QuasiDad Recording

I got a new drive belt for my Tascam reel-to-reel today, patched everything up, and it works great! I got it calibrated at 15ips and reset the auto-sync sample number (which was spot-on every time) so I'm gonna test it on some drums tomorrow. Sweet!

I recorded another version of "These Days" for the "HEP" project (secret!). I decided to try to slower, Jackson Browne version of the song instead of Nico's version which was technically the first recorded version. Sheesh! Anyway, Browne's version is more country-ish and worked a little better for me. The Nico version is great, though. I adjusted a few levels and finalized this track and an acoustic guitar version of Tom Waits' "Take It With Me," also for HEP.

I got my bass back from Amber who was borrowing it for our Hula Hop gig. I played drums and
Ryan played guitar. It was pretty fun. We played six songs total, all oldies.



Anyway, I had a few songs recorded that needed bass so I laid down parts for "Today is the Day" and "Here Comes My Baby," the latter being the final track for HEP and the former being a new track for...well, I don't know. Probably for The Sunflowers if I ever get that going again. I mixed both songs and checked the mixes on headphones and another stereo. I might fine-tune them over the next couple days.

I fleshed out "Stranger to Love" tonight and it sounds great. I got a good drum take and I'm really pleased with the room sound in the new house. The room mic is a good 10ft away from the kit and, smashed to tape, it sounds killer combined with the other tracks. I normally hear in my head exactly how I want a song to sound before I start recording, but I didn't really know with this one. It's a dangerous way to record.

I laid down a solid drum beat and then rigged the tape machine as a tape delay. I set the channel 1 tape input on the aux send and then returned the tape output to a channel strip. By adjusting the aux send on any given channel, I control the amount of signal sent to the tape machine, and by adjusting the tape machine's speed, I adjust the delay time. The fun part is adjusting the aux send of the tape return channel (essentially sending itself back to itself!) to get really cool feedback effects instead of a single "slap." I set the delay to almost feedback on itself which gave a really cool ringy effect which is kinda what I was going for when I said "Radiohead-ish" (think "Subterranean Homesick Alien"). Sometimes the guitar part comes naturally when you have the right sound. I used a Tele for the picked parts and the lap steel for the slide parts through a Fender Vibrochamp mic'd with an SM57. I can play slide much more accurately on the lap steel.

After that, I recorded a simple tremolo-Wurlitzer part with lots of delay and reverb (see a pattern here?). I also put down a tambourine track. This song will certainly have atmosphere. Unfortunately, I'm going to re-record it all because the tape machine is getting wobbly so the drums don't match up perfectly. It's my fault for trusting this new auto-sync method. I ordered a new drive belt for the tape machine which should fix the problem. I also need to clean the heads.

For the new version, I want to extend the chorus and really nail down the lead guitar parts because they sound soooo cool. I think I'll double the lead parts with a glockenspiel or celeste. I really need to get a bass part, too. An acoustic guitar will probably end up on the final mix, too, just to emphasize the chord changes. I also wanted to play the ride cymbal a little instead of only using the hi-hat. These are all minor problems, but viewed together, I might as well start over. I need to remember to run the Wurlitzer out to an amp. It's really hard to get a good Rhodes/Wurlitzer sound in-the-box.

Tonight I started two new recordings. Middle of the Room is an old song, one of the first I ever wrote. I have an old recording of it but the key is too low now so I capo'd it up three frets. I had a hell of a time getting the drums on-time using my new auto-sync (?) method with the tape machine. I think the motor belt is slipping because the machine will turn slower and slower as the "pull" reel gets near full and eventually it won't play at all. This was the problem. As I recorded a track, the motor would slow down, thus decreasing the tape ips (inches per second) speed, thus changing the latency that I had fine-tuned last night. So, as I listened back to the sync'd tracks, it would sound like my playing was out of time even though I knew I was playing right in time with the scratch track. I rewound the tape and it seemed to fix the problem. The song will feature a pedal steel and some sweet chicken-pickin' country guitar. The old version had lap steel and fake strings (yuck).

The new song is "Stranger to Love" (or I might call it "One Person Heart"). It was going to be another folky number but I think I want to make it a Radiohead-esque rocker with lots of delayed guitar and cool effects and such. Nothing over the top, though. But that's where I'm at now. I spent so much time messing around with the tape machine that I didn't get a good drum take for "Stranger to Love." I still need to figure out what I'm going to play. It's difficult to play rockin' drums to an acoustic backing track. Hopefully I can make some progress on both of these songs tomorrow.

I did a small session tonight to fill out "Today is the Day." At first, I envisioned a lap steel part, which I had been fiddling with, but I decided to play the lead on pedal steel. It took about 25 pieced-together takes before I finished. Then I added some simple vibes via Reason to fill out the quiet, rhythm parts. Now songs only need bass, editing, and mixing and they're done!

I decided to scrap an entire evening's worth of recording, a new song titled "Today is the Day." It's an acoustic number that needed SOMETHING but I couldn't decide. The deleted take had brush "marching" drums and felt too slow. The new take was about 5 bpm faster and had a simple bass drum/cross stick beat with shakers and tambourine. It sounds MUCH better. I'm going for the vibe of The Faces' "Ooh La La" which features a similar arrangement.

Some dude on TapeOp posted an idea for integrating tape into a digital audio workstation which I experimented with last night. The problem is I only have a limited number of tape tracks so, in order to get my analog drum tracks to line up with a digital scratch track, I have to manually align them after dumping the tape to digital. This is time-consuming and not always perfect. The TapeOpper suggested using a latency delay plugin to automatically align the tape and digital tracks once recording stops. I calibrated the setup by playing a blip, in digital, recording it onto a rolling tape machine, and recording the tape output back into the computer, and measuring the amount of delay between the initial sound and recorded sound. The difference was measured in samples and fine-tuned a few times and set in the plugin. I applied the plugin to the four soundcard inputs coming from the tape machine. So, now, I can record a digital scratch track to a metronome, record and automatically dump and align four tape tracks, and have it all still match to a metronome! Awesome. I can also record any overdubs to tape as I see fit without manually aligning anything. I haven't noticed any phase problems either. Yay!

The first thing I did was re-record the guitar solo for "Here Comes My Baby" because the original was too plucky. I used a DeArmond M-77T, a Gretsch-style guitar with a Bigsby tremolo, instead of a Telecaster, because I wanted to do a few surf-style tremolo bends. The guitar tone was not as good but the solo came out very well. I also created another delay send, about 50ms longer and panned hard right, so the lead guitar bounces from left to right and sounds cool.

"Today is the Day" is a pretty nice, acoustic guitar-centered pop song. I recorded a scratch track then added simple drums to tape using the new method described above. Then I added two shaker tracks and a tambourine on the two and four. Next, I added a dual-mic'd 12-string acoustic with a lot of room sound and replaced the vocal track after about five takes. Drums sound great on tape and I think acoustic guitar benefits as well. The next tracks to add will be bass, of course, and a Bm6/D lap steel (country/Hawaiian tuning). I might try a honky-tonk piano and a glockenspiel or vibes.

Hello and welcome to Curtis's (me) home recording diary. I hope to educate, entertain, and document a small sample of my recording adventures, which usually remain hidden from outside eyes. So, let's get started with a little history.

I've been recording music at home for about six years or so, starting with a 12-channel Mackie mixer and a 4-channel Delta 44 sound card. Since then, I've acquired a nice variety of budget mics, a larger mixer, tape deck, and many other goodies. But more importantly, I've honed my songwriting, production, and engineering skills.

I usually begin recording with a one-mic vocal and guitar scratch track, sometimes played to a metronome, to guide the rest of the tracks as they are layered. After the drums, guitars, and other instruments are recorded I replace the scratch track with a new vocal-only track and record bass last. I find that leaving bass until the very end helps me mix the bass tone and melodic line into the rest of the song as I play.

Since I just moved into a new recording space, I decided to use a cover song as a sort-of experiment to get used to the new sound characteristics of the room and adjust levels and mic placement. The song I chose was "Here Comes My Baby," originally written by Cat Stevens but covered by The Tremeloes and, among others, Yo La Tengo. My arrangement is a combination of the different versions combining my favorite parts from each. I love the glockenspiel/guitar intro from Stevens, the tom-tom-snare drums from the Tremeloes, and the country-esque leads from Yo La Tengo.

I first set up a Studio Projects B1 large-diaphragm condenser mic and recorded a scratch vocal/acoustic guitar track. Since I got rid of my Tascam 388 8-track tape recorder, I'm now using a Tascam 22-4 1/4" 4-track for drums. I want to use 4 tracks for drums, so this means I'll either have to manually sync the analog drum tracks with the digital scratch track or (this is the method I've chosen although it takes a little longer) record the drum tracks while listening to the scratch track, dump the drum tracks, then re-record a second scratch track while listening to the drum tracks. It may seem convoluted, but recording an additional scratch track usually doesn't involve more than one take. It's definitely worth the trouble since I've found drums sound much better, at least for my style of music and playing, recorded hot to tape. None of the plugins or digital simulators come close.

I almost always record drums second because they form the backbone of the song. If I screw up a drum take, it will ruin the subsequent tracks, so I need to get a good, solid take before adding any other instruments. My typical setup is as follows: Audio Technical ATM-25 on bass drum (out a few feet and angled), EV 635a omni on snare side (a few inches off), and a pair of Oktava MC-012's for overheads in a Glyn Johns arrangement (one straight overhead pointing at snare, second at 90 degree angle over floor tom, pointing at high hat). Sometimes, I'll use an SP B1 as a room mic or not use a snare mic. I check the phase, levels, and placement while playing through headphones. I usually do a few short trial-and-error takes to get levels on the mixer and tape machine as well as test the sound of the mics all together. I get a nice, balanced sound from the overheads first then add the spot mics.

After a few attempts, I have a good drum take and dump it into Nuendo, my recording software of choice. I set up a mic and record a new scratch track, replacing the old one, then usually overdub acoustic and electric guitars, aux percussion, and other "live" instruments. I laid down a vocal track in one take (I've been practicing this song for a while). After every track, I'm slowly creating a rough mix by adjusting levels, compression, and delay/reverb. I try not to EQ anything unless absolutely necessary as most EQ problems can be fixed by mic placement during recording. I save the "quiet" instruments like keyboards, bass, or anything else recorded direct, for last because they can be recorded at any time of the day. A friend is borrowing my bass so that will have to wait.