Caroline Beck

Caroline Beck is a Copenhagen band: Caroline on vocals, Lauritz on guitar and pedal steel, Maja on bass and Daniel on drums. I recorded four songs with them over two days at the Sonic College studio.

My role

I ran the project and co-engineered the session with my classmate Kevin. I handled all contact with the band, the pre-production and the schedule. Kevin is very sharp technically, and we prepared the channel plan and set up the mics together. I am producing and mixing the songs now, and I will master them as well.

Before the session

The band sent reference tracks for every song, mostly Nilüfer Yanya, ML Buch and Mk.gee. From those we made a tech rider, a ten-channel plan and a running order for both days.

The setup

We tracked through the SSL System T into Pro Tools.

Day one was the skeleton of each song, played live. Drums alone in the live room. Guitar and bass played in the control room, with each amp in its own isolated room. Caroline sang a cue vocal on a dynamic mic next to them.

So the band sat together, with a window and talkback to the drummer. Every track is clean and separate, and they could still see each other and play as a band.

Day two was overdubs: second guitar, pedal steel and lead vocals.

The hardest part

The pedal steel. It came with a large pedalboard and software effects, and we wanted four things recorded separately: a clean DI, the effects, and two amps. The patching got complicated. Kevin solved most of it.

What I would do differently

Make sure the songs are rehearsed and the big decisions are made before the band arrives. Some arrangements were still being worked out in the studio, and that cost time. The upside was that Kevin and I got a say in some of the creative choices.

Status

Recording is finished. Mixing is in progress, and mastering follows.