“Letters From a Stranger” -Chad Davis
Produced by – Andy Cherry
Recorded and Mixed at Bright City Studios Ft. Mill, SC by Joel Weldon Willis
Mastered by Glen Tabor at Gat 3 Studios Charlotte, NC
Andy Cherry DM-ed me on twitter back in the latter part of this past Spring asking me to Engineer a project for him. He was producing one of Charlotte’s little secrets in the worship community; Chad Davis. Due to budget restrictions we only had four days to track the six songs and three to edit and mix them. I got a lil excited about the challenge. Cherry brought in some top guns, Lee Worley on Drums and Preston Hayden on Bass, to knock out the rhythm tracks as quick and solid as possible then killed all the guitar tracks himself. After Joel Khouri brought his texturing skills with Keys we had a nice bed for Davis to lay down his silky emotive vocals to. Cherry also brought in some of the best vocalists in the area; Chris Brown (Elevation Worship), Sarah DeShields, Alexia Davis, and her sister Olivia Riggins; to add big muscled Gang Vocals then Elena Martin to broaden the spectrum with Strings.
When I was deciding how I wanted to mic the Drums I chose to change things up a bit. I used a pair of Cascade Fatheads as my Overheads and Audix SCX-Ones for my Room pair. Usually, I’ll use these mics in the opposite configuration (Ribbons as Rooms and Condensers as Ovhds) but I wanted a “Fatter” Close Mic’d drum sound and more detail in the Room if I needed. It worked out great. The rest of the kit was mic’d the same as usual- B-52 in the Kick Drum, Mylab outside the Kick, SM7 on Snare top, B57 on Bottom Snare, B57 on Hat (I know, I know, I like my hats a lil dirtier and crunchy) Audix D4 and D6 on Toms, Audix SCX-One (hyper) on Ride (pointed right at the bell). All the mics on drums (Kick, Snare, Toms) went through our Amek console which I used the board’s EQ before hitting the converters, and the Ovhds, Rooms, Hat and Ride went through the Grace m801 pre’s for more transparency. The only exception was the “Kick Out” mic I put through a Summit Tube Pre and slightly distorted it for more “oomph”.
For more of a “Live” feel we tracked Drums and Bass at the same time in the same room so they could watch each other and tighten things up. These guys are so solid it worked perfectly. I ran Preston’s Marcus Miller Jazz Bass (with J-Retro pre) through a simple DI and reamped it with his old (60-something) Ampeg Flip Top. Big ol’ fat dirty ballsy bass. I mic’d the amp with a Beta 57 and ran it through the Summit Tube pre. For the track “Zealots (In Our Town) we wanted a nasty fuzzy Bass tone so while re-amping I plugged my HBE UFO Fuzzbox in the chain . . .
Cherry brought his massive pedal board setup by Motley Customs in and plugged his Tele and my Riviera (Josephine) in the front of it then into an Oldfield amp which sounded like a nice cross between an AC30 and a JTM-45/Bluesbreaker combo. I mic’d it up with my favourite mic for Electric Guitar, a SM7 which I ran through the Summit Tube Pre. I just love this pre, it’s so warm. With this Mic-Pre setup it sounds like you’re standing right in front of the Amp. His Gibson Hummingbird I mic’d with the Se Tube Mic and Mylab and it instantly sounded amazing. Didn’t have to treat it much if at all, just a naturally great sounding Acoustic.
For all the String parts I used the Mylab through the Grace pre. For Gang Vocals I mic’d them up with a single SE Tube mic through the Grace and tracked multiple stacks and panned them all over the place. Chad’s vocal sounded real nice on the SE through the Summit and came out with a nice present top end and real distinct mid range.
When it came time to mix I had only three days to Comp, Edit, Melodyne, track more BGV’s and Mix. YES!!! I started off using a lot of the squashed room mics for super energetic big epic drums but the cymbals were washing out the other intricacies Cherry had put in so I pulled back the Rooms a bit and whalla, there were all these lil bits and pieces you couldn’t pick out before. One thing I like to do when mixing, especially when working with a Producer who has fifty hooks in one song, is hide things in the mix. I want the listener to hear something new every time they hear these tracks. I want the listening experience to be like a lil Treasure Hunt. Listen and see what you can find with lil Synth lines, Electric Guitar hooks, FX splashes and washes, Sub Bass. Ha . . .
All in all, this lil Ep turned out to be quite rad. I guess that’s what you get when you have a great Artist writing songs from their heart exposing their soul; an incredible Producer who can mold those emotions and ideas then surround them with hooks, melodies, and arrangements that capture the listener; top notch musicians who pour more creativity than snow in an avalanche; and a few long hour days into a recording. Be watching iTunes and Facebook for the initial digital release of Chad’s Ep “Letters From a Stranger” coming out in the next month or so . . .
