Recording - July 2020 - 60

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.
"Horn Groove" / Eugene W. Hairston
Equipment: Roland sound modules, Mackie mixer, TASCAM
recorder, Kenwood AV receiver.
Music: "Horn Groove" is a big band jazz instrumental tune composed, performed, and recorded by Eugene in his home studio.
Recording: We rarely get a submission in this genre, and it's a
nice breath of fresh air. Eugene relates that he wanted to see if he
could come up with a commercial-sounding instrumental track using only vintage gear. As they say, it's not how new or expensive
the gear is, it's what you do with it. Impeccable timing Eugene,
this month's online Spotlight review tackles that very subject in
rather great detail. Back to the tune... Congrats on a very successful composition and arrangement here. Certain genres seem
to present more constrained avenues for original music, and this
is undoubtedly one of them. There's not a lot of original big band
music floating around these days, and the remaining remnants of
the golden age bands often rely on old charts. That said, where
there's a will, there's a way. Some elements here work better than
others. We absolutely love the vibe, performance, and sounds-
the muted horn section is reasonably convincing. Less successful
are the rhythm section and the keyboard-generated solo trumpet.
The drums, particularly the kick, have a rock-type sound with a
pronounced beater thump that's atypical of the feathery sound
associated with miking a big band bass drum with both heads on.
Having worked fairly extensively in the genre, big band drummers
first utterance is usually, "Don't make me sound like a rock drummer!" followed by a scowl, and an inordinate amount of attention
paid to how close the mic gets to the front of the kit! The bass here
also has a distinctly electric sound, again, atypical of the more
muted tones of the traditional double bass. The noticeable lack of
ride/crash cymbals seem to close the drums down even further.
60 RECORDING July 2020

Suggestions: quite an ambitious undertaking all in all, and
kudos to Eugene for the excellent composition and arrangement! As for suggestions, irrespective of the type of music in
play, A/B'ing is still king. Comparing this track to any number
of sources, be they classic Ellington or something more contemporary like Harry Connick Jr., is a fantastic way of hearing the
nuances. From there, trial, error, and patience will win the day.
Summary: Fun stuff!

"Meth Head"/ BlueRick
Equipment: Epiphone Custom, Gibson SG, Hofner bass;
Shure SM 58; PC running Mixcraft 8 Pro Studio, Waves Gold
Bundle, and Adobe Audition.
Music: "Meth Head" is a rock / country / reggae tune written, arranged, performed, produced, and recorded by Rick
Solomon in his home studio.
Recording: Rock, country, reggae-that covers a lot of territory!
First up, we feel the need to reassess Rick's description of his submission. We've listened to a lot of reggae over the years, and none
of it ever had this rhythm. Rock and country? Sure. Reggae? No.
OK. Now that we've cleared that up, let's look at some of the issues that are keeping this recording from its full potential. Sonically,
there's a large disparity between the snappiness and volume of the
drums, juxtaposed with muddy bass and vocal tone, with the guitars
somewhere in between. Starting with the programmed drums, the
snare has a brittle sound. The tom fills, while nicely panned, are too
loud in relation to the rest of the kit. The fact that the fills never vary
lend a programmed vibe that could have been mitigated by occasionally changing the pattern. That said, we applaud Rick for not
being apologetic with the drums. The bass guitar sounds diffused,
creating an at-odds coupling with the drums. This feel carries over
to the flanged slide guitar, and to a greater extent, the vocals. We
struggled to get a clear understanding of the lyrics to the song, even
though our Grado Labs SR 325 headphones. Whether the processing and mix placement were an intentional hide, or the result of
room acoustics issues during mixdown, not being able to discern
them was a distraction throughout the song.
Suggestions: Rick's effort certainly has the potential to improve
with some adjustments. For the drums, we suggest EQing and compressing the snare to knock back a bit of its bite. For the toms,
reducing their volume would provide a more realistic feel. We also
urge Rick to re-examine the bass guitar; we've had plenty of experiences with Hofner basses (originally intended to emulate the
double bass sound) over the years, and their idiosyncratic plonk is
legendary. McCartney's staccato Beatles lines were performed with
a pick-the best way to draw out the midrange frequencies from
this hollow instrument. As for the vocals, while some may disagree,
our view has always been that if a song contains lyrics, intelligibility
is preferred. It's not uncommon for vocalists to show insecurity over
their voices. Reverb, delay, and placement have long been part of
the equation, but Rick has gone further down the rabbit hole than
necessary! Mssrs. Dylan, Young, and Waits are not Pavarotti, yet
their lyrics are some of the finest of all time. We encourage Rick to
lift the veil a bit so we can get to the message here.
Summary: A few small repairs...

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Recording - July 2020

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