Recording - August 2014 - 64

Daniel John Chauvin Sr.

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Equipment: Hewlett-Packard p6540y AMD Phenom II 860 quad
core PC with TASCAM US-1800 interface, running Windows 7,
PG Music Band-In-A-Box RealDrums, PreSonus Studio One 2.6
Professional and iZotope Ozone 4. Mics: AKG Perception 220,
MXR 990s, Shure Beta 58A and SM57, Sennheiser e845s. KRK
ROKIT 8 monitors, Auratone Cube reference monitors, KRK KNS
8400 headphones. Yamaha MG124cx as channel strip, Alesis
NanoCompressor, Alesis SR18 drum machine with Yamaha KX25
as controller, Line 6 POD 2.0, Casio CTK7000 keyboard/synth,
Fender Hotrod DeVille 410 amp, BOSS ME-70 multieffects pedal,
Fender Highway 1 Stratocaster, Alvarez Artist acoustic guitar,
Yamaha P-type bass.

Music: "80 Proof" is an instrumental jazz song. Mike
wrote, performed and recorded the entire effort aside
from the piano, which was played by John Kuvinka.
Recording: Tracked on a humble TASCAM DP-01
Portastudio, Mike has fashioned a fine demo or sketchpad
recording that places the emphasis firmly on his primary
skill as a trumpet player. We love his choice of the ribbon
mic on the horn; steering clear of a condenser mic here
keeps the often-strident upper frequencies of the instrument in check without the use of excess EQ. As for the
remaining sound sources, we found them to be rather distant through our monitors, leading to a mix that seemed
somewhat out of balance to our ears.
Suggestions: In our experience, the rather timid nature of
Mike's secondary sound sources has more to do with unfamiliarity than skill level. While Mike's trumpet chops are
unquestioned, he is obviously not a drummer, nor a bassist.
This, then, friends, is where the "demo" part of our review
looms large. In our view, being able to hand this track off
to some seasoned jazz players as a guideline is the real
strength of Mike's effort. Pre-production recordings such
as these used to be commonplace back in the day, and
their value kept many small affordable 8-track commercial
studios in business, especially as more and more players
relied on "head" arrangements and less on charts.
As for Mike's track, we would love, as always, to hear
the energy and insight that real live players could provide, and would certainly encourage him to take it to
that level if he has the means.

Music: "The One" is a male vocal rock/pop song and a "one
man band production". Here's some of what Daniel had to say.
"Drum racks were programed in Band-In-A-Box RealDrums
with audio recorded and edited in Studio One. Guitar tracks,
clean boutique amp and driven blues tweed come from Strat
through the POD 2.0 (all instruments tracked with effects and
EQ to the sound I want). Bass: Yamaha P-type bass through
Yamaha MG124cx with light 3:1 ALESIS NanoCompressor
insert to tame playing inconsistencies. Grand Piano, Electric
Piano, Organ and Strings: Samples via CASIO CTK7000 keyboard. Vocals (main, doubled and backing): AKG Perception
220 through Yamaha MG124cx with no EQ, easy 2:1 compression. In Studio One, main vocal EQed and sent to reverb bus,
with doubled and backing vocals EQed dry. I mixed putting
everything in its place in time and space and added a little polish and gain with Ozone 4. I hope you enjoy it."
Recording: A nice overall effort here, albeit with a bit of
room for improvement. The song intros quite nicely with a
combination of electric guitars and keyboards thoughtfully
panned. The bass has a good clean tone, and we congratulate
Daniel for keeping his drum programming on the simple side,
an area where many one-man/woman recordists run into trouble. The plaintive vocals are presented without sibilance or
compressor/limiter artifact and sit fairly well in the mix.
On the down side, we felt that with the possible exception
of the "acoustic" piano, all of the keyboard-generated tones,
including the faux string patch, could use an upgrade. In his
gear list Daniel tells us that they were samples via a Casio
CTK7000 keyboard. From this limited description it's difficult to tell just what those samples were, but to our ears
they sounded either thin or strident through our monitors.
We also felt that these same parts could have benefited
greatly from some reverb; the lack of "air" here contributes
to the general "canned" sound that we are hearing.
Suggestions: Daniel seems to have a fairly strong sense of
composition and arrangement, as evidenced by his multiple
layers of orchestration. Perhaps, then, our best advice would
be to ask him to close his eyes and picture a symphony being
performed in a concert hall. Likely he would imagine rich
warm tones emanating from a stage into a room filled with
a beautiful natural reverb... and if not, he should!
Can Daniel transport this scenario into his recording?
Well, we'd like to believe that he can, with the aid of some
gentle EQing as well as some careful experimentation with
spatial ambience via his PreSonus Studio One software.
Adding "air" to a mix can be a challenging task, but in taking the time to learn its nuances, Daniel will have added an
invaluable tool to his recording arsenal for future projects.

Summary: A fine roadmap for a fine song.

Summary: Very solid effort, but there's a ways to go.

Mike Kuvinka
Equipment: TASCAM DP-01 Digital Portastudio with PAiA Hot
Springs Reverb. Mics: MXL R144 ribbon (trumpet), beyerdynamic
M 818 stereo pair (piano). Roland M-BD1 Bass & Drums Sound
Expansion module, Casio CZ1000 for the sax sound on the tuttis.

Contact: Mike Kuvinka, kuvinka@comcast.net, mikekuvinka.com
64

RECORDING August 2014

Contact: Daniel John Chauvin Sr., dcplegal@cox.net

http://www.recordingmag.com http://www.mikekuvinka.com

Recording - August 2014

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