#dm studio

[dragonsilike]

DM Studio 1/20 Scale World Mega Shiny Garchomp

[world---in---my---eyes]

November 2008 and the making of Sounds of the Universe

<...> The band were in Chung King studios, New York. The recording experience is always a mixture of joy, frustration and a lot of hard work to get it just right and to fully express the bands vision. After all that the guys have always ended up with truly great albums - whatever it took to get there.

Dave And Martin taking a short break with producer Ben Hillier

Dave always prefers to sing in the control room rather than the main recording room

Andy caught in moment of reflection

Martin never stops playing music wether the record but is on or not

Looks like Martin is taking a break to play a computer game

We had some old flight cases sent over from the UK and discovered all these books of very early press cuttings. The music press was very scathing at the time and thought the band were a flash in the pan with no future - little did they know what was to come!

©  Daniel Miller Source: Depeche Mode

[world---in---my---eyes]

Delta Machine

So after a hugely successful 'Sounds of the Universe Tour', a songwriting break for Martin and Dave and Andy’s global DJ tour, the band are back in Sound Design studio, Santa Barbara, for the first recording sessions for ‘Delta Machine’

Martin and Dave discussing the upcoming project enjoying the Santa Barbara sunshine before the months of studio darkness to come

Martin and producer Ben Hillier looking a little perplexed at something going weird on the computer. In the background, Martin’s ever expanding modular system.

Dave giving his all as always. In the background is programmer Cristoffer Berg, Ben Hillier and even more modular!

A quiet moment

After a couple of successful sessions in Santa Barbara and a well deserved break, the team moves to Jungle City studios in NY. First priority? Lunch!

Dave and his co-writer/programmer Kurt Uenala

as the sessions come to an end, fatigue sets in...

©  Daniel Miller Source: Depeche Mode

[world---in---my---eyes]

Sounds Of The Universe

We recorded this album in 2008. Again, the sessions were split between Santa Barbara and New York, this time mixing in New York. This record has a more synth heavy sound than PtA, we took a more considered, exacting approach, especially with the synth sounds, often getting all the synths on a particular track set up and running live instead so we could work on the overall sound rather than overdubbing.

And here’s Martin using some of that gear... this is all from Chung King studios in New York.

These were all from the Santa Barbara sessions. Again, we built our own studio in the live room and we recorded everything in there, including vocals, all recorded on a hand-held mic with the music playing through the speakers (no headphones!)

During these sessions Martin developed an addiction to buying vintage synths, drum machines and pedals on eBay. At least one cardboard box containing some rare and legendary synth would turn up at the studio every day and immediately be unpacked and used on whichever track we were working on.

Our main distraction during this album was table-football. Always the same teams, Dave and I, Martin and Luke Smith (programmer) and Fletch and Ferg Peterkin (engineer). Always a bit more competitive than was probably healthy!

© Ben Hillier  Source: Depeche Mode

[world---in---my---eyes]

Delta Machine

March 2012 brought us all back again to Santa Barbara to start recording Delta Machine. Martin’s equipment obsession had moved on to modular synths and guitars and the blues influence had returned. I think this was my favourite album of the 3 overall. The sessions were very creative, everyone was getting on really well and we banned table-football (although I’m sure those things weren’t linked.) Dave’s vocals especially on this album, I thought were amazing. He’d done loads of great work on them before we even started recording and I really pushed him to do take after take so that as the music developed it was always being driven by his vocal performance.

Running through vocal melodies and keys in Santa Barbara Sound Design

New York, Jungle City studios. Lots of modular synths and vocal takes!

Dave working on lyric ideas in SBSD

Martin, Jonathan and Dave, out for lunch.

© Ben Hillier Source: Depeche Mode

[world---in---my---eyes]

Dave Gahan, Hansa Studios, Berlin (07/1984) Photo: Michael Heeg Protected for Magic-Moments UG no resale or publishing Copyright Magic-Moments UG Source: magicmomentsug4u [x]

[world---in---my---eyes]

Playing The Angel

This was recorded in 2005 and was the first time I worked with the band. We did two long, intense sessions in Santa Barbara then finished recording in New York before heading to London to mix. I think John The Revelator is my favourite track, it felt like a bit of a breakthrough in the studio, it’s hard, dirty, electronic sound helped define the atmosphere we were trying to get on the record.

We came straight back to Whitfield St studios in London (now sadly shut-down) to mix the album Jun/Jul 2005. The band recorded some live versions of tracks from the new album whilst we were mixing. That’s Dave McCracken on keyboards.

The first 2 sessions for Playing The Angel was at Sound Design in Santa Barbara in Jan/Feb and Mar/Apr 2005. All 3 DM albums I’ve worked on had sessions here. We always built our own control room in the live room so we had enough space to set up all the gear and still have plenty of space for everyone in the room. These shots were taken in there.

© Ben Hillier  Source: Depeche Mode

[world---in---my---eyes]

Anton Corbijn’s photoshoot: behind the scenes Playing the Angel EPK (Touring the Angel (Live in Milan) DVD 2) Photo: Anton Corbijn