Recording - May 2013 - 54

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Walter Young
Equipment: Computer with M-Audio ProFire 2626 interface
running Propellerhead Reason (used for bass and keyboards). Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity mic preamp, KRK
Rokit 6 monitors. Mics: Shure SM57 (snare, guitar cabinet),
CAD drum mic (kick), two Cascade Microphones Fat Head II
ribbon mics (vocals, drum overheads, guitar cabinet).

Music: “She Is My Everything” is a male vocal
soul/blues song. Walter did it all at his home studio
except the drums, which were played by Steven M.
Recording: Walter, we would be hard pressed to recall
a more soulful voice in any of the thousands of submissions that have come through our door over the past sixteen-plus years. What a gift!
As for the rest of the recording, it has the loose, organic feel of a home demo, albeit one with great potential.
We love the soulful edgy tone of Walter’s guitar, and the
restraint of the performance adds a great tension to the
track. The keyboard bass also works well here, providing
a super low-end frequency bed.
Less successful to our ears are the piano/organ sounds
which lack the “air” and ambience of the other sound
sources. We also noticed some occasional timing issues
on several of the instruments throughout the track.
Suggestions: Matching the ambience in a mix can be
tricky business. While a certain amount of counterpoint
is necessary for shadow and light, too much wet vs. dry
can leave a mix feeling disjointed and lacking flow. To
that end we would suggest that Walter add a bit of
reverb, not only to the keyboard sounds but also to his
lead vocal. Moderation is the key here, and a little can go
a long way... but it definitely needs something to pull the
tracks together into a common space.
54

RECORDING May 2013

As for the timing issues, Walter tells us that the guitar
and vocals were laid down first to a basic Reason beat, followed by the keys and lastly the drums with the
snare/kick/stereo overheads setup he mentioned above.
Provided that a click track was used, it should be rather
easy to tighten up the stray timing problems in the box.
Summary: Hey Walter, mind if we borrow that voice sometime?!
Contact: Walter Young, wsy2_2@yahoo.com

Dale Long
Equipment: Dell PC with PreSonus Firepod audio interface running Avid Pro Tools 9 with Waves NLS and IK Multimedia TRackS plug-ins. Mics: AKG C3000B and drum mics, Shure PG91
and SM57. Guitar: Martin D-35.

Music: “Where Do We Go” is a male vocal country song.
Dale wrote, recorded, and mixed the track in addition to
handling the lead vocals, rhythm guitars and bass. Cindy
Long provided the background vocals and played the mandolin. The rest of the group Lost & Found was Walter Lesco
on lead guitar and Jef Wilson on drums.
Recording: Dale’s submission has a laid-back Sunday afternoon parlor picking vibe to it, and is certainly more ’70s
country-rock (think Pure Prairie League) than anything
resembling today’s slick, borderline cheesy “Country”. We
have used the word “organic” more than a few times in this
column to describe this sound, but hey, if the shoe fits...!
As for the individual sound sources, we enjoyed the
ambience of the drum kit in general and the mandolin had
a mellow tone that helped it blend in as part of the rhythm
bed. The lead guitar performance was strong and upfront,
even though the mic picked up some of the transients
involved in the playing style.
On the down side, we felt that the bass could have had a
stronger presence, and the backing vocals would have benefited from a touch of reverb. Finally, through our monitors, the entire mix sounded a tad “blanketed” and in need
of a little mastering sparkle.
Suggestions: A few tweaks here and there should tidy
things up. We would start with the backing vocals first; a
little bit of added reverb or perhaps a slight delay effect
would help to set them back into the mix nicely and coexist with the other sound sources. Next up, adding a bit of
midrange to the bass guitar would let it speak clearer in
the mix. Just a dB or two of boost where the harmonics of
the string pluck are strongest would do the job.
Lastly, we would advise some overall brightening up to
the stereo mix. Start rather high (in the 7 to 10 kHz range),
sweeping and adding a decibel or two at a time until you
hear the mix “open up”; that approach would be the way to
go here. At this point recheck the mix to see if your balances are still in order, and hopefully you’ll be good to go.
You would be surprised at how just the slightest mastering
“bump” can often change the overall sound of things in a
finished mix!
Summary: Sounds like you guys had fun! Now all it will take is a
little polish to make the sound quality match the performance.
Contact: Dale Long - Lost & Found,
homestyle.records@hotmail.com

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Recording - May 2013

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