page_title: Skylarking
section_title: Recording
hierarchical_section_title: Skylarking / Production / Recording
caption_attribution_description: Sequential Circuits &#160;Prophet-5
context_page_description: Skylarking is the ninth studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 27 October 1986 on Virgin Records. Produced by American musician Todd Rundgren, it is a loose concept album about a nonspecific cycle, such as a day, a year, the seasons, or life. The title was chosen as a double entendre, referring to a type of bird, as well as the Royal Navy term "skylarking", which means "fooling around". It became one of XTC's best-known albums and is generally regarded as their finest work.
  Like XTC's previous Dukes of Stratosphear side project, Skylarking was heavily influenced by the music of the 1960s. Most of its recording was at Rundgren's Utopia Sound Studio in Woodstock, New York. Rundgren played a large role in the album's sound design and drum programming, providing the band with orchestral arrangements and an assortment of gear. However, the sessions were fraught with tension, especially between Rundgren and bandleader Andy Partridge, and numerous disagreements arose over drum patterns, song selections, and other details. In 2010, it was discovered that a wiring error made during the mastering process caused the album to have a "thin" sound.
context_section_description: All of the basic tracks were recorded in the same order as they appear on the album, as were the drum overdubs that followed. The recording sessions took place in early 1986 largely at Rundgren's Utopia Sound Studios in Woodstock, New York. Partridge described Utopia Sound—a two-story building located on the edge of a forest—as "a glorified log cabin". The band stayed at a nearby guest house, while Rundgren lived in the "main house" up the road. They arrived without rehearsing the material because of the expectation that Rundgren would change the song structures anyway. In Moulding's recollection, "That was the problem with the whole record. ...  everybody kept saying, 'There's no point in rehearsing!' ... I realized, 'I don't know any of these songs!' [laughs] 'Nobody's told me the chords! What'll we do?'" The project consumed only three reels of tape: one for side one, another for side two, and a third for extras and leftover tracks. Moulding remembered that "one track ran into another. No edits. Todd had a very unorthodox way of recording—15 ips. ... and done very quickly. Second takes were uncommon, but it was all charming in a way. Partridge considered these methods a "money-saving ruse", and believed that Rundgren "didn't wanna spend out on reels of tape".
  Rundgren played a large role in the album's sound design and drum programming, providing the band with string and brass arrangements, as well as an assortment of gear that included a Fairlight CMI, Yamaha DX7, E-mu Emulator, pre-MIDI LinnDrum, and a Prophet-10 bought especially for the album. The only instruments the band had brought with them to the US were "about eight guitars". Gregory repaired a neglected Chamberlin that had become infested with mice.  They spent the first week planning and setting markers for the tape space they needed. Another three weeks were spent programming percussion and other sequences on a Fairlight. For the first run of sessions at Woodstock, the group used the LinnDrum as a placeholder for percussion, which Gregory said "sounded very stiff and lifeless".  Real drums were overdubbed at Sound Hole Studios in San Francisco by the Tubes' Prairie Prince. Gregory said "it was only then that the album started coming to life".
  While in San Francisco, the band stayed at a condominium a few blocks away from Rundgren's apartment. Partridge instructed Prince how to play his parts, although Prince occasionally suggested his own ideas. Prince later praised Partridge's "sense of rhythm ... that guy is just amazing. I'm not sure if I've actually ever heard him sit down and play a set of drums, but I think that he probably could do an excellent job. I know he's done some great drum programming." Moulding recalled that nothing apart from "some percussion" was recorded for the album until the band arrived in San Francisco to lay the drum tracks. Initially, Rundgren wanted Moulding to track his bass parts before the drums were recorded, but Moulding objected to this method. The orchestral arrangements were recorded at Sound Hole, as well as a couple of Moulding's bass tracks. Prince recalled that the group adopted "this big project calendar ... with all the instruments and vocal parts they wanted to add. As things got recorded, they would check them off and make notes about what takes they were happy with." Afterward, the band returned to Woodstock to record the rest of the album. When recording was complete, the band left Rundgren with a handmade book of mixing instructions, which he followed.
caption: A Prophet 5 synthesizer, similar to the Prophet 10 used on the album
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