Recording - March 2016 - 64
Aaron Jones / Thomas Jones
Equipment: Dell PC with 8 GB RAM and M-Audio Fast
Track Ultra interface and Axiom 49 keyboard controller running Cakewalk SONAR, Native Instruments
Guitar Rig 4 (guitar and bass direct recording), and
Toontrack EZdrummer (drums played manually on
Axiom 49 drum pads). Shure SM57 mic (vocals),
Fender Strat, Ibanez SR500 bass.
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Michael D. Dombrowski
Equipment: PC running Cakewalk SONAR Platinum with various plugins, Line 6 POD Farm 2.5, PG Music Band In A Box, and Toontrack
EZdrummer 2. Mackie 24x8 console, PreSonus and Yorkville monitors,
Alesis RA-100 power amp. Squier CV Telecaster.
Music: "First Date, Last Dance" is a one-man-band country instrumental; Michael wrote, programmed, and performed the piece.
Recording: Some fine work by Michael on this laid-back
midtempo track. Submissions featuring pedal steel guitar are
pretty rare around these parts; fortunately Michael has done a
superb job with his on all fronts. While we have no real information on the steel guitar rig or his recording signal path, the
results are stellar. Through our monitors the tone is rich and
warm (no "ice pick" high end stuff here), with a really smooth
sound. We also applaud Michael for his performance on the
steel; the intonation is spot on to our ears, tricky to do on a fretless instrument!
As for the rest of the track, both the acoustic and electric guitars are well recorded and presented in the mix. We loved the
tremolo effect on the electric, and Michael's deft chord choices
gave the mix a nice sense of movement. Kudos as well for the
nice panning scheme that allowed each of the guitars an individual voice minus any frequency masking. As for the rhythm
section, the bass does its job nicely, though to our ears the snare
drum had an overall brightness that distracted from the rest of
the sound sources.
Suggestions: Obviously Michael's primary instruments are guitarbased, and he's darn good at them. In his cover letter, he tells us
that his recording experience dates back to the 1980s, and from
the overall balance of the arrangement and mix, it's pretty clear
that his recording chops are still well honed.
As for the snare drum issue, we'd love to hear something a bit
deeper to complement the smooth feel of the overall track.
Fortunately EZdrummer 2 has myriad options in this regard,
should Michael choose to take us up on our suggestion.
Summary: Impressive!
Contact: Michael D. Dombrowski, dombrowskim@hotmail.com
64
RECORDING March 2016
Music: "Journey" is a male vocal rock song.
Aaron co-wrote the song, sang vocals and played
all of the instruments. Thomas co-wrote the song
and also sang on the track. Aaron did all of the
engineering in their home studio.
Recording: Aaron and Thomas (siblings?) have
submitted a dreamy, open recording that reminds
us somewhat of the Moody Blues of yesteryear.
Several things jumped out at us while listening
through the track, the first being the nice quality
of the organic-sounding drums. The samples in
EZdrummer are fantastic, as we've heard many
times before-the drums have a very well-balanced
room sound that would indicate distant, rather
than close miking. Usually one uses drum grooves
inside EZdrummer, but between the selection of
samples and the hand-played quality, the resulting
sound is very natural, as if one were in the room
with the drummer. Well done, sirs!
As for the remaining sound sources, the arpeggiated electric guitar and piano play well together in the mix. Both are well-recorded, as is the
simple but effective bass guitar. We also dug
Aaron's fiery, gritty-toned lead guitar solo with
its Warren Haynes vibe. About our only concern
with the duo's effort is some slight vocal sibilance throughout the track, particularly on the
opening lines of the song.
Suggestions: As we have noted in the past, much
of the sibilance that we hear on submitted tracks
comes from improper use of compression/limiting,
either at the tracking or mixing stage. It's also possible for this to be a "wrong mic on the wrong
voice" problem-so many of the affordable largediaphragm condenser vocal mics out on the market
now have that bright treble bump that combines
with vocal processing to create sibilance if not handled properly.
If I thought that was the problem, I would normally suggest a dynamic mic in such a case, but as
you can see from the equipment list, the vocal mic
was a dynamic-the ubiquitous SM57! Of course
there's more to it than that... it's possible for even a
dynamic mic to have a peaky response in the sibilance range, and the SM57's peaks in the 6-10 kHz
range are precisely placed to turn compression into
sibilance.
The trick is to find a mic that works with the
voice for a smooth response. We would suggest
that Aaron and Thomas investigate the possibilities of a ribbon mic as a future consideration for
their home setup. There are dozens to choose
from in all price ranges (too many to list here),
but having one or two around is a healthy decision for all mic lockers, great and small, should
the need arise.
Summary: Very nice indeed!
Contact: Aaron and Thomas Jones,
thomasjones54321@gmail.com
http://www.recordingmag.com
http://www.recordingmag.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2016
Contents
Recording - March 2016 - Cover1
Recording - March 2016 - Cover2
Recording - March 2016 - 1
Recording - March 2016 - 2
Recording - March 2016 - 3
Recording - March 2016 - 4
Recording - March 2016 - 5
Recording - March 2016 - Contents
Recording - March 2016 - 7
Recording - March 2016 - 8
Recording - March 2016 - 9
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Recording - March 2016 - 11
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Recording - March 2016 - Cover3
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