+ REVIEWED: ate Sides of SSL's Summing Mixer oe Pee NTG4+ Has Got The PowerKevin Parker goes ‘old school’ and mixes Currents himself, finding a balance between lo-fi and his own teenage nostalgia. Story: Mark Davie“Just got back from tour” explained Tame Inypal frontman, Kevin Parker, sting i for a chat. "Devompresing...no pun intended For anyone thats followed Parker’ trajectory compression is no joke. Aside from those catchy paych-pop melodies, Lennon-esque dreamy faleto, and Dunlop fz guitars, the sound oflo-f, squashed drums was probably the mos identifiable part of Tame Impals bealthrough alboas Inserspeaker. And even though the second album {Loneris elt harder to lump in as psych rock, the legacy of Tame Impala continued tobe built on that spscifc kind of nostalgia, “The latest album, Currents, trades om a newer sort of nostalgia, ane that — ae teen of thes resonates more personaly for Parke. You cat heat iin the hard-ended repetitions of a scratched (CD stuckin aloop on lead tack Let It Happes, the Boyz I Men R&s drum machine and 'erby claps on Love Pavano, and the ching clarity of gta synths throughout, “got afew new keyboards, All Thad lst time vas Roland Jano 106 and a Sequentl Citcits ro One” sad Parker. "fl in love with those naff "s0s-sounding keyboards. Ive gota Roland JV1080 synth module you can pl a MIDI keyboard nto. An audiophile would think some ofthe patches are the cheapest, plastic sounds, But for mie they've #0 roumanticaly nostalgic. Besse thei the sounds I ememaber fom when was growing upin the 90s “The sands that remind me of something heard on the rion the car “That the trust kind of nostalgia can fn. “Those plastlcky sounds are fr more nostalgse and hit a deeper spot fr me that hearing a vintage Fender twin. Eventhough theyre sort of cheap sounds, they sound deeply falling. Ther lot of that on the album, glistening FM synth electro Rhodes, ike a digital lan? tea tough break fr those young producers, ‘have tlled over thelr Tame mpalt emulations: Tea towels on hts, saving up fr Juno 1068 on eBay, and asking forums whether a dbx 160A would substitte fora dos 1€0VU. Now they going to have to outed wi an inflated are for Roland JV108Ds Parkers the modern home studio poster boy. “Thesdeal fora lot of bedroom producers who ike the idea of rock i ol but dont access want to deal with band politics when it comes to writing songs Jost ike those Tacky’ estrone prodacers, he tified the ase for aspiring rockers to forgo the ‘ssa band-in-a-stadio route, and play everything Into DAW themselves The demnin-day deat market has shrune with the rse of growing contentdines to wile away a the process rather than feo forced to produce in short window ‘Ofcourse ot everyone ie Kevin Paker. In fact no-one ce is. Hut ast stopped leagues of rvisicans trying to emulate his every sound, image, ana podal Boat purchase IN-HOUSE MIX While lying completely slo looks nie on popes for this generation of psych rockacqusinted bedroom producer, one name (ouside thelr ow) they be happy to secon the mix ret x Dave Fridman Tridmann isthe hero of indie paych-ock mixing fearlenly experimental and not afrald to go for solo. Probably most wel: known for peodicing nd ‘mixing The Flaming Lips he’ also leant poychedehc ‘weight to Mercury Re, Sparkchorse, MGMT, ‘Mogwai and so many more. When Parker handed ‘he mis for Tame Impais econd albu, Loner, Fridman, that combo became the benchmark or this crowed, For his latest album, Currents, Parker decided to take back the reins and da the whole thing bimacé play, cord, od max at home, Hes mixed bis owa mauic before, ad done te sane for Pond and Melody’ Echo Chamber, but aking over after rach cess with Fridman mst have reuired ‘nesefound sonidence. "wasnt even realy contidence said Parke. Tt was more ike a leap of faith. jest wanted to see if could dose mys. Dave ‘san amaring mix engineer Even as La doingit siyel found tht Iwas protenng to be hin, “Because ofthe sound and the way the songs wore coming together, fe ke an altogether diferent way ofmixing anyway. Iwas combining things ‘ually done in the eectzonic world — lke loping ‘whole sections ofthe mix while leaving others ‘unlooped ontop, and itering whole sections — but al he same time trying to get the drums to sun ‘ssi, setome, and Dave Fridman” Fridmann-y sa dificult adjective to describe, says Baker "Naturally fall those nuances you ‘anit properly describe that he does so well IF you ‘old put it nto words, that would mica you could probably copy i realy easly. 7 HE WAY its SUND ‘The drums can be absolutely swampy and slzing, yetat the same tne hit you right in the ches “People generally pass that offas an easily stainable thing, just drive through 2 preamp and slap a miter om you know Butts so much more ‘dusive tha tha. You only elise how much of an artform that when you try to do it yourselé “ve got my own experience of mixing tht 've ben getting better ad better a over the yar ‘Which forme, the most important thing. Tv got ny mixing style my drum sound and effect use, ‘Ws mainiy instinct that fm going on. just have to hope that Wt comes out sounding stenable” ANEW PHASE ‘when we lat talked to Parker he was reveling in hls relative engineering nalvett recording vocals wth mic ited out of phase. plugging mies into {he wrong inputs But thistime he stepped up his professional atetude “has nt to say was al the ‘way there” he laughs.“ ail da thing hat would be lauphsble to professional recording engineers. To me ‘juss the way Ido tin a sense. havea disturbed pride inthe fact dont dot ike everyone else. [dont ‘doin Peo"Toos, Inthe end, does realy ater ‘Bat to me it feels good that Fim bit rogue, “julian the other drummer in Tame, he played se this album the other day, And I thought hed gone tan extremely profesional studio ln France I rounded amazing, But the he ole me he di ital in They're the sounds | remember from when | was growing up in the ‘90s. That's the truest kind of nostalgia | can findGarageband. Loouldat blieve it Re the would we tive in these days, there are no rule Taking on the mix was as mich about ging Isis corrent abit to pl tf ait was an esse ta gct some new gear Gear only proestonal would use “It was a good excuse to Buy stiff ould never asi getng, less twas something as importan as mixing my own album. I sounds felfsh, Tin nots profsssonal studio owner, who lives off xing peoples albums. So Ive never really bought ger that is just involved in mixing” The main adjustment to his mixing routine has ‘been an analogue summing setup that takes that tack out of Ableton Liv hands and adds bit of colourto the sere bus He bought two 16-channel Lynx Aurora converters that feed a pair ofpasive 16-chanel RMS216 Folcrom passive samming smtzers. The sum ofthe 16 stereo channels its pair of Neve 107SDPA preamps it to “crunch the ‘ix up and miake up gain, then aa SPL Vitalie, the one piece he's had fora while and is "jst ke a glonfied EQ that adds bit of ati valve “qty” The lst thing strapped across the master bus isa Manley Vari compuesoe before it gee ted back nt the DAW to punt. The ge doce see any use other than for mining, a itllows Parker oleave it et up and return to any mix tll." aways loved mixing with Ableton sid Parkes, "But ove the sound ofa mix being ‘crunched together in analogue {love the sound af a desk, ut hate not being able o real anytime T vant fit bebvoen songs, smcties every ewe minutes. goes completely against my workflow to have tose up fr ane song by gong around the room and setting EQ knobs cn a desk and adjusting fadees to hove the mix as las te, ts ‘gaint haw ve grown up working’ tba big step up fom “jst whatever plugin in Ableton” he ued to place over his master bus, Hes always had outboard channel compressors, but never preted thent into servic ver his whole mix That’ no knock on Ableton though, Parker insilla dedicated Live user “Hs imately just ‘what yout used to, Everyone basraks for their favourite, ikea fotball eam. But for me, ind Livesoexpresive.The whole pont oft that you can link anything to anything, and the automation ‘amazing, When Ive been standing oer someones shoulder watching them tse ProTools teammate tft seoms 50 laborioas It does ‘want yo to atom t does eat you to change ‘things that ates eazy to change ot ABNcton, "Tnake out lve shows on Ableton a well which demonstrates how versatile itis, The bass of ts just 0 fleible and I can move almost a quick sy bein is moving” HYBRID DRUMS. Packer recorded Currents in his home studio where -ne ha wo rooms joined one acting aa control room the other houses his'mongrel fa ki Parts of tae from my old '60s Ludwig used on meri sl Parker. "The kick sa vintage Tana [ike had forever” As for mice his time, Parker vat that fussed sou sickng toast routine. "It wars bit ofa range this time, Between several mics to just one italy jst comes down to how set up the studio sat the ime Fm inspired Fm spied to rcond some drums and ther only one mc there then I jst ay 7” fst reson with one mic and go with t. na not precous. used Shure SM7 on alot of tu, for drums and vocal “ot ofthe drums were «cross between the real kit sampler on Ableton wih something deep tnd woot forthe kick, and some dross machine sounds, Pin inlove with the Sequential Creuts Drum Tracks drum machine, my favourite drum machine, recorded lot of lps myself and vscd thon aa set eampl. [just rovorded aban Ina row, with diferent hand positon each tine and pat themall together at once, spaced slighlly apart. tryand get the best coambination sot sounds the mos fel good, ‘party times! or gute recording, Parker uses ls go-to guitar signal chain: "Is the sine pedal chain ve ha for ages reverb abit of sempresion, abit of overdrive {have this Seymour Duncan rack presmp that | love They dit make very many, and is not even ‘ery good quality bat for some reason cant find anything that got the sme kind of iret it. DE all gitar... Uhavent used an amp in year There are some heavy ison the cord, “specially the one that pounds out the choruses in the otherwise dream poppy Evertualy, But, rther than layering lots of pats, Parker say, "Is just a lta i, bes if and a aynth thas escalating kn Pitch to add some tension. ind that when you try and make womething heavy the Tess elements your have in it the bigger it sounds. t'you try and make a heavy iff with seven guts, thc diferent types cof synth base synth, ala bas git, itreally ost, muddle up and loses ipact ‘TRANSITIONING OUT OF LO-FI “These days, Parker is sing lo-fi ements transition eet. Similar to how nx ngineces offen make the chorus wider, hell jst dal up the nostalgia in the intros and verses to al your cars before hitting them with the power of fll spectram sound Ithappens fw times across the records band-pass the drums and guitar intro cm The Less Know Better, and oening the fist huff Disiptes ito «radio pop single from the "i. Parker “For the static on Disciples I uned my ‘at sero to a AM station that wasn an acta hanna ecorded the sti and mised that in Someone told me that AM did have anything pst ke, So when mised it LUST 102eE0 SOUND IKE IF WAS COMING OUT OFAN AMERADO Lue a mult-band compressor and followed the mle band, sot had that compressed, boxed in sound ‘When you tam tof th song sudden opens up. ave sltching between the two, because your eae jst to that et of spectra. It ke, ol this wat Tn istening to! Your eas forge abot the sub and the super top, And all of sadn, when they ck in sie this sensory, pleasurable thing. ve aleays tried to make things bi bt jst havent had the ability. At the same ime Ive always loved lo sounds, Tome, they always the most instantly cinematic. Anything lof ‘wobbly and crusty instant transports you. In the pas, ve sed that effect, but twas the whole soitd, Dut tis tme ve been embracing difrent kinds of textures. ‘Not us To sounds, bat ustaposing sounds that ate super ean and super crisp makes it sound more like Te sanapled something and pt iin there, Iwas obsessed with that de in the way tht hip hop has this really high-quality vocal and maybe a high-quality drum machine, then the guitar that comes ns totally crusty and hoy sounding. {ove that kind of jus sound ality ‘Altcady a master of nostalgia, this new sort Parker has added to is sonic repertoire perfectly complements the eclectic nature of his neve materi, While it was wrong to pigeon InoleLonevism as just psych rock, Curent is completely neve ground for Tame Impala that fle ‘vaguely familar @