Fuel 2 Fire

Leigh Krampe, sole engineer of Fuel2Fire EP.

Fuel2Fire EP:

Fuel2Fire is a 5-piece rock band that will have you punching the air in the first verse. With an AC/DC look and a Metallica sound, these guys have the fuel to burn bright. The fuel for FIRE!

This is their self-titled 4-track Debut EP, despite being great musicians with 20+ years experience!

My intention upon hearing the bands live demos was to give the records huge, punchy drums without being over compressed, cutting through thickest, most brutal guitars surrounding a strong, proud bass and massively tonal vocal lead. A wall of sound is what they wanted, and It's what I've attempted to achieve in every recording, mixing and mastering stage - a fat, saturated, tape-based sound. Truly an attempt at a rich mixture of vintage and modern sonic heavy rock styles.

Meet The Fuel2Fire Band!

Howard "Howie"

Rhythm Guitarist

Scott "Scotty"

Bassist / Marketing

Chris "Ben"

Lead Singer / Band leader

Clayton "Clay"

Lead Guitarist / Driver

Shikat "Paul"

Drummer / Production




Project






Process




"Wait a minute... isn't there only supposed to be two choruses...?"

I like my consoles like I like my coffee. Running hot.

(Left) Royer 121/Sm57 with AT4047 Nand 414 ULS just for fun - All Alone guitar tone chasing

(Right) Brilliant 4-tube bass cab, lots of gain brings out the fattest tone, inbuilt compressor, great eq, all complimented with the Sennheiser MD421 mic, running through Neve 1073 preamp, Neve 8803 EQ and 1176.

Lead vocal mic shootout - TLM102 or U87?

(We used the TLM102 ... Suprised?)

Cross patching and inserts for All Alone and Balls To The Wall drums.

Finishing touches on the drum setup, mentioned above right.

Used this room as it has double glass windows - room mic time!

Are we ready to record?

Beginning of the drum recordings - lugged this nice quilt over for the kick out mic - worked a treat! #WORTH-IT

"What shall we patch in today... hmmm maybe everything?"

Tone chasing and guide tracks for drummer.

Drums meet elevator. We are going to spending a lot of time with eachother today.

Hard at work or hardly working?

Switching tracks to record EQ, INS and DYN.

Sunset Sound Studio hi-hat micing technique. SM57 with an AKG C451 taped together, in phase.

I later learnt the SM57 sounded awful in the mix - 451 added a nice forward shine to the overhead capture.

Drum setup for Taken Too Soon. From this, I learnt the overhead mics should have been facing directly downwards to capture a more articulate stereo image. Would have suited the track better.

Hard at work or hardly working?*

(Part 2.)

Band shouted me lunch from Maccas today, I was very grateful after 7 hours with no food!

*Definitely the former.

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Taken Too Soon drum recording in action. Talkback mic in 1176, snare in DBX160A.

Getting a feel for the kit's live, in-the-room sound to understand it best when listening post-microphone, then adjusting to capture the truest sound if need be. Balls To The Wall and All Alone setup.

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Talkback in 1176, Rooms in Neve 33609 and Snare in DBX160A, kick in SSL AWS948 dynamics section compressor.

Clay, lead guitarist, practising his solo.

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That's a wrap!

Drums done for Taken Too Soon, time to overdub guitars!

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Paul the drummer laying down some killer takes.

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The full 9. Dynamics, EQ, SSL Bus compressor, outboard gear. Much more fun!

Chris 'Ben' Albert, lead singer, warming up during guitar recording.

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Extra solo takes with Clay on Taken Too Soon.

Howard, rhythm guitarist, warming up.

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Just good fun, on video.

Howard, ryhthm guitarist, warming up.

Previous Work

Any questions about the project?

Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to check out our work here, I hope the videos were entertaining! Please feel free to contact me on any of these platforms if you have any ideas, question, comments or even to ask any questions with projects of your own.

Audio Engineer