01.17.2005 PROVAN GUITAR TRACKS AT LEOPARD

Boys And Their Toys!

This weekend I’m at Leopard Studio with PROVAN. As our previous guitar tracking sessions have been less than fruitful for a variety of reasons, from failing guitar amps to poor monitoring conditions, we finally decided to come back to Leopard where we have gotten proven results before. In search of the ultimate guitar tones we have pulled out all the toys and borrowed even more. For amps, Joe and Bill brought their usual fare, the Roland Bolt and Fender Prosonic. They also borrowed a vintage Vox AC-15 and a Little Lanilei. In addition, I borrowed 2 amps; a small Supro, and a Marshall JCM-800 with 4x12 Peavy cab.

They brought 8 different guitars, and I brought along my own Fender Strat just for good measure (six amps, nine guitars). As if that won’t provide enough variables, they also borrowed several very eclectic pedal effects, from hand made fuzz boxes to a Korg multi-effect pedal. In all we counted 29 pedals.

We brought several of our own mics too; The famous Oktava ML-52 ribbon, a pair of Oktava MK-012 condensers, the Blue Dragonfly, and my dad’s Altec 639-B “Birdcage”.

While they were setting all this up I was freaking out over a problem with their hard disc drive, which stubbornly would not mount to the computer’s desk top. I called my favorite computer tech (woke him up) and explained the problem. Eventually, after much plugging, unplugging and disc utilities, the drive mounted, though the cause of the problem, and the solution still remains a mystery. Needless to say we backed everything up to another drive immediately.

By sometime after noon we were ready to start getting sounds and do some tracking. At least we thought so. We got a good tone with the Bolt for the first track but after a couple of takes it became clear that the bass we recorded weeks ago was somewhat suspect for tuning issues. Undaunted, we went online and downloaded a demo version of the Antares Autotune plug-in and bounced the bass tracks through it.

Finally we got the bass track’s pitch issues under control (thank God for the internet). We began tracking guitars (that is, after all, what we came to do!) and as is the case with most guitar tracking sessions it’s 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration (or something like that…Joe said “the inspiration happened so long ago I don’t know what the ratio is”). Thankfully Bill and Joe both had the intonation set ups done on all their guitars. Still it’s a constant battle to keep an axe in tune, even good solid Fenders like the ones they play.

Whoever said “good enough for Rock N Roll” never actually recorded a Rock N Roll record. Granted, Provan’s music isn’t your garden variety Big Dumb Rock sound. In fact the music they write is deceptively complicated and the guitars interweave in unusual ways making it quite challenging (both to play and to record). Observing the process an outsider or non-musician might wonder how we ever get anything done at all. But to be sure the end result is always something we’re all very proud of, so we persevere.

12.30.2004 PYTHON RECORDING AT LEOPARD

Just completed a very productive 4-day lockout at Leopard Studio with PYTHON, a very talented young metal band. The project included the tracking and mixing of the band's 6-song debut CD titled "Good And Evil" and also a 3-song demo of some of their newest material. The quartet arrived well equipped with double kick drum kit, Mesa and Marshall guitar amps, Gibson and ESP guitars, great sounding chops and their manager, Joe "The General" Holzapfel.

The session went really well, with everyone tracking live and then punching in some fixes. I used mostly house mics and mic pre's on all the drums, Sennheisers for kick and toms, Shure SM57 on the snare, Neuman TLM193s on hats and ride, and AKG 414s for overheads. We ran the bass direct through the Avalon 737 Preamp, and mic'd guitar amps with Sennheiser 421s through my friend Joe Kelly's Vintech 1272 that I borrowed (I've GOT to get me one of these!) Singer Joe Holzapfel sang through an Audio Technica 4033 and the Avalon 737. We did all the tracking and mixing in ProTools and stored on a Glyph drive.

PYTHON has great songs and a very original slant on the classic thrash metal style. They are certainly one of the region's finest up-and-coming metal acts, and they're playing area gigs throughout January. Check their site for details: http://www.pythonband.com

11.28.2004 PROVAN GUITARS IN THE BASEMENT

iBook and Mbox on the go again...this time to Joe's Mom's basement for some crankin guitars and rattling jars. A few well placed blankets kept the jars from being a problem, but after a few loud rythm parts the amp started sounding a bit thin, even when mic'd with the Blue Dragonfly and Oktava ML-52 Ribbon through Joe's Vintech 1272 mic pre's. Joe did track some solid rythm guitar parts and feedback before the amp started to go.

11.22.2004 ORSUS GUITARS AT LEOPARD STUDIO

Brought ORSUS guitarists Gary and Tommy to Leopard Studio in Stone Ridge NY for a weekend of heavy guitar tracking. We spent Friday afternoon getting tones, and decided that a combination of their solid-state amps and my vintage Marshall tube amp worked best for "crunch" tones. I mic'd 2 cabs, each with a Sennheiser 421 and an AKG 414, all using API mic pre's, and I also used an Oktava ribbon through the Avalon 737 for room ambience. We spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday on the "crunch" tracks. We also used this setup for some feedback overdubs. Sunday evening we switched gears and set up for some "clean" guitar tones, using some of studio owner Jimmy Lonesome's groovy combo amps. We tracked clean guitar through an Ampeg B-15 bass amp, and also did some slightly "dirty" tones through a Fender Bronco, both mic'd with the wonderful Octava ribbon. It proved to be a very successful session. Many thanks Jimmy...we'll be back!

11.08.2004 PROVAN BASS & GUITAR OVERDUBS

"The Trials & Tribulations of Home Recording"

Brought my ProTools Digi001 rig to the apartment of singer/songwriter and guitarist Joe Kelly of Provan to track some of the guitar and bass parts for the second phase of their project. We decided to use his bedroom as the control room and his living room as the tracking area. I brought some fun outboard gear as well, and we borrowed a Joe Meek QCS from a good friend. Got all the gear set up pretty quickly, plugged in the amps and, woh! Buzz city! As is often the case in older buildings, the power and outlets were highly suspect. After trying everything from ground-lift adaptors to attaching jumper cables between amp chassis and pipes we decided to seek some help. We called the music store and asked what power conditioners they had in stock. A helpful salesperson suggested a model called the Monster Power Pro-1000. We took the drive out there and purchased this $150 power strip, brought it back, plugged it in and, guess what? No difference! Still buzz city! By now we'd had used up half our day so we made the difficult but necessary choice of living with the buzz on some of the tracks. Guitarist Bill Lutz did some of his clean guitar tracks through his Roland tube amp. We mic'd this with and Octava and a Sennheiser 421, running through Vintech 72 preamps. That worked out well. Mark Bendian's bass amp had too much buzz to use, so we went direct through the borrowed Joe Meek, which sounded great. Mark didn't want to cut his tracks in the makeshift control room though, so we ran his cords out the window and he tracked on the porch. We got bass takes for all six songs. Between the two day's of tracking, the guys had a gig backing up singer/songwriter John Hovorka, so it was quite a busy weekend, and in the end, both productive and enjoyable.

10.25.04 PROVAN BEGINS PHASE 2 AT LEOPARD

Returned to Lonsome Jimmy Goodman's Leopard Studio in Stone Ridge NY to record drums for 5 new PROVAN songs. The studio now features a ProTools HD rig running on a Mac G5. Very fast to work on.

Colin did excellent takes, and as always was an absolute pleasure to work with. The sounds we got were comparable in many ways to the recordings from March, and maybe even better in some respects. I used a Oktava ribbon mic outside the kick drum and it sounded huge. Also did an x/y placement on the room mics (2 AKG 414's set in figure 8 polar pattern) which was a different approach from the last time, and that seemed better too. One of the new songs "Wreck Of The Kevin Fitzgerald" really stands out as a timeless classic, and I'm sure will make me cry when it's done.

Visit http://www.2000steps.com for more about PROVAN

10.01.2004 ORSUS RECORDING AT MUZIC STUDIO

Tracked Mike's bass guitar takes for all twelve ORSUS songs yesterday at Muzic Studio in Dobbs Ferry NY. Muzic Studio used to be The Pickwick Theater when I was growing up in Dobbs ferry, so it was kind of a trip seeing it converted into a studio! Mike did a fantastic job of hammering out excellent takes, and the whole band was there to root him on. Special thanks to Vito Liuzzi and Gary for setting us up with a great tone and vibe during the session.