In this video for Production Expert, with the support of Universal Audio, we create a song using the UA Apollo X range of Thunderbolt 3 audio interfaces and UAD-2 plug-ins. First James and singer-songwriter Anique record their demo track on the new Apollo X4. Then at James’ studio, they record Drums, Bass, Guitars and the final vocal. In this article, see how the track was put together, what gear we used and how the song turned out.
Recording The Demo
There is no real trick or secret to being creative but many believe the way to nurture creativity is to put yourself in a place of comfort and while many studios are nice places to be, others are far from what you might call emotionally comfortable and relaxing. With that in mind, I headed over to see Anique (Lucy) and we set about re-working her song ‘I Can’t See The Lightning’ and then recording it, using the new Apollo X4, as the starting point for a bigger production.
The Universal Audio Apollo X4 is the great tool for recording high-quality demos as it offers 4 Unison-enabled preamps with quad UAD-2 processing enabling to track with any UAD plug-ins you may wish to use. It can of course also be used as the centrepiece of your expanded Apollo rig but we will come back to that later.
For this demo, we used 3 tracks. The lead vocal was being recorded with a JZ Microphones Vintage V67 mic through a plugin emulation of the Neve 1290A (1073) preamp. The acoustic guitar was recorded with both a JZ Microphones Vintage V11 mic about 9” from the 12th fret as well as a through a Radial PZ-Pre active preamp DI. This gave us the option to keep the acoustic guitar part if we wanted to as the DI would not have any vocal bleed on it. The guitar was also processed “to tape” with the Neve 1290A preamp Unison-enabled plugin.
We used the 2 independent headphone outputs on the X4 to give up different monitor mixes and to give us a sense of space while recording we used the Capitol Chambers reverb plug-in.
Back To The Studio
Having recorded the demo to a click track it was easy to lay down the drums using my Sonor SQ2 studio kit. The drums were recorded to the first 14 channels of my 2 UA Apollo X16s. I then added a bass part recorded with a DI, some rhythm electric guitar parts recorded using my REVV D20 and Chandler GAV10T valve amps and the UA OX-Box as well as some extra acoustic guitar tracks to thicken up what we already had on the demo.
Building It Up
After a couple of hours, the track was sounding great. The drums and bass were working well together but the song needed a lift for the chorus. I called my buddy and fellow Studio Rat Paul Drew to see if he could add some new ideas and boost the chorus with some extra guitar parts. Two hours later Paul had worked his magic with a new countermelody played on an overdriven guitar part and a tight rhythmic pattern played on his vintage Fender Strat.
The Video
What you are going to see and hear is the completed mix processed with nothing but Universal Audio UAD-2 plug-ins. We will cover the mix in part 2 of this series.