Years ago I met Pall and his band Black Heart Procession and ended up recording a few single and compilation tracks for them as they came through Portland on tour. I really enjoyed their music and the flow of creative ideas while recording. Pall has been a member of other noted bands, like Three Mile Pilot, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects and Ugly Casanova, and when he assembled gear to record BHP's album Amore del Tropico in his home, word soon spread and other artists began seek his recording and production skills. Eventually his recording equipment ended up in a commercial space, and Pall became a full time engineer. I was curious about this transition, so I sought him out while visiting San Diego.
What does S.D.R.L. stand for?
It stands for Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories. It could also be San Diego Recording Laboratories. I did the studio at my house for a while, and the records I was doing there I just put S.D.R.L. or Stereo Disguise [on the credits]. Eventually I wanted to get out of my house because I couldn't be loud as often as I wanted. Zach Smith [Armistead Burwell Smith IV] from Three Mile Pilot and Pinback is really into recording, too. We're always swapping and sharing gear. He's always helped me, as well as Jason Soares, as far as computer software and things like that. We decided to build a place down at Zach's spot because he had a bigger room. His dad is an architect and owns the buildings. We built a smaller studio in there and it turned out great and it was a really good spot — for one person. We quickly realized that we both couldn't be doing work in there, and Pinback is busy all the time. I'm the one out of all of us that's really into recording other people's bands, obviously besides Rafter [Roberts, Singing Serpent]. I wanted to have a facility to make records for bands as well as my own.
Do you feel like this started as gear for you to use and then evolved into working with other bands?
It started off more for my own stuff — for Black Heart's Amore Del Tropico album. I had always done 4- tracking but I'd never really recorded a band until I got the Studer [A80 MKII]. I had the Studer and I was going to be doing the Black Heart record. I had a band called Teacher's Pet come in to test everything. I was like, "Let me try and record you guys." They came and I did a handful of songs for them. I got into gear. It's like an addiction. Once I had a few positive experiences of recording a band and seeing them happy, I really got into that. But gets really tough to have a business like this. I can't give too good of a deal because we have to pay our rent. Moving into this place, bands walk in and they realize it's a legitimate space. When it's in your house, you can kind of be like, "Oh, I don't have extra rent to cover." Here we have to pay rent every month. We have bills.
There's going to be a certain amount of overhead every month. How did you hook up with your partner Brad [Lee]?
Brad runs a small record label here in town called Loud and Clear Records. It's a very small record label with cool bands. He plays trumpet in this other project I do called Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects and was in a band called Manuok. I told him I was looking for a place and he knew I recorded. He said, "I don't know how to record bands but I really want to get into that. I would love to own a studio and be able to be a part of things and help out." We decided to go into it together. We had both been looking on Craigslist and searching all over around town. I had been looking for a place for four years. Then he came across this place that said "Recording Studio for Lease." I think there had been two previous owners in here before. It's been here for ten or fifteen years.
Had you heard of it at all?
No. I'd never been here. Next door they supply analog tape and they do CD duplication and I'd been over there. In the ad it said, "Check with Advance Recording Supplies." I was like, "I didn't know they had a studio over there." I walk in here and it was kind of dumped out a little. Brad and I came in here and I was like, "This is the place." We had checked out several buildings and had looked at building our own studio. This was already built and ready to go. We put new carpet in and painted the walls black. Everything was dead, so we cut the carpet out and painted the cement in the live room so we could have a live drum sound. We vacuumed, cleaned and fixed the place up as well as we could.
Are there any noise problems? Can you make as much noise as you want at any time of day?
We can make as much noise as we want anytime. Next door is a vending supply warehouse. Every now and then I'll hear some banging going. They were building a big shelf cabinet and they were hammering directly on our wall while we were doing drum takes and we actually used part of it once. For some reason he was throwing two by fours on the ground and it was almost like it was right in time. He must have been listening or something.
So you just jumped in and grabbed the lease?
We got a really good deal. He's been a pretty cool landlord, letting us fix it up however we want. In the first month it was tricky with Brad, because he really wanted to learn, but we also had to get moving and start. He's been really patient. He's been doing the scheduling and bookkeeping, but now he can actually run a session and he helps me.
Part of the thing about learning is just being immersed in it.
Now he knows the names of microphones. When we're having a session I can say, "Can you grab this?" He knows how to arm tracks. There's always more to learn. He's been really great and now I actually feel like I have an assistant engineer.
Maybe he can do some things that you can't fit into your schedule.
Exactly. Or if somebody comes in and they don't care who's engineering. A lot of bands come in here and they want to work with me. I like when somebody wants to have my creative input.
When did you start using digital recording gear?
I got into [Sony's] Vegas. That was the first computer program that I started working [with] — that was mostly because Rafter Roberts and Zach Smith were into it. I learned on that and it started falling short. Then I got Pro Tools LE for a while and that pissed me off so much that I just wanted to kill.
What was pissing you off about it?
It was just crashing all the time. I had to call the number and they wanted to charge me for everything. At that same time Zach said, "You should just try Cubase." I started working with Cubase a bit with some Three Mile Pilot projects and I quickly realized how user-friendly [it is]. Everything just runs really easy.
What version of Cubase do you run?
SX3 at 24-bit, 88.2 kHz.
With Cubase you're using the Apogee Rosetta 800 and an Apogee Big Ben to clock everything, with RME cards inside the computer. How many channels does that give you of analog I/O?
I have sixteen in and out. I'll move up to twenty-four at some point, but I don't see the need for it. I do outboard mixing sometimes. I've done records many different ways, from the tape machine or bouncing from the computer back to the tape machine just to get it onto tape. I've mixed through the console from the computer and (obviously) from the tape machine through the console. After trying all these different ways, for me the cleanest and best way that I've found that I prefer is to track everything into the computer or the tape machine — either dump the tape machine down to the computer or leave it on the tape machine if we can really do that. I'd love to do that if everyone is willing, but that takes more time and money. Once I have stuff in the computer, I generally keep it in the computer. I'll maybe send out to my AKG BX20E [spring reverb]. I love that thing. I don't have a plate reverb here. That would be cool someday.
If you're working in Cubase, do you send tracks to that and then record them back in?
I'll either record them back in, or if I really have the time and we're focused on a session I'll do a live mix. Sometimes I'll run out to a compressor. It really depends on the band, but most of the time I'm keeping it in the computer.
Is that due to budgets and the flexibility of recall?
Exactly — being able to recall a mix and then somebody coming in and wanting vocals or anything a little bit quieter or louder.
What about your own stuff? Say you're working on a Black Heart Procession track.
Up until the new one we'd done them all to a tape machine. We did the first three BHP records up at Bear Creek Studio [Woodinville, WA], with Ryan Hadlock producing and Zach Reinig assisting. During that time frame between our third record and Amore Del Tropico was when I was getting into recording.
That's exactly the time period that I recorded Black Heart at Jackpot!
I think I was asking you a bunch of questions at that time.
You were, and then you haven't come back and spent a bunch of money in my studio! Wait a minute. Did you pick Ryan's brain too?
Sorry! That's someone I have to credit to. Ryan Hadlock was an inspiration. Going up to Bear Creek Studio was a huge inspiration. The Hadlock family is really cool and they just have a beautiful studio up there. We had some amazing times recording.
It's peaceful there.
When I started buying equipment Zach Reinig flew down to San Diego and we bought my console in New Mexico for seventeen hundred bucks. I had a Studer [A80 tape deck] shipped to me from Australia. The first one came and it was broken in half so I rejected the shipment. Luckily we had insurance on it and the guy gave me a 24-track for the same price. I paid for better shipping. I still feel really nervous every time I calibrate this thing.
Did you learn how to bias it?
No. To be honest, everything I've learned is mostly from experience. I've made a bunch of records at other people's studios and then I began making my own records. I have a tech that comes in here who will help me calibrate and bias. I kind of stand there and go, "Okay. I've got it." But then every time it comes time to do it I'm a bit nervous. There are so many things I would love to learn, but I've learned so much as well.
It's interesting to talk about the jump that you made from someone who lets someone else do the technical stuff, to going, "I'm going to try recording myself."
I'll tell you this — going from a musician to actually being an engineer, producer — I suddenly have gained a huge amount of patience for any engineer. You know, musicians are pains in the asses. It's really helped my own structure as far as songwriting goes. I've always wanted to figure things out by myself.
What do you feel you bring to a session?
Now that I know how to get mic pres going and I know how to plug everything in, those things become second nature and other things start falling into line that are equally as important, which is mood in your studio and how people are feeling. If you have a singer who's feeling uptight and there's a bad vibe going on, he's definitely not going to sing as well. No matter what mic pre or what microphone you're using. Having API or Neve mic pres is a great thing, but if you have a singer who is feeling confident and comfortable and they know that the person recording them is working with them and they're trusting that person, then you're going to get a better performance. You're going to get a more sincere take out of the person. I'll be working with an all girl hip- hop band — a group of seven lesbians on my couch. They're super cool girls and having fun, and I'm getting into their world of what they're talking about. I have all bands print out lyrics. I get really involved with lyric sheets and talking about them when we're doing stuff. Not only am I recording, engineering and working all the equipment, but there is that time where I really want to know what they're feeling within their songs. I take that really personally. The next band will come in and it will be more of a hard rock band. There are all these different dynamics of how people communicate. It's about falling into their world, being able to communicate within that world and actually giving a shit about the projects that come in. A lot of the engineers that I've worked with — where we go in and do one session really quick — they kind of don't care. You're just coming in and paying for your time and they could take it or leave it.
Do you find yourself adding stuff that maybe wasn't quite exactly there — it was more implied but then you make it a little more overt?
Yeah. Yesterday there was a band in here and they had a piano part and they were just playing the chords on the piano. I went in and helped them arrange more of a melodic idea. Once they started hearing a melodic hook in the piano they started adapting that into more things and it became a bigger part. There was a woman I worked with, Emily Neveu — she plays in a band called Calico Horse. We spent a long time on her record. It started at my house and then a bunch of stuff went down where her band members quit, she moved out of her place and I changed studios. All these crazy things were going on in her life, but I always encouraged her. I said, "Don't stop working on this record. These songs are about you." She was really feeling defeated. I stepped in and the label was supportive and wanted her to finish the record. She did great and brought in some new pieces that were less band oriented. We built them up together, finished the whole record and now she's playing shows with new members. It was really a challenge to me, just seeing something nearly disintegrate.
An artist who brings in a song and says, "Let's build this into something," and a band who comes in and has been playing a song a certain way, as you might know, is really different.
There's a band I'm working with now, Buckfast Superbee, which is all this on the wall [points to sheets of paper] that you see here. This is how I do every record. This was adapted from back in the days with the first Three Mile Pilot record with John Goodmanson [engineering Tape Op #35] and Steve Fisk [producing] where Ryan Hadlock was assisting. It's pretty simple. Every song gets a piece of paper and then it's everything we need to do — every instrument, drums, bass, synth and then any ideas as well. If there's a noise or some part you're not sure of, anything gets written up. I have a star system. One star means music is done, two stars means vocals are done — so if there are two stars it means there's no more tracking to be done, and then the third star means the mix is finished. When you approve the mix, you circle all the stars.
You have some work to do here.
Well, we've done a lot, but no song is mixed yet, as you can see.
I assume you're using the preamps on the Neotek Series 1 console for tracking?
Plus there's Brent Averill API pres, the Crane Song Flamingo, the Joemeek [VC1Q] and the Trident [S40]. I bought an API lunchbox. Zach [Smith] was on tour for six months and I had borrowed his. I got two of the API [512C preamps] and the Shadow Hills [Mono Gama] preamp. That Shadow Hills stuff is awesome. It's got a silver, nickel and you can use different...
Different types of transformers.
Exactly — it sounds really great. I got one of the Purple Audio [Biz] mic pres, which are kind of cool — being able to have a separate gain input with the output. Also a Purple Audio [Action] FET compressor and a 560 API EQ. We're still building up. One thing I learned early on — you can go to Guitar Center and get a bunch of little pieces of crap or you can spend three thousand dollars and get one really awesome thing that's going to take you a lot further. I have this [Chandler] TG1 [compressor] — that thing is amazing on drums. I like it a lot. The THD mode on bass sounds really cool. My [Empirical Labs] Distressors are great.
What kind of microphones have you bought?
We have the Royer 121s. The first tube mic I ever bought is a CAD VX2. It's a dual tube mic. I love that thing on vocals, but I use that on all sorts of things. Originally I was like, "I want a cool mic that when I step up to, it inspires me to sing." This thing does the trick. Inspiration is a huge part of things, as long as it sounds good. You want to feel good about what you're singing into. I don't know nowadays whether I would go and buy this same mic, because it's a little too pretty. I don't know — that sounds silly. I just got this Telefunken [R- F-T] AK47. I wanted to get a new tube mic.
How does that sound? Do you like that one?
Yeah, I just started using it on the last two days of recording. We did vocals through it. It's really beautiful with acoustic guitar. We did shakers and all sorts of stuff. I just had it up and was throwing it on whatever was coming.
Here's the mic cabinet.
We've got Josephson [Engineering] e22s.
The Albini mic.
Yes, this thing is awesome. I love it. We have two of them and they're really great on toms and snares, but I always go back to a [Shure SM]57 for snare. The one thing that I've never heard anyone mention much in Tape Op or anything — but the Audix i-5 — does anyone ever mention these things?
I've got about eight of them.
These things are great, man. I had a band in and I put it up as a scratch vocal track and he went in there and he was singing to the band. He did such a good performance that we kept it as a main vocal track. I have two of them. Zach uses them as part of his overhead system sometimes.
There is something really nice about the way they pick up sounds.
They sound good on toms. You can use them on anything. That's basically what I've been using for my snare sound — bottom snare is that and top snare is my 57. I tend to choose to use these Josephsons on the rack or the floor tom. I pretty much use the [AKG] D 112 on kick all the time. I'll throw a tube mic, like the VX2, on the outside for the kick drum and use the D 112 up close, inside.
You have a fair amount of instruments in the studio. There are guitars, a drum kit, timpani and amps.
All this stuff gets used. We have a percussion box. One thing I really like is that Z.Vex Nano Head amp. I've been using that for kick drum. I'll use a Radio Shack mic and I'll run a direct line into the Z.Vex amp and then I'll run it through an amp in the iso booth. It sounds really gnarly — I'll mix that in with the kick drum. One thing I've done for a kick drum a few times is I use a filing cabinet. Take out the drawers of the metal cabinet and put the open end in front of the kick drum, with the mic inside pointing at the kick drum for a more straight kick sound. I put two mics up real close to the metal of the back side of the cabinet outside — both mics are hypercardioid. Then I check phase and pan them hard left and right. It gives you this crazy sound if you have the right kind of beat.
What kind of filing cabinet? Is there a special brand?
It's one of those two drawer ones and I took out the drawers. It's on a Black Heart song and a couple of Three Mile Pilot songs. We use the Royer 121s all the time. I love those on everything. I want to get some [AKG] 451s. I would love to get some Neumanns or something like that, but I just don't have the money.
Do you find yourself being careful about gear purchases?
Yeah, we definitely have those conversations here. What can you do if you don't have money? My credit card is already maxed.
You mentioned using the hallway to the bathroom — which is a separate room leading from the live room — and putting a mic in there.
This is not a very big room, so the big room sound that I'll get is in there. It ends up a lot in mixes. It's about putting the right amount in at the right time. I'm so thankful to have this, because I'd probably be trying to run it out back or something.
With cars driving by? The ceilings are pretty high in here. It's not a wide room, but you have a nice height above the cymbals.
Yeah, I can put the mics up really high and get some good space. It's pretty awesome. We practice in here too, so there's a racked PA system and a tuner so bands can be in tune, plus a power conditioner for the amps.
There's the stomp box cabinet.
I recently used the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory on a vocal for really fucked up vocal sounds. Anytime I set up something I usually leave a couple of channels to mess around with for experimenting. When I'm working with the band, I'll ask them to try to leave a song that we can build here in the studio. It'll be an extra song — maybe you won't use it or maybe you will. I also try to adapt that theory anytime I'm working with a band I'll try to do something new with every session or move something around between every song for my own enjoyment.
To see if something works.
A lot of times it doesn't. Another thing that blew me away early on was when Three Mile Pilot was recording The Chief Assassin to the Sinister. We got the opportunity to work with Tchad Blake [Tape Op #16]. That was somebody who really inspired me in the studio when I first saw him working. There were tubes and crazy microphones all over the place. He was so calm, cool and a really nice guy and so interesting. He was taking something that we did to this whole other place. When he would play it back it would have sounds that really fit in with what we were doing. It was inspiring and really cool. That was several years before I got into recording myself, but being around that in a studio was really a cool thing.
Does some work come to you because of projects you've done?
Definitely.
Are you getting a lot of local artists?
From living in San Diego so long, I've done a lot of local bands and friends and that happens all the time — going to shows and talking to people. It's all word of mouth. We have a web page and a MySpace page, so people maybe find out in that context. I'll mention it when I do a Black Heart interview. The word has gotten around, but then I'll run into people who say, "Oh, I didn't know you recorded bands." I'm like, "I've been doing it for eight years now." I love recording — it boils down to that. I like being in the studio. I like playing live shows, but I really like being part of the creative environment. Whether it's my band or somebody else's, at the end of the day when I leave here and I'm working with a band and it may not be my music, it's not going to have my name on it other than a production credit or engineering credit, but I still feel that I spent my day being creative. To me that is what is important — seeing someone get excited about something that's turning out really awesome — either better than they wanted or exactly like they wanted.
www.stereodisguise.net www.blackheartprocession.com
