New album for Universal Music Group – Recording The Pipes

Following the amazing success of Spirit Of The Glen by The Royal Scots Dragoons and the Czech Film Orchestra, once again I’ve been asked to organise the studio and engineer the follow up album for The Universal Music Group which begins on August 8th. Spirit Of The Glen reached the coveted Christmas No 1 slot in the Classical Charts in 2007 and stayed there for 10 weeks, well into March 2008. It also reached no 11 in the UK Album charts and received a nomination for a Classical BRIT award. …. (there’s a few press cuttings at the end of this blog). Again, I chose Heartbeat Studios for the job. It’s a studio run by musician Dave Valentine, formerly the lead singer with RAF who recorded 2 albums back in the early 80’s for A+M Records. Situated in a converted barn. inside a working farm. the studio is a great location for bands. There’s a large playing area, a vocal booth and a spacious conrol room, and best of all a band hideaway downstairs. It’s situated just outside Edinburgh near the A7. I first worked there in 1985 with my Zed project along with singer Kirsty Anderson. My album ‘Message’ was re-mixed there by producer Chris Harley, aka Chris Rainbow, with Davy Valentine engineering.

Anyway the producer for this album is Jon Cohen, a frighteningly talented musician who is an accomplished Jazz Pianist as well as a Classical arranger and Producer. Jon has had another no1 for the Fron Valley Choir, again in the cross-over Classical vein. He’s also worked with The Sugar Babes, Vanessa May, Ronan Keating and lots of other well known artists. Jon also uses Logic Audio so I take my set up along to Heartbeat and he brings up the working tracks on his portable hard drive, copies it over to my G5 and the process is reversed at the end of the recording. On the last album I picked up loads of Logic tips from him. I had never met anyone so heavily into the depths of the programme so it was real opportunity to learn from a true Logic boffin.

I expect we will work on this album in much the same way as before. John has MIDI arrangements of each composition and the pipers and drummers play along to click tracks set up in inside the arrangement page of each tune. Parts are reduced down to 8 – 16 – 32 bar loops and takes are performed in groups. Solo Piper – Two Pipers – Four – Eight – etc all playing the same part. It’s the same process with the ‘live’ drum parts. Once the tracks are all recorded , which should take about 8 days. Jon spends ages sifting through each take to find the best ones, both in the evenings after each session and once the session is over.

We recorded the pipes and drums on last album with 2 pairs of condenser mics. Nuemann 87’s and Rhode Valve mics. In the end Jon used the Nuemanns on the actual record so this time that’s all we are using. It’s important to stop off all the drones and record them seperately. Because these will be Classical arrangements using an orchestra, the root note of the scale needs to be controlled, or even REMOVED. This meant recording groups of pipers playing just the drones for up to five minutes. We didn’t want to resort to looping the drones if at all possible.

The best results I’ve achieved recording the pipes, which are notoriously difficult, is to get the mics well back from the players. This produces an evenness of tone which is hard to get with close mic techniques. – more tips about ‘recording with mics’ on www.offbeat.co.uk/recordingtips.htm

The real secret to getting a great sound – AS ALWAYS – is great musicians using great sounding instruments, these guys are really the best around at what they do. The band perform in the Military Tattoo in the evenings at The Edinburgh Festival so sessions are usually over by 4:30pm (ish).

At the next stage of the production. Jon goes to Prague where he records the Czech Film Orchestra in much the same way. The only time the parts are married together is when he gets back to his own Logic Based studio and compiles the grouped recording sessions prior to mixing.

PRESS

Spirit Of The Glen by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards

“The pipes and drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards have marched from Iraq straight into the top 20″.
THE SUNDAY TIMES

“There aint no party like a Jools Holland party, thats for sure so don’t fret if you can’t decide who to see/what to do/where to go tonight – the music maestros’ doors are open to everyone. He’s got Paul McCartney, Kaiser Chiefs, Mika, Kylie and of course the Pipes and drums of the Royal Scots Dragoons, Happy New Year”!
**** TV TIMES

“Those unlikely pop stars the Royal Scots Dragoons have been given the royal seal of approval by the Queen, who listens to their latest album in the Bentley”.
THE DAILY EXPRESS

“Today as the rest of Scotland celebrates the feast of St Andrews the Royal Scots Dragons are poised for chart success. The band has crashed into the mid week Top 20 with it’s new album Spirit Of The Glen ahead of The Killers and Mika”.
THE INDEPENDENT

“On pipe major Derek Potter’s return to Britain he swapped his combat uniform for full Highland regalia to promote Spirit Of The Glen which is curreently no 13 in the official Uk chart, No2 in the classical chart and still in with a chance of winning the coveted Christmas no 1 slot”
THE SUNDAY TIMES