A little Texas Blues

[Crash]

This is a cover a buddy of mine did. I finally got the snare more livable and not so top endy. Yes...I know the ride cymbal sounds like a manhole cover but everytime I tried to pull it down, (AKG C-24 ambient room mic) the entire kit would change tone and I didn't want to lose what I had.

This tune was recorded on a Neve 8232 to protools. I then FTP'd all the tracks over to a Mackie HDR where it was mixed with a Mackie d8b. Some of the over dubs were done on the d8b as well.

The musos on this had never played together before they stepped foot into the studio. I wish we would have had a couple of rehearsals but in general, I am pleased with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy!

Crash

[Crash]

Now that I have updated the attachment I will throw a run down of what was what on the session for those of you interested.

Tracking console was a Neve 8232 to protools. Mixes were done on an d8b/HDR rig.

Kick-Shure Beta 52
Snare-Shure SM57
Toms-Sennheiser 421
OH-Groove Tubes GT33 matched pair
HiHat-AKG 414 TLII
Ambient/room-AKG C24

GTR-Bruno 100 watt head though a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. Mics were Shure SM-57 up close and a Neumann U-87 back about a foot and a half or so. (panned left and right in the mix)

Keys were all DI

Bass was played though a GK combo amp of some sort. Mic was an Audio Technica but I can't remember which flavor, as well as DI. Both channels ran through two channels of LA-4A comp.

Vocals-Microtech Gefell UM92.1 tube mic through an Altec 436c tube comp.


So... there you have it, for those that are interested.

Crash

[studjo]

Hi Crash

what can I say? Really good recording. You're absolutely on top of the game at recording blues. There are so many recordings I don't like sonically from blues artists it's unbelievable. You did a great job.
I think I have to buy a few Neve preamps

Btw thy guy playing guitar sounds cool too as the whole band. A joy to listen to when you like blues.

Jo

[Crash]

Hey Studjo,

Thanks for the compliments, they are greatly appreciated! As you can probably tell, Bobby, the guitar player, is heavily influenced by Robben Ford.

Here is a link to the studio where the basic tracks were cut if anybody cares to check it out.

http://www.salmonpeak.com/

The place is owned by Mark Sinko who is a hell of a guy and has tons of great gear. Apparently he has acquired a ton more since this session was done there about a year ago. I hear he is on the verge of re-building his Neve as well.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Crash

[DavidO'K]

I've been pounding that sucker out for 30 years now trying to emulate the dual drummer assault that the Allman Bros. used. I never even thought to ditch the hardcore shuffle for a stinky little back beat pocket that sounded great. But that's the blues, nothin's for sure... and THAT'S for sure.

The snare was a little dry for my taste, but it was tuned well. And he seemed to be having trouble nailing the sweet spot on the snare consistently, which isn't suprising if it was a rip & tear type session. Most snare hits were nice and bright then a couple would fall of level wise and sound considerably darker. But he was obviously very good. I wouldn't worry about the ride cymbal. It was there when appropriate, It was down in the mix a little but I actually liked the high pitch especially for that song.

The one quality that I liked most was your ability to do what Don Was did in his work with Bonnie Raitt... all the players are present and accounted for, and everyone is playing their part... but there is so much AIR between them. The parts interact more as counterpoint than ensemble playing, imparting energy without the usual "race for the finish" feeling you get from rockers.

I've been told that part of getting that 'space between' is creating EQ "shelters" for each instrument - keeping their bandwidth allocation as separate from competing players/singers as possible. Do you use severe EQ stunts to do that? An electric guitarist is strong from about 300hz to 6Khz. If the organ part is centered around 2K how do you keep them apart. Notch? Bandpass? dynamic fader moves? or do you just hope for the best? Or do you worry about that at all?

Anyway congrats on the groove from that piece. Great to hear musicians kicking ass, without kicking eachother's ass.

DavidO'K

BTW I finally got my song on my post working.

[Crash]

Thanks David! I know what you mean about the drums. The drummer is a fairly young kid and this was his first time at this style of drumming. He comes from a more traditional jazz background I believe. If I had it all over to do again, I would have had him whack the snot of the snare. He was a little bit inconsistent with his hits as you hear. I think maybe the expander I have on the snare may be clamping on it as well and not opening all the way during some of those hits. I will go back and check the mix sometime this weekend and maybe loosen up the ratio. That is the one thing I love about digital, being able to recall a session and tweak until you are blue in the face, not to mention all the cool automation you can do.

All this stuff was cut with no EQ on the console at all. When we started micing stuff up and listening, if it didn't sound the way we wanted, we would go out and move the mic, or go for a different mic altogether. There was some EQ during mix but nothing drastic by any means. I think the air you refer to is more of an arrangement thing, these guys gave each other room to do stuff. Plus, all these guys gave us really good tones from the start so instruments didn't step on each other from the get go. I wish I could take more credit but the musos were decent and the tones were good, all we had to do was put the right mic in the right place and hit record. To bad all of them are not that easy.

Crash

[Crash]

OK David, and anyone else interested, I have put up another version of the mix trying to sort out some of the snare hits. I am not sure I really helped it much but while I was trying, I decided to get the drums in general just a tad wetter. I screwed with the vocal verb a little bit as well. I promise, this is the last time I will dick with this mix...yeah right!



(EDIT)Crap! I just A/B'd this mix to the other mixes I have and it appears that my Massenburg EQ was somehow bypassed. Looks like I will be eating my words and dicking with this mix at least one more time. Damn!

Crash

[DavidO'K]

Crash:

I too have made similar mistakes. My secret is that if you make them on cheaper equipment, they are not as noticable. :)

DavidO'K

[Crash]

OK, I was able to get back into the studio last night and make sure all the routing was correct. For some reason, when I recalled the session, the routing shows to be right but the Massenburg EQ was bypassed even though it doesn't show it. I just re-routed it back to the way that it showed it to be originallly and I am back in business. Gotta love software and it's glitches. I lightened up the ratio on the snare expander and as before things are a tad bit wetter on the drums and vocals. I am officially done screwing with this mix. The mix is in the first post, I just replaced the previous attachment that was there.

Crash

[merlin17]

Sounds great!!!
I´d pan the lead guitar left (opposite to the rhythm guitar), and the bass ist a bit strong - but still tasty.
Great performance, too.

But: You may have a listen to Robben Ford´s "North Carolina"... the guitar player sure did... ;-))

Peter

[Mike Jasper]

Oh, yeah. I have no advice. This is the real deal.

Jasper

[DavidO'K]

BINGO!!!

The added presence you gave the snare & kick anchors the song perfectly and a it allows the other players to be synchronized in the bkg, then come forward with their contributions, and step back into the common sonic stage and support the singer.

I myself have been spending more time with mic placement, as you mentioned - in one of your posts. I used to just place mic's where they seemed logical and then strongarm them into submission by Comp; EQ; etc.

Thanks for the tip

David O'K

ps Why don't send some of that Texas JuJu out herel

[Crash]

Hey Merlin, thanks for the comments, they are appreciated! The bass parts were probably the biggest issues with this mix. It seemed that no matter what I tried, I could not get rid of the "whonky" tone without totally gutting the sound and destroying it. I tied all sorts of whacky tricks from brute force and ignorance type compression settings to dynamic EQ, etc. And yes, there is a HUGE Robben Ford influence happening with the guitar player.

Jasper, thank you as well. I wonder if you might know any of the cats that played on this tune. I know the drummer plays quite a bit in the Austin scene. He is a guy named Kyle, young dude in his early twenties I would say, real layed back. I can't think of his last name though.

David, you were the reason that I went back and tweaked this mix and I think it is better for it. I appreciate all your comments as well of course. I played the tweaked mixes last night for my buddy that helped co-produce this session and he really dug it. We are going to try and do a full blown album of stuff with this same guitar player later in the year but with a different rhythm section.

I have another tune from this session that I will post at some later date for those interested. I gave it the same up dates as this mix as well.

Crash

[merlin17]

Originally posted by Crash
And yes, there is a HUGE Robben Ford influence happening with the guitar player.

Influence? Well, ... the intro is _exactly_ the same as the RF tune I mentioned above... ;-)

Peter

[Crash]

I hadn't noticed. I wonder if he did that on purpose or it was a subconcious thing, or maybe just a nod to Robben.

Crash

[henge]

great job. i'm just picking up a bit of bass muddiness though.

[RaGe]

I am just in love with that song and the mix you did on it is killer.
I would try to give the singer a more ballsy tone thought (at this point it's just a matter of personal taste).
re: bass muddiness posted above, i am not sure about that but I am listening to some OK computer speakers.

Where did you use the Massenburg EQ? And would you share any techique you employed regarding the drums?

Great song really!

[Crash]

Hey RaGe,

Thanks for your comments. I do appreciate them and I am glad you enjoyed the tune and the mix. As for the Massenburg EQ, I used it on the master out of the d8b just after the Final Mix plug-in, which is a three band frequency selective compressor/limiter.

As for the drums here is a list of what mics were used on what:

Kick-Shure Beta 52
Snare-Shure SM57
Toms-Sennheiser 421
OH-Groove Tubes GT33 matched pair
HiHat-AKG 414 TLII
Ambient/room-AKG C24

There is a slight bit of compression on the kick and quite a lot on the snare during the mix. None was used when we tracked it. Reverbs we used were tweaked d8b verbs, nothing special. A lot of the ambience on the drums comes from the AKG C-24 mic we used in the room. All in all, it was a pretty straight forward way to record. If something didn't sound good on the kit, we started with tuning or we moved the mic a bit. If that didn't work, we tried a different mic. We actually did not use any EQ at all on tracking the drums by using this method. Now that I think about it, we didn't use any EQ on any of the instruments when we tracked.

Anyway, I hope this answers your question. Sorry it took so long to reply but I have been out of town and away from computer access.

Crash

[RaGe]

So I guess what I am hearing is the sound of keeping it simple. Thanks for taking the time to explain.
Keep groovin'!

RaGe

[Crash]

Pretty much and the sound of an awesome room.

Crash

[RaGe]

Yeah, totally! And I am sure the C24 didn't suck either at capturing the room.

[picksail]

Incredible job overall. I like the kick/bass relationship. Nice pocket. I don't, at all, find the bass to be muddy. It sounds ominous to me!! I wouldn't want to mess with the bass player.

The only thing I could offer is with regards to the drums. The snare is tuned to a pitch high enough to render it unsupportive of the song. A little beef (300/400Hz) may be needed in this department. I also, feel that both the snare and hi hat are a bit too bright for my tastes. These are just my initial observations. Great job!!

[Crash]

Hey Stewart,

Interesting observation on the snare. I actually went back and beefed it up to some degree as it was very thin and edgy in my previous mixes. It sounded as though the snare just was not hit very hard. It took some serious EQ and compression to get that thing to "pop" with any authority. At this point, I am done with tweaking these mixes as I have other projects going on now but I do appreciate the comments. This project was originally done about a year ago and consisted of four tunes, of which two were mixed. The other two tunes were scrapped as we decided that we didn't care for the arrangements or the groove.

Crash

[picksail]

Great job, none the less.