Conference napalm::guitar

    
    	Alan, just a quick reply to you note. My band(New Venture) was 
    	recently in West Sound Studio also, we need to put together the 
    	audit for your video. Much like your demo to club owners/managers
    	we need a video for entertainment agents and prospective brides.  
    	
    	This is the second time we've worked with Mike West. I  highly
    	recommend him to anyone that is looking to put a quality product
    	together for minimum bucks. As you said Alan, Mike knows his stuff, 
    	has a pleasant personality and is more then willing to make and listen 
    	to suggestions. 
    
    	

    Great book report Alan!
    
    Could the reason for the instrument volumes being all the way up be
    related to getting the maximum 'tone'?  I know with a guitar volume
    pot, when you back it off, you tend to lose some of the high-end...
    The other reason, as you stated, is probably so input levels stay
    consistent.
    
    In your opinion, how many full songs could you have completed in the
    same amount of time assuming:  1.) You were as prepared, and; 2.) The
    songs were originals that Mike had never heard...
    
    joe.

I'm curious too Alan - When you say "all the way up" do you mean
like "On 10!".  I wouldn't to be in the same COUNTY !!  Ouch !!

Is this the norm for studio work ??

jc (In pain thinking about it)

    re: Coop
    
    He was referring the the volume on the guitar, not the volume on the
    amp.
    
    Greg

    
    
    
    		I'll bet the reason Mike wanted the instruments up
    	full was to minimize the musicians influence on recording 
    	levels.  It's hard enough for someone to play very consistent
    	throughout a 3 or 4 minute song....What is a real bummer is
    	when the levels and eq(if any) are set for one input signal
    	and then someone ends up turning there quitar up mid-take.
    
    		Just blows the track all to hell.   Some people even
    	tape the pots wide open.

    >		I'll bet the reason Mike wanted the instruments up
    >	full was to minimize the musicians influence on recording 
    >	levels.  
    
    Actually, it has more to do with the tone produced from those passive
    circuits installed in most electric guitars.  To achieve the best tone
    to tape, both the volume and tone controls must be on full (which is
    flat, btw).  Anything below 10 is actually rolling off from "0".
    

    Would not maxing the volume also provide the greatest pickup signal
    in relation to any external noise generated by cables/electronics?
    I imagine the net effect would be to minimize unwanted noise.

Boy Greg, I hope you're right.  :)

The volume and tone on yur guitar I can see... Makes more sense.
:)

    What happens if you depend on use of the guitar volume to change your
    sound as part of the music you're playing?  For instance, I have a
    softer passage in one of my songs, and I roll the volume off on the
    guitar to reduce the amount of distortion during that part and
    gradually increase it as it goes into the next section.  I don't like
    the abrupt change induced by switching channels.
    
    How is that going to record?
    
    Greg

                We just overdubbed those types of things.

    Did he also tell you to replace the volume knob with one that went
    to 20?

re: .2 (Joe)

>  In your opinion, how many full songs could you have completed in the
>   same amount of time assuming:  1.) You were as prepared, and; 2.) The
>   songs were originals that Mike had never heard...

I would imagine that you could get three full songs done, if you were fully
prepared. You're obviously going to lose some time, in the fact that you're
recording longer pieces of music. But on the other hand, you gain a little
time in recording and mixing. We used a bunch of time re-setting our tones
and stuff for each song, which you wouldn't have to do. And once a mix was
set for a particular song, it wouldn't change as the song continued (there
was no mixing on the fly here), so that's at least two less mixing setups
you'll have to do (maybe more, since the mix might be very similar on all
three song you do).

alan

    
    FWIW, I've heard Alan's tape and it was good, very good.
    
    The vocals sounded very professional, with just the right
    amount of processing. 
    
    I'd be very happy with this tape. 
    
    

    We played the tape last night at our band practice.
    
    The tape sounded good, and the performances were good.
    
    Only negatives I remember were that I thought a couple of the pieces
    seemed a tad too slow and the drums were mixed too high although they
    SOUNDED great.
    
    But that's in ultra-picky mode.  I think prospective clients would
    be very impressed with that tape.
    
    I would also mention that you got a very good deal if all you spent
    was around $300.  

This guy comes highly recommended from some friends, and I've
heard his product - GREAT work...

Name:  		Americus Audio
Engineer:       Jim Barber
Format:		8 track R2R  (Tascam 48)
Price:		$15/hour (Includes couple hours set up for free)
Mixer:		Tascam M320B (20x4x4x2)
Outboard:	Lexicon LXP1
		Yamaha R1000
 		Effectron II
		Yamaha SPX90
		BBE Sonic Maximizer
		DBX150X
		DBX Stereo gating
                (Lots more!!)

Mixdown:	Cassette (Nakamichi)
		DAT (Tascam DA30)
		

Comments:	8 tunes for approx. $200.
		Free tape
		Video monitoring and a tape !!
		

    I used to play in a band with two of Mike West's brothers and spent
    quite a bit of time doing work in their studio. I'm still in touch with
    them and will certainly be heading back there when I'm ready to throw 
    down my originals. I'm really glad to hear people recommending them 
    because they not only know their stuff, but are also really nice
    people. It's hard to find a studio where the prices are very
    reasonable, and the engineer does not waste time just so he can squeeze
    a few more bucks out of you.
    
    Ross 

I'd like to grab Alans topic here too.

A little background on my band also, just so ya know:

HardBall is a contempory pop metal band.  We do 80% covers of "old metal"
(AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Nazareth, Juda Priest etc), and covers of "new stuff" 
(Metallica, Shotgun Messiah, Alice In Chains, Tora Tora, Guns n Roses etc...).
We're four piece and we're vocally intensive (means we all sing).  We write
some original material when we can come to terms with our schedule.  We're
based in Colorado Springs and play the local heavy metal bar circuit here, 
and in Pueblo (soon in Denver too).

Like Alans band, we'd had a rough four track demo we did at our rehearsal
studio, and thought it was pretty happenin'...heh-heh; I stand corrected.
Anyway, we decided that we'd kill two birds with one stone.  We started 
planning a trip to the studio to get a 4 song "demo" and a 4 song "ep"
that we could sell at our shows.

Here's what we ended up with.


                                Studio Review

Name:  		Americus Audio
Engineer:       Jim Barber
Format:		8 track R2R  (Tascam 48)
Price:		$15/hour (Includes couple hours set up)
Mixer:		Tascam M320B (20x4x4x2)
Outboard:	Lexicon LXP1
		Yamaha R1000
 		Effectron II
		TC 2290
		Yamaha SPX90
		BBE Sonic Maximizer
		DBX150X
		DBX Gating
		

Mixdown:	Cassette (Nakamichi)
		DAT (Tascam DA30)
		

Comments:	8 tunes for approx. $200.
		Stereo drums (2 tracks)
		Free tape
		Two free DAT's
		Two free cassettes
		Video monitoring and a tape !!
		

Here's how it's going:

Night 1

We arrived at 17:00 and unloaded our gear and staged in the garage.
First thing we noticed is that the drum room was way to small for our
drummer (Casey) and his kit.  He has 16pc Yamaha Custom...Of course, he 
only brought a 6pc sub-set...But the bass drum is HUGE...  After trying to
make him fit we ended up setting him up in the garage.

Drums were recorded onto two tracks of the TASCAM.  Kick drum (single, with
double pedal) was miked with an Audio Technica ATM25.  The mike was "in" the
drum. Highhat was miked with a EV PL6.  Snare was miked with Shure SM57, all
toms (rack and floor) with Beyer Dymanic MkII (M-76).  I'll have to get the 
model/number of the three overheads and post tomorrow...But there were three
overheads (cute itty bitty little mikes :).

Both guitar racks were set on top of each other in the room where Tom, Guido 
and myself would play.  Speaker cords were run into other rooms (1 room for 
Tom, one for me).  

I used a Celestion stuffed 4x12 in stereo mode, Tom used my 2x12's from ABC
with PV Scorpions.  For Tom, a Beyer M-76 were placed in between the two cabs
about 2 feet away from each.  The 2x12's were place perpendicularly (sp?) from
each other.  

For me, the M-76 was placed about three feet away from the cab pointing right 
in the middle.  My cab was in a larger room, Toms were in the "closet"...
(just like where you put your cabs, Greg).

We both used our "live" patches.  Y'all know what my rig_o_doom is like, 
Toms is a Roland GP16 with a MOSvalve.

Tom recorded "wet" with an Ibanez RG565 and a Charvel Model 4. 
I recorded "dry" with an Ibanez USA Custom.

Guido used a Randall bass head with direct out and an effects loop.
In the FX loop he used a DSP128+ for a touch of chorus and a hair of 
doubling.

Track layout:

Track 1 Drums
Track 2 Drums
Track 3 Guitar (jc)
Track 4 Guitar (tom)
Track 5 Bass (Guido)
Track 6 Scratch (guide-vocal)

We played everything live for the tracks...So tracks 1-5 are keepers.
Pretty much first takes on it all (with exceptions like "Man, restart it,
I hit the damn mike" stuff - scratch one Beyer M-76).  We listened to the 
tape returns (dry) before we left - quality is killer.

We recorded 8 tunes:

Original stuff			Covers:
--------------                  -------
Devils Games                    Enter:SandMan - Metallica
Thats All                       Man In The Box - Alice In Chains
Playin' For Keeps               You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Priest
To Be A Fool                    Highway To Hell - AC/DC

On the originals, we'll go back and punch in some some patches... We're after
a really good DAT so we can make/sell tapes and CD's (An "EP" if you will).
We'll spend most of our time with the originals.  

The covers will more than likely stay the way they are.  They are for demo 
purposes.

Tonight is our last night.  We do vocals (tracks 6,7,8) and any patching 
(punching) that needs done.  We should have a couple of DATs' and couple of 
Cassette masters in our hands before we leave.

Draw backs of Americus Audio:

1.  The headphone system is SH*T!
2.  Drum room is too small

My advise if you're going to pay for studio time - (I'll repeat what Alan
Starr said):

1. Plan.  Know what your going to play, and have an idea in your head for
   miking and layout.  Make sure you bring your tuner, cords, whatever.
2. Expectations MUST be communicated.  We told the engineer that we wanted a 
   broadcast (CD) quality EP to sell, and a four song cover/demo.
3. Practice your ass off - know your sh*t - Be prepared.  Man, we couldn't even 
   SEE our drummer, and the headphones s*cked, so be prepared for oddities like
   that.  We just finished a 4 nighter at a club, so we were well rehearsed...
   Best practice in the world  :)
4. Name your producer and follow number 2.  :)

All tolled up, we started at 5, sent Tom back to our practice studio for the
cymbals Casey forgot (drummers, man...sheesh!). And were partying by 9pm or so.

Part two tomorrow...

Well, we finished our recording last night, but never made it to 
mix down.  I have an appointment Friday at 13:00 to go over and play 
producer.  Should be a LOT of fun.  I suspect this tape will  come out
excellent.  What I do have for listening is a straight (dry) dump from
all eight tracks (with no mixing).  I'll be making production notes from 
that.  Umm, one vocal track might be re-done.

First, a couple of corrections from yesterdays write up:

- HiHat mike was an Ibanez Comm 3 condenser mike
- Overheads were Audio Technica ATM Pro 7's
- Guitars were miked with Beyer Dynamics M400's
- Drums were miked with Beyer Dynamics M69's
- Vocals were done with SM58's.

Disclaimers - The four covers we did are for demo purposes only.  We didn't do
ANY punches on them at all (thinking we wanted to spend our money on the
original stuff).  There are a couple of boo-boos on the covers, so be warned.
:) We did 8 songs in 8 hours total.  It'll probably take us 3-4 hours to mix
it up right and maybe 30 minutes to patch a vocal track on "Playin' For Keeps".

Basically, everything is still live.  A couple of punches for lead guitar on
the originals.  The punches were done by the engineer, James Barber, whilst
we sat in the control room next to the mixer via wireless...

Here's how the tracks laid out:

1 - Drums
2 - Drums
3 - Guitar
4 - Guitar
5 - Bass Guitar
6 - Lead vocals
7 - Backing vocals
8 - Backing vocals

Copies of the finished product will go out Monday (I hope!) !
If you want a preliminary - copy send mail!

jc

I thought I'd let everyone know that See No Evil just went back into West
Sound Studios last weekend, updating our demo tape. 

This time we took longer - 11 hours just to get down the basic tracks, and
I'm going back tomorrow night for 3 hours to finish up the mixing. I think 
there were several reasons that it took longer - we did one extra song; the 
portions of songs we did were longer; the songs were more complex than before, 
and included at least 3 full solos that took a while to get perfect; and 
after being in there once, we were pickier this time around, and tried even 
harder to get things *just* right.

This time around, Jim West played engineer (last time it was Mike). Jim was
just as efficient as Mike was, and I would be happy to work with either again. 
I have a slight preference to work with Mike, only cause he seemed a little
more easy-going and was a little better at getting his points across, but
otherwise there was little difference. (I will be working with Mike when
we mix the tape tomorrow night, by the way.)

Since the recording session was very similar to last time, there no reason to
go through a description the whole process again. Once the mixing is complete
tomorrow night, I'll give some final impressions, and circulate a few tapes
so people can check it out....

alan

FYI, West Sound Studios has gone 24-track digital (I believe they bought
three Tascam DA-88s). I just got a flier in the mail, and here's the specials
they're currently running:

	24 Track	36 Hours	4-day weekday block	$24.50/hr.
	24 Track	24 Hours	4-day weekday block	$27.50/hr.
	24 Track	18 Hours	3-day weekday block	$29.50/hr.
	16 Track	24 Hours	4-day weekday block	$22.50/hr.
	16 Track	18 Hours	3-day weekday block	$24.50/hr.

See .0 for more information if you want to contact them, or send me mail.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with West Sound, other than being a VERY 
	    satisfied customer...

alan

    
    
    	Hmmm, I never noticed this note before...
    
    	
    	My one & only time in a "professional" studio was here at West
    Sound Studios, back around 1987. A couple of guys in Nashua, NH were
    putting out these compilation cassettes of local bands, called "The
    New New England Debut", and the band I was in at the time, Spooky Blue 
    (lame-o name, I know), bought into the 2nd volume of these tapes.
    
    	They had a deal with West Sound Studios; we didn't have to pay for
    studio time, all we had to do was buy the 1" tape. We went in and did
    a tune I wrote called "Stand Your Ground". 
    
    	The band at the time was a 3-piece, with all 3 of us singing. This 
    song was a duet between myself and the bass player. We had just done
    some 4-track recording of some tunes, including this one, so we had
    our parts worked out pretty well. 
    
    	We recorded each part one at a time; I laid down a scratch guitar
    part while the drummer did his tracks, then we put the bass, 2 rhythm
    guitars, lead guitar, and vocals on. 
    
    	One thing I remember that struck me was the recording of the
    drums. Our drummer did not bring his own kit, he used the one at
    the studio. They miked it and used noise gates to chop off all but
    the initial "whack" of the particular drum, and then used digital
    reverb to put the "natural" decay back into the sound.
    
    	Overall, the song turned out okay. I wasn't thrilled with the
    sound of the lead guitar-- the 4-track demoo ended up sounding better,
    but the rest was all right, considering it was our first time in the
    studio. Any "First Time" is always intimidating. The guy at the
    board, Mike West, I think, was a good engineer but not a "producer";
    he offered very few opinions and didn't propose any off-the-wall
    recording/production techniques. But he (and his brothers) were all
    easy to work with and I'd have no problems going back there again.
    
    
    Just reliving old memories,
    
    Brad