The Rev (John Nelson) came down again from Provincetown, MA to record in January (drums and rhythm tracks), and again in May (backing, fills, vocals), 2013. The result is his best CD yet, Leavin’ Nashvegas. Take a listen to the title cut, Leavin’ Nashvegas. Nice!
CD COVER: THE REV, LEAVIN’ NASHVEGAS
Several changes were made when recording this album. First, I completely revised the way that the bass guitar was recorded.
I used a smaller amp and cab, a Markbass 12′. I miked it using an EV RE320 (on instrument setting), and took a parallel line into my LA610 MKII so that I could add a line source into the mix. On the Markbass, I used a slightly midrange setting, and ran the RE320 into my Peavey VMP-2 tube preamp (I love this pre for bass!). This gave me lots of options at mix down, and helped us to get a really solid and punchy bass sound this time around without it being too sub-gassy (the Rev is not a fan of low end).
The next change was in how the drums were recorded. I decided to use Auralex Promax baffles around the drum kit to control the room a little more, and I used a Cascade X-15 ribbon mic for overhead mic, to try to tame some of the highs from the kit, due to the low ceiling in my room.
I put a pair of MikTek C5s on the cymbals, in case I needed it in the mix, and I miked the underbelly of the snare with a Beyerdynamic M422N (C) – a great mic for taming high end rattle from snares. This gave me great options at mix down this time around and vastly improved what I was able to do with the drums, given the range of different kinds of songs The Rev has on this CD. When recording drums, I only use compression on the Kick, so I used my True Precision rack of 8 preamps for pretty much everything else. You can really hear the different on songs such as Sausage and Fries.
Oh, and in order to get the Cascade stereo ribbon mics “off the ground,” I used the greatest invention since peanut butter, the (stereo CL-2) Cloudlifter. Man, do I love this little toy!
Another change this time around was getting Mark to use my ’72 Telecaster Thinline to track the lead guitar.
He also used my pedalboard, adding in his own compressor. The Nick Greer Ghetto Stomp was great for John’s blues tunes! And my buddy Dave Perkins loaned us his vintage Cry Baby for the reggae tune, Prayers for Luna.
Finally, the Rev. wasn’t going to get the CD mastered independently, so I was going to have to do it. Knowing this from the start, I used the Slate Virtual Console on this project, spreading the NEVE board emulation across the entire project, including mix busses. I also spread the Slate Virtual Tape Machine across all channels as well. I also used Izotope 5 (on the mix buss – only for small tweaks), and the Slate Virtual Mastering Processor to the mastering buss for the CD. I can’t say enough about how much these products have added to all of my recordings. Truly inspired emulations of analog equipment!
All in all, the CD turned out great, and John seems very happy with the end product. Check out the music at his website!
JonyMac Studio 