Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2014 16:26:28 GMT -7
OK, this could get into tl;dr territory. You've been warned.
So, I've rekindled a bit of the love with my Strat. Long, unrelated story. Anyhow, I was messing around yesterday afternoon, and stumbled onto the vibrato bar lick in Chris Isaak's Wicked Game. Cool! Anyhow, it was nap time for my son, so I figured, "WTH, let's have some fun!". So, I did an instrumental cover of the song, from memory. It's certainly not (and not intended to be) a note for note cover.
Plus, I figured it might be fun to wail over it for a bit. So, anyhow, here's the track:
soundcloud.com/the-opera-panther/kind-of-wicked-game
I'm not sure if anyone has read some of the back & forth between Roscoe & me in the Recording section about compression, etc., but he's been a great help and resource. And today, I finally had a bit of an epiphany in that regard. A few production notes:
The acoustic guitar is my Eastman AC312 (OM style) spilt into two tracks: a DI track from the onboard K & K mini, and a miced track through a Blue Bluebird LDC mic. The track itself is about 75% mic and 25% DI, but this is where I had my epiphany - The DI very much captures the attack of the guitar, and the "chick-chicka"of the pick on the strings. Its a really wide dynamic range. and kinda unusable on its own. By using one of the compressors in Logic, I was able to squash that down to something usable, when blended with the miced track.
The bass is a Fender P-Bass with flat wounds, DI through my 11Rack. With some additional cab sim and modeling in Logic. I also used compression (sensing the theme yet? to level out the volume of my **** (***** rhymes with kitty) bass playing.
All of the electric guitar tracks are all Strat>Swart AST, miced with a Cascade Fathead ribbon mic, with one exception, below.
The quiet electric rhythm track has a little reverb from the AST, and some fairly deep tremolo. I used a little compression for the same reason as the bass track - just to even out my uneven playing a bit.
The main theme has a bunch more reverb than the above track, with a little delay from the Strymon El Capistan. Compression added, as above.
The "verse" theme has a little less reverb, and some "tape" saturation and (very) light slapback echo for the Strymon Deco. Compression added, as above.
And then I ran out of time. I did a couple takes of a solo, but they sucked, and I sensed my inspiration was waning. Deleted. My plan was to record the solo (amped) today at nap time, but my son didn't really sleep, and my wife did, so no amp.
I recorded the solo this afternoon (heresy! get the pitchforks!) direct through my 11Rack, set up to sound as much like my AST as I could get it. I had the yellow side of my KoT stacked with my Klone going on here. Also, the solo is comped from 4 different (but similar) takes - first time I've done that, and I feel like it turned out pretty well. Compressed for dynamics as well. (I think I sort of get this(?))
I added a bunch of reverb on individual track (acoustics, solo, and the overall track) to emulate the vibe of the original.
There are some clams in there - I only fixed really egregious f***-ups. Let me know what you think!
So, I've rekindled a bit of the love with my Strat. Long, unrelated story. Anyhow, I was messing around yesterday afternoon, and stumbled onto the vibrato bar lick in Chris Isaak's Wicked Game. Cool! Anyhow, it was nap time for my son, so I figured, "WTH, let's have some fun!". So, I did an instrumental cover of the song, from memory. It's certainly not (and not intended to be) a note for note cover.
Plus, I figured it might be fun to wail over it for a bit. So, anyhow, here's the track:
soundcloud.com/the-opera-panther/kind-of-wicked-game
I'm not sure if anyone has read some of the back & forth between Roscoe & me in the Recording section about compression, etc., but he's been a great help and resource. And today, I finally had a bit of an epiphany in that regard. A few production notes:
The acoustic guitar is my Eastman AC312 (OM style) spilt into two tracks: a DI track from the onboard K & K mini, and a miced track through a Blue Bluebird LDC mic. The track itself is about 75% mic and 25% DI, but this is where I had my epiphany - The DI very much captures the attack of the guitar, and the "chick-chicka"of the pick on the strings. Its a really wide dynamic range. and kinda unusable on its own. By using one of the compressors in Logic, I was able to squash that down to something usable, when blended with the miced track.
The bass is a Fender P-Bass with flat wounds, DI through my 11Rack. With some additional cab sim and modeling in Logic. I also used compression (sensing the theme yet? to level out the volume of my **** (***** rhymes with kitty) bass playing.
All of the electric guitar tracks are all Strat>Swart AST, miced with a Cascade Fathead ribbon mic, with one exception, below.
The quiet electric rhythm track has a little reverb from the AST, and some fairly deep tremolo. I used a little compression for the same reason as the bass track - just to even out my uneven playing a bit.
The main theme has a bunch more reverb than the above track, with a little delay from the Strymon El Capistan. Compression added, as above.
The "verse" theme has a little less reverb, and some "tape" saturation and (very) light slapback echo for the Strymon Deco. Compression added, as above.
And then I ran out of time. I did a couple takes of a solo, but they sucked, and I sensed my inspiration was waning. Deleted. My plan was to record the solo (amped) today at nap time, but my son didn't really sleep, and my wife did, so no amp.
I recorded the solo this afternoon (heresy! get the pitchforks!) direct through my 11Rack, set up to sound as much like my AST as I could get it. I had the yellow side of my KoT stacked with my Klone going on here. Also, the solo is comped from 4 different (but similar) takes - first time I've done that, and I feel like it turned out pretty well. Compressed for dynamics as well. (I think I sort of get this(?))
I added a bunch of reverb on individual track (acoustics, solo, and the overall track) to emulate the vibe of the original.
There are some clams in there - I only fixed really egregious f***-ups. Let me know what you think!