone on to become one of America’s leading hit factories. Songwriter and producer Mikkel Eriksen explains how their hard work and talent brought success.

Dave Stewart: Creating A New Album From Archive Material

Time Trial: Bringing Multitracks and MIDI into the 21st Century

Dave Stewart’s career has spanned several generations of music technology (from National Health band in the 1970s to hits with partner Barbara Gaskin. For his latest project, he faced the challenge of bringing his old multitracks and MIDI sequences into the computer age.

GLOSSARY of Technical Terms
 

Email: Contact SOS

Telephone: +44 (0)1954 789888

Fax: +44 (0)1954 789895

Registered Office: Media House, Trafalgar Way, Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB23 8SQ, United Kingdom.

Sound On Sound Ltd is registered in England and Wales.

Company number: 3015516 VAT number: GB 638 5307 26

         

All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2012. All rights reserved.
The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers.

Web site designed & maintained by PB Associates | SOS | Relative Media