Session Log - The Angelheaded Hipster - Part 3: Leakage, Instrumentals, Stems, Monitoring

Welcome to the third installment of our 12-part look at making the album AngelHeaded Hipster: the Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex. This multi-artist collection was produced by the late Hal Willner and released on BMG last September. I urge you to get yourself a copy and pick up the last two issues of RECORDING to learn about how I captured the drums and vocals.

This month, we’ll be talking about the challenges I encountered having to monitor on different speakers in different studios across the world, having to deal with leakage (bleed) when recording multiple people in the same room, and we’ll also touch on organizing stems and creating deliverables. At first glance, these might appear to be boring subjects—invisible matters of trivial importance—but I assure you, they are common issues on many sessions and can even define the sound of an entire album.