The Making Of...

"Take Another Life" by Gadabout

A business meeting was held on Monday the 3^rd of April 2005 in which the metal band Gadabout and Drums in bags producer Jonathan Shaw met to discuss working together. The band reviewed the contract and all signed the agreement. A new production was underway!

Nem in studio Gadabout's guitarist, Stefan Stabic, came in the following Wednesday and put down a scratch guitar track to a click so that Nem Stabic (drummer) could put down his parts. Details of the track were worked out in this time so that everything could come together smoothly.

At 9am on Monday, 10^th April, Nem came through to the studio to start laying down the first official takes for Gadabout's recording. Etienne van Rensburg, a brilliant sound engineer (pictured on the left), came in to assist with recording the drums. After Nem set up his drums, Etienne positioned the mikes all over the kit. Etienne doing his thing Once this was done, levels were checked and recording commenced. Take a look at the short video below of Nem practicing for his take (click on the play button in the left-hand corner). The drum recording was finished around 1pm.

Guitars were the next element to be laid down in the recording sequence. Stefan came through to the studio on the 18^th of April, a Tuesday evening. First thing to do was set up his amplifyer and position the mic accordingly to get the sound we were looking for. That took about half-an-hour 'till all technical issues were delt with. After that, Stefen went on to record his guitar part in full fury.

For the guitar sound we recorded double parts for the rhythm guitar as well as some of the small lead features. The guitar scapes found before each chorus consist of seven different takes. We ended the session around 9:30pm.

Bass amp with mic Next on the agenda was bass guitar. Clinton Eriksson came through to the studio on the following Thursday afternoon (20 April) at 2pm. Like the guitars, the bass amp was set up and the mic placed correctly to get the sound we were going for. Clint on Bass In the picture to the right you can see the amp buried under some insulating blankets with the mic position to one side. You can see a picture of Clint doing his take on the left-hand side. The session for the bass was finished around 4:30pm.

The session for lead vocals was booked for Wednesday the 26^th of April. Stefen doing vocs Stefen, who is also the lead vocalist, came through at 2pm with Clint. The vocal take went relatively smoothly with little time wasted on retakes. Additional vocal screams were added (heard toward the middle of the audio sample below) and the session ended at about 5pm that afternoon.

Having completed all the individual takes for each instrument it was time to edit, mix and master. In the days following the vocal session, Jonathan Shaw set to work getting the final recording just right. Jon doing his thing The mix consisted of around 30 channels at the end of recording and each needed to be edited just right and then mixed so that everything in the recording could not only be heard, but sound correct for the band's genre. Having completed this, the final mix went through a mastering process that basically evens out the frequency spectrum and makes the overall mix louder. Once finished the band had a period to review the mix and come back to studio to make any mix changes they wanted. The track was officially finished on Thursday the 18^th of May.

Now, take a listen to a 30 second clip of the completed song:

Take Another Life - Gadabout (2006 Making Of...) by Shaw Music Studios