As one of the UK's most intriguing artists, Bernard Butler has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the one thing that keeps him going creatively: writing songs. From his brief and meteoric rise to fame with Suede in the 90's, to their sudden stormy breakup, to his many subsequent collaborations - most recently with David McAlmont, to solo albums, to his reunion with Suede co-writer Brett Anderson to form the new group The Tears, Bernard has done whatever it takes to feed what he calls "the fire".
We recently asked Bernard about how MOTU gear factors into his song-writing and creative process.
MOTU: How long have you been using MOTU products?
BB: 5 years.
MOTU: Which ones do you use?
BB: I began with a 1224 and PCI-324 to go with Digital Performer. I'm still religiously attached to DP and now still use the 1224 at home and a pair of 896HD's when I use other studios.
MOTU: What projects have you been using Digital Performer on?
BB: The Libertines: it would have been almost impossible to record without DP... my mantra being nobody cares (apart from DP fanatics) how you record something just as long as what comes out of the speaker or earphone is timeless and gives you the shivers. Despite the duress of doing this, all I ever cared about is that the final take you hear is beautiful, which i think it is.
More recently: The Cribs, whose two singers intertwine throughout the songs... seeing this on the screen in DP and arranging the parts that way helped lessen the confusion of knowing where each part came in, avoiding obvious overlaps and applying different effects to each section. Splitting a take onto several tracks allowed me to build a delay, drop the volume slightly for a section without having to use automation. Again nobody wants to hear software at work when they hear a record. They just want to feel a noise that makes them feel great. I just treat DP as the best tape machine they never invented.
MOTU: Can you tell us how a particular feature in DP has helped you to complete the project?
BB: The most important thing about DP for me is the way it helps my songwriting... before I would aimlessly dictate onto DATs and have to trawl thru them looking for the good bits... with DP I find it really easy to launch a sequence with just one track and sketch away... I can then edit quickly or leave the idea until later when I’m bored on a plane or in a dressing room and rearrange the parts, find a small phrase, try looping it as an intro or a chorus to make a song out of a ramble.
Lately on tour I have written a lot recording straight into my Powerbook's built in mic with a kid's acoustic guitar I travel with... it's amazing what you can do with so little. Then maybe apply Amplitube or DP's pre-amp . Sometimes I take a phrase and make a lead line out of it on a second track keeping the first part unprocessed... or maybe record a sound check using my Griffin iTalk onto my iPod, and then drag the track into DP and start fiddling.
For editing vocal takes in the studio it's the best. I record takes onto the same track then choose my favorite complete take and duplicate it. Then I comp in the missing parts from the other takes while the track loops... it's perfect for singers who don’t care for waiting for the tape to wind back or trying to drop in on one dodgy phrase when they'd rather concentrate on a full performance... often with backing vocals I use the loop record function which keeps every take before creating another whilst continually looping a small section... it makes it easier for the singer to keep focused.
I use the chunks feature a lot whilst building a song, continually creating a new sequence and trying whole edits whilst keeping the original intact. This is handy for temporarily bouncing drums or BV’s to get on with the rest of the song and keeping a tidy screen... one of the annoying things I find about other sequencers is always having too much useless information on the screen.
MOTU: Tell us about how the MOTU Audio hardware sounds.
BB: I wouldn’t think about how it sounds unless it started to sound bad! I use DP alongside analogue tape often and I find no problems bouncing between the two for edits. Up to now I have been using 24bit 48 kHz, which is always fine. This is partly due to the starting point often being a demo sketch. It would seem a little indulgent to record the sound of me banging a guitar case in a hotel bathroom to get a primitive drum sound at 192kHz!
MOTU: How do you integrate the MOTU products in the overall production chain?
BB: Once a project gets past the writing stage I normally use studios with analogue tape machines but DP is always running in the background, sometimes to run the demo or a track or two that might be a keeper from the ideas stage. I keep the drums and bass on tape wherever possible and normally prefer to record guitars straight to tape, as for me it makes me make decisions quicker. Obviously, the unlimited options available in any sequencer can be too overwhelming at times, but I normally record vocals to DP, partly because it sounds great and partly because it allows the singer to think of nothing but their performance. I bounce a guide mix into DP first. They normally aren’t aware of any of my processes and rarely are involved in the comping. Some singers prefer to only do a few takes - some leave it to me to decide, but once they’ve left the booth I normally put headphones on straight away and loop the track non-stop for as long as it takes for me to get the take that sounds seamless. Then we might go back and say, "OK, I need this line and that bit of tuning, then we're done," and the process is over.
In the mix DP is priceless as it allows me to bounce a few things over for cleaning up, which is a lot quicker than muting tracks on the desk, or else to keep the BV’s separate and leave some tape tracks clear. If we're not on an automated desk, the DP automation comes into play more. Particularly recently in mixing some live tracks for The Tears where the entire gig had been recorded, and so all the songs had to be separated, then tracks not used in particular songs removed and the remaining tracks cleaned of excess noise, buzzes, etc. Finally, the new tuning feature saved us on a couple of incidents!
I recorded a great deal at home just using DP, particularly most of the vocals. Brett found it more comfortable to do them at home in our own space than in the big studio. We recorded at home very quickly as we wrote, making it easy to keep early ideas and takes right through the process. Often these were the final takes used in the mix. Two of Brett's best vocals "The Ghost of You" and "The Asylum" were those slammed down quickly intended as a guide as the song was written. When it got to the mix months later, these were the takes we used. When I recorded drums or band takes at Rak at the end of the session, I bounced everything into DP to fiddle with edits at home away from the studio clock. The string parts were sketched as MIDI files in DP and emailed to Sally Herbert who embellished and notated them as something real musicians could understand on the orchestral recording day. One track "Fallen Idol" was recorded at the eleventh hour. The song had been a more ambient idea intended as a B-side. We were rehearsing for gigs and playing it as a band and it sounded great louder. As we were setup with all the gear, I just brought my laptop and an 896HD to the rehearsal room and recorded the whole thing there. Again we used the vocal and some keyboards and atmospherics from the demo and Mako listened to these as he lay down a new drum part with a simple mic setup.
MOTU: Thanks for speaking with us!
To learn more, visit www.thetears.org and www.bernardbutler.com.