Written by Shan Zhi Liu 17/03/2024
The days of the 12th and 13th of March flew by as South Bound's collaboration with Fence Jumper came to a close. Four songs, three singers, two guitarists, and one hell of a good time.
This is your reminder too to please go follow Fence Jumper in all of their developments on their upcoming album release: we will be featuring four of their songs on our own compilation album, but they have a whopping collection of seven great tracks to jump the fence with. Show them your love and support!
Fence Jumper's M.O. is truly the epitome of simple and digestible: early 2000s indie rock with Hyperpop fusion. That may sound intimidating but all they had to record were banging guitar strums and bright stunning vocals thanks to their choice of MIDI drums and their selection of electronnic synths and bass.
On the 12th, Zane and Sam respectively laid out their guitars on his signature Fender JazzMaster and a Soloking Artisan belonging to our very own Julian.
With the VOX AC15 being the only amp we had handy, Fence Jumper got creative with a handy selection of pedals courtesy of Dallas' collection: the Way Huge Green Rhino with a great 2000s rock distortion sound and the Mad Professor Kosmos for all their reverb needs.
Vocals on the 13th followed our typical recording process which you can read all about on last week's post! We did make one small addition which was to record an SM7B simultaneously so we had two microphones to choose from between that and the Neumann U87. The interesting part however came with the sudden studio change halfway through the day unfortunately due to studio limitations. This also meant we could not use the same microphones and had a much more limited selection to use. South Bound does not go out without a plan however!
The plan was to record lead vocals with the resources of the top tier microphones, and backing vocals with whatever we could make do with: an AT4050 which is a truly solid all-round microphone in its own right. To help with fine tuning a sound, Dallas decided an omni-directional polar pattern would work best for the sound of the room for our backing vocals. We also decided for a bonus addition to the sound, instead of using the Audient pre-amps on the smaller Audient ASP4816, which in our experience has a flatter but less vibrant sound characteristic, we would use the one portable lunchbox of pre-amps that we could book.
This machine has an API 512v, and a lovely selection of four Chandler Limited Germanium MKII 500's. For the sake of trying something new in this environment with a different unique sound, we wanted to try the Chandler that none of us had ever used extensively. The combination of the large diaphragm condensor microphone going into that pre-amp was a vocal sound that was surprisingly clear and focused that worked really well for the nature of the song. Harmonies and double tracked vocals came and went by easily so that we finished on time, despite having to waste time figuring out our, lets say "alternative" signal chain.
Second Southern Solistice is in the bag! As always, we hope you look this kind of format, because I really enjoy writing in this format! Please provide any feedback by following us on our website and socials. We love to hear from you all about anything and everything, your support drives our work.
As always, inviting you down South. 🇦🇺
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