Posts Tagged ‘Slate Virtual Console’

The Art of Multi-tracking Bluegrass and Folk Music: The Rev’s New CD, We’ll Always Have Casablanca

Posted: May 11, 2019 in Gear, Recent Projects, Tricks of the Trade
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John Wiley Nelson (a.k.a. “The Rev”) is a folk and bluegrass songwriter residing in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He was the manager of WOMR, the local public broadcasting station there form some years, and still acts as DJ for a regular bluegrass show. He has recorded several CDs here at Jonymac Studio. Over the years, he has focused more and more attention on hiring the finest award-winning musicians for his CDs: Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Adam Steffey on mandolin, Randy Kohrs on resonator (dobro), Ron Stewart on banjo, and most recently Kenny Smith on acoustic rhythm and lead guitars. He also brings in Kenny and Amanda Smith to produce and perform his vocals. Due to the busy schedules of all of these musicians, it is impossible to get them all together at one time to record. We have to multi-track, working around their schedules. Here’s the process:

  • The Rev records a rough vocal and rhythm guitar track to click for all songs (I accompany him on guitar)
  • The Rev creates an arrangement sheet, identifying clearly who plays rhythm, fills, or leads during each song.
  • Kenny Smith comes in and records a rhythm track for all songs, replacing my scratch guitar track.
  • Kenny then records any lead acoustic guitar work needed
  • I record an acoustic bass track
  • This improved rough mix is sent to:
    • Adam Steffey who records his mandolin tracks at his preferred studio (sometimes Ron Stewart’s Sleepy Valley Barn in Paoli, Indiana)
    • Randy Kohrs who records his resonator tracks at his studio (Slack Key Studios, Nashville, TN)
    • Ron Stewart records his tracks at his studio: Sleepy Valley Barn in Paoli, Indiana
  • These artists send their stems to me digitally to put into the mix
  • The Rev comes back into the studio and records his final vocal tracks
  • Kenny and Amanda come in to do background harmony vocals
  • Stuart Duncan comes in to the studio here and records his fiddle tracks which provide the “glue” on the CD.
  • The Rev and I do a good early mix for each song
  • I finish the mixing and mastering

Because of the quality of musicianship, this process works wonderfully.

One final thing that really helped this new CD. I’ve been less than happy with the basic sound palette when recording and mixing acoustic music such as bluegrass “in the box” in Logic (Pro Tools is not better), so I added an instantiation of Slate Virtual Mix Channel’s Neve console emulation on each bus, and on the Mixbus, and it made an amazing difference. I strongly recommend this! The sound is warmer, rounder, more listenable. The CD is available on iTunes, Spotify, Napster, and YouTube. To hear the album on YouTube go here!

Leavin’ Nashvegas

Posted: July 20, 2013 in Gear, Recent Projects, Tricks of the Trade
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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.

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IMG_0050I 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.

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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!

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Another change this time around was getting Mark to use my ’72 Telecaster Thinline to track the lead guitar.

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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.

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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!