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Old 06-16-2022, 07:22 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is online now
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Default All that technology make us quicker, but...

...turns out to be both a blessing and cursing. You know how we are so technologically nimble we can turn on a dime?

As I have mentioned, I do sessions, often remote work a little like Tim Pierce does. People send me tracks and I sweeten them with guitars, synths, new drums, etc., and often mix them as well. Wednesday I had a typical scoring session involving a two-minute, humorous country and western tune to go in the middle of a show. At bedtime Tuesday night I received a listen copy of the song for Wednesday and instructions: supply guitar, bass, and synth strings to sweeten the song. I listened on my laptop and heard that the song was based around acoustic guitar that had already been recorded. My load out for Wednesday morning was a Helix modeler and a 2013 Fender American Standard Telecaster*.



I set up a project using the stereo demo track as a reference and added two measures at the top to give me enough time to punch record and then get set on guitar. I played the song through a couple of times to learn it and then dived in. Overdubbing started with the bass parts being played on a Fender Jazz bass run directly into an Avalon 737 tube preamp, pushing into the onboard tube compressor a little to increase consistency. I followed up with the Tele, exactly doubling the bass line like they often did in old C&R songs. I used the Tele’s bridge pickup and palm muted to get just the initial twang. I chose the Helix's Fender Deluxe Reverb Normal Channel model. I put a compressor before the amp and an EQ after it because I've noticed that the Helix presets sound a little thin in the middle. I chose a Fender Twin cab model with Jensen speakers and select the Neumann U-47 mic model. I ran the amp relatively clean with the compressor gain makeup pushing it until the overtones blossomed. Next, I added brushed, chimey chord accents under the song’s choruses. The verses needed some "oomph" so I strummed the Tele under them.



Then I moved over to the Roland synth guitar rig for strings. I selected a preset with dark strings and created some appropriate chord pads to add to the song’s development in two places. I've found that things sound a little better if I initially only play intervals instead of chords and then add the remaining layers separately, sometimes with a different preset. I finished up the strings in time to knock off for lunch with the repair engineers in the shop.

After lunch I came back into the studio and gave the project a fresh listen. It just seemed to need a little more polish to get across the goal line. There were three places where it begged for lead fills to make the passages seem more complete. I switched back to the Tele and Helix and added gain and a touch of echo and reverb. I composed and recorded an intro and fills for the song. Voile'! It felt finished. I sat back and enjoyed a playback of the finished product.

And then I checked my email. Curses! Here is where our technological ability to turn on a dime turned on me. The composer decided to change horses in the middle of the stream and dropped a new version of the song into the cloud during lunch! I remember when remote working started a decade ago. I read an article in Mix Magazine where Mr. Bonzai extolled the virtues of mixing songs for an album, sitting on a beach while on vacation in Hawaii. At the time, I predicted that this course of immediacy in the work environment might not end well. As it has turned out, immediate turn-around work like film and video often involves getting clobbered with mid-stream or last-minute changes. As a professional, your job now includes going with the flow and making creative changes to conform with the director’s/producer’s/composer’s desires. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to be cheerful to your colleagues. However, I’ve got my own theorem to describe the effect on morale: “Crew morale varies inversely with version number.” That means that as the project’s version numbers climb, crew morale falls. But we are professionals so get over it.

I loaded the files into my DAW and immediately had to deal with synch issues in the new version. After a bit of trial and error I snapped his files to a beat that made them synch and we were off. First change? The acoustic guitar track that the composer recorded was actually a keyboard sample that he wanted me to replace with actual strumming. With my choice of guitars, the Taylor 710ce dread, still at home, I fell back on the Taylor 314kce GA I keep at the studio and started learning the parts. Once I was comfortable, I took a quick trip to the mic locker to grab my small diaphragm condensers and… Curses! Foiled again! Another engineer had borrowed the matched mic pair assigned to my suite for another project. I tracked down the case in another studio and discovered that a vital adapter that is part of the stereo mic bar was missing. I went through the mic closets of the other studios but couldn't find the part. By the time I gave up on finding it my day was over. But perhaps it was for the better…



This morning I brought in my Taylor 710ce dread* and my personal stereo mic bar to the studio and set about finishing the overdubs. Because our control room is extremely quiet, I put together my recording rig right in front of the console. I assembled my vertically-oriented inverse OTRF mic pair and pointed the array at the neck joint, about ten inches away.



I strummed the parts up there in the same region with a light pick to get the thin, brushing sound I wanted. Horrors. A light pick. But it worked. All the tracks needed was a little bottom end roll-off and they sounded perfect in the context of the ensemble. I spent some time whipping up a rough mix that I exported and sent off to the composer via WeTransfer. Now to get his review and okay and move on to the next cues.

Bob

* Both guitars are fresh out of the garage after being wonderfully set up by my luthier/tech Kenny Marshall.
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Old 06-18-2022, 07:52 AM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Interesting story, Bob.

I enjoyed reading about your process. I hope the client was happy with your additions.

I would have thought a phone call would have been warranted when they changed the base recording on you.

- Glenn
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Old 06-18-2022, 08:30 AM
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Originally Posted by Glennwillow View Post
Interesting story, Bob.
I enjoyed reading about your process. I hope the client was happy with your additions.
I would have thought a phone call would have been warranted when they changed the base recording on you.
- Glenn
Thank you! I like to say that in the field of communications, communication is what we espouse, not what we practice.

Bob
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Old 06-18-2022, 09:03 AM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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Though I don't usually respond to your posts, I always enjoy reading them, Bob. When I read your OP today, what struck me was how good your ears need to be, and how well they need to be connected to knowing exactly what piece of gear and exactly how to use it in a given situation.

There was a period of time when I purchase several pieces of recording gear with the intention of doing a small part of what you do, for my own enjoyment. What I discovered was that, for me to learn to produce anything worth listening to, I would have to spend at least as much time learning how to do that (which means both learning to REALLY hear what I am doing as I do it, and learning the equipment so well that I just know what knobs to turn and how much, to achieve a desired effect).

The end result was that, given the amount of free time I had at the time, it would have to be a choice between continuing to learn my chosen instrument and learning to record. I chose continuing to learn my chosen instrument.

If I ever decide to record something worthwhile, I will hire a studio (which really means hiring a recording engineer) to do that part.

Every time I read one of your posts that contains this type of detail, I am reminded of this decision and why I made it, though I must admit that I thoroughly enjoy your writing.

As it is, I have gone way down the proverbial rabbit hole with jazz guitar, and am enjoying it immensely. I would never have allowed myself that luxury if I had chosen to pursue recording in a way that the craft/art deserves.

Tony
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Old 06-18-2022, 09:42 AM
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I assume they had to pay for 'all' of the work that you did not just for what they used.
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Old 06-18-2022, 10:04 AM
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Originally Posted by tbeltrans View Post
Though I don't usually respond to your posts, I always enjoy reading them, Bob. When I read your OP today, what struck me was how good your ears need to be, and how well they need to be connected to knowing exactly what piece of gear and exactly how to use it in a given situation....

As it is, I have gone way down the proverbial rabbit hole with jazz guitar, and am enjoying it immensely. I would never have allowed myself that luxury if I had chosen to pursue recording in a way that the craft/art deserves.

Tony
Thank you, Tony. It is true that we only have a certain amount of hours in the day and have to chose what we will apply them to. My choice to pursue recording occurred in the '70s after the break-up of a promising band I was in, right after we were seen by a label owner and offered a deal. Being from the South, I knew my chances of getting another shot were slim. I began looking at the music business and noticed that none of the musicians I followed had been able to keep a marriage together. I wanted that really badly. Coincidentally, I met a lovely gal and fell in love the next year and decided to pursue recording. I've pursued both recording and guitar ever since.
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Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly View Post
I assume they had to pay for 'all' of the work that you did not just for what they used.
I am a house engineer/producer (sound designer) for a large media concern so, yes, I get paid whether or not the material goes to film, video, or broadcast. I have a salary and benefits. The arrangement is something like that of Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, who also was salaried. The down-side is that I often can't publish the material I work on because it is the property of the production or artist I work with, but that is a small price to pay for stability.

Bob
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Old 06-18-2022, 10:54 AM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
Thank you, Tony. It is true that we only have a certain amount of hours in the day and have to chose what we will apply them to. My choice to pursue recording occurred in the '70s after the break-up of a promising band I was in, right after we were seen by a label owner and offered a deal. Being from the South, I knew my chances of getting another shot were slim. I began looking at the music business and noticed that none of the musicians I followed had been able to keep a marriage together. I wanted that really badly. Coincidentally, I met a lovely gal and fell in love the next year and decided to pursue recording. I've pursued both recording and guitar ever since.
I am a house engineer/producer (sound designer) for a large media concern so, yes, I get paid whether or not the material goes to film, video, or broadcast. I have a salary and benefits. The arrangement is something like that of Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, who also was salaried. The down-side is that I often can't publish the material I work on because it is the property of the production or artist I work with, but that is a small price to pay for stability.

Bob
I had that choice of staying on the road in the band or going into a different career. I chose the different career, which amounted to a number of different jobs until I landed in the software engineering field. I can easily see how you (Bob) could be both proficient on guitar and as a recording engineer/producer. I was able to be both a proficient software engineer and guitar player, but there wasn't room in my life to do the recording thing.

Anyway, keep on posting, and I will keep on reading.

Tony
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