Recording - February 2011 - 66

Steven Separovich / column:inches
Equipment: Apple iMac running Logic 9, Art & Lutherie folk guitar, Ibanez Thunderbird, Roland SH-101 and Juno synthesizers.

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Music: “In The Now” is an acoustic/electronic solo instrumental. Recording: Steven tells us his intention was to “juxtapose the organic with the machine made, an acoustic guitar motif set against a driving electric bass line and analogue synthesizer”. Fair enough, Steve—let’s see how things panned out (pun intended). Over the course of a fairly long intro we hear the acoustic part of Steve’s game plan; his double-tracked Art & Lutherie guitar is presented cleanly, albeit a bit shy on the low end. It is in the second part of the track that things don’t quite figure. While the bass and synth parts do move, the lack of impact from the drums keeps them from actually driving. Suggestions: This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve found a programmed drum part lacking. In many cases, particularly one-man band operations, the drums serve as a rather glorified metronome, and this seems to be the case here. Therefore we encourage Steve to go out of his way this holiday season (I’m writing this just before Christmas) and actually befriend a drummer! Yes, we know that they can often be difficult creatures; however, in the spirit of the season, we feel it’s the charitable thing to do. Oh, and the upshot is that they will bring their skill and energy to the table in return. Ah, a win-win... what a wonderful world!
Summary: Peace on earth and goodwill to drummers.
Contact: Steven Separovich / column:inches, houseofsandn@btinternet.com.

Allison Frith
Equipment: Apple iMac with Avid Mbox 2 mini running Pro Tools 8 LE; RØDE NT2-A mic (vocals, guitar). Drums recorded in a studio, MIDI piano.

Paper Air
Equipment: Apple MacPro with Steinberg MR816CSX running Steinberg Cubase 4, MOTU Ethno, UAD-2 Duo, Universal Audio LA610 Signature Edition, sE Electronics SE2200A and RØDE NTK mics, Larrivée & Takamine acoustic guitars, Agile TC-730 semi-hollow Tele knock-off electric guitar.

Music: “Lost at Sea” is a male vocal rock song. Paul Witcamp played the electric guitar, the vocals were courtesy of Alex Dobbert, and Kyle Snyder rounded things out on drums. We’re guessing Allison played the other instruments as well as doing the recording duties. Recording: “Lost at Sea” presents itself as a well-written and arranged track in need of a little additional attention, particularly in regard to the stereo field and the song’s low-end information. While the lead vocal is impressively recorded and “seated” in the center of the sound field, it seems that the guys chose to put the MIDI piano and all the guitars there as well, and while the result stops just short of a logjam, it gives the track an overall small feeling. As for the low end, no bass guitar was listed in the production notes, and since we failed to hear one through our monitors, we’ll assume that none was recorded. Yeah, we know that there are bands rocking this style out there, but this track has little in common with the White Stripes, not to mention the Black Keys. Instead, we hear a well-recorded drum performance, one that the band splurged to record in a commercial facility... minus a dancing partner. Suggestions: It’s a big wide world out there, fellas, try panning those melody instruments out to the sides a bit and listen to them bloom. While we can only speculate as to the exclusion of a bass guitar on the track, as it stands you’ve got a car with no engine. Borrow a bass or follow in the steps of Ray Manzerek and Lee Michaels and use your MIDI piano to simulate one.
Summary: “I feel like some old engine, lost my drivin’ wheel”—Tom Rush
Contact: Allison Frith, alfrith@bsu.edu.
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RECORDING FEBRUARY 2011

Music: “Called in Sick” is a male vocal acoustic rock tune. Justin Wright produced, mixed, co-wrote, sang and played everything, except the acoustic guitar played by cowriter Todd Santos. Recording: This is a well-conceived track. We liked how the guys used creative panning and processing to give some fairly basic instrumentation a sense of motion and energy. We also liked the blend Justin achieved on the lead and backing vocals, they’re smooth and seamless. Less successful to our ears were the tone of the acoustic guitar, which sounded rather edgy though our monitors, and the increasing amount of compression on the acoustic guitar and lead vocal as the song began to gain momentum. The lead vocal, which started out free of artifact, begins to show signs of sibilance as things heat up, and we begin to hear a bit of flattening and pumping on the acoustic at the same point. Suggestions: While we’ve certainly heard worse, there are better ways to handle dynamics than to simply slap on a compressor when a track begins to exhibit some dynamic range. Sadly, for many recordists, this is the path of least resistance... quick and easy, kind of like the drive-through at the fast-food joint. Too much fast food can lead to some nasty problems; ditto for the compression. We would like to suggest that Justin look at alternatives prior to the compression route. Certainly some quick automation in Cubase would allow for more than adequate “in the box” fader riding. If Justin still prefers compression, then we urge him and all of our readers to study and experiment with compression attack/release times, thresholds and ratios. One size does not fit all here, folks! You owe it to yourselves to know the tools in your toolbox before you start using them.
Summary: Measure twice, cut once!
Contact: Justin Wright / Paper Air, justin@intangiblemusic.com.

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Recording - February 2011

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