EQ Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 33)

by David Royer convert all outside audio using Pro Tools internal sample-rate conversion, set to “Tweak-head” (highest quality). Finally, there was the GarageBand gremlin—which compromised my home-spun guitar tracks. “One problem that can crop up with importing audio from GarageBand is that it is very easy to export audio with the level too hot, or with panning causing the level to differ between left and right,” explains Luekens. “With Mike’s tracks, I split the stereo files into mono files, deleted one side, and, in many cases, I used a plugin to drop the level by several decibels. But there was another problem—some dropouts and ticks in the audio. I could fix some of the short-duration ticks by zooming in until I could see the distortion of the waveform, and then using the pencil tool to redraw the offending part. Some were too subtle to see, so I copied and pasted a different part of the audio over them. This works especially well when there is an obvious repeating waveform. Other dropouts happened during long sustained notes or chords, and I could just snip the dropout, and slide the ring-out forward and crossfade the parts together.” THE GUITAR PLAYER GUEST STARS Dalton had asked for some gritty slide on “Borstal Boys,” so Darrin Fox grabbed a Big Heart glass slide, a Gibson Inspired By Elliot Easton SG, and a Reverend 5-15 1x10 combo. “I miked the amp with an Alesis/ Groove Tubes FET condenser, running into a True Systems P-Solo mic preamp to GarageBand,” says Fox. “But the naughty part is that I ran from the mic pre straight into my Powerbook’s 1/8" input. Not exactly an audiophile signal chain, but it sounded killer, so I didn’t worry about it!” For his EBow solo on “Handbags and Gladrags,” Barry Cleveland plugged his ’03 PRS Custom-24 Brazilian into the distortion channel of a Rivera Venus 6, and then to a Palmer ADIG-LB directinjection box, and a MOTU 828mkII FireWire interface routed to MOTU Digital Performer 5.13. Once recorded, the signal was slightly compressed with a Universal Audio LA-2A plug-in, and a touch of reverb was added with a Universal Audio Plate 140 plug. “The initial takes felt a little too polite, given the punk context, so I cranked up the gain and slammed the EBow onto the strings for the first note, kept it close to the neck pickup for maximum intensity, and moved the EBow around to create harmonics on some notes,” says Cleveland. Matt Blackett took a bluegrass approach for “Ladies and Gentlemen,” transforming his Babicz Identity ID-JRW06 acoustic into a faux Dobro by using a DTAR Mama Bear set to its Tricone Resonator setting (100 percent wet). A Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 I/O preamp sent the signal to Cakewalk Sonar Producer 6 running on an HP Pavillion a1644x PC. “I have some great mics,” says Blackett, whose performance was inspired by the new Blue Highway album, “but I record almost all of my acoustic tracks through the Mama Bear. It’s totally clean, direct, and simple, and I can have monitors blasting in the room as I track. So many engineers have put their Neumanns away when they hear how the Mama Bear sounds.” To get the ’70s Allman Brothers by way of Jerry Garcia tone on his “Church of the Holy Spook” solos, Art Thompson plugged a ’68 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty Reissue into a Bad Cat Lil’ 15 head with its output routed to a Rivera SilentSister speaker-isolation cabinet (basically, an enclosed box with a guitar speaker and mic clip mounted within). The AEA R92 ribbon we plopped into the box captured a dry, throbbing overdrive that was perfect for the part. Finally, Jude Gold ran his Fender Telecaster into a cranked-up mid-’90s Matchless Chieftain with the speakers disconnected, routing the speaker output to a Palmer PDI-03 Speaker Simulator plugged directly into Pro Tools LE via a Mbox 2 Pro. “I didn’t use any effects—not even amp ’verb,” says Gold. “I was kind of surprised how dry my part was on the final mix. I was asked for only a solo, but the song had huge empty spaces between each verse, so I threw in some accompaniment parts. To break things up for the solo, I started the lead using harmonics up at the 19th fret. Towards, the end of the solo, I ended up on the open low-E string, but really wanted to hit the low-D root, so I spontaneously reached over and grabbed the tuning peg and dropped the string a whole step. It sounded cool, so we went with it. I was very inspired throughout, because the song’s lyrics were so edgy. I became an instant Dave Dalton fan from the moment we launched the session.” On the MA-100 “How does such a small mic make such a big sound? This Ross Hogarth (Grammy winning Producer/Engineer, Ziggy Marley, Jewel, Keb Mo, Black Crowes, REM) On the MA-200 “I've tracked great sounding vocals, drums, guitars and bass through these mics, and my clients are consistently blown away by the results. From the moment I first put a pair up, they have continued to impress me with a wide open and balanced Ryan Hewitt (Engineer/Mixer: Red Hot Chili Peppers, blink-182, Alkaline Trio) Visit mojaveaudio.com for studio photos and audio samples. www.eqmag.com MAY 2008 EQ 33 http://mojaveaudio.com http://mojaveaudio.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - May 2008

EQ Magazine - May 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Jamie Lidell, What the New Model of Record Deal Means to You, Part II, Andrew W.K. Tool Box Aerosmith Fast Tracks Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet DigiDesign Pro Tools LE 7.4 Cakewalk Sonar 7 Line 6 UX8 Studio Projects CS5 Art Tubefire 8 Jazzmutant Dexter MCDSP Emerald Pack Overloud Breverb KRK Exposé E8B Mackie MR5 Blue Sky Exo Monitor System Big Fish Audio Around the World in 80 Raves East West Fab Four Virtual Instrument Sony Matt Fink- Starvu Session Keys Room With A VU

EQ Magazine - May 2008

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