Straight Razor

Straight Razor

Pre-Recording:

We have the studio from 10-1, so about 20-30 minutes for setup, about 20 minutes for levels,  1 and half hours for recording guitar, bass, voice, and harmonica.  About 30 minutes for retakes/random extras and 20 minute take down.

I put one AKG C451 pointed just below the sound hole and then the second about where the neck met the body of the guitar.  I just the AKG C414 for the voice in a normal spot.  I used a DI box for the Bass.

I had never used a DI box or a bass guitar.  I had also never done the amount of doubling required for this.

Post Recording

The session went fairly well, we only had limited technical difficultly with the computer running out of space and having to delete a few things.  We wasted some time experimenting with the bass amp before going straight into the DI box.  We also scrapped the harmonica in favor of doubling guitars.  We probably should have done a few more takes to get a better tracks as there are a few rhythmic and pitch errors, but Aaron was very tired and there was not another day to come in.

I felt the over character of the song needed to be brought out.  It was comical but also something that needed to be taken seriously.  Hence there was a lot of reverb and delays to create a full and hopefully rich sound.  This hopefully envelops the listener without totally washing them out.  It hopefully also enhances the lyrics somewhat.

Overall I am very happy with this recording, I would only like to be able to have a few more takes to get some better tracks.  I probably would have added something to create some fuller tones for the ending, possibly just another guitar part that wasn’t as busy.  I really did like the way guitar parts I had layered though.