AIR | Studio Symmetry

Nov 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Sam Pryor

RECORDING IN THEIR BRAND-NEW STUDIO, AIR FINDS NEW LEVELS OF CREATIVITY WHILE DEFTLY BLENDING ELECTRONIC AND ORGANIC TEXTURES

How did you play with mic positioning?

Dunckel: We had two Neumann U47s for guitar — one on the amp and the other to talk back to the control room — but we ended up using both mics to record the amp. Because the one mic was very far from the amp, it created a small, but very deep stereo sound. We did that for “So Light Is Her Footfall.”

Godin: When we worked with producer Nigel Godrich [on their 2004 Astralwerks album, Talkie Walkie, and on Pocket Symphony], if he wanted to record guitar, he would put the mic in front of the amp and then record it, and if it didn't sound good, he would just put it in a different spot. That was a cool rule that we worked with. We moved the U47 around.

Now that you have six albums under your belt and your own studio, do you have a general recording philosophy?

Dunckel: Yes, the idea that the mix is really important but the concept of having no mix is cool, as well. If the song is good, when you bring up the tracks on the mix console, they should sound good.

Godin: When we push Play, the song has to sound good — even if on the board there is a previous setup from another recording session. A good song should sound good whatever the mix is. Even if the bass is low and the ride cymbal is not perfect, a song should sound good at all times. We set up the Pro Tools session [on an Apple Power Mac G5], we load it, we push Play and it has to sound good. Maybe on the next album we won't mix it all, and we'll send it to mastering right away. We want all the levels set long before we mix.

The bass is more prominent and melodic than even in the past on Love 2.

Godin: After all these years, I realized I am a bass player. We come from the home studio world and we recorded many different instruments. The bass is where I express myself the most personally.

How did you record the bass for Love 2?

Godin: I recorded direct, then reamped through an Ampeg SVT. The mic is again a Neumann U47. I use old basses, like the Fender Mustang, into a Neve 33135 mic pre and a UREI 1176 compressor. We're not a band so we don't need a lot of mics. We used one or two Neumann U47s for each instrument for the whole record. We did that on Moon Safari as well, using an AKG C 414. We also used the Neumann for vocals and drums with a Royer R122 for cymbals. The treble of the U47 would feed back too much but the Royer has a really nice high treble. We have three U47s, all vintage.

Dunckel: It's a question of managing the tracks. If you have too many things, it's impossible to keep it clear. The drums are recorded with two or three mics, that's all. Half of the tracks are just one kick and one snare. We have our own set of drums that we bought in L.A.: an old Rogers kit with a Premier snare.

What was the signal path for the synths?

Dunckel: They are all direct except one solo off the Korg MS20. It's going through a delay pedal into an amp. We have a direct box to the Trident console, and the console to the computer.

Godin: The analog keyboards are super-fat. The more you record them direct, the more you can feel the soul of the machine inside. The fatness of the keyboard. The direct box is just the classic green one that you see everywhere; it's generic and cheap. We mostly used the Korg MS20 and the Memotron. The string machine you hear is the Solina, which is the ARP String Ensemble in the U.S.

On many songs you literally stack the synths. Do you think of analog synths as different flavors or colors? How do you decide which to use in a given song?

Dunckel: We just try. It's a matter of randomness and chance. But we don't use soft synths. They're like data that you add on to your file. But when you really record the real thing, something magical happens; it's not the same. For the music that we do, plug-ins don't work very well.

Godin: Plug-ins should be used in an experimental or avant garde way. You should use a plug-in for something that you can't do with analog equipment. We experimented with Nigel Godrich with some crazy plug-ins that were very modern.

Dunckel: But we would rather put our money on something that lasts. A plug-in will disappear when you change your computer. It's virtual, where we like to touch and play with our hands.

How did you record your first EP, Premiers Symptomes?

Godin: That was all live, but live in the loops. We didn't have a recorder; we had only a sampler. We would sample parts and loop them, and do some mutes to create a song structure. Then we bought a digital 8-track and started to write songs with a verse, chorus and a breakdown.