How can you put 20 guitarists in the same room and record them simultaneously while making sure to capture the best sound ever? This was the challenge of the 5-day recording sessions of the 100 guitars on a drunken boat.
Have a look (an ear?) at the first take of “Bateau Ivre”…
Overall, despite COVID, we managed to get all together in the same room, and get to work.
The sun was with us, and while some were inside adjusting their sound, others were simply enjoying the first coffee of the day or playing on an old-style Nintendo box in a room by the studio…
We then started the real work. To get the best sound, we decided to have at least two takes per song. That way the recording would feel like at least 40+ guitars are playing. We tried, as much as possible, to shift guitars between players to get an even more diversified sound on the tape…
Peripheral creative sounds such as whales, sperm whales, maelstrom, eels, raindrops, and more – which are all played using guitars – were recorded separately.
20 guitarists – see the Hall of Fame – means 20 amps, 20 mics, 20 pedal sets, and 20 opportunities of getting a buzz or a pollutive sound. That was the challenge of the sound engineers that where with us and that did a fantastic job to ensure a pure recorded sound for each of the guitars…
With the excellent preparation of the recording process made by Gilles, Serge and Nicolas, we were done after 4 and 1/2 days of hard work. Then we got the rushes and we understood that it was going to be even more challenging to mix it and master it down. Some of the songs had over 120 tracks!
Sounds messy huh?
Well, stay tuned for the next blog that will talk about how we mastered it all…