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Recording vocal overdubs at Westpoint Studios, Acton 3 - 4 Apr. 2023
On the 3-4 April 2023, The Fluffy Jackets hired Westpoint Studios in London UK and its owner / mixer / engineer Shane Shanahan to record vocal overdubs for The Fluffy Jackets' third studio album. This is the story of that recording session, and it incorporates some really great lessons learned when it comes to producing, engineering and mixing vocals.
Why did I hire an external studio and engineer when I could have done everything at The Fluffy Jackets Sound Studio? The primary reason is that vocals can make or break a song. The emotion must be palpable, and the vocals need to be professionally engineered and produced to stand out. A professional music engineer in a renowned studio like Shane at Westpoint Studios has the experience and expertise to suggest harmonies and different approaches that can enhance any song. I prefer the collaborative effort between the vocalist and a trained engineer/producer in the studio. This interaction is much more enjoyable than working alone without any input, and it usually results in a better outcome.
Even though I built and own The Fluffy Jackets' Sound Studio with all the necessary tools to record vocals, I sometimes struggle to produce my own vocals. It’s challenging to judge when a vocal take is "good enough." Therefore, getting a second opinion is invaluable. I had previously worked with Shane, who engineered vocals on "Better Place" from The Fluffy Jackets' "Something from Nothing" (2019) album, and I knew he could bring out the best in my vocals. Additionally, another person can bring fresh ideas or suggestions, such as different inflections within a chorus or alternate approaches to a vocal line, as well as provide feedback on foreign accents. As a non-native English speaker, I find it crucial to receive feedback from a native English speaker to avoid unwanted accents. A trained musician like Shane can offer valuable input and suggestions for cool harmonies that I might not have considered. It is fascinating to learn how to do this professionally, so I made sure to take notes on the various stages used to work methodically on this myself in the future.

Shane Shanahan - the Managing Director at Westpoint Studios - is an Irish born record producer, songwriter, mixer and engineer. with training from Trinity College and Sheffield Uni. Photo taken by James Cumpsty (2023) and courtesy of The Fluffy Jackets.
Hairy ambition = recording vocals for nine (9) songs in two (2) days!
Since I already knew Shane from earlier (The Fluffy Jackets recorded at Westpoint in 2019) it was a no-brainer to record my vocals with him again. He is an experienced engineer and producer, having composed, produced, recorded and mixed records on various platforms since 1999. I hired Westpoint Studios for two days; 3-4 April 2023, from 1100h until 2100h at night.
I came prepared with 9 songs. Before going into the studio, I made sure that all the lyrics were finished. I wanted to focus on the actual recording - rather than "wasting time" testing different vocal lyrics, etc. In other words: the pre-production was 100% done.
Although, I already knew at the outset that it was a "hairy" ambitious goal to record vocals for all nine tacks, since I had the songs already, I thought I'd send them all to Shane and see how far we got. Most of the instrumentation on these tracks were completed (like "Goodbye"), while others (like "Well is dry") had limited instrumentation:
1 Rise and fall of the songwriter
2 Goodbye
3 The well is dry
4 Think too much
5 What you want
6 Down in Mexico
7 Now that she is gone
8 More than strings and wood
9 When the telephone rings
Shane advised that it would be good to spread the work a bit more intelligently than simply starting from the top of my priority list:
Shane's first advice was to begin recording vocals for the more upbeat tracks
This meant we could conserve the energy for the upbeat songs in the morning, whilst the more "tired" or "worn" voice could be used on the ballads in the afternoon. I initially planned to split the songs over the two days as follows:

Before travelling to Westpoint Studios in London, I came with a priority list for each day (see picture). Plan for Day 1 (3 April 2023): "The rise and fall of the songwriter", "Goodbye, "Now she is gone", "What you want". Plan for Day 2 (4 April 2023): "The well is dry", "I think too much", "Down in Mexico", "More than strings and wood" and "When the telephone ring".
Shane's second advice was to leave some breaks between vocal takes during the session
The primary reason for this was to rest my voice. Secondly, this would allow Shane some valuable time to do post-recording "vocal surgery" with all the wonderous vocal production tools that he has available in his studio. This includes "comping" (compiling) the best vocal performance (out of 3-5 takes), tuning (fixing errors in pitch, timing) and adding suitable effects for each lead vocal.
Shane's third advice was to record Lead Vocals before thinking about Backing Vocals
In Shane's professional opinion, it is best not to record any Backing Vocals until the Lead Vocals were completely done and decided upon.
The thought behind this is two-fold. First, the voice will not be too tired sounding on the lead vocals (after all the lead vocal will need to carry the songs, the backing vocals are meant to do just that: namely backing the main vocal).
Secondly, we wanted to avoid wasting precious time recording backing vocals that would need to be changed later (IE: commit to lead vocals first!).
Third, I could always record the backing vocals at The Fluffy Jackets Sound Studio, if we ran out of time at Westpoint Studios (IE: Let us focus on nailing the Lead Vocals!).
The impossible task of "selecting between your babies" (shortening my priority list further..)
Since I already knew recording vocals for 9 (nine) songs would be too ambitious, I needed a new priority list. For various reasons, I decided that we would not record "when the telephone rings", "down in Mexico" or "I think too much" unless we got spare time. So, my own priority list was shortened down to 6 x tracks before going into the studio:

Image Left: The "short-list" of songs that I wanted to focus on before entering Westpoint was (in order of priority) was "Rise and fall of the songwriter", "Goodbye", "The well is dry", "What you want", "Now that she is gone" and "More than strings and wood". Image Right: after two days of recording we were left with solid lead vocals for "Rise and fall of the songwriter" (comped, not tuned),
"Goodbye" (comped and tuned),
"Now that she is gone" (comped and tuned),
"The well is dry" (comped, tuned and with the harmonies on the last verse),
"Think too much" (comped, tuned and with double vocals in the chorus sections),
When the telephone rings (comped, not tuned).
Recording vocals with Shane at Westpoint Studios, tips and tricks
Working with Shane in the studio is great, because I feel that this environment is a safe haven, where it is OK to try out off-the-wall ideas and be creative, without being harshly judged or frowned upon when singing stuff that does not work. As an engineer, Shane has a very positive outlook and is open to try out ideas. Moreover, as a trained musician he can hear what works, and what does not work.
High quality vocal chain!
Shane has, by his own admission, the most expensive vocal chain in the UK. As an example, on my two-day visit I recorded my vocals through a Sony C800 microphone, a Neve 1081 Mic-Pre-Amp (hardware), a Michelangelo EQ (hardware by Hendy Amps), a MAAG EQ (hardware) before going to the SSL G-Series Mixing Desk. This was before the various software plugins of course.

AMS Neve 1081 Pre-Amp

Michelangelo hardware by Hendy Amps.

MAAG EQ hardware.

SSL G-Series 48 track 4K Mixing Desk.

UTA Un-Fairchild hardware.
Vocal software plugins used at the session
In terms of the plugins, Shane really has nearly everything you can think of when it comes to software plugins, so it is a top of the range studio. Among the plugins used on my vocals were: Melodyne tuning, Fabfilter (eq - take off everything under 100htz, gradually reduce from 2,5k up to 5k). When recording my vocals, Shane said that my voice benefited from EQ out some honkyness round 600htz, then add air on top). In addition to the hardware EQ, Shane used a number of tools to make the Lead Vocal stand out in the track. This included: Valhalla Reverb, Soothe, Altiverb, Seventh Heaven Reverb, Microshift and more.

The digital effects (software audio plugins) used on "Goodbye". Note that only parts from the Lead Vocals recorded during the Westpoint Studio session are appearing on the final mix (basically on the last chorus survives from this recording). The main track is the original demo - recorded at The Fluffy Jackets Sound Studio in Bergen Norway; I came to the conclusion after the recording in London.

The digital
effects (software audio plugins) used on vocals for the track "Now that she is gone". This vocal is 100% from Westpoint.

The
digital effects (software audio plugins) used on "Well is Dry", the harmony vocals on this track is uber-cool!
Day1

On the first day, we managed to keep to the initial plan and recorded lead vocals for four songs, bar an unexpected hickup ref. "What you Want".
We spent quite a lot of time on the first song "The Rise and Fall of the Songwriter", with a lot of creative ideas flowing on how to make the song stand out. One of the better ideas was to try to create a "20th-century-boy-T-Rex-type" wibe by adding female backing vocals in the chorus only. This song is fairly long and it took a while to get this song right incl. comping. Therefore I decided that we should move to the next - before spending more time tuning the vocals for this. I always knew this was one of the harder ones to nail- so it was expected that the recording took a while. It was still not 100% in the studio either, so it was good to move on for that reason too.
I had rehearsed the vocal lines a lot of times for "Goodbye" and "Now that she is gone" so I knew these ballads pretty well before entering the studio. Therefore, those songs only took 3-6 takes each. Afterwards, Shane spent time comping and tuning "Goodbye". He also comped "Now that she is gone" but we decided to wait with tuning this song, since I knew I needed some time with the photographer James Cumpsty the next day (we agreed that Shane could spend time comping this, whilst I did the photo-session the next day).
We had problems with the next song "What You Want" because this tune did not want to line up inside the DAW (due to the BPM confusion / issues) which meant we could not paste stuff back and forwards - making the lead vocals difficult to record. Due to this anomaly, I quickly decided to instead focusing on the next one: "The Well is Dry". This track was quickly recorded, and we came up with some cool harmonies on the last verse. The idea for the harmony was worked out inside Melodyne (the auto-tune plugin). But, we were quickly running out of time on Day One, so decided to wait till the next day to complete the harmony vocals.
Day 2
As I mentioned, I knew that my original plan for the second day was unrealistic. As I wanted to do some harmonies, I instead decided to focus on two songs that I knew would be fairly easy to record, namely "I Think Too Much" and "When the Telephone Rings". Both these tracks were pretty far along as far as instrumentation goes, and I knew these were prime targets to be included on the album.
During this day, the photographer-to-the-stars James Cumpsty came to take some photos and videos. So, whilst I was being busy being "famous" and getting my photos taken, Shane could do other stuff (we had already planned for him to start comping / tuning "Now that she is gone" and "Think Too Much" during this time).
After the photoshoot it was already 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Although I was desparate to start working on harmonies - we agreed it would be better to take away a solid lead vox for all the 6 tracks we had recorded. This meant that Shane needed to finish comping for the Blues track "When The Telephone Rings", but I decided to abandon tuning it, instead favoring on completing the last remaining harmony bits.
By this time it was 6 o'clock, and we only had 3 hours left!
Doing a lot in 3 hours!
With three hours to go, we started exporting the varous tracks in semi-quick succession (exporting takes 8 mins a song if you are quick) - though some songs still required some cross fades and various tidying up. But I am pleased that we got the vox exported quickly for the completed songs first: "Now that she is gone", "Goodbye", "When the telephone rings". I also had the presence of mind to ask to export some pictures of the FX audio plugins that we used, for future reference (you can see them on this page).
After this, I decided to quickly double-track vocals on the chorus for "Think Too Much". This was done super quick - I only did 2-3 takes of each line in the chorus. I was really pleased that I managed to sing this spot on each time, especially considering time pressure (saving time!).
The next vocal track was "Well is Dry" - and we managed to record 5-8 takes of the last chorus (the harmonies that were originally conceived by trying out different ideas inside Melodyne, the tuning plugin). This harmony vocal ended up sounding fxxxxing amazing. I am soo happy: This incredible harmony only took an hour to do, and I saw Shane was tapping his foot throughout, which is a good sign! The way this was done - is that I sang along with the vocals that was designed in Melodyne, and I had each line on repeat, so I could sing each tune in perfect harmony. I sang the harmony part maybe 6-8 times, and Shane could then select the best 3-4 takes to add the harmony. He also added another chorus effect (choir) on the digital Melodyne version, so the whole thing sound like a Georgian Church Choir which suits the song perfectly, The gothic sounding choir effect on the lyric line "oh black death, dont take my friend" suits the song perfectly. It is just amazing and very professional sounding. The vocals on this track is one of my favorites on all the album.
On reflection: The Lessons Learned

One of the overall purposes of the trip, was to learn more about the vocal recording techniques, and improve my vocal production technique. The methodical process of recording good vocals: 1. use a high quality vocal chain, 2. record 3-5 takes of the song, 3. add FX to suit. 4 comping the best bits of the song, 5. Tune the vocals with Melodyne, 6. Finish: commit to the lead vocals! 7. Try double-tracking? 8. Develop harmonies using Melodyne? 9. Play around with FX (choir? etc), 10. Then do backing vocals. Probably the best lessons was to commit to the Lead Vocals (before looking at backing vocals). I also learned that professional Tuning can be outsourced if needed, and the Melodyne-lesson on how you can generate cool Harmonies. So the trip was worth it for these lessons alone
Reflections: The Good:
Overall, we managed to record 6 Lead Vocal tracks. We also got some double tracking done, and harmonies on a song. Overall, I am extremely pleased with this result. It was also great work with both Shane (audio) and James (video/ photo) again.
Reflections: The Bad:
In retrospect I regretted some of my own choices: Arguably, it was wrong to record the whole vocal for "Goodbye" again. After all I was pretty happy with the original demo-vocals for this! -I should instead have asked Shane to spend this time to tune my original demo vocals. This would have saved some time. The same was the case for "Now that She is Gone". However, having said that, it was important to me to get vocals for these songs 100% Perfect. And, I would not have known that they were perfect - unless I had tried to improve them. So I can not be too hard on myself on that score.
Secondly, I should arguably not have recorded vocals for "When the Telephone Rings" at Westpoint, because that track would have been easy for me to do in my own studio. This would have resulted in more time on the other songs (having said that, the vox for "telephone" ended up sounding great). Also, I should not have spent soo much time on "Rise and Fall of the Songwriter" at the start, as I was not sure it was strong enough for the album (although it was worth spending the time with Shane in order to come to that conclusion + it always take some time to "get into it" at the start).
Thirdly, I was in two minds about having the photographer coming into the studio, as it is tricky to have another person in for many reasons. First, it might distract from the comfort-feeling in the studio. Second, a third person may not realise when he/she interferes with he sound production (a music engineer works - even when you do not think he is / listening to a recording take is very important - so do not speak while the vocalist is recording etc etc). All this played on my mind on the day, since even the introduction and small-talk will inevitably take some time away - but but I knew hiring James would be good choice no matter - cause his photos pays for themselves / such quality images are required in the modern day and age.
Together, if I had done the above things differently, I COULD have saved maybe 4-5 hours, which could be spent on doing the harmonies or record one of the promising "harder-to-record" songs like "More than strings and wood" (though these songs could also have gone either way). Overall, taking everything into account, I stand by my choices in the end.
It is always easy to be clever after the fact - but I did as good as I could under the circumstances. I am really proud of the results, and both Shane and James are exceedingly professional at what they do. In the end, it worked out better than I thought!
PS - Soundcloud advice from Shane
Another great "lessons learned" was a tip from Shane; namely create your own private soundcloud link, so you can listen to your completed album and play it in different settings and on different sound systems - before you decide on the final mix and running order. Have the album going on in the background, and watch peoples reactions and ask for feedback. Ask if you can put it on in the background in different settings. See how it plays, and determine the song-order and also pick tracks etc.

The Fluffy Jackets' singer / songwriter Helge Rognstad, pictured at Westpoint Studios. Photo by James Cumpty. Image copyright: The Fluffy Jackets (2023)
Post Note: The Difference Between Working on Tracks and Releasing Them
As a songwriter, I often encounter compositions that need more refinement or changes, and some simply don't make the cut for the final record. An important lesson I’ve learned is that not all songs are destined for the final album. Working on songs doesn't guarantee they'll turn out great. In the past, I felt almost compelled to release tracks after spending significant money on production and mixing, even if they weren’t perfect. This time, however, I had the luxury of being more selective - and I wanted to be more selective. I chose to cut tracks that didn’t meet the standard, ensuring only the best made it onto the album.
Here are the songs that made it onto The Fluffy Jackets' "Rise And Fall of The Songwriter" (2024) album:
- Goodbye
- Now that she is gone
- The Well is Dry
- When the telephone rings
- I think too Much
About Westpoint Studios
Westpoint Studios is a boutique recording studio in London and has been at the cutting edge of music creativity for the last 25 years. Westpoint Studios' client list includes the likes of: Jeff Beck, Mumford and Sons, Adele, Kayne West, Frank Ocean, Emeli Sandé, Dave, Krept & Konan, J Hus, Sampha, The Script, Kylie Minogue, Take That, and many more. Precision built by 'Recording Architecture', the studio is a unique blend of state-of-the-art recording facilities combined with a airy white interior design. Natural light floods the 22-foot control room through tall frosted glass windows and is made homely by the relaxed feel in every room.
Westpoint Studios Ltd
GA 39 to 40 Westpoint Building
Warple Way
London
W3 0RG
United Kingdom
Email: info@westpointstudio.com
Tel: 020 8735 2863
Web: www.westpointstudio.com
Nearest Overhead Station:
Acton Central
Nearest Underground Station:
Turnham Green


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