When working with Sleep Token, the approach is closer to that of a Pop record; focus on structure/vocals and melody first. Then, dig in and fill in the spaces around these important elements. However we still have a full band to consider after that, not to mention the electronic elements that are interweaved into each song.

i. Programming

With the new session, we start by looking at what’s been laid out already beforehand. The MIDI instrumentation is chopped and arranged, slotted broadly into a shape that I feel represents the song’s initial direction.

Paramount importance is directed toward the song’s centre image, with much internal monologue encircling thoughts such as: Do not get in the way of where the vocal will be. Do not make this difficult to mix.

Be open. Have space. Utilise the dynamic as much as possible.

ii. Texture

Typically, the next stage when tracking a band, would be to address the setting of tones and then the tracking of guitars and bass. The first full band section is in drop E (essentially standard bass tuning, but on a guitar), then the following heavier section is in drop A. To ask a guitar and bass to go between these in one day is a lot, and spending time setting up the instruments for one section, only to need to change them for the following called for a different approach. So instead, we tackled sound design: generate a sound that ‘works’, EQ and distort to taste, then move on.

The first band section is all bass; no guitars. The main bass DI was tracked standardly, and then a lighter string on the bass was dropped to the same pitch as the low E and tracked again.

This provided a higher amount of fluctuation and ‘movement’ to the action of the playing. I tone matched this ‘floppy’ DI to the guitar DI and fed that out to guitar, approaching it as if it were guitar. Job done, everything melding together as desired, it was time to move on to the next heavy section.

For this I grabbed the Strandberg and Ibanez 7 strings, tracked the ‘beat down’ 4 times and blended two different tones together to get the vibe that was requested. This maybe took an hour or so. Again, job done: move on.

iii. Synths

Looking through the session – it appears we ended up with around 32 synth tracks to make up the body of the song. This ranges from stock Logic Pro X Drum machine sounds (intro sidestick) all the way through to the heavier distorted bass sounds brought to the table by Output’s Substance (I am in love with this Kontakt library).

A few of the pads (including the one in the lead up to the breakdown) is provided via the OG Omnisphere, the remainder of sounds and textures were provided either by Output’s Substance and Logic’s own Alchemy, or through ‘Found Sound’ that was then manipulated in the box to create unique sounds for each section of the song.

iv. Vocals

As previously mentioned, I approached this material with a ‘Pop’ song mind-set concerning vocals. Delicate tuning (however with this project tuning is a rarity) and creative compression/artistic EQ choices help to keep the vocal lines centre stage without annihilating any of the tender dynamics.

By complete chance, I stumbled across a creative technique when routing the vocals out and automating different reverb sends during the first verse.

There is a moment where the lead vocal moves from being very upfront in the mix to (for the first time) feeling like it dips back and out of focus during a held ‘oh’. This entrancing movement effect was achieved by over-compressing the vocal as it hit the Aux send, meaning that only the quieter parts of the performance would ‘bloom’ into the reverb. One happy accident I will certainly (intentionally) use in future.

v. Drums

This was not the first time I tracked the drums last for a session. There’s not a lot to mention here regarding new discoveries or unconventional processes, aside from using an AKG C414 in hyper cardioid on the snare top becoming new favourite combination. It’s very dark, but the tone and sense of self-compression within the mic itself are fantastic.

A lot of the resulting drum sound is largely from the drummer’s own performance and dynamic control, and thus I got to try a few things that maybe I couldn’t with a less-experienced musician.

Slate VMS condensers were used for the overheads using the C12 emulation. It’s made me think long and hard about whether I ever want to use anything else during future sessions.

I did call up a snare room sample taken from a session at Middle Farm Studios, mainly because the space we got to track in wasn’t very ‘woody’ (and the Middle Farm live room sound is a rewarding tone I’ve become accustomed to hearing during mixing). Aside from that, there’s no close mic sampling or tricks, the musician’s performance was spot on, giving me a lot of quality material to make shine.