Joe Rubel
remix of one of his songs, Shape of You, so I had Stormzy in here to do that, too. I think Ed really enjoyed the production process; it’s the first of his records that he’s produced, which was definitely a big thing for him.”
London Calling
Another major project that Joe has recently worked on is the Spitfire Audio London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) sample library. He has worked with the company for several years on their library recordings, but this one came with a real twist. “Usually, Spitfire Audio will have a chart, and you use that same chart for a bunch of different articulations, but Hugh [Brunt, LCO co-founder] actually orchestrated the whole thing, which was ingenious, really. He is really on it, and it saved a lot of time.” The recording took place at Tileyard, Spitfire Audio’s studio, which, although not big enough to get a whole orchestra in, is a great place for the job in hand: “We had six violins, six violas, four cellos, and three basses, which you just couldn’t physically fit in there at the same time, so each section was done separately, and it was quite unique in that respect,” Joe explains, adding that they used eight mics in total for the entire capture. “We used a main pair and an out pair, which is a fairly standard way of recording an orchestra, but that would stay in situ; so you’d have your main pair fairly central, and then your out riggers would be positioned wider. Then you’d put the violins
out and record all that. But before we started, we’d marked out the room so we knew where everyone was going to sit, so the violas would sit a foot back from that - somewhere they physically wouldn’t be able to sit - but the four main mics would stay in the same place, so you’d have a little bit more of that depth, and you’d go back a bit. “So we did violas, then cellos, then basses, all going back a bit more, so the basses were almost at the back wall. You’d have that sense of distance, basically; and then we had four spots, depending on what the section was. I used Royer mics and small [Neumann] KM184 condensers over each desk, basically, the idea being you could have those as two different options.” One of the unique things about the LCO library is the LCO themselves (turn to page 12 for our LCO interview) – and Joe was a big fan of the open string element that was captured. It’s truly unique sounding. “We wanted to make these noises that were specifically LCO noises, as these are techniques they use with people they work with,” he explains. “And that’s it for me; the detuned thing is a perfect example of why the library is so good. I am fascinated with sampling, and Spitfire Audio are amazing for mock-ups, so, of course, it sounds so good. I record a lot of orchestras, but the LCO as an instrument is one of those kinds of patches that you just could not get in the real world. “What Spitfire Audio have done is made these tools so good, and so obtainable. Ten
Recording Ed Sheeran
years ago, you’d need racks of gear to run VIs you could trigger off MIDI, and everyone had five computers, and you’d need a bank loan to get started; this is so versatile, anyone can put their own stamp on it.” Everything was mixed in Pixel in a couple of days or so, and was done as naturally as possible – not a great deal of compression and EQ was used, just a little at the top end. Joe used a mix of Neve, Marg, and Manley kit to get his desired tones. “We took off some bottom end rumble, particularly in the rooms – and then you have the subsonic stuff that you can’t hear that eats up your headroom, so you kind of get rid of that, too. You get a main mix, then you can go into close and room mixes, and then there is a hyped mix, which is slamming it through my [Emperical Labs] Fatso. It sounds distorted, chewed up, and has no dynamic range. Then there are two FX channels, one is a distortion box, and one is a reverb. And the results..? “Pretty amazing, actually; and it really is left open so you can tweak if you want to; that’s why I gave Spitfire Audio so many [FX] options to choose from. And the distortion can go absolutely nuts! In fact, when I first played with it on the Beta version, I have to say, I had the biggest grin on my face; it sounds like it was chewed up in here, so I’m definitely okay with that!” @joerubel www.spitfireaudio.com
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