Recording - July 2016 - 64

Chuck Evans Band
Equipment: Windows 7 PC with Digi 002 interface
running Avid Pro Tools 9 with Avid Boom, Strike,
Structure Free, Mini Grand, and Xpand!2 and
Toontrack EZdrummer 2 virtual instruments and
Waves MAXXbass and L3-16 Multimaximizer, IK
Multimedia AmpliTube 3 and T-RackS Classic
Clipper, and iZotope Nectar 2 plug-ins, KRK V8
monitors, JBL 18" subwoofer, Sony MDR-7509
headphones, Shure SM57 mic, Taylor 614ck
acoustic guitar.
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Johnny Conga
Equipment: Windows 7 PC with M-Audio ProFire 2626 interface running
Avid Pro Tools 9, Warm Audio TB12 Tonebeast mic preamp, Yamaha
HS80M monitors, Sony MDR-V6 and Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones. Mics: AKG C414, Shure SM57, Sennheiser MD421, Studio Projects
C4.

Music: "Mambo for Tjader" is a Latin-tinged instrumental song.
Mario Marrero and Fred Hoadley played piano, Sammy Alamillo
played drums, Rick Houle was on bass, Steve Mostovoy played trumpet, Nathaniel Paul played the saxes and flute, Joe Cano handled
the guitar, Julio Jarregui was on piano/synth bass, and Johnny
Conga played congas/bongos/timbales/vibraphone/cajon/guagua/
clave/cowbell/guiro, sang, and also produced the track. Julio
Jarregui engineered the recording session at Betermusik, his home
studio.
Recording: A mighty fine overall effort by all involved here,
though still a few tweaks away from being as successful as it might
be. First the good stuff. All of the performances here are topnotch,
as are the tones. We dug the round solid bass (more on this later) as
well as the mellow nature of the vibes. The hand percussion was
delivered with a crisp clear sound in the mix, while the horns had a
nice blended quality through our monitors.
All this being said, we did find that the track had a very narrow
stereo field for the sheer number of sound sources involved. With
the bass taking up much of the center of the stereo field, the other
instruments are positioned in essentially a mono presentation.
While there is certainly nothing wrong with monophonic, this is
after all a multitrack recording done in Pro Tools in 2016, not a liveto-quarter-inch 1950s model. With many of these well-recorded
instruments sharing similar frequency ranges, to our ears the mix
starts becoming somewhat fatiguing by its end.
Suggestions: As we stated earlier, everyone involved with "Mambo
for Tjader" should be proud of their efforts. In our perfect world,
the guys would consider a new mix that reduces the bass presence
and takes advantage of the stereo field spread, at least from 10 to 2
o'clock, thereby giving the myriad instruments at play their own
voices.
Summary: Quality work, gents!
Contact: Johnny Conga, johnnyconga@hotmail.com
64

RECORDING JULY 2016

Music: "Don't Give Up" is a male vocal rock
song written, performed, programmed and
recorded by Chuck Evans, with help from
Brenda Marrero on backing vocals and Scott
Brewer on percussion.
Recording: This is a nice positive-vibe track
with "really good bones," as they say in the
real estate trade. Let's take a look around
Chuck's work and see what's up.
Starting with the rhythm section, we
applaud the realistic drum programming via
Chuck's Boom and Strike Pro tools software.
That said, we were somewhat underwhelmed
by the snare drum sound here. With the
plethora of high-quality sounds available via
expansive drum libraries (like EZdrummer 2),
the small, boxy snare as presented here has
room for improvement. On the flip side, the
bass has a rich low tone that works nicely in
the track, and the faux string pad is surprisingly effective.
The vocals are a bit of a mixed bag to our
ears. While the lead vocal is well recorded
and well placed in the mix, something screwy
seems to be going on at times with Chuck's
harmony vocals. While it is difficult to accurately describe, we hear a hollow, "phasey"
sound on the harmonies that fails to do justice to the excellent vocal arrangement. This
effect seems less evident on Brenda's superb
performance but it may be there as well.
Lastly, while the performance is solid, the
tone of the acoustic guitar here screams of
onboard pickup rather than a miked-up
recording. As the proud owner of several
Taylor guitars through the years, we can say
with absolute certainty that they are among
the easiest acoustic instruments to mic, and
in our experience, best delivered that way!
Suggestions: With a little TLC, "Don't Give
Up" should blossom into a winning track. We
suggest that Chuck rethink his snare sound-
the quasi-beatbox one currently in play seems
out of context with its fellow sound sources.
As for the vocal issues, whether it was intentional or accidental, the hollow sound needs
to be identified and corrected, nothing about
it benefits the recording in our opinion. As for
the acoustic guitar, we suggest that Chuck retrack it with the aid of his Shure microphone,
perhaps in combination with the pickup in his
Taylor in order to add a bit of "air" to the
sound.
Summary: Easy fixes, Chuck-have at it!
Contact: Chuck Evans,
chuckevansband@optonline.net

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