February, 2004

Publication title: DigiZine, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Randy Alberts

In the Voice of an Angel

“Cast me gently into morning for the night has been unkind.” – Sarah McLachlan

“She sang it so quietly,” says drummer, percussionist, and husband Ashwin Sood about Sarah McLachlan’s ethereal voice and piano one-take for the song “Answer” on the new album, Afterglow. “The intimacy of the song was there, and it was perfect. During one passage it was so quiet that her mic preamps had to be cranked way, way up. We all looked at each other in the control room when she stopped, and it was like, ‘Well, there it is. She’s done.’”

You mean that almost silent, epiphanous moment in “Answer” when everything breaks down to just the breath of her last line?

“Exactly, right there where she’s whispering,” recalls Sood. “It was magic. Just one of those things with her at the piano, with one take.”

Continuous Recording with Pro Tools
The lyrics and sound fields of “Answer” and every other track on Afterglow probably say more about where McLachlan, Sood and their new daughter are at these days than any article about software can. Since beginning to record the new album more than two years ago, they’ve endured the death of Sarah’s mother and the changing world since 9/11, and it all shows. The Grammy-nominated Afterglow (Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) emits numinous vocal qualities and instrumental tones that somehow sound wiser and more compassionate than earlier efforts, as if that were possible for the three-time Grammy-winning McLachlan.

The couple built a new Pro Tools recording studio from the ground up on their Vancouver, British Columbia property to capture, and edit many of the tracks that appear on Afterglow. The ProControl-centric Pro Tools|HD Accel studio was co-designed by Sood and McLachlan’s recording engineer, Chris Potter, as a place to professionally record their music at home, virtually sans deadline. Sarah used to spend entire winters and summers “cabining” to write songs on guitar for previous albums like Surfacing. As a mother today, she’s happy to be able to hit record and get inspired at her piano for an hour or two here and there throughout the day.

“Whenever there was any time available to record over the past couple of years, they’d call and ask me to come over. I live just 15 minutes from their house in Vancouver,” says the ever-ready Potter, who has also worked at Bryan Adams’ The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, engineered for Adams, Pink, Nickelback, and Delerium, and has designed and consulted on custom studios for kd lang, Colin James, and Chad Kroeger (Nickelback).

“There is such a creative element going on when you’re working in Pro Tools with Sarah and Pierre Marchand,” continues Potter, referring to McLachlan’s longtime producer/collaborator in Montreal. “We keep all the mistakes, too – we record everything. Some songs are 20 gigabytes each, all of which Pierre and I shuffle through at some point with Pro Tools. Besides the studio tracks, I recorded an entire three-hour live cancer benefit concert of Sarah’s with Bryan [Adams] and Barenaked Ladies, and I had to ask myself at one point, ‘Can I rely on this system to record 48 tracks across these shows for that long?’ But it ran without a hiccup.”

Home is Where the Pro Tools|HD Accel Is
At the heart of the studio Potter helped create for McLachlan and Sood is their first Pro Tools|HD system, which was used for high resolution mixdown during the Afterglow sessions. They’re excited about a new Accel upgrade that’s on the way for the main system, and still put their 48-track, seven-card expansion MIXplus rig to great use as well for drum looping, guitar editing, and such. In addition, an eight-channel ProControl board is integrated with a custom Soundcraft console and a collection of vintage outboard gear to round out their BC composing and recording environs.

“We’re always recording,” says Sood. “We don’t start recording after the lyrics and song are finished – we’re always putting ideas down. “That’s the way it’s always worked for us. And with Pro Tools|HD and now the new Pro Tools|HD Accel upgrade, we have the ability to do just that.”

Like Potter, Sood has worked with a variety of high-profile artists in addition to Sarah. He’s played drums, keyboards, percussion, engineered, and mixed for Rufus Wainwright, Stevie Nicks, and Delerium, among others. He recently worked on Run DMC’s remake of Henry Chapin’s “Cats In The Cradle,” with Sarah’s guest vocals – another project that Potter was involved with as well. But it’s Sarah’s Vancouver and Montreal recording time that matters most to all concerned.

“Sarah’s songwriting process is different now,” reflects Sood. “She doesn’t have as much time as she did before India was born, so we set up a little place with a piano, mic, and a little mixer at our house where she can just go and play for an hour or so and listen back to what she’s come up with. If there are moments to grab from that, we go back and dump it into the big Pro Tools system in the studio with Chris. It’s a great way to work.”

And apparently easy, too. “Chris designed the whole Pro Tools rig to be simple to use. Sarah’s a creative person who doesn’t want to get technical, so Chris made it so that our studio is always on and every instrument and voice has its own mic and preamp always set up and ready to go. We literally just open up the Pro Tools session template he set up for us, hit record, and use any instrument we want and any microphone we want. It’s that simple. The technology of today and Pro Tools|HD, especially the new Accel we’re about to get into, allows us to pay for our own recordings and work this way.”

Gettin’ Loopy with Pro Tools
Producer Pierre Marchand has been a big part of Sarah McLachlan’s sound and songwriting for years – though with McLachlan starting a two-year tour this spring, he’ll have more time for the many other artists he works with, including Rufus Wainwright and Stevie Nicks. Marchand produced and engineered Afterglow in Los Angeles and at his Montreal, Quebec Pro Tools|HD studio in Morin Heights, which will soon be outfitted almost identically to Sarah’s and Ashwin’s Vancouver site. Marchand is looking forward to their collective new studio upgrades. “Our Accel upgrades are due this week so I can’t say yet, but from what I hear it sounds great,” he says.

GRM Tools Band Pass plug-in

On Afterglow, Marchand brought in Canadian recording artist Jorane to add some cello lines, a role which quickly expanded to include layers of vocal harmonies and countermelodies. For both Sarah’s and Jorane’s vocals and Sood’s lush, layered percussion tracks, Marchand likes using the GRM Band Pass filter plug-in.

“Band Pass is a quick way to give depth and perspective to a sound,” says Marchand. “It sends something way off into the distance without the use of a reverb plug-in. I also use it for drums, but somewhat differently. It can really change a standard drum sound to a sound you can’t even recognize. The tape warble in [Line 6] Echo Farm is great on some percussion, and I also use [Line 6] Amp Farm as a quick and easy way to add some character to a ‘too smooth-sounding’ percussion or toms track.”

Adding a distinct character to the music is also a priority for percussionist Sood. “I make all my own loops with Pro Tools,” he says. “I may start with twenty tracks of percussion I’ve laid down, and work with that material to come up with an interesting, original loop. On a lot of music these days, you can recognize all the same little bits and pieces from loop sample discs, which is fine. But to me, the whole idea is to make something original and relatively timeless on your own. At least you hope to!”