AE-240 Winter'08: Analog Technology and Production Techniques

Week-5

Before coming to class PLEASE listen to the tracks below and submit an eval (email or paper) of how the tracks sound on whatever constitutes a "real" system - it's ok to inclue your laptop, but that and headphones can NOT be the only environments you listened in.

I'd also like to know that you all tried the bass hole test and have a simple report.  Were the results surprising?  Did the results inspire you to tweak the room or listen differently?

MONDAY 4 February
MJ came in last wednesday to overdub her lead vocals with Tom Colvin, on his laptop.  I believe they used the Lawson microphone.   We comp'd the vocals, bounced to mono and then burned a version to CD that has vocals on one track and the music on the other (so we can easily sync and fly the lead onto the analog tape).  Tom and Arlen enlisted the help of IPR Lucy and UofM Lucy to add some teenage attitude.  These were flown into the master reel so that now, the four tracks consist of Music, Pam and Rebecca (bkg-1), the Lucies (bkg-2) and MJ's lead.  See the two links below (Monday 4 feb progress).

TUESDAY 5 February
We spent time exploring various tape effects.  Drew recorded his vocals bounced them to mono and then burned to CD a version that has vocals on one track and the music on the other so we can fly the lead onto the analog tape.  I would still like to experiment with the acoustic guitars.  James and Dan got a shot at the submix.  The samples are below, including the slates, which i think are an interestign component of the process (partly because you can hear the effects and the artifacts).  There's also a naked kick sample.

 
MY BOYFRIEND's BACK
Monday 4 Feb progress


the track was EQ'd and peak limited in the box in prep for the real deal
details below...

First EQ pass to tame low end and lift high end

     
    Second EQ pass to dip kick resonance, help snare resonance and lift "air."
RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE
    TRACK
    The drums were recorded with two mics, a modified sm-57 on snare went direct to the altec preamp / compressor, the kick mic went through the pultec preamp and the api 560 eq. I showed a few peeps the floor tom trick of raising one leg off the floor and putting it on a pad to improve resonance. We used a cheap piccolo snare ($35 from musician's friend) and Jess Skadburg's cymbals.

    The two guitars and Ricky Peterson's Fender Rhodes were captured with two Cascade Fathead ribbon mics feeding the custom preamps we built last quarter and then off to two tracks of tape..

    OD + BOUNCE
    Brian (from Monday's class) came in to play bass, which was recorded direct, through the preamp I built last quarter. It was then routed through an API 550b EQ with bass boosted, and then through an 1176 to tape. The OD was recorded simultaneously with the bounce to save a track. The bounce mix was processed with a pair of JBL / UREI 7110 VCA compressor - limiters.

    We had a slight ground buzz issue, not sure exactly why, so the tape machine and outboard rack power was redistributed to the same power outlet as the console.

 "Ride Captain Ride"
as recorded by
Blues Image

Mike Pinera - guitar/vocals 
Malcolm Jones - bass 
Joe Lala - drums/percussion 
Manuel Bertematti - drums 
Frank "Skip" Konte - keyboards