Recording - March 2018 - 66

Readers'

TRACKS
BY MARTY PETERS

Listen online at www.recordingmag.com

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Joe Livengood
EQUIPMENT: PC with PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 mixer/
interface running PreSonus Studio One 3.2 and plug-ins by
Waves, Universal Audio, and Steven Slate. Yamaha HS 8
monitors, beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO headphones. AKG C5
vocal mic, vintage 1967 Yamaha Drums with Audix mics.
2015 Les Paul Custom through VOX AC15 with Fulltone OCD
and JangleBox pedals. 2013 Fender Jazz bass through Radial
Engineering DI, Roland VR-09 piano/workstation.
MUSIC: "Good Thing (Nod To Mott)" is a male vocal rock
song. Joe did it all with the some help from his friend Craig
Schechter on drums.
RECORDING: In his production notes Joe tells us that
"Good Thing" is a bit of an attempt to travel back in time and
assume the character of an early-1970s Ian Hunter, the head
honcho of the late great band Mott The Hoople. Kinda sci-fi,
Joe, but we'll play!
For the uninitiated, the mighty Mott were a group of English
lads who were part of the glam rock scene around the time
of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust period. In fact their one big
smash hit was the Bowie-penned "All The Young Dudes". Left
to their own devices, their sound was much rawer, as
evidenced by their other radio hit "All The Way to Memphis".
Picture the Faces with more glitter and a punk snarl. So how
did things turn out? Let's take a peek.
First of all, Joe is well aware that his track is in the demo
stage and lets us know that straight up in his description of the
recording. That said, to our ears he did a great job capturing
the essence of the Mott sound/vibe. Lots of distant miked room
ambience, rollicking barroom piano, big crunchy electric guitars,
crashing cymbals, and most impressively, a pretty spot on
66

RECORDING March 2018

approximation of Ian Hunter's "spoken more than sung"
upturned vocal style! Check, check and double check!
SUGGESTIONS: There is always a bit of danger in "trying
on" someone else's musical clothes, particularly when they
are not a household name. Over the years we have heard
many such attempts, although usually in the form of the
Beatles, Stones, or Pink Floyd.
The fact that we share a "people of a certain age" category with Joe allowed us a historical perspective that may
not have been guaranteed elsewhere. Given that, we
got a tremendous kick out of "Good Thing"; the demo feel
actually suits the style, and we suggest that any future attempts
to "clean up" the recording maintain the edge that Joe and
Craig have created.
SUMMARY: Roll out those shades, Joe!
CONTACT: Joe Livengood, joeliv4@gmail.com

Mark Bolton
EQUIPMENT: PC with Mackie Onyx 400F audio interface
running Cockos REAPER. M-Audio Sputnik mic through ART
MPA Gold with NOS RCA 7025 tubes and FMR Audio
RNC1773 compressor (on vocals). Yamaha NS-10M
monitors, Sennheiser HD600 headphones. Yamaha FGX413SC acoustic guitar, vintage Gibson mandolin, circa 1916.
MUSIC: "Big News Today" is a male vocal acoustic rock
song. Mark wrote, performed, and handled the recording
chores at his home studio.
RECORDING: Mark has submitted quite a successful track
here, in our opinion, with creative songwriting and solid
performances throughout. The instrumentation is fairly sparse
by today's unlimited-track-count standards, but it is well-suited
for the genre, and we never find ourselves in the "sure wish
there was more" mindset while listening.
The track intros with two nicely recorded and panned
acoustic guitars, along with Mark's winsome and artifact-free
vocals. Next up is a beautifully-recorded mandolin, panned
out at approximately 9 o'clock. This simple addition to the
sonic landscape proves a subtle but effective energy boost
to the song's chorus section. Mark manages its comings and
goings without distracting from the song's flow, something that
is harder to accomplish than it may seem-especially with so
few sound sources. We were also very impressed with the
backing harmony vocals here; we found them to be very well
recorded and ideally "seated" in the mix. Well done!
SUGGESTIONS: We feel that Mark has hit the target here.
While some may argue that additional "production" would
add to the success of the track, we feel that the less-is-more
approach suits it just fine. As the wise man once said, what
you don't play can be just as important as what you do play!
SUMMARY: Two thumbs up!
CONTACT: Mark Bolton, boltonmark@sbcglobal.net

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