Recording - October 2016 - 72

Ken Hilts / Wonderfuzzy

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The Realside
Equipment: PC with E-MU 1616M interface running Steinberg Cubase SX3
and Wavelab 6 (for mastering), Voxengo Elephant and Soniformer, Native
Instruments Battery 3 and Guitar Rig 2, Toontrack EZdrummer. Audio-Technica
AT4033 vocal mic, Joemeek ThreeQ preamp, Ovation acoustic guitar, Les Paul
Studio, Steinberger 5 String Synapse bass, Roland TD-6 (to trigger the drums).

Music: "All In My Head" is a male vocal rock song. Terry McClain was
the one-man band on the project.
Recording: Terry has done some fine work here overall. That said, as with so
many projects, there is still room for improvement in a few areas.
In his production notes, Terry informed us that his submission was part of a
17-plus-minute opus. Just where the section we received falls into the grander
scheme of things is unknown, but there is certainly plenty here to survey.
The track opens with a pair of fingerpicked acoustic guitars leading the
way for the lead vocal, and it's here that the first sign of trouble appears.
One of the telltale signs of vocal sibilance is nasty artifacts on words that
begin with the letter S. When the sibilance is as pronounced as it is here,
and the first line of your lyric is "see the stars, see how sweet it is"... well,
you get the point! Fortunately, as the track progresses, the introduction of
additional sound sources helps to mitigate the problem to a degree.
On the plus side, Terry has done an excellent job with both the drum and
bass parts. The funky drum pattern delivered via his Roland TD-6/Toontrack
EZdrummer software combination creates a fine rhythm bed, while the
addition of the faux strings and the electric guitar elevate the entire track
into a cool groove-based effort that is very appealing. We particularly dug
the rotary sound on the lead guitar and the manner in which the entire
track's arrangement built towards the end. Well done!
Suggestions: Alas, sibilance is not a stranger to these parts, it plagues a
good many of the submissions that come our way. In Terry's case, it
appears that the problem may be a "bad marriage" between his particular
voice and his vocal mic. Through the years we have personally owned and
used the AT4033 condenser microphone on a good many sources, including male and female vocals, and it has proved to be a solid performer
throughout. That said, something is definitely amiss here.
It may be that dynamic microphones, with their less pronounced high
frequency response, may be a better fit for Terry. While they may not have
the sex appeal of a big condenser, these meat-and-potato guys can often
be the right tool for the job! If a dynamic's too midrangy and muddy, perhaps Terry can go really old-school and try a ribbon...
Summary: Only a vocal away.
Contact: The Realsides, info@delvinshadepublishing.com
72

RECORDING OCTOBER 2016

Equipment: PC with PreSonus FireStudio Project
interface running REAPER 5, with Scarbee
Rickenbacker, Musiclab RealGuitar, Toontrack
Superior Drummer, IK Multimedia SampleTank 3,
ValhallaDSP ValhallaRoom, Toneboosters EQs and
de-essers, Schwa CMX, iZotope Ozone 7 (mastering). Shure Beta 58A for vocals, Gibson SG Special
guitar through IK Multimedia AmpliTube 3. KRK
Rokit 6 monitors and AKG K271 Studio headphones, mix checking in an Audi A4 (Bang &
Olufsen audio).

Music: "And We" is a male vocal rock song.
Lindsay Fritsch sang the lead vocals and Ken Hilts
supplied the rest, including the background
vocals, instruments, music, lyrics, recording, and
production.
Recording: Ken has submitted a fun late-'70s
style track-part Blondie, part chorus-guitar Police,
but original at the same time. The track is centered
around a fairly basic drum pattern programmed
by Ken via his Toontrack Superior Drummer plugin. Unlike many of the programmed or softwarebased drum recordings that we hear at Readers'
Tracks, it sounds to our ears like Ken actually took
the time to think about, and then execute a very
suitable room ambience for his kit. Accompanying
the drums are the aforementioned chorused electric guitar and a fairly simple bass track. Nothing
particularly notable here, but nothing problematic
either.
Quite clearly the star of the show is meant to be
Lindsay's vocals, delivering the lyric content loud
and clear. Unfortunately, through our various monitoring systems it's a fair bit too loud, and shows
some signs of sibilance to boot. Cohesiveness in a
mix is a critical component in any successful
recording, and with so few competing sound
sources in play, it's unclear to us just why the
vocal is pushed so far forward.
Suggestions: It would be hard to believe that
this much disparity in the mix balance could be
monitor-related. Given that, we are left to assume
that it was intentional to some degree. Ken lists
himself as doing "production," which implies to us
that he indeed produced the track. Well, friends,
with every title comes a responsibility, and one of
the producer's primary ones is to make sure the
final mix is as "radio ready" as possible.
In my four-plus decades of recording, I have
been asked far more times than I care to remember to turn up one sound source over the others in
a mix. It's called the "more me" syndrome... you
may have heard of it. We are by no means blaming Lindsay here; it could just as easily have been
a joint decision or Ken's alone. Either way, it's the
producer's job to insure the mix integrity. Given
that, we suggest a remix, with the lead vocal seated further back. We would also suggest that Ken
pay close attention to the high-frequency EQ on
the lead vocal: it is right on the edge of sibilance.
Summary: Grab that producer's hat and have at it!
Contact: Ken Hilts / Wonderfuzzy,
wonderfuzzy@wonderfuzzy.com

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