This is the full story about the recording of Danish Soul/Blues Singer, Guitar player, Songwriter Mike Andersen’s 2014 album “HOME”. As the title indicates, the whole album is recorded at Mike’s house in Århus, Denmark by himself.
For the recordings Mike has used 90% TUBE-TECH microphone preamps and processing. The majority of the songs has been mixed by New York based, legendary engineer/producer Russel Elevado, also on his home mixing setup.
Russel did not know all details about the recording process when mixing on his home setup, but he liked the sound of the tracks and loved the fact that there was no problems to solve. “The sound was nice and right all over and very little treatment was needed. Everything sounded really great!”
“HOME” is released over most of Europe and has received many very positive reviews.
Mike Andersen Band:
Mike Andersen: Vocal & Guitar
Johannes Nørrelykke: Guitar
Kristian Fogh: Keys
Kristian Kold: Bass
Jens Kristian Dam: Drums
Introduction to the Mike Andersen ‘Home’ Recording Project
For his previous releases Mike Andersen has been recording in various recording studios. This includes the award nominated album Echoes, mixed by Russel Elevado (D’Angelo, Al Green, Alicia Keys, The Roots, Rick Rubin, Tony Visconti, Erykah Badu, Roberta Flack, Blackalicious, and Common, to name a few).
This time Mike has been recording his new 2014 release at home, using TUBE-TECH MP 2A and PM 1A preamps / DI’s. In the introduction videos featured here Mike shows us first his setup and the rooms he uses for the recordings. He also demonstrates some of the tracks from the recording of the song: “Don’t leave me wanting you”
Many interesting solutions to home recording are presented and there’s a lot to learn for other project studio owners.
Here’s some of the subjects:
- Simple drum recording in a small room.
- The stairway used as a big live room and echo chamber.
- Various tips on guitar recording including,
- Recording distorted guitar sounds with a TUBE-TECH DI.
- Top quality vocal processing.
- Evaluate tracks recorded and processed with TUBE-TECH modular system RM2, using the TUBE-TECH modular eq EM1A and compressor CM1A instead of plug ins!
- Simple mixing of the recorded tracks using only TUBE-TECH gear.
First Recording
We had the priveledge to be at Mike’s house during the first recordings for the song “Walk You Home”. Here’s the video where Mike guides us through the first recordings.
Check this out:
- Drums recorded in the small studio room
- Handclaps recorded at the stairs
WAV samples from the session:
Acoustic guitar w/ ambience:
Bass Cabinet (Ribbon mic):
Bass Cabinet (Shure SM7):
Drums (in the box mix)
Handclaps (recorded at the Stairway):
Rhythm Guitar mix:
Stereo Piano (Upright):
The Sound of the TUBE-TECH Microphone Preamps
Mike interviewed about A-B testing and the importance of working in the studio for longer time with new preamps. Mike also gives you his evaluation of the TUBE-TECH MP2A and PM1A pre’s. The sound of the TUBE-TECH microphone preamps/DI is featured heavily on
“HOME”!
Bass, guitar, Horns, Piano, Key’s + various additional tracks are TUBE-TECH recorded:
“Nothing Happened”:
Bass DI:
Bass Re-amped:
Drums A:
Drums B:
Horns:
Stereo Acoustic Piano A:
Stereo Acc Piano B:
Acoustic Guitars:
Distorted Rhythm Guitar:
Distorted Guitar Solo:
Electric Rhythm Guitars:
“Take it Out on Me”:
Acoustic Guitars:
Drums (in the box mix):
Guitar Recording Using TUBE-TECH Mic Pre’s
Here’s a video where we compare the sound of 4 good microphones used for recording Mike’s Gibson ES347 guitar through a Fender Deluxe Reverb Amp. All recordings feature the TUBE-TECH PM 1A microphone preamp.
Hear the uncompressed sound files from the session:
Sennheiser MD 441/ PM1A
Shure SM7 / PM1A
B+O Ribbon / PM1A
AEA R87 / PM1A
Can You Record Distortion Guitar by Using Only TUBE-TECH DI?
You might not believe it, but a TUBE-TECH mic pre sounds pretty cool running heavily overloaded! Mike has for several songs used the DI input of mic pre PM1A for very cool recording of distorted guitar! To “normalize” the extreme hot level output by the PM1A when overloaded, Mike used the CM1A compressor.
Here are a couple of sessions that features the DI recorded distortion guitar:
“City of Sin” Premix from the session. ITB LogicX No processing, only a bit of limiter:
“Nothing Happened”:
Distorted Solo Guitar:
Distorted Rhythm Guitar:
Drum Recording
How does it sound with only very simple mix processing?
Here are a couple of songs for download where you can hear not only all the tracks, but also a simple TUBE-TECH produced mix.
Simple mix through the TUBE-TECH SSA2B summing amp, featuring only Classic Channel on vocals, no other processing apart from TUBE-TECH parallel mix bus processing using a little eq and the SMC2B multiband compressor:
“Nothing Happened” Mix:
“Nothing Happened” Master (Slightly Limited):
“Mr Drifter” Full mix also featuring SSA2B, but with more EQ and compression + mixbus processing featuring EQ and SMC2B:
“Mr Drifter” Master:
Hardware or Plug-ins?
In this interview Mike talks about the process of using a TUBE-TECH RM2 Rack with EM1A eq and CM1A compressor for processing and re-recording instead of doing it with plug-ins.
After a little experimenting Mike ended up being so pleased with the EM1A and CM1A action that he used the modules in the recording process. This has worked out great and saved Mike a lot of production time and made sure all tracks worked perfectly for mixing.
After the recordings
Mike talks about the proces after the album was finished.
First Song: Raidrop in a Drought
May 2014 – This is the first track that was released from the Mike Andersen Home Studio recording project, featuring lots of TUBE-TECH recorded tracks. Wonderful ballad, great sound! Mixed by the legendary Russel Elevado. Congratulations Mike!