Saturday, January 16, 2010

Round Two... FIGHT!

When our band plays our song "I Can't Be Anybody Else" live, I normally do a ultra fuzzed-out guitar solo in the middle of the song. This is the way I initially recorded the solo as well, but then since Alec let me borrow his Vox AC-30 for this recording project, I decided to go with something a little different.

Just about everyone is familiar with the "guitar battle" at the end of The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album where George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon trade fours on guitar. A very cool sound may I add. This is the direction that I decided to take the guitar solo section for the song, since I now had the access to two different and great sounding amplifiers, and an assortment of guitars and pedals.

Since the guitar solo section is sixteen measures long, I decided to split the solo into four distinct sounds. I eventually settled on using my Epiphone Les Paul (safe choice, since it's my live guitar 80 percent of the time) using different pickup selections and amounts of drive on the amplifiers for each section.


The Katie '66 was used for 3 of the 4 solo sections, with different EQ and Drive for each section.


Sennheiser MD421 Mk. II. This mic as a very clear and crisp sound for electric guitar, with a little bit more definition in the high-mids than the Shure SM57. I placed the microphone by monitoring the sound through headphones rather than visually.


Vox AC-30 for that chimey, yet crunchy tone. These amps always remind me of the guitar sounds of The Kinks and The Beatles. I used an SM57 to tame a bit of the high-mids that the amp has inherently.

I'll be posting sound bites of this song soon on our myspace page, so stay tuned!


Sunday, January 10, 2010

Rhythm Guitar Overdubs

Ah... it's my favorite time of the recording process: guitar overdubs. Of course it would be, being I am a guitarist. For the past couple days, whenever there is a time when it is quiet in the house, I drag Katie '66 (aka my guitar amp) into the living room and rig up a couple mics and let 'er rip. I have the make sure no one is home to minimize extraneous noises on the recording, and since tube guitar amps like my own sound best when turned up to a pretty good click, it might be too loud for bystanders. Wear earplugs folks.


The basic rhythm track was recorded in stereo using two Shure SM57s on Katie '66. I rolled some of the treble off to have it sit further back in the mix.

Another view of the stereo miking setup.


I removed the grille cloth so I can accurately place the microphones, though I'm sure removing the cloth made the amp sound clearer than it normally does.

Getting A Full Rhythm Guitar Track.


Fat, thick, chunky... many words can describe the rhythm guitar sound found on many rock albums, but no matter what words that are used, modern rock guitar (even reach far back to Led Zeppelin) is often defined by a full and harmonically complex sound. There are many ways to obtain this sound, but they almost always require layering performances.

If a thick and more uniform rhythm guitar sound is needed, like that heard on hard rock, metal and punk albums, layering multiple (at least two) performances of the same chord changes played on the same guitar, amplifier, and pedals can be employed. This is the most straightforward technique, though it is important to note that you must be wary of your gain levels when doing this. Since you will be layering multiple takes, each with their own subtle performance nuances, distortion has a tendency to pile up rather quickly, so using too much overdrive, distortion or fuzz can easily turn a mean guitar sound into a flubby, muddy mess. Backing off some of the gain will help this problem. Each performance on their own might sound thinner and wimpier than your live sound, but when layered will sound pretty fierce.


Guitars used on the track: Fender Strat, Epiphone Les Paul Standard, Fender Telecaster.

Other ways to obtain a rich, full sound is to layer multiple performances using different combinations of amps and guitar, set to different gain levels, and sometimes playing different inversions of the same chord in different registers of the guitar. Layering one guitar with more fuzz than a moldy peach and another set to sparkly clean will yield a sound with depth and complex texture. This is the kind of layering that I often employ: the crispy-clean sound of a Fender Strat layered atop the creamy texture of a Les Paul. Layers of electric and acoustic guitars can also give you the texture that you are looking for. Of course, having acoustic guitar within a rhythm guitar arrangement often lends itself to a certain amount of intimacy and softness, though layering a sparkly Taylor acoustic atop a Gibson SG and Mesa Triple Rectifier amp set to destroy will give you some pretty interesting sounds.

Note to look up microphone placement techniques before trying any of these. Mic selection and placement in relation to the speaker cone, angle and distance from the amplifier will all affect the way your guitar will sound on the track.

Each of these techniques have their own time and place, so experiment!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Recording Adventures!

Today was quite a landmark day for recording for the band. We did a nearly 6 hour drum tracking session which yielded good takes for our song "I Can't Be Anybody Else," a song that is featured on our myspace page in a rehearsal version. Bass, guitar and vocals were tracked along with the drums to click track monitored through headphones. We decided to do it this way to give the track a more organic "live" feel, though the guitar, bass, and vocal parts will be redone through a series of overdubs to clean up the performance and allow the use of different microphones, amps and techniques. We started tracking a different version of "The Drifter" but did not get a useable take. We were all getting a little tired and burnt out, but now we're rather well rehearsed so we'll save that for another day.

Our friend Tom stopped by and did a little filming of the band... hopefully he'll take out the part where I'm talking. I've always been a little awkward in front of the camera.

Anyway here are some pictures of the session.

Alec about to wake up the neighbors. Modified Glyn Johns mic technique on drums.


Sennheiser MD421 on kick. Great punchy sound.


Top and bottom miking on snare with 2 SM57s. Make sure to use phase reverse on one of the mics to avoid phasing issues.


We tucked the guitar amp behind the bar in Mike's garage (and turned it very low) to help isolate it from the drum mics. Guitar was monitored through the headphone feed.



M-Audio Fast Track 8R Interface


Alec used his Mackie Mixer as a preamp for his bass guitar. The output of the mixer was then routed to a DI box which then sent the bass signal to the interface via XLR. Bass was monitored through headphones.

Tomorrow... GUITAR OVERDUBS.