Recording - January 2015 - 62

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Captured
Equipment: Windows 7 i5 2400 computer with Focusrite Saffire
Pro 24 audio interface and M-Audio 49-key keyboard controller
(for keyboard and drum parts) running PreSonus Studio One
Pro software. Shure SM7B on vocals through a Grace Design
m101 preamp, Mogami cables, KRK G2 Rokit 5 monitors.

Music: "When The Rain Falls" is a male vocal acoustic
rock song. Sam Ramano wrote the music and handled
all of the instruments. Fred Flory wrote the lyrics and
sang the vocals. Daniel Gough produced and engineered
the track. Daniel also co-produced the song along with
Fred Flory.
Recording: Really nice effort here, with a great rainy
day (hey, if the title fits, pun it!) Barnstorm-era Joe Walsh
vibe. We love the wide-panned strummed acoustic guitars; Sam did an excellent job of giving each a singular
voice while achieving a solid blend of the two. The
rhythm section is spot on for the genre, and we particularly dug the keyboard-generated "brushy" snare drum
tone. Sam wisely kept things simple here, and in doing so
he served the song wisely. Other highlights included
some tasty keyboards and nicely tight harmony vocals.
On the down side, we felt that the rain sound effect in
the song's intro was too obvious, as well as too loud. We also
detected some slight sibilance on the lead vocal, which is
rarely the case when coming from a Shure SM7 mic.
Suggestions: Not a whole lot to quibble with here, fellas. The overall collaboration has yielded pretty impressive results. As for our areas of concern, isolating the
lead vocal minus any processing would help to determine just where the sibilance is coming from. As for the
rain effect, it's kind of cliché to us, but if you all are sold
on it, a bit more subtlety might be in order.
Summary: Solid all around.
Contact: Captured, dgvoiceovers@gmail.com
62

RECORDING January 2015

Auriemma
Equipment: PC with M-Audio Fast Track audio interface running Cockos Reaper and all included plug-ins. Shure PG27 mic
for guitars and vocals. Sennheiser HD800 headphones. 1979
Madeira A-20 acoustic guitar and 1983 Gibson ES-335 electric
guitar.

Music: "Change" is a male vocal acoustic funk song,
Auriemma did it all at his home studio.
Recording: Lots of interesting ideas at play here.
Auriemma has assembled a funky music track complete
with acoustic and electric guitars, human beat box, canned
handclaps and vocals. So how well do the kids play together? Let's take a closer look.
Since we were not provided with very many details about
how the track was done beyond the guitars used, it is difficult to ascertain exactly how things went down, but we can
certainly take a guess! Both the acoustic guitar and lead
vocal have an ambient, somewhat distant quality, which
would lead us to believe that they may have been tracked
simultaneously.
Anyone who has tried this technique will likely admit
that there is a great deal of compromise involved in order
to achieve a balance, volume and EQ that is suitable for
both sound sources. Oh, there is also the potential difficulty of dealing with mic/instrument bleed along with its associated phase issues. To our ears, the acoustic guitar gets the
worst of the bargain here, coming across as rather scratchysounding and lacking low-end body.

On the flip side, we dug the Curtis Mayfield-style electric
guitar that Auriemma delivered via his Gibson ES 355
semi-hollow body. Funky stuff indeed! The remaining
sound sources serve well to showcase some of the arrangement ideas that Auriemma had for the track, though in our
monitors the "beat box" was too forward in the mix, while
the handclaps could have benefited from more presence.
Suggestions: "Change" is yet another in a long line of
"demo" submissions that we have reviewed. We would love
to hear a more full-bodied, present acoustic guitar to
anchor the track. How that is achieved will be up to
Auriemma and the capacity of his recording device. If he is
able to track the guitar separately, he should certainly consider it. Having the ability to adjust his mic position as well
as his EQ could solve some of the tone issues that we heard
with the guitar.
We would also urge Auriemma to perform a bit of a flipflop between the handclap volume and the "beat box" volume, in order to achieve a better overall balance in the
mix.
Summary: Plenty of potential.
Contact: Auriemma, richie227666@yahoo.com

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Recording - January 2015

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