Recording
Songs of Faith and Devotion was recorded over eight months in a rented villa in Madrid during 1992, as well as later sessions in Hamburg and London. Recording the album was slowed by Gahan's growing drug and alcohol addiction.
A studio was set up in the basement with two drum kits using different spaces to achieve different sounds. The drum kits could then be processed through synthesisers such as the large Roland System 700 the band installed in the studio. The band wanted to record something quite different from previous albums. They wanted to change as many things about their approach to making music as they possibly could. The band members had become aware of getting caught in easy routines leading to boredom.
One new approach to recording was performance. On previous recordings the band had relied more on sequencing than playing. The performance would then later be sequenced and processed in the studio. The band members did not feel capable of going into a room and playing together, they felt that applying technology made their sound more spontaneous and human. They wanted the sound of Songs of Faith and Devotion looser and less programmed.
Tracks like "I Feel You," which was not originally the lead-off track on the album until Alan Wilder fought for it to be that way, included real performed drums which were then sampled and sequenced to form drum loops, using Cubase, in a different structure from how they were originally performed; keeping all the dynamics of a human performance. Some of the embellishments like reversed cymbals were added later in the recording process by Alan Wilder who was nearly always the one to suggest such experimentation.
Further reversing techniques were used throughout the recordings such as the backwards piano recorded as part of the outro to the track "Mercy in You". The introduction to the track "Judas" has uillean pipes recorded normally with reversed reverberation mixed into the sound.
"Walking in My Shoes" included a processed piano part during the introduction. The piano was processed through a guitar processor to add distortion, making it sound more edgy. A harpsichord sample was then played and recorded over the top making a different layered sound.
The recording of the track "Condemnation" used some interesting techniques including all four band members recording one thing each in the same space—Andrew Fletcher bashing a flight case with a pole, producer Flood and Dave Gahan clapping, Alan Wilder playing a drum and Martin Gore playing an organ. The sound produced was very embryonic but gave the band a direction as to how the track should sound.
The album has a lot of recorded guitar with the intention of creating the power of a rock guitar, without the playing technique. Guitar parts were processed through devices such as Leslie tone cabinets, originally designed for use with an organ.
The album was mixed at Olympic studios in London by Alan Wilder, Flood, and Mark "Spike" Stent.
Read more about this topic: Songs Of Faith And Devotion
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)