Recording - May 2011 - 48

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Suggestions: Jeremiah seems to have a pretty good handle on the recording process in general. As for suggestions, pulling the cymbals back in volume will help with the “disembodied” feel that they have at present. Regarding the frequency issues, if Jeremiah is sold on his guitar having that much lo-mid presence, we suggest that he pan it out away from the center of the stereo field so that it doesn’t swallow up the bass guitar. If, on the other hand, the guitar needs to be “up the gut” (I know, football season is over... sue me) we would encourage him to sweep the guitar eq with a highpass filter from 500 Hz downward, until he finds a space where each can have their own voice.
Summary: Better than you’ve given yourself credit for, Jeremiah. Work on your mix and you’ll soon be reaching relevance.
Contact: Reaching Relevance, bluz4theredsun@yahoo.com.

Bill Cody & John Ponczocha
Equipment: Mac Pro 8-Core with Digi 002 interface and Universal Audio UAD-2 Quad card running Pro Tools LE 8, FXpansion BFD2, and UA Neve plug-ins; Focusrite Octopre, RØDE K-2 mic, JBL LSR4328P monitors, MTD 535 bass, Fender American Strat, Alesis Quadrasynth.

Reaching Relevance
Equipment: Roland VS-1680 desktop recorder, Dell PC with M-Audio Delta 1010LT interface running Adobe Audition 2.0. Mics: TOA DM-605U (kick), Shure 5455D Unidyne 3 (overhead 1), Shure SM57 (guitar, snare, harmonica), V-Tech VT 1050 (overhead 2). Jackson/Charvel Strat guitar, Johnson by AXEL P-bass, Sunlite 5-piece drum kit with Remo heads, Marshall 100W Valvestate with Peavey 2x12” cab, BOSS Blues Driver, Hohner harmonica.

Music: “Exit Wounds” is an instrumental rock song. Geno Hobbs played drums and harmonica, Kyle Hobbs was on guitar, and the bass guitar and recording chores fell to Jeremiah Tompkins. Recording: Jeremiah explains that the guitar and drums were recorded live through the Roland recorder, using its preamps, and routed to the PC, and the bass was overdubbed direct. Jeremiah tells us that he is desperate for some feedback/constructive criticism. Fair enough then, lad... let’s take a look under the hood and see what’s happenin’. Two of the most problematic areas of the mixing process are instrument balance and the management of the stereo field, and Jeremiah’s mix is no exception. While most of the individual sound sources are wellrecorded, we found that the cymbals were too prominent through our monitors. We also felt that the distorted electric guitar hijacked the mix every time it came in, resulting in a loss of bass guitar clarity due to low midrange frequency masking.
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RECORDING MAY 2011

Music: “Recovery” is a male vocal rock song. John composed the song, played the acoustic guitar, and sang the lead vocal. Bill played the electric and bass guitars, keyboards, and programmed the rhythm track in BFD2, and also handled the recording end of things. The backing vocals were courtesy of Dave Figlioli. Recording: Our overall impression of Bill and John’s submission is that while all of the pieces of the puzzle are present, some tone and balance issues are plaguing the mix. Starting with the rhythm section, we found that the kick drum was too far forward in our monitors, resulting in a disconnect between it and the bass guitar. We also found the kick to be lacking in bottom end. Both the acoustic and electric guitars seemed rather thin and timid through our speakers, and the lack of panning between them led to a sameness that failed to exploit the strengths of each. On the plus side, we thought that the overall drum programming was quite realistic, the bass was very well played and recorded, and the overall arrangement was dynamic and well conceived. Suggestions: Some pretty easy fixes here actually. Starting with the kick, we suggest dropping it back in volume until it meets up with the bass (please don’t touch the bass volume or tone!) and use eq to add a bit of low end... start at approx. 63 Hz and sweep up to about 85 Hz until you find the beef! Regarding the guitars, at least one of them could use some lowmid presence, and panning them opposite each other starting at 11:00–1:00 should help to provide each with a distinct voice.
Summary: Close, very close.
Contact: Bill Cody, wscody@mac.com.

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Recording - May 2011

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