Playback: You Send Us Your Music, and We Play it Back
Another great month of Playback submissions! Thanks to everyone who participated. Once again, competition was tight, but Russell's description put him over the top.
December '05 Winner: Russell DaShiell
Someday.mp3
Russell writes:
| The Song: "Someday" from the LP "Island Life" by Spiritguitar (edited version). The Studio: An ocean view condo on Maui, set up with a Power Mac, Reason, DP, Triton Pro, Emu sound modules and a few choice guitars. All sessions took place overlooking the islands of Molokini and Lanai. The Music Concept: Write and record a mellow guitar instrumental album in a smooth rock style, combining solid bass and drum grooves, electric and acoustic rhythm guitars, and ethereal synths. For the lead voice, record a live solo performance of a Rodriguez FG Spanish guitar. The Mixing Challenge: The nylon string Rodriguez sounded intimate and personal. In contrast, the rhythm section sounded moderately aggressive, with two layers of stereo drums and percussion plus a Reason synth bass track. The challenge was to maintain the intimate dynamics of the Rodriguez yet keep the drums and backing tracks kicking. The mixes on Maui kept coming up weak. Even with the Rodriguez set at its minimum level, the drums lacked impact. The Final Mix: Fast forward to California and I'm working at Line 6 testing the Bass PODxt Pro. In my home studio, I plug in a Geddy Lee Jazz and jam with a few of the "Island Life" tracks. It was immediately obvious I had to record live bass on the entire album. With the Jazz now holding up the low end, one of the two layers of stereo drums obviously had a weak kick. I couldn't do a drums remix because a lot of the original elements were gone. (resolution for 2006: revamp sound file backup practices). A friend at Line 6 urged me to try UAD plugins to enhance my mixes. I ended up with an UltraPak and began to experiment with the tracks. I tried the Fairchild on the problematic drum layer, tweaking the Ocean Way preset, and to my delight the drums immediately came alive. I set up an aux and bussed both stereo drum layers thru the Fairchild, with up to 6dB of Gain Reduction. After some Parametric EQ fine-tuning, the drum mixes were indeed kicking. The Jazz leveled out nicely thru either the LA-2A or the Fairchild Mono. The Fairchild was my early favorite, so I tried it on the Rodriguez. After simply tweaking the Input, Threshold and Output levels, the nylon string now had enough power to hold its own with the bass and drums, yet it retained its intimate dynamics. I replaced my host reverb with the DreamVerb, tweaking the Hall Chamber Music preset. Then I inserted the Precision Limiter on the master fader, selecting the Standard preset, which delivered a smooth 3-4dB of gain reduction with no loss in quality whatsoever. The frosting on the cake was the Pultec Pro, inserted on the master before the Precision Limiter. Using the Full and Bright preset, the entire mix gained an amazing clarity. Everything from the low end kick to the high end shakers sounded clear and musical. The End Result: Exactly what I was looking for - dynamic mixes of an intimate solo Spanish guitar performance backed by a solid rhythm section of bass and drums, filled out nicely with acoustic and electric guitars and ethereal synths. Last week I ordered my second UAD card. [Spiritguitar is Russell DaShiell, best known for his lead guitar work on the million-selling single "Spirit In The Sky". His website is spiritguitar.com] |