Recording - November 2019 - 58

Readers'
TRACKS
BY MARTY PETERS

RECORDING Magazine Readers' Tracks is
where respected engineer and producer Marty
Peters listens to your recordings and critiques
them, pointing out where and how you can
make them better. Listen to the songs, read the
reviews, and submit your own materials online.
"Propaganda Man" / Jack Spann
Preamps: AEA, Grace, FMR, Universal Audio
Microphones: AEA, AKG, Neumann, Shure
Outboard: Avantone, Dangerous Music, Genelec, LYNX, Sennheiser, Sony
Software: Apple, Native Instruments, Spectrasonics
Instruments: Stratocaster, Young Chang console piano, Taylor
acoustic guitar, Gretsch drums
Music: "Propaganda Man" is a male vocal rock song. Jack
wrote the song and co-produced it along with Gary Tanin.
Jack handled the recording duties, played the guitars and keyboards, and sang all the vocals. The drums were courtesy of
Cecil Robbington.
Recording: Jack's submission is an action-packed adventure.
As my dear friend Lorenz Rychner (Playback Platinum Series
Editor/Producer) used to say, this one is "chockablock" full of
sound sources, changing textures, and surprises in its rhythms
and arrangement. As for the actual recording, things are somewhat a mixed bag. Through our monitors, we find the bass
guitar to be too dominant in the mix, while the vocals exhibit
compression artifacts, particularly during the intro: these exacerbate Jack's breathing technique, resulting in an annoying
gasping sound. The vocal timbre and EQ appear to change
at different points of the song-duller in the intro, brighter at
around the forty-second mark, then reverting back to the more
muffled sound in the chorus. The drums are also on the dull
side, with a lack of discernible cymbals. On the plus side, we
congratulate Jack for the excellent panning work on his ancillary sound sources. The interesting panning choices provide a
lot of energy to the track from start to finish. We also dig the
vocal performances here; the harmonies in particular are hand
in glove tight throughout the recording.
Suggestions: LOTS going on here friends, ambitious indeed.
As for tips, Jack has some great gear at hand, particularly on
the vocal chain. While we are unsure of his exact choices,
any of his vocal mics through the Grace preamp should have

provided a crisper vocal tone than we are hearing. We guess
that his compression settings may be robbing some of the top
end while also raising the volume floor on his air intake. Given
that, we would urge him to back off on the compressor a fair bit
and adjust his vocal fluctuations via DAW automation. Regarding the rhythm section, we would love to hear more crack on
the snare drum along with some cymbal work, and a volume
reduction on the bass guitar to seat it with the kick drum.
Summary: All of the ingredients are there.

"Summer Love" / Tony Morgan
Microphones: AKG, Shure
Outboard: AKG, Alesis, Mackie, Steinberg
Software: Cubase (WIN), Toontrack
Instruments: Stratocaster, Precision Bass, Epiphone Les Paul
Amplifiers: Orange, Line 6
Music: "Summer Love" is a male vocal rock ballad. Tony wore
all the hats on this project.
Recording: Yet another ambitious OMB (one-man band) submission, this one has a bit of a back story. Tony tells us that the track
was initially written and recorded in the mid-1980s and that this
re-recording is an attempt to give the song its due with a bit of
freshening up. Tony, we are pretty sure that most of your fellow
recordists, myself included, would love to take another whack
at our older work, hindsight being what it is. So how did things
turn out? Well, hard to say for sure since we lack access to the
original. That said, let's see how this version stands up. From
a composition and arrangement standpoint, '80's rock ballad'
certainly nails it, complete with drum programming, big synth
pads, and big guitar solos, along with a fair amount of vocal
processing. Starting with the drums, Tony wisely keeps things
minimal here, primarily a snappy kick drum accompanied by
a side stick snare rhythm and various shakers tracked via his
Superior Drummer software. As for the bass, it's mostly a whole
note affair, tucked pretty far back in the mix and somewhat obscured by the synths. Speaking of synths, Tony has them upfront
and present-certainly not a wash or pad type placement, but
given the track's vintage, totally acceptable to our way of thinking. The electric guitar solo is also upfront and present-in fact,
too much so. Energy shifts and balance can be a tricky thing to
navigate in a mix, but when the solo volume exceeds that of the
lead vocal as it does here, we have a problem. Regarding the
vocal, once again we are donning our 80's glasses. In a modern
setting, we would most assuredly find an issue with the amount
of delay and other processing. In the context of the song's origin
however, the processing is appropriate. After all, who's gonna
be the one to tell Hugh Padgham and Phil Collins to lose the
gated drums on "In The Air Tonight!"
Suggestions: Intent dear readers, always back to intent. Tony
had a specific goal in mind for his recording and nailed it for
the most part. As for suggestions, the lead guitar volume is disrupting the mix. We urge Tony to align it more with the volume
of the vocal or synths to avoid energy fluctuations in the mix.
Summary: Back to the future.

Listen online at RECORDINGMAG.COM
58 RECORDING November 2019

https://www.recordingmag.com/readers-tracks/

Recording - November 2019

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