“Pray” | King’s X
by Strother Bullins, 06.15.2008
| “Pray” | King’s X | 
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Single: “Pray”
Album: XV (Inside/Out)
Dates: Recorded and mixed January through April 2007 at Wireworld, just outside Nashville, TN.
Producer: Michael Wagener
Engineer: Michael Wagener
Mixer: Michael Wagener
Mastering Engineer: Ty Tabor at Alien Beans
Other Projects: Wagener has worked with many successful rock bands over the past 30 years. In total, his productions have sold over 80 million albums.
Studio Monitors: A.D.A.M S3A in a 5.1 configuration
Studio Workstation/Controllers: Steinberg Nuendo 4, Euphonix MC Pro controller, Sony DMX-R100 digital consoles
Select Processing and Conversion: Creation Audio Labs MW1 Studio Tool, Seventh Circle Audio N72 mic preamp, Chandler Ltd. TG-2 mic preamp, Groove Tubes ViPre, Empirical Labs Distressor, Euphonix MADI I/O, Solid State Logic AlphaLink MADI I/O
Select Microphones: Soundelux ELUX 251 (Pinnick vocal), Soundelux E47 (Tabor and Gaskill vocal), Royer R-121 ribbon (Tabor’s amp), Mohave Audio MA-100 condenser and Beyerdynamic M 201 (snare drum), Shure SM91 and Yamaha SKRM-100 SubKick (kick drum), Shure SM58 (toms), Mohave Audio MA-200, pair, and Royer SF-12 stereo ribbon microphone (cymbals/OH) |
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Producer’s Diary
Following their self-titled 1992 album, King’s X ducked from under the cape of their first producer, Sam Taylor. Yes, the band had experienced notable success with Taylor’s direction
. But better things waited for the trio, as none other than producer Brendan O’Brien — Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Korn, Stone Temple Pilots, the Black Crowes, Matthew Sweet, Train, Rage Against The Machine, others — de-varnished the King’s X sound of yore on their landmark, influential 1994 album Dogman.
(click thumbnail) | | Wagener, Tabor, and Pinnick at Wireworld |
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Since then, the band wandered, continuing to construct a studio sound all their own. Bassist/vocalist Doug Pinnick, guitarist/vocalist (and mastering engineer!) Ty Tabor, and drummer/vocalist Jerry Gaskill each possess a style that is recognizable to many and distinctive to most listeners.
Present-day King’s X Producer Michael Wagener (Ozzy, Metallica, Motley Crue, Queen), a truly technologically astute producer, engineer, and mixer, captures the essence of what King’s X is and stays out of the way (or at least that’s what he wants you to think he does). Thus, he allows King’s X to just play while paving the aural road ahead of them.
On their 2nd collaboration, Wagener and King’s X create an album that feels like you’re in the room with the band, but you’re listening to them on headphones; sonically, it’s detailed and precise yet live and loose. Nowhere on the album does this approach work better than on “Pray,” the first jam in which Pinnick sings about a need for compassion over a gritty groove that would make both Hendrix andHetfield jealous.
“The original track is done pretty much in one take, which — to me — is the way to record,” explains Wagener. “If I would ask Ty, ‘Could you try this?’ he comes back with what I suggested in one second — ‘Oh, you mean like that?’ For me, that’s a fantastic way of working. The better musicians are, the easier my job is … and King’s X is just fantastic.”
Wagener called upon his most desirable, reliable sources in the studio for the recordings; for instance, on Pinnick’s vocal, a chain of the Soundelux ELUX 251 (now Bock Audio 251), Seventh Circle Audio N72 mic preamp, and Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor was employed. Wagener also employed his own hardware creation — the MW1 Studio Tool by Creation Audio Labs, a unique D.I. and re-amplification device — on every guitar and bass track on XV.
In the end, “Pray” represents a match made in heaven; here, a band’s band and an engineer’s engineer both do everything they do best.