Recording - October 2014 - 72

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on our website, and in our SPOTLIGHT e-newsletter. We might need to
shorten entries for editorial reasons. By listing your name with the submitted work, MMP does not imply any assignment of rights to the submitted work. We can neither guarantee publication of a review nor
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Media can be submitted physically (as in an actual recording
through the mail) or online at our website. For online submissions,
please go to www.recordingmag.com and click on Readers' Tapes,
then select "Submit Your Recording" and fill in the requested information. We accept MP3 and AAC files of up to 5 MB size. File bitrate is
up to you but we strongly recommend a minimum of 128 kbps; note
that the higher the bitrate, the shorter the song that will fit in the 5 MB
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Send physical submissions to: Readers' Tapes c/o Recording
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include: a) a CD, CD-R, cassette, DAT, or MiniDisc with only one
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PLEASE state which part of your contact info we can publish
(address, phone, and/or email)-if you don't tell us precisely, we
won't print anything at all.

John Lewitt
Equipment: Apple iMac with Apogee Duet interface and
Roland A-88 keyboard controller, running Apple Logic 9
with Native Instruments Komplete 9 virtual instrument collection and Guitar Rig guitar effects, Toontrack EZdrummer,
backing vocals via The Ladies female-vocal instrument by
Realitone, and iZotope Ozone 5 mastering software and
Nectar 2 vocal processing plug-in. Monitors: KRK VXT4.
Vocal mic: Mojave Audio MA-200. Electric guitar and bass
direct input through Duet.

Music: "A Different Game" is a male vocal, one-man-band
rock effort. John wore all of the hats here.
Recording: In his production notes, John tells us that the track
"was originally written and recorded as an Alt Country/
Americana tune. I didn't like where it was, so on a whim one
afternoon I stripped away everything but the drums, bass and
vocals, added in the keyboard, guitars, and female vocals,
and I very quickly ended up with this." Well John, we are not
sure just what was removed-mandolin/fiddle/steel guitar or
some other "Alt-country" stalwarts?-but we like the new direction just fine!
Starting with the drum programming, John kept matters simple and steady with just enough tom fill action to make things
interesting. The lead vocal was clear and present and we definitely liked the slight tap delay applied to it. As for the remaining sound sources, the electric guitars and keyboards were
well recorded as was the bass, though the amount of bass in
the mix seemed a bit much through our monitors and headphones.
Lastly, we are failing to hear the "female vocals" that John
described in his production notes. We understand that they were
"played" using Realitone's The Ladies vocal instrument (female
voices played back with a keyboard or DAW) and processed
with Nectar 2 by iZotope, but we are missing their impact in the
overall mix. They're either mixed so far back we can't hear them
at all, or he accidentally uploaded the wrong mix!
72

RECORDING October 2014

Suggestions: Not a lot to find fault with here. John seems to have
a pretty firm handle on his total skill set. As for our minor quibbles...
All monitoring systems and rooms treat bass response differently.
John was gracious enough to list his monitors in his gear list (hey Mike,
my March 2014 "Fade Out" piece may have sprouted wings!). For all
we know, John just digs the bass; however, our guess is that his monitor of choice, the otherwise excellent KRK VXT4, simply can't deliver
much bass with its tiny 4" woofer and he didn't crosscheck it on other
speakers. If it were our mix we would back it down a few dB.
Regarding the plug-in, perhaps the intention was to be subtle,
though some actual female vocals would be cool here. Just sayin'!
Summary: Nicely done, John.
Contact: John Lewitt, jmlewitt@gmail.com

Kevin T
Equipment: Apple MacBook Pro laptop with Apogee Symphony
I/O interface and ThunderBridge running Apple Logic Pro 9 and
Toontrack EZdrummer. Mackie 1402 VLZ4 mixing desk,
Avantone Cube check monitors and Fostex near fields, four
Shure SM57 mics through Mackie desk, ART Voice Channel with
Telefunken 12AT7 tubes, and ART Pro MPA amp with
Telefunken 12AX7 tubes. Paul Reed Smith S2 custom electric
guitar (leads), Gibson Les Paul Studio (rhythm), Gibson SG special bass, Behringer Guitar Stack amp.

Music: "Wanita" is a Latin Rock instrumental. Kevin did everything ("many hats to wear-engineer, production, arranger, songwriter") at his home studio.
Recording: Kevin's submission is the latest in our continuing series of
sketch/demo recordings. These are loosely defined around these parts
as one-person efforts containing a fair amount of programming (usually drums) combined with live performance, which ultimately serve as a
platform to showcase the songs' arrangement/potential. Whew! Got
that? OK then. So how did Kevin's sketch turn out? Let's take a gander.
From the sounds of things, we would venture to guess that guitar is Kevin's primary instrument, and overall the electric guitars
are successful here. We say overall because the left panned effected guitar sometimes seems to lose focus in the mix as a result of
over processing. The bass guitar is simple and tonally solid,
though there are several timing issues that need to be addressed.
Now for the the drum programming. Oh the mighty Achilles, if it
weren't for that darn heel! While we absolutely love EZdrummer and
all of the power that it brings to the table, in the long run success or failure with any program or plug-in lies in the hands of the operator. Kevin
was wise to choose a fairly basic kick/snare pattern, but then gave the
game away with a blazing tom fill in several sections that would leave
many real drummers gasping for air. Sorry, Kev, it just doesn't sound
realistic to our ears-and to add insult to injury, the entire track comes
to an awkwardly abrupt ending following one of these fills. Ouch!
Suggestions: "Keep it real" is a pretty overworked saying these
days, but it's absolutely the best advice that we can give-not only
to Kevin, but to the majority of you one-person operations out
there. Understanding, accepting and working within one's skill set
takes honesty and not a little bit of courage, but will lead to better
recordings along the way.
As opportunities arise to involve "real" players, solid, concise
demos will provide a great musical GPS system, allowing for collaboration and the free exchange of ideas... an admirable goal indeed!
Summary: Study real players, then apply that knowledge.
Contact: Kevin T, Turley1492@att.net


http://www.recordingmag.com http://www.recordingmag.com

Recording - October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2014

Contents
Recording - October 2014 - Intro
Recording - October 2014 - Cover1
Recording - October 2014 - Cover2
Recording - October 2014 - 1
Recording - October 2014 - 2
Recording - October 2014 - 3
Recording - October 2014 - 4
Recording - October 2014 - 5
Recording - October 2014 - Contents
Recording - October 2014 - 7
Recording - October 2014 - 8
Recording - October 2014 - 9
Recording - October 2014 - 10
Recording - October 2014 - 11
Recording - October 2014 - 12
Recording - October 2014 - 13
Recording - October 2014 - 14
Recording - October 2014 - 15
Recording - October 2014 - 16
Recording - October 2014 - 17
Recording - October 2014 - 18
Recording - October 2014 - 19
Recording - October 2014 - 20
Recording - October 2014 - 21
Recording - October 2014 - 22
Recording - October 2014 - 23
Recording - October 2014 - 24
Recording - October 2014 - 25
Recording - October 2014 - 26
Recording - October 2014 - 27
Recording - October 2014 - 28
Recording - October 2014 - 29
Recording - October 2014 - 30
Recording - October 2014 - 31
Recording - October 2014 - 32
Recording - October 2014 - 33
Recording - October 2014 - 34
Recording - October 2014 - 35
Recording - October 2014 - 36
Recording - October 2014 - 37
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Recording - October 2014 - 80
Recording - October 2014 - Cover3
Recording - October 2014 - Cover4
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