Analog Obsession: 100% UA Part 8, The Making of Freematik's Ghost Funk Horizon
By Tom Freeman
Former UA employee Tom Freeman owns a full assortment of UA gear, and makes use of it as hip-hop and rap producer Freematik. Although most of his time is spent on other artists' work, he is finally done mixing his solo debut album, Ghost Funk Horizon, which has been three years in the making. UA gear was (of course) used on every stage of the process, and here is the story of how UA hardware and software influenced this album, with a specific emphasis on the 2-LA-2, the 2-1176, and the DCS Remote Pre.
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| Freematik at the helm of his home studio in San Jose, CA |
First, I'll start by giving a quick history and background of this album. The tracks started as completely electronic projects, either in Propellerhead's Reason or Ableton Live. Then all of the tracks were transferred as separate, rendered WAV files to my DAW for overdubbing, editing, mixing, etc.
Once in the DAW, I added live bass, and had a guitar player and drummer add live tracks, in that order. Then, after some serious editing, I asked one of my production partners (and current UA QA Manager), James Cigler, to add some very unique sonic textures to the tracks, using his vast arsenal of analog effects and modular synth components. I couldn't be more pleased with the amazing sounds we got. Finally, I tracked vocals for the majority of the songs, all done by different local vocalists I've worked with, and some vocals by myself as well.
Like I mentioned, tons of UA gear was used to make this album. For example, the bass guitar was mostly tracked DI through the LA-610 Channel Strip. Almost all of the vocals on the album were recorded through a 6176 Channel Strip into a 2192 AD/DA converter, using either a Shure SM7B or a Soundelux U99 microphone. UAD-1 plug-ins were used extensively, and the final mixes were sent through the 2192. I could go on, but in this article I'm going to focus on how UA's two hardware stereo compressors, the 2-1176 and the 2-LA-2, as well as the DCS Remote Pre, were used.
On some of the tracks, a "glue" was needed to bring the multiple tracks together, and this is a perfect application for the 2-LA-2.
One big job on this album was to add live drums to the tracks, which at that point had only drum loops or programmed parts. Due to the budget (or lack thereof) for this album, the drums were tracked in my garage, which I deadened quite a bit with Auralex foam. It was not a perfect recording situation, but the album's sound is meant to be low-fi and DIY, so I am happy with the sound we got. Even though I knew we weren't going to get a "John Bonham" drum sound in my garage, I wanted to start with as much fidelity and detail as I could, even if the final "sound" of the drums might end up gritty. To get a great drum overhead sound with my home studio budget, I went with Rode NT4 stereo mic and the Universal Audio DCS Remote Pre.DCS Remote Pre
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| Tracking drums with the DCS Remote Pre |
The DCS Remote Pre has a ton of headroom and a very transparent sound, which makes it great for applications like tracking drum overheads. Although the DCS has some amazing monitoring features, I used it as a straight-ahead stereo mic preamp, with gain set a little over halfway up, with plenty of gain left over if I needed it. The DCS is also very quiet, with a very low noise floor. You can hear the drum sound I got in the audio examples available in the 2-1176 section, below.
2-1176
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| A smorgasbord of UA gear! |
I wanted to compress the overall drums a little bit to keep in the transients, and because I have a 2-1176, I knew it was perfect for the job. I went with the 2-1176 because I can dial in the attack and release times to exactly what I need, and the response time is quick enough to keep up with fast transients (although I didn't use a very fast attack time). I dialed in the attack to about 4, and the release to about 8. These are arbitrary numbers, but it basically means a relatively slow attack time, and a relatively fast release time, keeping in mind the range of response times in the 2-1176 are pretty fast overall. I used a compression ratio of 4:1, and set the threshold (using the Input volume to set threshold, and Output volume to compensate the final output volume) so that the loud transients would cause up to 7 dB of gain reduction, while overall the compressor would set back to 0 between transients. The quick release time keeps the individual drum transients from getting squashed. Check out the before and after effect of my use of the 2-1176 compressor.
2-LA-2
The vocals on the album are done by many different artists, and each artist required a different approach. On some of the tracks, a "glue" was needed to bring the multiple tracks together, and this is a perfect application for the 2-LA-2. You can set up a 2-1176 to get a slow attack and release, and get a similar amount of gain reduction, but there is something special about the revered "LA-2A" sound, and being able to use that sound on a stereo bus is amazing. Also, the eight tubes make it the perfect tool to warm up some sterile digital audio tracks! I set the unit to "Compress" as opposed to "Limit" and set the Peak Reduction knob until I saw approximately 3-4 dB of compression on the louder parts. Listen to the before and after of this process.
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| Mixing the final tracks… |
So, looking back at the three years I spent on this album, I don't know how I could have done it without UA gear. I am sure it would have been possible, but I am glad it's only a theory, because making music with UA gear is so fun and rewarding. Download a full song from the album, or listen to more of the album and find out about Freematik on my web site.