Recording - January 2016 - 62

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Andrew Coonrad

Justin Busch

Equipment: Ramsa WR S4424 mixing console, PC with Motu 24 i/o
interface running Pro Tools 10 and Waves plug-ins, OverLoud
BREVERB2 reverb, and iZotope Ozone 5 mastering suite plug-ins.
Universal Audio LA-610 mkI preamps, dbx 262 stereo compressor
(x2), Drums: Yamaha Custom Maple with random cymbals, RØDE
NT5 (overheads), Shure Beta 52 and homemade speaker-inreverse (kick), Audix i5/Shure Beta 57 (snare), Sennheiser
MD421/Shure SM7 (toms), Cascade Fatheads (stereo room).
Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Special/Fender Mexican Tele (with
upgraded pickups) through Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue with
SM57/MD421 and an NT5 faced away for room tone. Bass: Fender
Precision bass (upgraded pickups) DI through Universal Audio LA610 and using SansAmp plug-in. Vocals: SM7 through LA-610.
Snare enhanced with FXpansion BFD2 Ludwig Black Beauty sample using Massey DRT plug-in. Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones and "Alesis Monitors with a crappy old 8" sub."

PC with Echo MIA 24/96 card running Cakewalk SONAR
4, remastered with Sound Forge 5. Drum samples by
Drums on Demand. Monitors: M-Audio Studiophile SP5B. AKG C3000B mic through ART Studio V3 preamp
(vocals). Epiphone Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncan
pickups (59, Jeff Beck) through Johnson J-Station; Fender
Standard Precision Bass through J-Station; Roland Juno-D
keyboard.

Music: "Long Time Gone" is a male vocal rock song, Andrew
handled it all at his home studio.
Recording: Andrew has submitted a strong O.M.B. effort here,
dripping with a cool sixties vibe. In his production notes, he tells
us that he composed the song on the bass guitar, which we
assume to be his primary instrument. At tracking time, he laid
down a scratch bass part to a click and then proceeded to add
his guitars, drums and vocals, conceding that tracking drums
while also engineering can be a tall order. So, now that we have
the modus operandi down, how's about the results?
Well, for a man wearing all of the hats, Andrew's results are pretty impressive. The drums certainly capture a mid-60s sound, equal
parts Beach Boys and British Invasion, and the engineering job
sounds fine to us! The bass is fairly strident, particularly during the
intro, but its bright nature does help keep the track's energy high.
We also liked the wide panned electric rhythm guitars here; the panning scheme leaves a lot of room for the myriad vocals in the mix.
As for the vocals, through our monitors the lead vocal at times
took on a sharpness that was wearing as the song progressed,
less so on the backing vocals.
Suggestions: In our experience, the Shure SM7/Universal Audio
610 is a stellar combination for just about any voice. The key to
the vocal problem may lie in a tidbit of info Andrew shared in his
equipment notes, where he tells that he used "TONS of makeup
gain" on the compressor side of the 610. If the lead vocal was
compressed to a degree that required that much post gain, perhaps we are hearing a sibilant type of artifact? The SM7 is certainly capable of handling the loudest of vocal performances, so
the reasoning behind that much compression is a bit of a mystery.
In any event, applying some parallel compression to the proceedings would be much more effective in our opinion.

Music: "This Time Around" is a male vocal rock song.
Justin did it all with the exception of the vocals, which
were courtesy of Clay Mottley.
Recording: Oh compressor, ye are an evil mistress! Justin
and Clay have put together a really nice track here that is
sadly derailed by some compression mismanagement.
Things start out nicely with a duo of bright but well
played/recorded acoustic guitars, quickly joined by a very
present, upfront vocal... complete with an obvious compressor based smear on the words "fire red", followed by the
almost mandatory tandem sibilance on "skyline". Classic
compressor artifacts, folks, and from then on the rest of the
lyrics containing F's and S's appear to be "infected".
As for the remaining sound sources, the snare drum,
and to a lesser extent the bass, are also showing signs
of compression issues. On the plus side, the jangly electric guitar was near perfect in the mix and the backing
vocals seemed less affected by the compressor.
Suggestions: "This Time Around" is an excellent effort
on many fronts, from the writing/arrangement down to
the tones and performances. It is our hope that the compression was added in the mix rather than the tracking
stages, allowing for a quick repair.
That said, we once again must call into question the
need for it in the first place. Clay's intimate lead vocal
during the intro showed no signs of needing volume control, in our opinion. As for the rhythm section, Justin has
done a fine job assembling a drum kit from the Drums
on Demand library; finding a less compressed snare
drum that would integrate more closely with the "open"
kick and tom sounds would be advisable.
Regarding the bass, if he was looking for a softer bass
sound, we would suggest to Justin that trying either flatwound or clothwound bass strings would be a good place
to start. Lastly, dear readers, let's remember that in today's
recording environment, automation and computer-based
wave drawing are a simple and effective volume management technique, so let's roll up those sleeves and rely less
on the "one stop shop" compressor application, shall we?

Summary: A fine effort.

Summary: Good stuff, easily reparable.

Contact: Andrew Coonrad, acoonrad@gmail.com
62

RECORDING January 2016

Contact: Justin Busch, justrbusch@yahoo.com

http://www.recordingmag.com

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