Recording The Wavys with Focusrite at Electric Feel Studios

Chief engineer at Electric Feel Studios, Nick Mac (Post Malone, Travis Barker, 24K Goldn) demonstrates how to record an entire song with multi platinum songwriting and production duo The Wavys (comprised of Jack Brady and Jordan Roman) using the Focusrite ISA One and the Clarett+ OctoPre.

The Setup at Electric Feel

Mac’s setup consists of an Apollo Twin audio interface at the core. The Focusrite Clarett+ OctoPre is an ADAT expansion preamp, which expands the setup from two to 10 channels of high-quality inputs and outputs.

On top of this, he adds the Focusrite ISA One as his primary preamp. Mac runs all of his important sources through a Focusrite ISA One to benefit from its iconic Lundahl transformer-based circuitry designed by Rupert Neve for the original ISA 110 preamp and Focusrite Studio Console.

Using a mic switcher, Mac can quickly switch between several inputs feeding the ISA One, which includes a Lewitt 1040 mic for recording vocals and a DI for tracking the electric guitars.

Laying Down the Core

To kick start the track, The Wavys launch some samples via an AKAI MPC, feeding into the Focusrite Clarett+ OctoPre on channels three and four. Expanding the studio up to 10 inputs not only makes the workflow quicker, but in theory also makes it possible to track an entire drum kit, if required.

The Wavys start with some chords on the AKAI MPC, then lay down the core drum loop of their track before laying guitar, bass, and piano layers.

Tracking Guitars

For the core guitar part, The Wavys share a neat trick for creating an ‘80s Police-esque guitar sound by placing some foam under the strings of an electric guitar – pretty cool.

All the guitar tones for the track are sourced from Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 6, making it easy for The Wavys to layer up clean, overdriven and bass guitar parts.

In between takes, Mac expresses how helpful the ISA One VU meter can be during this process:

“Another awesome feature about the ISA One that I really rely on every day – no matter what – is the VU meter on the front panel,” he shares.

“Sometimes if you’ve got a plugin on your DAW, it is going to change the way that the level is perceived. If you’ve got, for instance, a guitar rig plugin, it’s going to be a lot hotter. When I look at [the VU meter] I can see the actual meter and can make decisions based on that, versus something that’s happening with effects on. Every day, no matter what: VU meter. Every time, and tomorrow, and the next day!”

Acoustic guitar

Mac mics the acoustic guitar by placing his ear close to the source to find the sweet spot. For this session, he’s using the Lewitt 1040.

“Some people go for that 12th fret trick – kind of bright – that can be cool but [I] put [my] head where it feels best; I like a blend of rich-sound but also articulate,” he explains.

Headphone monitoring using the ISA One

“Another great feature of the ISA One is a built-in headphone pre which is great; you can feed the preamp from the secondary outputs of the Apollo Twin and set it in the console to monitor the mix, send the mix to your mic pre, hit ‘cue mix’ and you can listen to the mix,” Mac shares.

“Another extremely helpful function is if you un-illuminate the cue mix and you listen to the direct signal of the mic, it’s really helpful for problem solving,” he adds. “If you want to see if there’s noise on your channel, it is very helpful. Every day I am super thankful for the little features packed into this one device.”

Tracking Piano

Mac tracks the piano using a pair of small-diaphragm condenser mics. Taking care to match both mic stands as closely as possible, Mac places the mics over the piano and balances the levels on the mic pre using middle C as a reference. The piano signal feeds into channels five and six on the Clarett+ OctoPre.

“A cool feature about the Clarett+ OctoPre is it has this Air mode which simulates the Focusrite studio console and the circuitry built into that,” he points out. “So you click Air, then five and six, now the Air band is engaged on channels five and six – so if I want to take it out it’s really nice that it’s on a per-channel basis.”

Vocal Tracks & The Finishing Touches

The Wavys lay down the main vocal, a falsetto layer and harmonies using a Lewit 1040, again, of course, fed into the ISA One.

Mac often rides the fader while tracking vocals which helps balance dynamics and reduces the need for heavy, tone-compromising compression techniques.

“Sometimes during the whole performance I’ll ride the mic pre, especially when I’m recording a vocal,” shares Mac. “I’m pretty much going to be riding the output gain all the time.”

Seeing Scarlett

Prior to using Focusrite in Electric Feel Studios, The Wavys have been using the manufacturer’s Scarlett interface since they first started making music together.

“Our first audio interface was the little red Scarlett and we have used that all over the world; wherever we travelled, we’d take that with us. Funnily enough, I actually keep my old Scarlett underneath my new Scarlett to bless the correct energies,” Roman laughs. “People think I'm crazy. Maybe I am…”

“The Scarlett has been there for us – I'm not kidding – since the very beginning and on every single thing we’ve ever made, for every piece of recorded music,” nods Brady. “L.A, New York, Miami, London – it doesn’t matter – the Scarlett is with us.”