Week 29, Undefined

This song was about as close as I’ve come to scrapping a track and freaking out because I didn’t have anything else to go with. This was the first song that I’ve ever written on bass, and that seemed to throw me off of my game when it came time to write a guitar part. The bass line and song that I wrote just didn’t call for my usual style of guitar playing which is more chordal and rhythmic. A major credit should go to my wife, who after hearing me freak out and give up two nights in a row, suggested that I try writing a baritone part first. That’s what I did on the third night, and even that didn’t work until I tuned the baritone up a couple of steps to an F# version of standard tuning. Finally a simple baritone and guitar part came together, and I was on my way. I was a couple of days behind, though, and frankly I’m a little surprised that everything came out sounding as good as it did.

That goes doubly for the drums, as this was a pretty challenging drum part, and I was also breaking in a new mic configuration. I started out Project 52 with three drum mics and have slowly been adding them along the way. This song unveils the six-mic configuration. I’m pretty sure that I’m done adding mics, though. I’ll probably start taking mics away from here on out. I was inspired to switch mics up after reading a great article by Chas Ferry in the latest Tape Op Magazine. Quick plug: Tape Op is an amazing institution of a recording magazine. If you’re not currently subscribed, then do yourself a favor and get it (hint – it’s free). They do incredible interviews and generally have awesome content from a less-than-mainstream perspective (this week’s issue features an interview with Mac McCaughan of Superchunk and Merge Records fame), along with great online forums which are hands down the best in the recording world.

Inspired to put put a bit more room in my drum mix, I added a pair of large-diaphragm condenser mics about 20-30 inches out in front of the kit, one in front of the high hat and snare, and one out from the floor tom and ride cymbal. The revelation of the article is that in a small room like the one that I’m using, moving the room mics closer in to the source increases the ratio of distance between source and reflection, thus creating the impression of a much larger room. I didn’t have much time to play with it – I pretty much spot miked everything, but first impressions are pretty good.

After a weekend full of two 3-year-olds’ birthday parties, crammed-in drum takes and lyric writing, I ended up with a song that sounds a lot like a couple of the bands that I’ve been listening to a lot lately. I’d say most noticeably is the band C-clamp, which is sadly one of the most under-appreciated and unknown of my regular arsenal of 90s bands. As far as I know, both of their albums are out of print, but you should still seek out their music if you can find it. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Bottomless Pit and The New Year, having recently purchased one of the latter’s records. Bottomless Pit is made up of former Silkworm and Seam members, and The New Year is the band of former Bedhead fame. Even though these guys are all of a strong 90s indie rock vintage, both bands are still out there making great-sounding records and playing shows. It’s inspiring.

The rest of this week’s recording was done in regular fashion. The drums and final mix were done with Reaper. The bass, baritone, and guitar parts were all performed on my Orange Crush 30r and recorded using a dynamic mic into the iPhone. The vocals were recorded using the iPhone’s built-in mic, and everything on the iPhone was tracked using the MultiTrack app.  

Thanks again for listening. Have a great week everyone.

Tags: bandcamp, Bedhead, Bottomless Pit, C-clamp, Chas Ferry, Cockos, Corey Layman, developer, Harmonicdog, hovland, indie, indie rock, iPhone, Karl Hendricks Trio, Last.fm, lo-fi, MultiTrack, phone-fi, Pittsburgh, podcast, Project 52, Seam, Silkworm, Tape Op, The New Year, Woolslayer and Main

Week 21, Say

The song for week 21 is called Say.YouTube link for iPhone

I actually wrote this song a few weeks ago and have been working on it piece by piece when I could. I recorded the drums last week, but only finished the electric guitars, bass, and vocals over these last two days. This is another song that is very much in the vein of my old band, Hovland. There’s the pretty, sad, quiet stuff, followed by the heavier, mathier stuff. I always thought it was a nice little songwriting recipe. Someday soon, I’ll upload the various completed Hovland recordings that I have on my Bandcamp page. I may even take a swipe a remastering everything while I’m at it. The song was written in a variation of the Hovland tuning (F-A-D-G-A-E). It’s in E-A-D-G-A-E, so from standard tuning, only the B string has been tuned down to  an A.

This song was recorded in what has become my standard recording process. The guitars and bass were recorded using the custom break-out adapter (from Week 2). The vocals were recorded using the iPhone’s built-in mic, and all of the iPhone tracks (five guitar, one bass, and five vocal) were recorded using the MultiTrack app. The drums were recorded using my new 5-mic setup into Reaper. The new setup consists of two overhead mics in an X-Y pattern, the same AKG D112 on the kick drum, I switched to a large diaphragm condenser on the snare which is covering a bit of the rack tom, and I switched to my CAD E-200 which I have placed above the kick, over the rack and floor tom but just under the ride cymbal. I think it sounds better, but I’m still fooling with it. I’ll probably end up reading an article in Tape Op tomorrow and get a different idea for drum miking and switch it up again. (In my opinion, Tape Op is the best…recording…magazine…ever…seriously go subscribe, it’s free!) I feel like I’m always trying to get the perfect drum sound. I feel like it’s the Holy Grail of recording. Plus, I’m working in a less-than-ideal-room for drum acoustics, so it pushes me to tweak it even more. As usual, everything was mixed in Reaper.

I’ve been checking out some new (to me) websites where musicians and listeners can coexist and I think they make for a nice way to find out about new bands and musicians that you like, and for the bands to get exposure in new ways. I think it’s a really interesting time for bands and music in general, and I’m interested in finding out about the new systems for finding good indie music. For me, that role was once served by trusting the bands that came out of good city/scene-based labels and then college radio and catching live bands to a lesser extent. I’m still feeling the sites out. I’ll probably write more about them in the coming weeks. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions for websites or anything else to check out. Also, I’m still working on the podcasting thing. I should have a little bit more of it figured out by the next post. Have a great week everyone.

Tags: bandcamp, Cockos, Corey Layman, developer, Harmonicdog, hovland, indie, indie rock, iPhone, Karl Hendricks Trio, lo-fi, MultiTrack, phone-fi, Pittsburgh, podcast, Project 52, Reaper, Tape Op, Woolslayer and Main