These guys were in the studio this weekend. More details on the recording if requested.
http://www.chargermusic.com/nickpete/untitled.mp3
wow, that's really nice.
as I was listening I thought "Moby, Extreme Ways - ish"... then I thought, hmm, not really, this is so much better - because 1) it's not Moby and 2) it's live/real 3) it's got cool changes and interesting things going on throughout and 4) it's not Moby!
The lead guitarist sang backup, played rhythm guitar, played bass, drums, and lead guitar (ok, I admit there's a little bit of me on it--he'd never played electric like this so I did most of the feedback). He played the drums on all tracks in one take, with no click track. Bastard can also play piano like a motherfucker. And he's 21... Makes me a little ill...
That's great !
Not the same voice timbre, not the same kind of music but after few seconds from the start, this song and the way it's played reminded me (a lot ) Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull...
...Listened to it again, same sensation ! ;)
That's got soul. Good job catching the feeling.
The line "take the gun out of my pocket and debate it..." gave me chills. Pretty deep for 21.
Worth more than one listen for sure. I was thinking a hint Everlast but more heartfelt with a dash of Neal Young.
Great voice and yes, more details on the recording, please!
It's a pretty wooly mix, listening again... This was the 1 hour (get out the door at 2 am) mix. Remix coming.
The most interesting thing we did on this was recording the guitar from about 5 feet back with the Heil PR40-- I think that's the furthest I've backed that particular mic (a dynamic not a condenser) off the amp. The amp was the Hammond-conversion amp, straight in (it's now got some more tone options, a preamp gain knob, and reverb) loud enough to get feedback, so pretty loud.
Other things were pretty standard. There was pre-production on this, the two guys recorded their parts with a single mic on each vocalist and on each guitar. SM7s on the vocals, Avantone CV-12s on the guitars.
We took the basic tracks in and layered. The vocals were retracked/doubled with the Apex 460. The acoustic guitar tracks were doubled with an x/y pair of chinese tube small diaphragm condenser mics.
Drums were the new standard setup we've been using for about a year. Snare top mic (Avantone ADM), kick Shure Beta 52, overheads x/y chinese small diaphragm condenser mics, pair of room mics 15 feet back, large diaphragm FET chinese condensers, in omni.
Bass was DI. Due to the large number of guitar tracks I am hearing some real low-mid frequency buildup... Next mix will be closer to final.
How many different acoustic guitars did you record? Where were the mics placed for them? Asking because some are delicate and airy, some thicker and in places almost sound like nylon stringed instruments. I know techniqe is a factor, but I'm curious about what the major contributions were.
2 different guitars, on a total of 8 tracks.
The darker, thicker sounds generally come from the original source. Both guys played at the same time, and had a vocal mic and a tube mic on them. The mics were recorded through several UA preamps which are thick and full of iron. They were also compressed and the room was fairly dead, so those tracks sounded a little dark and thick to begin with. In an ideal world we would have tossed those tracks, however, the duo liked their performances and wanted to keep them. We couldn't keep the vocals without the guitars bleeding all over the tracks (especially when the singers stopped singing)...
The overdubbed guitars were done with an x/y on each guitar, so two tracks per guitar, two guitars. We used small-diaphragm condensers through a very clean Presonus preamp as a contrast to the already dark tracks, and recorded in a larger, more live room, with no compression. The resulting tracks are much cleaner and brighter. There's also an electric guitar track on this pretty low in the mix, that gets louder towards the end. The x/ys were aimed at the twelth fret and about a foot away. I didn't see the mic setup for the original tracking sessions but I would guess the mics were aimed more at the body.
I like it too! :)
To me, they sound quite a bit like Republic Tiger (see my link in the Listening forum).