CITAZIONE
This buckshot recording ethos is not only engaged in regards to location, but also in the approach to tracking certain performances. For example, when it came time for Bixler-Zavala to come in and record his vocal tracks, Rodriguez-Lopez didn’t allow him to fuss over them repeatedly in order to get them “right,” preferring Cedric’s first, more unadulterated takes. “Definitely on this new record, there was a lot of really special power behind the first take,” says Rodriguez-Lopez. “And the intent was so strong that when we would try and track it over again, we would find that the first takes just had so much more magic to it.”
The borderline reckless approach to recording Bixler-Zavala’s vocalizations, however, was not employed towards the rest of the album. Omar’s own instrumental works on the recordings in particular are oftentimes re-tracked extensively, almost belligerently. “I feel like I’m a little harder on myself, for some reason,” he says. “Sometimes it’s difficult to be objective. I really feel like the ‘musical’ aspects of the album demanded a bit more refining in the recording process, so I took a lot of time punching in on rough tracks, or completely re-cutting them.” This painstaking attention to detail is concept-specific, according to Rodriguez-Lopez. “Certain parts that were composed to convey a more expressive feel, that were for nuance, were first takes for the most part, or a combination of a few early takes that were later comped down on to one master track during the mix. But the general architecture of the album was the result of a lot of refining, over a very short period of time. From the tracking to the mastering, including the remote recording, we only spent about two months total constructing the album.”
ENSNARING VOX
“Most of the time I use an AKG C12 for his voice,” says Rodriguez-Lopez when questioned about how he captured Bixler-Zavala’s characteristic shrill vocals. “For the darker sounding stuff, I’ll use a Shure SM7, when he’s singing softly and I need a certain mic to match that feel. But for everything else, where his voice is really intense and of a high register, I’ll use the C12. It matches the piercing quality of his voice, which is very prominent at the beginning of the sessions. He has a really midrange, yet bright, voice, which is great because it just naturally cuts through, and putting the C12 up for those takes gives a very clean, true result.”
GUITAR NOTES
When recording his guitar tracks, Rodriguez-Lopez sticks mainly to his live setup in terms of actual guitars, using the same custom Ibanez AX120 that he wields on stage every night for the majority of the tracks, with only minimal use of more low output, less “hot” sounding guitars such as older model Fenders (particularly Telecasters, Mustangs, and Jaguars) which he chooses for their overall softer tones.
But while he’s minimal in his choice of actual guitars, given the broad range of guitar tones permeating Amputechture, Rodriguez-Lopez employs a veritable fleet of effects to treat his tracks. Though not surprising, taking into account his penchant for applying his live setup almost verbatim in the studio, he largely refuses any effects treatment (save for compression and EQ) outside of his pedal board. As a result, the alien sounds that are at Amputechture’s every turn are the end result of a pedal chain consisting of a vast array of old-time favorites from Moogerfooger Ring Modulators to Electro-Harmonix Big Muffs, not various plug-ins or studio outboard equipment.
But one area in which Rodriguez-Lopez sheds live skin, so to speak, is in his use of smaller amps for recording, employing a Supro Model 50 for most of the tracks — a far cry from the four 140W Orange AD140HTCs that he uses to power the same amount of Orange 4 x 12s on stage. “Even a Fender Twin is too much, usually,” he says, “so I just use Supros, or a Peavey C30. Usually I just close mic with a Shure SM57, sometimes with another SM57 directly behind the speaker as well. Once in a while I’ll couple this with a ribbon set up a few feet behind, to get some ambience, but I’m pretty straight ahead for the most part.”
