StormEagle Sound Productions Presents:

Capstone Song Production

The Dollyhoppers

This band is an indie/alternative rock band based in Northeastern Ohio. They have previously recorded two albums: The Warm Earth and Place/Phase. I have been going to their shows for a couple years, and approached them with the idea of recording a couple of their songs for my Capstone Portfolio. They were very enthusiastic and showed me the demos they had for new songs they wanted to record for their upcoming album. They were an absolute pleasure to work with and we are proud of the records we produced together.

Burn Your Way by The Dollyhoppers

The first song initially was originally demo’d as an electronic rock/dream-pop track written by Dyson Hicks. After discussing the song with him, he said he wanted to give it the Dollyhoppers sound. It is the most experimental of their new songs. This shorter song has a gradual crescendo dynamically that leads to a burst of music before quickly closing. It features soft, hard-panned vocals, two guitar amp tracks, a Bass DI, a DI Rhodes, a Leslie organ, and of course a drumkit.

The Tracking Of…

Burn Your Way

We tracked the instruments for both Burn Your Way and The Neighbors as a live recording. This felt like a sound choice as I had found they preferred, and performed best, as a group. The guitars had mikked amps in a separate ISO booth (the lead using a Royer R121 and the rhythm using an SM57). For the Leslie, I mikked it to record both the high and low sounds from two separate mics, an RE-20 on the lows, and an SM57 for the highs.

The drums were mikked on each shell, with the overheads in a spaced pair configuration. The microphones used are as follows:

  • Kick - Audix D6

  • Snare - Telefunken M80

  • Rack and Floor Toms - 2 x Sennheiser MD441

  • Overheads - 2 x Coles 4038

Burn Your Way Mix

Drum Mix

  • The main drum mix was arranged in a standard drum kit configuration. They are not hard panned so they can sit furher back in the mix and leave space for the vocals

  • This technique helped glue the the drums together, and add more density to the drum mix. This allowed the kick and snare to cut through the mix, as well as sitting the drums within the mix.

Vocal Mix

  • The vocal doubles are comprised of different takes with different microphones. For the lead vocals, we chose to use the SM7B, M160 to reflect the dark vocal tone we were looking to produce. The WA-47 was also mixed in to bring back some of the clarity and detail in the lead vocal.

  • Izotope’s Neutron 5 is what I primarily use for submix processing. Each track has it’s own EQ/Compression, then Neutron sculpted the sound to glue the vocals into the mix.

Guitar and Keys Mix

  • Both guitars are bussed together after initial EQ/compression is applied to the mono track.

  • These run into an instance of Neutron 5 to glue them together. These also are not hard-panned to reduce harshness and leave space for the vocals.

Rehearsals

To get a feel for the band and the songs they wanted to record, I joined them during a couple of their rehearsals. This allowed me to further build a good relationship with the band so that I may effectively help them bring their vision to life. It also helped me lock-in the elements they wanted to have in their mix.

Client
The Dollyhoppers

The Neighbors by The Dollyhoppers

The second song we produced was written much more in the usual style of The Dollyhoppers. During rehearsals, I collaborated and coached the band on a couple arrangement and composition issues that needed attention. Once we locked in the song and went to tracking, we had a smooth and productive recording session. This song features vocal doubles and harmonies, two guitar amps, a bass DI, a DI rhodes, alto saxophone and drumkit. This song transitions from emotional and moody verses to hard-hitting and aggressive choruses driving the song forward, then leads into an ambient interlude before launching the listener into an energetic finale.

The Tracking Of…

The Neighbors

We tracked the instruments for both Burn Your Way and The Neighbors as a live recording. This felt like a sound choice as I had found they preferred, and performed best, as a group. The guitars had mikked amps in a separate ISO booth (the lead using a Royer R121 and the rhythm using an SM57). For the Leslie, I mikked it to record both the high and low sounds from two separate mics, an RE-20 on the lows, and an SM57 for the highs.

Vocal Overdubs

After the initial recording session, we visited the Audient Suite at Tri-C to record vocal overdubs. I used various microphones to give us a variety of colors to work with for each take. This setup also made recording doubles and harmonies easier, along with each reinforcing one another with differing frequency responses. The vocal microphone list is as follows:

  • Beyerdynamic M160

  • Warm Audio WA-47

  • Shure SM7B

  • Cascade Fathead

Client
The Dollyhoppers

Date
10/22/2024

The recordings were routed into the Focusrite RED 1 500 preamps, then through the Teletronix LA2A optical compressor. This decision was to give each track a clean ‘tube preamp sound’ and give the higher energy sections of the songs more harmonic distortion. The LA2A gave the vocals a controlled, yet subtle warmth that built on the dark tone we were developing.

The Neighbors Mix

Drum Mix

  • These drums are mixed in a very traditional way. They sit in the mix a bit further up than the drums in Burn Your Way.

  • This technique helped glue the the drums together, and add more density to the drum mix. This allowed the kick and snare to cut through the mix, as well as sitting the drums within the mix.

Vocal Mix

  • The vocal doubles are comprised of different takes with different microphones. For the lead vocals, we chose to use the SM7B, M160 to reflect the dark vocal tone we were looking to produce. The WA-47 was also mixed in to bring back some of the clarity and detail in the lead vocal. The harmonies used the Fathead and the SM7B mics.

  • Izotope’s Neutron 5 is what I primarily use for submix processing. Each track has it’s own EQ/Compression, then Neutron sculpted the sound to glue the vocals into the mix.

Guitar, Keys, and Sax Mixes

  • The guitars were mixed similarly to Burn Your Way, however, they are a bit grittier and not as dark. The Rhodes and Organ were panned about 50/50 respectively. This helped to sit them and the guitars properly.

  • The ambience is made up from the Rhodes, Leslie Organ, a reverb from the PCM 81 & 91. The final ambient section of the song uses a spacey preset on the 81 which overtakes most of the mix to add contrast to the end of the track.

Burn Your Way

Reference Material

The Dollyhoppers had their own reference material that they use. The tracks they gave me to reference were:

  • I’m The Man Who Loves You - Wilco

  • 48 - Sunny Day Real Estate

  • Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel

  • The Glow, Pt. 2 - The Microphones

Below are the tracks that ended up being the most helpful in the mixdown.

The Neighbors

  • The song I’m The Man Who Loves You became a good guide for the drums in Neighbors. Although the final mix has its own sound compared to this mix, it still was helpful during the final master.

  • The overall sound from Holland, 1945 by Neutral Milk Hotel was a good guide for me to follow, along with other recorded Dollyhopper tracks.