Freak Show was recorded on and off from May 30th to July 1st 1996 at Festival Studios in Sydney with Producer Nick Launay while the band was on Summer vacation from school. It took almost 3 times as long as their debut album to record. This album shows the band beginning to explore new musical textures and lyrical themes. Launay preferred getting the band to play live for the basic tracks of Drums, Guitar and Bass so there is still an organic band feel as with the previous album. He also prefers analog tape and thus standard 2" 24 track was the format for this record. Daniel had by now designed his guitar rig to his liking which was a Soldano Hot Rod 100 and Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 guitars with humbuckers and Gibson style electronics.
Chris stuck to his old G&L bass guitars and still unknown amps or pedals. Info needed please...
Ben had a new sponsor, Vater sticks and Sabien Cymbals. He played the Sabien AAX line. Tama drums shells were still getting pounded. Also, it should be noted that at this point Ben was using triggers on his drums for live performances. It doesn't seem like they were used on the record according to Nick Launay. Triggers, as the name implies, takes the acoustic impulse of the drum being hit and converts it to an electrical signal that triggers a sampler which plays a pre-recorded sample of a particular drum. Thus, at least live, none of the sounds of the drums were the actual drums but samples of other drums. It allows them to get a really tight, punchy drum sound that is consistent for venue to venue. It also cuts down feedback or bleed from the guitars or bass amps on stage. While mics aren't necessary for the shells (they may be there for redundancy or failure of the triggers), you'd still need over head mics to capture the cymbals. Think of it like MIDI for piano. It takes your performance and turns it into digital info that describes the intensity, duration and pitch of the note being played but you can make it sound like a bunch of farts or cats...or drums.
Mixing, with Andy Wallace, took place at Baby Monster Studios in New York. There were multiple sessions beginning on July 18th for maybe a week then again in October from 26-29 and again in November from 2nd-5th. Nick Launay mixed 2 songs ("Petrol & Chlorine" and "The Closing") at Unique Studios on Oct 30-31. While at Baby Monster in NY from October from 26-29 the band "New Race" and "Undecided" with Deniz Tek from Radio Birdman on Guitar.
An Interview with Nick Launay in Audio Media Magazine from April 1999
When Launay teamed up with young-rockers Silverchair to record their Freak Show LP, he traveled back to the land he calls home, Australia, and set up shop at Festival Studios. Already a Silverchair fan, he welcomed the opportunity to work with this talented group.
"I got asked to do their second album, and I had a ball. They are some of the most amazing musicians. They are so tight-we did very little overdubbing. Working with them was the easiest thing." With a little prodding he agreed to share a few of his trade secrets." On their guitars, I used a lot of tube mics and ribbon mics...old RCA's 44's. For vocals I always use Neumann M-49's. I like to try different things with the drums. On the kick drums, I use a Beyer 88-it's a vocal mic, but they sound great on kick. For an ambient kick sound I use a Neumann 47 about a foot away. On snare I use a Shure 57."
The sophomore release features some unique instrumentation, adding strings, sitar, and even a tabla to the mix. The recording process proved to be a learning experience for the band and Launay found himself in a teachers role which he felt was extremely fulfilling.
"They weren't aware of just how much you can do in a studio, so every new addition was received with great enthusiasm, everything was YES to them."
https://launay.com/about/interviews/10-audiomedia-magazine