Hey Sporky,
I appreciate the comments. I'm flattered.
Listening back to it, there's a lot I like about it, but one thing that strikes me about the way I mixed it; the amp modeling I put on the kick and snare -- which I thought was really cool at the time -- gets on my nerves. And I wish I could remix it without all the compression on the snare. At the time, though, that was the sound for Indie Rock. Flaming Lips drums with the crazy compression.
The key to making 13 1/2 work was managing the different guitar sounds we were working with. With all the different layers, it was easy for things to start turning to mush. Especially when you're dealing with varying levels of fuzz, overdrive, or crazy overdrive. If there was anything that I thought helped the most there was making sure to experiment with as many different amps and effects for each layer so that each one was distinct enough, yet ultimately contributed or added to the whole. Ideally. Some of it just ended up as mush,
but then I thought it was usually good mush.
Talk about working with limited gear, though. Most of the tracks went through either a Mindprint DI port, a DMP-3 or a moded Bellari 220. The bass was just direct in to an ART Tube MP, I think. Dude just had a good-sounding bass and played well. One of the things that makes the bass sond so milky is that there is an extra keyboard part (basically reinforcing the bass line). It was two passes of that, distorted and run through a funky phase pedal, panned hard right and left.
The voice was basically 3 layers (I believe they were all tracked with a Blue Dragonfly), pretty heavily compressed. One or two of the takes, I believe, were fuzzed up and EQ'd a little with a Sansamp if my memory serves. Lots of natural room sound on the vox, actually -- I used a room mic with it. Something I don't often do, but they were totally up for it, and it seemed to work for what they were trying to do.
Most of what went on in those sessions was me listening to their drummer (who interestingly enough used to play for a band called Harvey Danger, who had a fairly big hit at one point with one called "Flagpole Sitta"). He'd basically communicate to me, very descriptively, what they were going for, and any ideas I might have had for tracking were run through him first. It all mostly came down from him, although I spoke up when I felt necessary. It was a good collaborative effort in that way, I suppose. They pretty much got what they wanted out of it, which is what matters to me in the end.
I've heard some stuff that they've done since, with a much more seasoned and established engineer at an expensive studio. Not sure if I thought it was any better, per say, but it definitely accomplished a whole different kinda' sound for them. A different level than where I was at 2-3 years ago, admittedly.
