How Did I Get Here?

Hi there.

Over the last several months, I have been amassing a humble but (hopefully) versatile and (hopefully) powerful arsenal of recording equipment. I am starting this blog to chronicle what will happen when I attempt to use it.

Recording ourselves has always been an integral part of how Get Him Eat Him operates. It helps us to fine-tune arrangements, understand our songs, and . It's also my favorite thing to do.

Here's a rundown of our past experiments:

"Not Not Nervous" from Casual Sex: The Demo
(mp3)
This was our first-ever recording, and my second-ever time recording drums. We borrowed a handful of SM57's and mic stands from our friends Jefferson and Kevin, and set up Jeff's drumset in my tiny dorm room. (I can't remember where my roommate was at the time, but he was definitely not around.) I actually remember propping the door shut with something or other, so that complaining neighbors couldn't interrupt.

I still can't remember the plugin I used on the vocals during the chorus.

"Leaders In Doubt" from The Rude Reach
(mp3)
I still had no idea how to mix music when I was working on this, but I loved the flexibility of having the kit mic'd separately. Weird panning and phasing issues with the snare, awful guitar sounds (as I recall, I plugged straight into my sound card's breakout box -- durr -- and then used an amp simulator plugin), but this is still my favorite of our EPs.

"Exposure" from Do As I Tell You
(mp3)
The "hi-fi" EP, as it were. Drums and bass tracked at the University's recording studio. This is the only Get Him Eat Him EP where we actually mic'd a guitar cabinet, rather than using a direct signal and amp simulation, and I think the guitars sound great. We put Raf's Electro Voice RE16 on my Tech 21 Trademark 60 -- it sounds kinda quack-y. Lots of midrange. Due to time constraints, I wound up pitch correcting and compressing the crap out of the vocals, which still kinda kills me. I think this is my least favorite EP overall; the attempt at a "slick" approach effectively saps any potential charm and character from what remains a fairly amateurish recording.

"Get Down" from ...Challenges You to a Game of Basketball
(mp3)
A weird one.... probably our least considered EP. We were already working on Arms Down when this was mixed, so there was a little bit of that chasing your own tail feeling going on. We tracked drums to Raf's 8-track reel-to-reel, then bounced to 2 tracks using a Behringer mixer. Levels are all wonky; way too much hi-hat, not enough snare or kick. Needed a ton of compression to sound "cool"; "good" wasn't really an option by the time we got to mixing.

What do I want from the next batch of songs? Basically, I want to try my best to make it sound good and see how it turns out. On Sunday, we record "Catalysts" for the very exciting Lifted Brow project. Primary goal: get a good take of the song. Secondary goal: learn something about how to make this equipment sound good, find out what works and what doesn't, begin to assemble a picture of what I may need or may be able to sell before a more substantial recording session in the fall.

Feel free to drop me a line -- matt AT gethimeathim DOT com -- or to leave your comments, thoughts, and/or suggestions here!

Love,
Matt / GHEH