Recording - October 2011 - 80

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Mark Szabo / Kohai
Equipment: Core i7 Windows Vista 64 PC with PreSonus FireStudio and FireBox interfaces and Universal Audio UAD2 DUO Neve card running Steinberg Cubase 5.1.1 (with VariAudio for intonation tuning) and Waves GTR Solo plugin plus Universal Audio 88RS, 1073, 1081, 1176, Realverb, LA2A, Precision De-esser, and Precision Limiter plugins; API 500series Lunchbox with A Designs Blue preamp for bass DI. Mics: Sennheiser e609, AKG D112, Shure SM57s, MXL V57Ms, RØDE NT1-A; Fender bass, guitars and amps; Gibson acoustic guitar, Rickenbacker guitar, Microkorg keyboard, Yamaha Beech Custom drums.

Marjun Advincula / Allensworth.Advincula
Equipment: PC with Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro interface and MAudio Keystation 49 keyboard controller running Digidesign Pro Tools LE, Propellerhead Reason 4, and Waves Mercury plug-ins; M-Audio BX5A Monitors; Shure Beta 58 mic on vocals and Larrivee acoustic guitar.

Music: “Something” is a male vocal track listed as “folk” by its author. The track was written by Marjun, Jaime Allensworth and Shaun Bradford, and produced by Marjun and Jamie. Recording: Picture a slightly more electronic Daniel Lanois and you would have a basic idea of the vibe here. Delivered predominantly via Reason instruments played on an M-Audio 49 keyboard with a Larivee acoustic guitar, “Something” is a creative, hypnotic groove piece designed to support Marjun’s excellent vocal and arranging skills. Have we heard better programming? Sure, although given the strength of the vocals we’re not really convinced that it matters. The vocal is the show here, and Marjum delivers bigtime. We love the harmony blend, and the lack of artifact is a blessing. Our guess is that Marjun and Jamie chose to work with the tools that were available to them and to focus their energy on the feel and atmosphere of the track as a whole. To that end, they have achieved the desired result to our ears. Suggestions: As is often the case with these type of submissions, our only real suggestion would be for the guys to add some live instrument/players to the mix. Whether that is possible is anyone’s guess, but it would be fun to hear, now, wouldn’t it?
Summary: Groovy!
Contact: Marjun Advincula / Allensworth.Advincula, marjun.advincula@yahoo.com
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RECORDING OCTOBER 2011

Music: “Next Stop” is a male vocal rock song. Mark played the drums, guitars, and bass, sang backing vocals, and engineered and mixed the track, with some help from Shaun Henry on the lead vocal. Recording: In his cover letter, Mark tells us that the drums were laid down after a scratch vocal and acoustic guitar were recorded as a guide track, and then “creatively edited” to fix any timing problems. To our ears. however, it sounds as if the track is still suffering from a disjointed feel. Things start out well enough with Mark’s airy acoustic guitar and Shaun’s vocal. Unfortunately, once the drums and bass enter we continue to hear some timing issues, particularly from the kick drum, and the overly strident tone of the bass guitar does little to hide the fluctuations. On the plus side, we appreciated the clarity and panning choices that Mark made on his electric guitar and we certainly give him an A for effort in his attempt to handle all of the instrumentation here. Suggestions: A quick read-through of Mark’s equipment list revealed a pretty awesome set of tools for any home recordist. That said, we wonder if Mark took the time to lay down a click track on his system in order to be able to construct a grid for fixing his timing issues? Having to go through and manually move individual beats without a timing grid is a painstaking, inexact, and time-consuming process (you can trust me on this one!), and one that is really unnecessary given the options of modern computerbased recording. So many DAWs offer great tools for timing adjustment, including Cubase, and we know they’re capable of better than what we’re hearing here. Work with a click, or construct a groove after the fact by having your DAW analyze the scratch track... but whatever Mark is doing to correct his timing issues in this case, sorry, it ain’t working. We urge Mark to spend some quality time with his computer and his drum set. Taking the time to learn and master all of the tools available is critical to all recordists, especially those wearing so many hats.
Summary: Grab that manual, yes that’s right, the manual... and then grab the sticks.
Contact: Mark Szabo, old_skul@hotmail.com

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Recording - October 2011

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