Recording - February 2015 - 66

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John Lindeman
Equipment: 2011 MacBook Pro with Apogee Duet interface
running Avid Pro Tools 11, Apple Logic Pro X, and Waves
plug-ins. AKG C414 and Sennheiser MD421-II mics, KRK Rokit
5 monitors. Fender mandolin, Taylor 414ce guitar. Bass and
drums created virtually in Logic.

Music: "Anymore" is a female vocal "folk" song.
Marissa Melton sang the vocals, Taylor Ferrell played the
guitar, the fiddler is Stacey Sinclair, and Joe Ornstein
rounded things out on banjo. John handled the bass and
drum programming and mandolin part, as well as the
recording, mixing, and mastering.
Recording: Those of you familiar with the music of the
great British group Fairport Convention will recognize the
overall vibe of John's submission. The track has an organic feel in keeping with the instrumentation, though we
found the mastered mix to have a rather distant quality
through our monitors, lending the track a very "live
recording" feel. The individual sound sources were recorded in different places rather than together as a unit, but
John's ambient/reverb treatment of them would suggest
that this was the sound he was after. If there was layering/overdubbing involved, it is being masked to a large
degree by the ambience here.
What we are left with, then, is a sound akin to that
achieved by "tapers" at live concerts-you know, the tie
dyed folks that are always setting up their stereo boom
stand rigs around the summer festival sound boards! Not
that there's anything wrong with that, mind you-just
callin' them as we see them.
Suggestions: In our years behind the wheel here at
Readers' Tapes (17 of them, as of this issue!), we can honestly say that no two submissions received have ever been
the same. Have there been multiple tracks in certain genres? Absolutely! And yet each one of you has a skill set and
mission statement that is as unique as your own DNA.
66

RECORDING February 2015

Part of the fun on our end continues to be trying to put
ourselves in your mindset, in an attempt to not only advise,
but equally important, to understand just what was going on
behind the scenes of your creative process. Was John
attempting to construct a "live" recording here, or did the
combination of room ambience and overall mix balance
push the sound in that direction? While we'll never know for
sure, it's pretty cool to think about how the rest of the listening world interprets the recordist's choices, both musically and technically, isn't it?
Summary: Got live if you want it.
Contact: John Lindeman, jlindema@me.com

Jeff Lee / Skyline Hotel
Equipment: Mac with Avid Mbox 3 interface running Avid Pro
Tools with Waves Mercury Bundle, Celemony Melodyne, and
Antares Auto-Tune. Neumann U87, RØDE NT5, and Shure SM57
mics, Vintech 273 preamp/DI, Yamaha HS50 and KRK VXT8 monitors, Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones. Custom Shop Fender
Stratocaster through Marshall JCM 800 amp with Celestion G1265 speaker, Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar, American
Fender Jazz Bass. Keeley Compressor, Vanamps Reverbamate,
MXR Carbon Copy pedals. Roland TD12 MIDI drums playing
Native Instruments Abbey Road Drums Sparkle Kit.

Music: "Better Than Alright" is a male vocal rock song.
Jeff was the OMB on the project.
Recording: A good strong effort here, one that could be
made even more successful with some slight mix rebalancing,
and a few touchups to the drums. Before we dive into the particulars, we would like to commend Jeff on the thorough
production/equipment notes that he provided us. Detailed
step-by-step information like this gives us great insight into
James's work methods-always a great learning tool for us!
Cool, then-on to the nuts and bolts. Lots of good stuff going
on here, including the sweet vocals garnered from the
Neumann U 87/Vintech 273. This is top-quality gear, folks, and
it sounds it. The vocal is present yet smooth as silk, with the
perfect touch of compression. We also dug the great "quack"
sound coming from James' Custom Shop Fender "parts-caster"
Strat/Marshall JCM 800. This is a classic combo, and James
makes the most of it tonally and with his performance.
Unfortunately, through our monitors, the volume on the
guitar seems excessive throughout the track. In many sections it registers louder than the lead vocal, adding to the
mix balance issues mentioned earlier. Moving on, we found
the rhythm section to be somewhat of a mixed bag. We
would have liked to hear a bit more snap to the kick drum
and a bit more midrange presence on the bass guitar tone.
Suggestions: James tells us in his production notes that he
was pretty pleased with the way his track turned out, and well
he should be! He has chosen his gear wisely, and more importantly, made it work for him in a way that sounds effortless.
As far as suggestions go, our desire to hear the kick and
bass brightened up may be as much a matter of personal
taste as not. We are certainly splitting hairs here. As for the
mix balance, a sound as distinctive as Jeff's electric guitar is
in no danger of being driven to the shadows. We urge him to
set it back into the mix a dB or two as part of the ensemble,
raising its volume during the solo as is proper.
Summary: Well done, sir!
Contact: Jeff Lee / Skyline Hotel, skylinehotelmusic@gmail.com

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Recording - February 2015

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