Warm recently recorded and mixed their long-awaited album “The Human Exemplar” with me here at Studio Wormwood, and this week none other than Metal Injection premiered one of the songs! Check out the song stream here: http://www.metalinjection.net/underground-pitch/underground-buzz-stream-warms-a-pale-emperor
Working with Warm in the studio was an absolute pleasure, as they conduct themselves extremely professionally and made it clear from the start that they wanted to spend the necessary time experimenting with sounds for all instruments. I LOVE having the opportunity to audition a wide variety of microphones and placement options, amplifiers, and speaker cabinets, and Warm were just as enthusiastic to find the perfect tone together. Here’s a look at how we recorded guitar and bass.
Guitar players Keenan and Mike each used blends of two different amps for their rhythm guitar sounds – one amp for the main guitar track and another for the double track. Keenan utilized an 80’s era Peavey Butcher and a Sovtek Mig 50, played through an Orange PPC412 cabinet. We mic’d his rig with a roughly 60/40 blend of a Groove Tubes Velo 8 ribbon mic and an SM57, through a pair of Warm Audio ToneBeast preamps. A Beyerdynamic M88 is also pictured in the shot below, but it didn’t end up being used. Using the Velo 8 ribbon as the base of Keenan’s guitar sound provided us with the big, ballsy backbone backbone he was looking for, with the 57 snuck up underneath providing a hint of it’s trademark sizzle and snarl.
Keenan’s pair of amps
Keenan’s speaker cabinet
Mike’s guitar sound was comprised of a pair of Mesa amps – a Stiletto Deuce and a Triple Rectifier, through a Mesa Oversided 4×12 cabinet. Mike knew from previous recording experiences that he liked the sound of an SM57 on his rig, so we used that as a starting point and tried out a number of additional blending options. We ended up settling on a 60/40 blend of the SM57 with a Telefunken CU-29, both also through the ToneBeast pair of preamps. Mike was going for more of a “fizzy” sound than Keenan’s earthy, “warm” tone, and the SM57 and tube condenser combination proved to get us there with little hassle.
Mike’s Mesa amps
Mike’s speaker cabinet
Warm’s whole record is not only a joy to listen to, but some fantastically dynamic heavy metal. The record fully drops June 17, and you can stay up to date with the band at the following links:
