Recording - April 2020 - 64

Readers'
TRACKS
BY MARTY PETERS

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.
"If I Vote For You" / Mike Bernier
Equipment: Roland TD6 drums, Epiphone P-Bass, Warmoth
strat copy, Gibson Les Paul Custom, Shure KSM44, Line 6 POD
XT, Focusrite TwinTrak Pro, Mackie Onyx 400F, Cubase, Sound
Forge, Ozone, DBX 1066 Compressor, JBL LSR and Sony surround (w/sub) monitors.
Music: "If I Vote For You" is a male vocal rock song done in
its entirety by Mike.
Recording: Well, what could be more appropriate during
election season than such a timely titled song! Friends, be advised: we will be steering clear of anything out of our purview.
Tracking, mixing, arrangements, and performances are the order of the day here at Readers' Tracks; we'll swing clear of the
rest! "Vote for You" is a relatively dense and ambitious work,
particularly from a one-man band operation. Starting with the
pros, Mike did an excellent job with his drums here. The performance is really solid, and the tones derived from his Roland
TD6 electronic drums are excellent-all the components, kick,
snare, toms and cymbals, are effective through our monitors.
The bass guitar, while relatively simple in nature, performs its
rhythm partner duty well, locking in with the kick at key moments to move the track down the line. Other highlights include
the excellent stacked backing vocals, and (for the most part)
the electric guitar army, though the density of both, combined
with their placement, comes across as a bit crowded at times.
Areas of concern for us center around spatial placement and
some compression/limiting artifacts on the lead vocal. Through
both headphones and monitors, the lead vocal is panned left
of center in the mix for the entire duration of the song. While
it's certainly within anyone's right to place it there, we found it
distracting in this case. We also hear some significant smearing on Mike's voice, particularly on 'S' and 'T' sounds, that

indicate a compression/limiting miscalculation during tracking
or mixdown.
Suggestions: Mike went all in on this recording, with fine results
overall. Regarding suggestions, we'd encourage him to widen his
stereo field where the electric guitars are concerned; there's plenty of room to go around! As for the lead vocal, we can't be certain why it's not centered, but the right-panned delay is not strong
enough to keep our ears from being pulled uncomfortably to the left.
Center the vocal, and then experiment with some creative side-toside panning of the delay instead. Finally, compression artifacts are
never a good thing; reset the controls to eliminate the issue-some
fader automation in the box would be a good way to proceed.
Summary: Easy fixes, and remember to vote!

"Magic Moment"/ Ben Kitay with Courtney Stone
Equipment: Epiphone Les Paul guitar, Ibanez bass, MXL V67
microphone, Ableton Live, MacBook Pro, M-Audio Oxygen
MIDI controller, Korg Triton keys, Pearl Export drum kit with
Zildjian A cymbals.
Music: "Magic Moment" is an alt rock song. Ben did it all,
with Courtney on vocals.
Recording: Ben and Courtney have submitted a strong effort
here, one that's only a few tweaks away from being totally successful. Starting from the top, both the writing and the arrangement are top notch, and honestly, that's a heck of a head start! The
moody keyboard, bass, and electric guitar intro is kept well under
our one-minute limit, and the introduction of the propulsive drums
at the 42-second mark is certainly welcome! While we found the
tones to be somewhat lackluster (particularly the flabby kick drum
sound), the movement they provide is essential to the song. Continuing on, the double synth bass is a cool choice, and the 9:00
and 3:00 panning placement in the stereo field works quite well.
As far as the remaining sound sources are concerned, through our
monitors the electric rhythm guitar sounds too distant to be truly effective (though curiously not so for the solo at the end of the song)
and the tom fills are somewhat clumsy sounding. All that said,
the real star of the show here is Courtney's gorgeous vocals, and
except for a wee bit of compression sibilance, Ben has done a
great job with their tracking and placement in the mix. Courtney's
sultry voice impressed us greatly, and the marriage between it and
the MXL V67 microphone is money, as they used to say. Sweet!
Suggestions: A few adjustments should have things running
smoothly in short order. First up, we'd encourage Ben to spend
some quality time with his drum tones; while we're not sure exactly
what's here (a combination of live and programmed drums?) we'd
like to hear a beefier kick and a simpler tom performance for starters. We also encourage Ben to take a less apologetic stance with
his rhythm guitar; it should be at least as present as the string pads
in our view. Lastly, while we can't know where in the chain the
compressor/limiter is placed, backing it off a tad should eliminate
the sibilance on Courtney's excellent vocal performance.
Summary: Good Stuff!

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64 RECORDING April 2020

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Recording - April 2020

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