Recording Lockdown pt 1

The story of lockdown part I begins long before the pandemic.

 in 2015, I did a session with my friend Pete Curry and we improvised a few basic blues numbers which I was going to keep in my library for licensing. We did the basic tracks in one lightening fast and very spirited recording session during which I had the opportunity to record with Roky Erickson’s Gibson amp. We had a blast. So much of a blast that I never could quite return to that headspace and complete the tracks so they languished “in the vaults” for quite a while…

Roky Erickson’s amp featured on all the rhythm guitar tracks on lockdown pt I

Pete Curry Tracking Lockdown with his minimal mic set up.

a little mic shoot out for bass. We ended up going di through an old altec though

Flash forward to the pandemic. Having just relocated to a new town (Portland, Oregon) I was not yet settled when everything came crashing down. The prospect of playing shows felt indefinitely impossible and so began a long period of self-reflection. What did I love about shows? I came to some new conclusions.

For me, in this band, there is a subtle form of analog communication I want to convey that maybe at times runs contrary to our very fast, digital world. Stories told without words. I started to think about the blues as story telling.  I thought about how very simple chord progressions shifted the focus to the the “story” you tell with the notes. 

the very modest garage of my rental which had a very specific sonic characteristic heard on all the leads on lockdown pt I

 I set out on imagining I was playing shows and “storytelling” just as I had in the past. I dug up the old Pete curry tracks and played to them for a couple days. I was in a rental at the time and used its unique garage in the sound by far-micing the cabinet with a figure 8 style reslo ribbon microphone. 

That’s fancy talk for saying that I found a way to capture the room in the microphone to make it sound very “live”

Making the room part of the sound, I finally completed the original Pete Curry recordings in a way that did Justice to the original intent. With the addition of the acoustic number appropriately titled, “Quarantine” (which I recorded deep into the pandemic) Lockdown pt I was complete.

Fender Ecco-fonics Tape Echo/Reverb

I told myself I'd sell this 60's Fender Ecco-fonics tape echo I have but at certain times (maybe a little less frequently than I would like) it really shines. It's a great dirty delay for guitars. It adds a lot of meat to the overall tone. It does a great job of building spontaneous repeats as is shown in this video. I brought this in as some ambient tape effect noise but ended up not using it in the end.

guitars with the MD 421-U5

I'm currently producing the new record by LA's garage poppers So Many Wizards and I was looking for a clarity and flexibility in the guitar tone. I decided to go with the classic combination of the MD421 and an SM57. These two mics are complimentary and when tracked separately, you can alter the tone quite a bit by changing the volume balance between them. I had to purchase a 421 since I didn't have one. They're common and have been in production since the 60's so there's many incarnations and I was unsure which would be best. Thanks to good advice from Jack younger from Watch City studios I have discovered the blissful sound of the 70's MD421-U5. The U5 has a 4 stop low end filter which allows for some serious control of the low end through the actual mic. In lieu of the SM57 (all 3 of mine were drowned in a flood) I have an old Unidyne 545 which is the precursor to the SM57. I actually prefer this mic to a new 57 but not by much. I once read the 545 was used on bass during the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds sessions. This will surely be a mic combination I will be coming back to again and again.

Here's some info on the MD421: http://www.coutant.org/md421u4/

Recording the follow-up to Cinematic

I'm thrilled to present the first post on this new Trabants recording blog. Things can get pretty interesting while making Trabants records so I thought this space could be used to give some insight into the process. 

Cinematic was recorded in Boston and Los Angeles. It's follow-up is the first Trabants record I'm tracking and mixing completely in Los Angeles. I've enlisted some local help (adding to the ever-expanding family tree) to shift the vibe a bit. Drums were tracked at Grandma's Dojo in Ktown with Miles Senzaki whom I chased down after seeing him rule the old school soul sound in his band Breakestra. This was one of the smaller rooms I've used to track drums so things felt way smaller than the cinematic drums which have a sort of "warehouse" bigness to them. Miles owns a newer pair of Coles 4038s so I maintained them as my overhead mics of choice for Trabants' drums. I used my AKG D12E on the kick and the AKG D-19C on snare. We used one ambient room mic also which I can't recall specifically.