Advanced DIY: Log Cabin Recording with Kristin Hoffman
When you hear that piano on “Let Go” (RISE OF TROY REMIX), you are immediately transported.
Hoffman’s upstate haunt is a place to get creative.
Inside the ears of Kristin Hoffman, the artist who played it. This recording was made in a log cabin somewhere in the vicinity of New Paltz, NY, in a plainly beautiful log cabin in the woods. The sound of the instrument is so spooky we can just hear the distinctive acoustics of this place.
But these strangely natural timbres were not tracked with microphones. Instead, we’re hearing exactly what Hoffman hears in her head: because this haunting sound came straight from a Roland RD-700 SX digital stage piano.
Turns out Hoffman’s upstate location is primarily set up to get hugely inspired, then record immediately. That’s why a chillingly gorgeous song like “Let Go” is made with a keyboard going directly into the DAW, instead of a piano tracked by a stereo pair of Schoeps. After all, not all solo producers have an engineer waiting around for inspiration to strike.
Tracking a Piano With Presence
Hoffman is a pro songwriter whose career has unfolded in a series of progressive successes. She has been engineering her own music for over 10 years, starting when Hoffman worked with producer Kevin Killen, when she was an artist signed to Capitol Records.
In addition this multitasker writes and produces for other musicians, commissions, commercials, film, dance, healing music and for the non-profit “Songs of Love.” And now she’s just released The Human Compass: New Directions, an EP with remixes of songs from her previous album, The Human Compass.
“The Human Compass: New Directions” is out now.
Both albums were recorded at Hoffman’s New Paltz studio. While there, Kristin produced, played, and recorded The Human Compass by herself. Meanwhile, her latest EP represents a collaboration with Troy Stallman (aka Rise of Troy).
According to Hoffman, the peaceful cabin studio is part of her process: it’s a setting that allows her to go hiking, clear her head, and gain new perspective on the recordings. No surprise, then that you hear things that grab you so viscerally as “Let Go.”
“The piano sound in the ‘Let Go (Rise of Troy Remix)’ is actually not a real piano…I wish it was!” Hoffman laughs when asked. “We do have a real piano at the cabin, but it’s so old and has such a strange play to it that I have not used it on any recordings. I’m truly hoping to one day have a piano I love in my writing/recording space…putting out an order to the Universe!”
The keyboard that was used to create the piano sounds in the “Let Go” Remix was the aforementioned RD-700 SX. “I really like some of their internal piano sounds and, for this song, I actually used one of the pianos straight out of the keyboard as opposed to using a plugin,” she says. “The whole intro and outro parts were added on as part of the remix version of ‘Let Go’ and you’ll notice that the sound of the piano is different in the intro/outro than it is in the main meat of the song…this was done intentionally.
“For the remix,” she continues. “Troy (aka Rise of Troy) had asked me to lay down a few new piano parts, which I did, and he cut them up and arranged them to create a new, distinct instrumental beginning and ending. He definitely effected, compressed and distorted the piano quite a bit in those sections.”
When Hoffman first heard the remix, the piano stood out to her in a way that was much different than she had anticipated… “And then I quickly fell in love with it,” she says. “How it cuts straight into your being and meshes perfectly with the deeper meaning of the song.
“When the piano enters at the very beginning of ‘Let Go,’ in all its raw, mysterious, shrill and imperfect beauty, it shakes the listener and says ‘Wake Up!!!’ I like it when an instrument can call you out like that.”
Cabin Tracking
For her equally beguiling vocals, which send their own beautiful chill through the track, Hoffman selected a Neumann TLM 103 through an M-Audio Tampa pre-amp.
Hoffman at work — NOT at the log cabin. Pictured is her NYC personal studio.
All other instruments in “Let Go” are in the box. While some of Hoffman’s primary synths and beatmakers include Spectrasonics Stylus and Omnisphere for a lot of my beats and synths, the source for many of the textures and gritty bass/string sounds was once again the Roland RD-700.
Hoffman records into Pro Tools as her primary DAW, with a Digi002 rack and MBox Pro. From there, the prolific songwriter has a secret weapon up her sleeve. “My favorite little ‘magic’ piece of hardware that I love and have used for years both live and sometimes in the studio, is the Korg Kaoss pad,” she reveals. “I mostly use it on vocals when I want a specific super ethereal sound. Sometimes I run other instruments through it as well including piano and guitar, and I use it so much live that is has practically become a part of me.
“I have owned the KP1 the KP3 and the mini Kaoss Pad, however, I always go back to the KP1,” she continues. “I just love the reverbs and delays like no other and can’t seem to find that same sweet spot and unique sound with the latter models or even plugins.”
When it comes to plugins, the fast-moving Hoffman will go with what she knows. “The Waves plugins have always been great and reliable. I love the sparkly reverb plugin Valhallashimmer, which I discovered when I was mixing a project at Hoboken Recorders a few years ago.
“I find Maxim, right out of Pro Tools plugins, incredibly helpful with mixing and creating a finished sound. I never used to use it until I was working on demos with producer David Bottrill and he started sticking it on tracks and I noticed a huge difference in polish. It is one of my simplest ‘go-to’s.’”
A recent addition to her setup is a pair of Focal Twin6 Be studio monitors. “They sound so buttery and warm and surround you with incredible, precise sound,” notes Hoffman. “We also have and love the Mackie HR824s. I still have my first set of Tannoy Active monitors which I continue to appreciate and use to this day for reference, they have such a crisp and accurate sound that I rarely find in most higher priced monitors. I really love the clear, rich sound of Tannoys in general.
“Troy and I have a little tradition when mixes are finished, to bring them in for the ‘living room test’ — which has replaced the classic old car test — and listen on a pair of DALI Ikon 6 speakers that are warm and classic. This gives us a better idea of how the music will sound in one’s home. And sometimesafter the ‘living room test’ we go back to the drawing board.”
Naturally, qualified live instruments in need of a home are welcome at her New Paltz log cabin. “I am also going to get a harmonium this summer, which I have talked about for years, but finally am committing to,” states Hoffman. “Also, Troy and I are going to drive up to Vermont to pick up this incredible field organ that was gifted to me by a friend and is waiting to be retrieved. I am very excited to add these elements to our home studio, and think some new sounds will be a-brewing in 2015.”
The Healing Influence
Not everything Hoffman creates is in the vein of “Let Go”, however. When she’s in touch with another part of her artistry, she creates a good deal of healing music – which then brings its own intensity back into her album recordings.
Kristin Hoffman is a songwriter that stays in control of her sound.
“I usually approach the recording process a bit differently when working on healing songs where the emphasis, to me, is more on capturing a powerful energy or feeling in a certain time or space,” she says, “rather than polishing or recording multiple takes to achieve an idea of perfection.
“I spend much more time on creating the vibe and tuning in to deeper states of being to capture rare and special frequencies than I do on being technically precise.”
As Hoffman has opened more to the ethereal musical realms, she’s felt an added power and mystical presence in all of her studio work and album-based projects – in a way she can make you sonically relate to.
“I’ve been able to ‘Let Go’ of my human need to control,” Kristin Hoffman says. “I just allow myself to be guided by the music, and be a vehicle to creativity when in the studio.”
— David Weiss
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