Recording - February 2011 - 20

You seem to place a lot of importance on panning—having different sounds speaking from different locations. I feel in today’s recordings there is just not enough use of panning like in When it goes to the double-time 3-bar the ’60s and ’70s, I guess it was new unison low-mid riff the image tightens. then and people really took advanHow many parts are doubled? How are tage of it. It seems a lot of new recordthey distributed? ings are just really loud with a lot of Again I used the Framptone Amp stereo sounds from workstations. Switcher, but this time with a different Look at Queen, for instance... Roy guitar and amps. I played the Thomas Baker really made Guitar Masters Vol. 3 & 4: Les Paul Dedication such great use of the stereo hook riff with a black Gibson The Track List ES-355 through a Marshall image and panning, real masPlexi head and 4x12" Marshall Disc 1 terpieces of mixing. cabinet and a Fender Prosonic 1. Why Do I Love You, featuring Les Paul And His Trio Digital and analog, old-school 2x12" cabinet. The wonderful 2. Gutty Guitar, featuring Jeff Beck and new—you seem to incorpothing about the Gibson 355 is 3. El Becko, featuring Gary Hoey rate them all in your productions. the 5-position knob so you can 4. Tarquinius Maximus, featuring Chris Poland (Megadeth) I find that recording live adjust tonal characters of the 5. Peg, featuring Chuck Loeb music really benefits a great pickups—an awesome feature! 6. Bettie, featuring Hal Lindes (Dire Straits) deal from analog recording I close-miked the Marshall 7. Hell Kat, featuring Howard Hart consoles and analog tape as the with a M160 plus about 7 feet 8. Chopper Mania, featuring Flyin’ Ryan Brothers medium you are recording to. I back from the cabinet, I used a 9. Pyscho Cycle, featuring James Ryan (Men At Work) know there are people today Neumann M49 pointed directly 10. Swift Kick, featuring Chuck Loeb who would disagree with this, at the Marshall logo in the mid- 11. Stormy, featuring Alex De Rosso (Dokken) but I feel that capturing the dle of the cabinet. Both went 12. Led Sled, featuring Hal Lindes (Dire Straits) natural sounds and tones of the through the Universal Audio 2instruments benefits from the 610 mic preamp, then direct to Disc 2 warmth of the mixer, preamps, tape. The Fender I close-miked 1. Funk Me Tender, featuring Steve Vai mics, tube vs. transistor, etc. with a Sennheiser MD421, an 2. Moby Dick, featuring Leslie West For instance I just don’t like overlooked mic for guitars. 3. Antillia, featuring Alan Holdsworth recording drums directly to Pro Popularly used as a drum mic on 4. Blue Wind, featuring Billy Sheehan Tools, the warmth is lost—it toms, it is a great mic on guitars. 5. Manhattan, featuring Andy Timmons may be the converters used. I always call it a Shure SM57 on 6. Aphrodite, featuring Hal Lindes (Dire Straits) I had this conversation with steroids. The 421 went through 7. Black Rose, featuring Brian Tarquin 8. Constantinople, featuring Will Ray Jeff Beck’s recent producer, the Trident console preamps. This time I panned the 9. Solidarity, featuring Brain Tarquin & Max Middleton (Jeff Beck) and he swore no one could tell Marshall 9 o’clock and the 10. Spanish Harlem, featuring Frank Gambale (Chick Corea) the difference. That may be true in the layman world, but Fender 3 o’clock at mix-down 11. Monday Blues, featuring James Ryan (Men At Work) as I pointed out to him, all of using some delay from the 12. Strat Struttin’, featuring Sammy Dee Morton Eventide GTR4000 and reverb 13. You Know What I Mean, featuring Hal Lindes (Dire Straits) those classic records we know and love were recorded this from the vintage AKG BX 20E, way. I was listening to the vinyl of an a real nice rich spring reverb unit the After the bass solo, the right side old classic Aretha Franklin record the size of a small refrigerator. To really seems to have the brighter of the tighten the track up I used an 1176 lim- identical rhythm parts. Is it differently- other day and was taken aback by how great the live band sounded iter on the Marshall and the Electro- played parts or purposely uneven eq? First I played the two parts with two behind her, and by the warmth of the Harmonix NY-2A on the Fender. different guitars and amps. And yes, I recording. It really sounded as if you eq-ed them a little bit different for tex- were in the room with her and the ture reasons. I wanted to get the feel band. that there were two different rhythm But as Beck’s producer said, the guitarists, as in The Doobie Brothers ease and simplicity of the use of Pro “Tarquinius Maximus” has a heavy for example. This is why I panned Tools just outweighs the compensa“wobbly” tremolo background off to them left to right for the stereo image. tion in sound. He’s not alone, there the sides—what is it? I used the Neve Portico 5033 five- are many engineers that have sucAh—this is the famous Univibe, the band eq to really dial in the guitar cumbed to the digital world because reissue one from Dunlop. I really tone, adjusting a sweep on the low of the ease of cut and paste. even gave him a click through the entire song, on a separate track, as a precaution.

wanted the rhythm guitar part to have a distinctive sound. This was made famous first by Hendrix and then Robin Trower later in the ’70s. It is one of the most distinctive boxes, even to this day. I used a Fender signature Jeff Beck Strat on the left side, amped thru a 1970s Fender Super Reverb. Then I went back and doubled the track on the right side with a 12-string Gibson (Jimmy Page Double Neck) through the Univibe, amped by a 1970s Fender Twin Reverb head thru a Fender Showman 4x12" cabinet. I wanted to give the effect of a lush stereo image of the Uni-vibe tone. I miked the Super Reverb with an AKG 414 about 4 inches away from one of the 10-inch speakers. The Twin I miked with my trusted beyerdynamic M160 ribbon mic.

mids, so the guitar cuts through the mix. The great thing about Neve’s eq is that there is no coloration added to the source, so you can adjust the various eq frequencies without drastically adjusting the tone.

Tools and techniques

Tarquinius Maximus

RECORDING FEBRUARY 2011

Recording - February 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2011