The Strokes' comeback single was the product of three years of songwriting, 18 months of recording and 30 minutes of mi ing!

! "aul Tingen #us $berg%"hoto& 'ancy (udolph The Strokes burst upon the international music scene 10 years ago with their debut album )s This )t% The band's *1st+century rein,ention of guitar rock pro,ed immensely popular with critics and punters alike% -s was documented in S$S -pril *00* ./sos/apr0*/articles/gordonraphael%asp0, the album went through a lengthy gestation process that in,ol,ed aborted sessions with big+name producer #il 'orton, who was replaced with the then relati,ely unknown #ordon (aphael, and endless discussions about their sound, which was supposed to be that of 1a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make a record2, according to singer 3ulian 4asablancas% $ne aspect of this in,ol,ed him tracking his ,ocals through a small "ea,ey practice amp% )s This )t laid the blueprint for the Strokes' approach to recording in many different ways% 5or e ample, the band's 1get a big name producer and then replace him2 approach was repeated on all subse6uent albums% )n the case of *003's (oom $n 5ire, 'igel #odrich .(adiohead, "aul 7c4artney0 was replaced by #ordon (aphael, again% $n 5irst )mpressions $f 8arth .*0090, (aphael by now a known producer was replaced by :a,id ;ahne .<inkin "ark, "aul 7c4artney0= while on the latest album, -ngles, 3oe 4hiccarelli .>hite Stripes, 4ounting 4rows0 was replaced by #us $berg% -nd while 5irst )mpressions $f 8arth took 10 months to record, for -ngles the band spent more than a year in the studio, dogged by rumours of tension in the ranks% >hether by design or not, the result is that -ngles has been one of the main music stories of the Spring, reaching the top fi,e in the ?; and the ?S%

Acute Angles
>hate,er the tra,ails of its making, -ngles is one of the best+sounding rock albums to ha,e been released in recent years, ha,ing a,oided the 'death by limiting' suffered by so many 4:s these days% The person best placed to shine more light on the recording goings+on is #us $berg, who engineered most of the material on the album, and co+produced all but one of the album's songs% @e also mi ed the single, '?nder 4o,er $f :arkness', as well as the song '#ratification'% -lthough $berg won a #rammy for Aest 4ontemporary >orld 7usic -lbum in *009 for his work on the the ;leBmatics' >onder >heel, he isn't as well+known as many of the mi engineers featured in this series% #us $berg was born in Sweden, but his desire to pursue an engineering career led him across the -tlantic% 1>hen ) was 1* and 13 ) was already always busy with recording gear, using a 5oste four+track and so on% ) mo,ed to 'ew Cork in 1DDE, ) guess to learn more about engineering, and ) did a course at the School of -udio 8ngineering in 'ew Cork% -fter that, ) started work at <oho Studios, where ) e,entually became chief engineer and studio manager% ) ended up being there *F/E! $ne of the most well+known proGects ) recorded there was >illie 'elson's Songbird album% )n *00H, -lbert I@ammond 3r%, Strokes guitaristJ booked time at the studio, and after working together

for fi,e days we clicked so well that we ne,er really stopped working together% ) engineered, mi ed and co+produced -lbert's two solo albums% Three years ago, <oho was sold, and -lbert and ) needed a place to work, so we started to build what's now his $ne >ay Studios, which is located one and a half hours' dri,e from 7anhattan, in the 4atskill 7ountains% -lbert and ) designed the studio together% The li,e area at -lbert @ammond 3r's $ne >ay Studios, where much of -ngles was recorded and where the mi took place% >e had a building constructed from scratch that has the shape of a barn, with ,ery high ceilings% There's a large li,e room that's perhaps 1H00 s6uare feet, and we built the studio around a 3*+channel analogue >underbar desk, that's based on the 'e,e 10E3 modules of a now legendary desk made for 3ohn "aul 3ones in the 'E0s%2 $ne >ay boasts a 3*+channel >underbar desk, based around ,intage 'e,e 10E3 modules%

First Find Your Big Name...

Sessions for what would become -ngles apparently began early *00D% $berg& 1)'d say that the band had been writing songs during *009+D they always write songs and they rehearsed them in early *00D% ) recorded demos in -pril, Gust using four microphones, with the band playing li,e together in their rehearsal studio% ) had a 'eumann T<7103 on each of the two guitar cabinets and an -udi iH on the bass cab% ) like omni microphones on the drums, and ) used an 8lectro,oice (8H0, or something% ) didn't use the -udi and 8K mics for any other reason than that ) found them there% -ll four mics went through my little Trident A+range desk, which acted like mic pres, and then ,ia the I-,idJ 7bo "ro * into "ro Tools% 3ulian was recorded later, using a Shure S7H8 and also an -udi iH, and ) ran the latter through the "-, which ) recorded with the T<7103s% ) blended the 103s and the H8 together for the ,ocal sound of the demos% @e's been singing with a "- all his life, so why not mic it up! The "- sound added some ambience and some nastiness%2 -ngles was the first album on which all members of the Strokes participated in the writing of the songs on the pre,ious three albums, songs were mostly written by 4asablancas, with only occasional input from the band% 7uch has been made of this aspect of -ngles being a cause of friction in the band and also leading to prolonging the recording sessions, but $berg insists that all songs were already written and demoed before the actual recording sessions began% The ne t step in the making of -ngles was the by now customary search for the big+name producer to help them take these demos to the finished stage .one must assume the band didn't go in with the intention of ditching him0% 3oe 4hiccarelli, with his background in working with the >hite Stripes, 5rank Lappa and 4ounting 4rows, was an ob,ious candidate= the Strokes particularly liked his production of 7y 7orning 3acket's *008 album 8,il ?rges% -nd so sessions began at -,atar Studio A in 'ew Cork in 3anuary *00D, with 4hiccarelli producing and engineering, $berg co+engineering, and 3ustin #errish assisting% #errish also mi ed Kampire >eekend's most recent album, as featured in S$S 7ay *010 ./sos/may10/articles/itM0H10%htm0, while 3oe 4hiccarelli's work with the >hite Stripes was featured in the $ctober *00E issue& /sos/oct0E/articles/insidetrackM100E%htm%

...Then Lose Him

1>e were there for 10 weeks, se,en days a week,2 recalls $berg, 1which is a long time, gi,en that it was ob,ious after four or fi,e days that 3oe and the band wanted to go in

different directions% The band knew what they wanted, but they also wanted to try out e,erything, which is why they had approached 3oe% 7ainly they wanted to e periment with different te tures and sounds, because the arrangements and lyrics that they had already recorded on the demos stayed more or less the same% They disagreed with the direction in which 3oe took the sounds basically he wanted to go big with e,erything, and they wanted to do different things in each song% 3oe was ,ery hands+on with the recordings, he knew what he wanted, and the band played together for most of the time% -bout 18 songs were recorded during these sessions% -fter the -,atar sessions ) went to 8lectric <ady, where ) recorded 3ulian's ,ocals% 3oe did come by at one stage, but by then it had become ob,ious that he and the band were not going to carry on working together% 1-fter the 8lectric <ady ,ocal sessions we went to $ne >ay% 3ulian was happy with half the album, but the band then agreed that we had to rework almost e,erything, apart from the song '<ife )s Simple )n The 7oonlight', which is one great result we got from the sessions with 3oe, and we're ,ery happy with it% >hen working in $ne >ay, we kept the guitars from the -,atar sessions for most songs, but re+recorded almost e,erything else% The guitars were the only bits that the band was happy with in terms of the sound% >e recorded at $ne >ay for a few weeks, and then people went home, and then they came back% ) guess we worked for about two weeks at a time, with me engineering by myself% )n between this, ) would record 3ulian's ,ocals again at 8lectric <ady% This rhythm kept going until the end of 'o,ember, when we went into mi ing, and after that there was three months of mastering%2

Too Hot To Print

Three months of masteringN >e'll come to the ins and outs of that below, but somehow this little bit of info puts the whole hyper+intense gestation process of -ngles into focus% >hen $berg says that the band wanted to try 1e,erything2, he's not kidding& e,ery song was tracked se,eral times, and different o,erdubs were tried, and with the whole proGect being recorded to "ro Tools at *F/D9, he ended up with 1thousands and thousands2 of #igabytes of data% Throughout, $berg was the only one who had an o,er,iew of e,erything that had gone down, and he was e pected to be able to gi,e an instant answer to 6uestions such as 1that guitar line that ) played half a year ago, can you put that onN2 )n addition, $berg was by now also promoted to co+producer alongside the band, making him not only responsible for engineering but also for organising sessions, Gudging performances, and coming up with sonic ideas= since then he has also become the band's li,e sound engineer% -ccording to $berg, the band enthusiastically participated in the production side of things, and the sessions became ,ery much a collecti,e enterprise% >ith no+one else in $ne >ay to assist him on the engineering side of things, $berg had to be 1,ery organised with my files% Aut yes, the proGect became absolutely massi,e% )t's important for me to work in the *F/D9 resolution, though% ) use a lot of room mics, and rarely use effects, and for that it makes a difference% 1>hat we had done at -,atar was ,ery straightforward, and the band wanted things more craBy% They wanted to take the sounds somewhere else% They did not want to make a standard rock album% They particularly had a problem with the drums from the -,atar sessions, feeling they were too busy, so they were re+tracked with hi+hat taken

out, or a tom, or perhaps adding a kick, things like that% -s ) said, the arrangement stayed pretty much the same, but they did add o,erdubs and made things a bit more complicated than what we had before% >hile they had played with the four of them together at -,atar, at $ne >ay it was mostly a process of me recording them one at a time, e,en though a few songs were played together, like with '#ratisfaction' and '#ames' ) had two or three of them at the same time% 5or '#ratisfaction' we started a whole new session from scratch and flew some stuff in from the -,atar sessions% >ith all the other songs we began with the -,atar session and then o,erdubbed and replaced things% 1>hen recording in -,atar, the guitars were always split to two amplifiers for each guitarist, using the (adial Tonebone 3O* Switchbone pedal% - lot of the time, 'ick IKalensiJ used the 5ender Supersonic and different $range cabs, and a 5ender :elu e% -lbert switched a lot, between @iwatt and usually a 7arshall or 5ender+type amp% The cabs for each guitarist were recorded with an S7HE on one and a (oyer (1*1 on the other, and then going into the 'e,e 8088 board for the mic pres, and then put through an 11E9 and an -") HH0 three+band 8P% The first batches of ,ocal recordings were done at 8lectric <ady Studio A, and '?nder 4o,er' was the second song we did% ) used a 'eumann ?FE and a Sennheiser 7:F*1% The signal chain was the FE going into a 'e,e 1081 mic pre, then an I?ni,ersal -udioJ 11E9 and ITeletroni J <-*-, a "ultec 8P, and then into "ro Tools% The F*1 was for a more dirty sound, and went into the 1081 with the gain set ,ery ,ery high, to dri,e it, and then to the SS< D0003 so ) could ha,e a fader on it, as it was too hot to print% 5rom the board ) went back to a :b 190 for a lot of compression and then another "ultec 8P and finally to "ro Tools% 3ulian sang through headphones in the li,e room, but he likes to sing ne t to me, so later we mo,ed to an editing room at 8lectric <ady where we could both be in the same space, and he sang with the headphone sometimes o,er Gust one ear, sometimes we monitored ,ia the speakers% Ces, ) did mind the spill, but he needed to be comfortable while singing, and )'d do whate,er is needed to get him to sing well%2

One Way Ahead

>hen the sessions mo,ed to $ne >ay, $berg installed himself under a skylight at the >underbar board, and guided the band through a long Spring, Summer and -utumn of o,erdubbing% <ooking at the 8dit window screenshot for the modestly siBed "ro Tools Session of '?nder 4o,er', he elaborates on the signal chains for each of the tracks, beginning at the top with the drums% The "ro Tools 8dit window from the Session for '?nder 4o,er $f :arkness'% 1) like the 4handler T#* mic pre/8P a lot% )t's made by a guy who remakes all the Aeatles 87) stuff% ) Gust fell in lo,e with it a few years ago, and ) use it a lot on drums% The kick was recorded inside with an -;# :1* and outside with the Camaha Subkick, the big guy, and each went through a 4handler, with :b 190 compression on the inside mic and <-*- on the outside mic% The snare was recorded with a Telefunken 780 at the top and an 7:F*1 on the bottom, and both mics went through the Telefunken KE* IpreampJ, I8mpirical <absJ :istressors and 'eumann A58 8Ps, which are great% They are ,ery hea,y in weight, which is usually a good sign% 1) used S7HEs for the toms and -;# FH1s on the hi+hats% The toms went through the >underbar ) think we ha,e "8P*s in that board and the hats went through the -") H1* mic pre% The kit mic was the new Telefunken 8<-7 *90% Cou can switch the capsules on them and ) used the omni one% ) put the *90 on the beater side of the rim of

the kick drum, it's like two inches from the top of the kick drum and two inches from the side of the snare% )t was also going through the 4handler and then a :istressor% The room mic was a ?8E going through an -,alon E3E compresor/8P% The o,erheads were (oyer 1*1 to capture some of the room, going through Trident As and compressed with an -lan Smart compressor% That was it for drums% There are some other tracks, but those are simply brief o,erdubs% The bass was played through a SKT cab on which ) put a I-;#J :11* close, a I'eumannJ 58TFE about si or se,en feet away from the amp, and ) :)'ed it with a (adial 3F8% -ll three signals were going through the >underbar% The :) and the :11* were compressed with a 11E9, but the 58T was not compressed% 1?nderneath is the fast little boogie+woogie line that was o,erdubbed by guitar and a bass% ) put them on separate tracks because they needed different settings on the compressor% There's a shaker and a new guitar solo by 'ick, done at $ne >ay, using a 5ender Supersonic F 1*, on which ) put a Aeyer 788 mic close and also a (oyer 1*1% ) bussed these two together, going through a :istressor or an 11E9 and finally an -") 8P% There was also a room microphone on the guitar solo, which was a Alue :ragonfly going through the -,alon E3E% -t the bottom of the session, you can see the ,ocal tracks& '<K+3ules Alend' is my main lead ,ocal, and close to the bottom there are two instances of '<K31', the top being the clean ,ocal from the FE, underneath the dirty ,ocal sound from the 1*1% (ight at the bottom is an early lead ,ocal track that wasn't used% The backing ,ocals were sung by 3ulian, 'ick and 5abriBio I7oretti, the band's drummerJ% 7uch of the processing on -ngles was printed at the recording stage, using $ne >ay's fine collection of outboard%

'Under o!er O" #ar$ness'

>ritten by the Strokes%"roduced by #us $berg, 3oe 4hiccarelli and the Strokes%

%ough &nough For Ya'

$nce sessions at $ne >ay were completed, the mi ing of the album was handed to 'oah #eorgeson, a guitarist, composer and electronic musician from 4alifornia, who also busies himself with producing, engineering and mi ing his credits on the studio front include :e,endra Aanhart and 3oanna 'ewsom% @owe,er, in the case of '?nder 4o,er $f :arkness' and '#ratisfaction', the Strokes and $berg ended up with the mi e6ui,alent of demoitis& 1The band decided in the end that they preferred the rough mi es that )'d done of those two tracks% ) did rough mi es of all the tracks, although my mi of '?nder 4o,er' was slightly more than a rough mi % ) had some ideas for how to cut up the drums, taking things out here and there, which you can see on the 8dit window% >e'd been working a lot on that, trying to make the chorus kick+drum pattern work in the ,erse and so on, and taking out the room in places where it sounded too messy% >e'd taken a year to come to conclusions about how the track should sound and where to cut the drums, et cetera, and my actual mi was ,ery 6uick% )t took me 30 minutes! <ater, when the decision had been taken to use my mi , ) said& ')f that's what you like, ) can do one that's a little better and cleaner%' )'d slammed the tracks ,ery hard through the board, and it's so compressed that it has pops in places that sound like percussi,e hits% ) had not taken the time to do any crossfades% So ) spent a whole day recreating and impro,ing my mi % They sound ,irtually identical to me, but someone

could hear the difference, and preferred the original% So we went with the one ) did in half an hour! 1Ay the time we got to the mi , the band already was ,ery clear about how they wanted the songs to sound% ) think we were pretty set on e,erything, we had tracked things the way we wanted them to sound% 'oah tried to do a lot on his early mi es, and they always asked him to tone it down% 7y mi of '?nder 4o,er' also doesn't change much about the sounds% 7ost of the compression and 8P was already added during rough mi ing while tracking, plus, as ) said earlier, ) don't like using effects like delays and re,erb% There are Gust a few plug+ins, like the -") HH0 8P on the kick and one of the boogie+woogie lines, Aomb 5actory 11E9 on the snare top and again one of the boogie+woogie lines% There's a :igidesign 8PF on the bass and some of the backing ,ocals, '7K*' on the bass :) is the >a,es compressor, and there's a >a,es S1 Stereo )mager on the o,erheads% $utboard included the -lan Smart 4* compressor, three or four 11E9s, and ) think ) used an 8mpirical <abs 5atso on the drum submi and some -") compression on the guitars% There's some 'e,e 1098 8P on the drums, to boost the high end, and that was it% ) prefer to keep it tight, which makes it more intense% ) will try anything, but for this album, simplicity in the mi was the best approach% $nce 3oe 4hiccarelli had left the proGect, the band and #us $berg Gointly assumed production duties%1The >underbar does not ha,e automation, so all my mi es were done manually, although ) always use ,olume automation in "ro Tools% )',e mi ed in the bo and ) lo,e the recall% The fact that you can bring up your session later on and it'll sound e actly the same is ,ery con,enient% Aut it also gets a little mechanical% )t's more fun mo,ing faders% "lus mi es done ,ia a desk sound a little better, more powerful% ) mi ed on the small ;(; ST9 speakers at $ne >ay we also ha,e big ;(; 88T monitors and on ICamahaJ 'S10s, always% The 'S10s ha,e been around for so long, ) know e actly what they sound like% "lus e,ery studio has them% @ow come 18 songs were tracked at -,atar and only 10 ended up on the albumN >e spoke about including 1* songs, but ) felt nine or 10 was better% The album is already so intense, with a lot of information and intense lyrics, 3F minutes and 10 songs is enough% >e wanted to keep it short% )t would ha,e been too much to ha,e had to listen to another 10 minutes% >e finished a few more tracks, but not all eight remaining tracks% -t some point they'll be reworked for the ne t album, which will come out soon, hopefully% 1) mi ed back into "ro Tools, at *F/D9% 7astering was done by #eorge 7arino at Sterling Sound in 'ew Cork 4ity% Ceah, that took three months! )t was Gust #eorge and ), and then we sent what we did to the band for appro,al% #eorge only had Tuesdays and Thursdays a,ailable, and we made a lot of changes% 7ostly 8P and compression, but we also remi ed the songs, using stems, like tucking in the ,ocal a bit lower, bringing stuff up, taking stuff down, half a dA, a 6uarter of a dA, swap choruses or ,erses, and so on% 'oah and ) had both sent stereo mi es and stems% >e didn't hit the limiter ,ery hard, because we don't like the loudness wars and o,er+limited music% Cou can always turn your stereo up, which is what you should be doing%2 -men to that! %

&()erimental *ounds

The Strokes e perimented with unusual sounds on many of the tracks on -ngles, particularly the atmospheric, e perimental '4all 7e Aack' which, unlike '?nder 4o,er $f :arkness', features a lot of keyboards% $berg ties up some loose ends& 1'inety+fi,e percent of the keyboards were the (oland 3uno 109! The other keyboards that were used were the 7icro;org O<, a >urlitBer Ielectric pianoJ, and a 5arfisa organ% >e tried to use 7):), we wanted to use 7):), but using it ne,er actually beat the manually recorded parts, which were played by e,eryone in the band% (egarding '4all 7e Aack', ) didn't add any effects% There's a 3uno 109 pad, and the megaphone effect on 3ulian's ,oice is Gust 8P% @e sang ,ery softly and ) then slammed the ,ocal ,ery hard through an 11E9% 7aybe feedback from the speakers also changed the sound% >e did a lot of work on the guitar sounds% They used a bunch of pedals like, for e ample the pink 7a on -:DDD delay, the 8lectro+@armoni 7emory 7an, the #reen (hino distortion pedals, and so on% There's a distorted low guitar line which has a plug+in on it% Somebody thought that it sounded too pretty, so ) used a plug+in, ) can't recall which one, the Sansamp or -mp 5arm or something like that% -lso, )'d like to add that ) occasionally used a T8-4 6uarter+inch tape machine during tracking, that ) bought one night/early morning coming back from the sessions% )'d transfer guitars to tape and back after comping, before mi ing% 3ust on a few songs, to get a bit of the sound of analogue compression% ) also used the T8-4 for slap+back echo on the drums for '#ratisfaction', while mi ing%2