A WEEKEND OF S&M
This weekend was action packed excitement at Smoke and Mirrors.
Saturday at 3:00 was a session with House of Blondes. Mostly we worked on guitars for two songs - "Glorious Lie" and "Long Room Delay" - and I think it went well. We got sounds fairly quickly, there was a minimum of buzz and hum, and both Paul and Mike played well. We got some feedback going and made a lot of noise.
One of the amps we tried out was the Badcat, which belongs to Happy Boy member Rob Kendall, who bought it years ago and rarely uses it. It lives in the studio, and for a long while it's sat idle, but Ted fired it up last week to check that it was still working. It is, and I like the sound of it. It's a boutique amp, made by the guys who used to run Matchless, which were great amps. Very simple, with tube reverb and a master volume, only 15 watts so it breaks up at a low volume, but plenty loud. We haven't recorded it much but it got a little workout on Saturday. Other than that we mostly used the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (still the most versatile amp in the house) and a couple of pedals (gasp!) - Boss tremolo and a Rat. I love the Rat.
We made some significant cuts to "Long Room Delay" - drums out at the beginning, opened up the middle section, removing some arpeggiated guitars and replacing them with swirly noise. Very cool. Add gobs of reverb and stir.
Sunday I spent about 5 hours remixing "Get It Right" by the Wolfdowners. Aaron from the band and I enjoyed some beers and smokes and cranked everything up. Production wise it's a fairly complex song for the Wolfdowners, with 4 tracks of guitars, layered vocals, and sax; we even tried to do some vocal harmonies. Lots of automation, lots of things coming and going. Not your usual Clevo shitcore mix.
In the end I think we got a good mix. It seemed pretty heavy at the time. Maybe that was just my head...
9 Comments:
Sax player... (cough) "Us & Them" (cough, cough)
Believe me, you don't want this sax player anywhere near Us & Them. We're talking Squeely Dan and the Honkers.
This is Clevo Shitcore after all.
That must have been quite a session. At least you'll know what you're in for if you ever have a kid go out for the school band.
I'm pretty sure that we used the Badcat all over the Microdot EP. Great little amp, if I recall.
DC
Yes, Dave is right, though I wasn't there for that session either, ha ha. You also used George's Contessa if I recall.
The Bad Cat ain't bad at all, but as a 4th option for S&M, I'd prefer a tube Vox.
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Broooooooklyn!
I don't remember how much 'Cat we used on the EP - the Hot Rod Deluxe is definitely all over that record as well.. I thought we might have been having problems with the 'Cat at that point (anyone remember it sounding great, then suddenly shutting off?)
We definitely used the Contessa as the main rhythm guitar on "No U-turn." I remember having to sit very still so as to avoid crackling.
The Hot Rod Deluxe is definitely on there, also a lot of the Bandmaster.
Holy crap, I have a show in an hour and a half...bye.
DC
Ah, the Contessa. What a great little amp.
So simple, so crackly, so sweet.
I actually still have the polaroids of the mic positions and settings on the amps. THAT's some dedication.
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