I did an overdub.

[evan]

For my audio class I was expected to turn in a small recording assignment at the end of this quarter, that, at the very least, had to have an overdub. I kind of went overboard and tried to record a whole song by myself in two 4-hour sessions. It was hectic, since I had to set up and take down the mics and the instruments in that time as well (it was real fun toting around a drumset). Also, since the live room I was using was a different floor (the CR overlooks the room), I ran about a half-mile each session.

This was my first time using a "real" studio, with an actual console and a selection of mics. Due to my time constraints, I did vocals at home, and mixed it it in Digital Performer with plugins. I was going for a straight-up soul thing, but I couldn't completely accomplish this for several obvious reasons (not a good enough singer, not a good musician, no horns, and most precisely, not Curtis Mayfield).

Anyway: http://saucysauce.com/Joe_Monday_&_The_ ... On_Top.mp3

[evan]

Come on, people, I know a bunch of you downloaded the track! Say something about it -- "trash!", or "how'd you get such-and-such to sound like that?", or "why'd you make such-and-such sound like that?!" Let me talk shop like some experienced engineer!

[WillMorgan]

I like the tune, arrangment, and your voice and think its pretty well done for such a short session.

Not that i know how long Curtis Mayfield sessions took..

I A/Bd a few of his tunes along with yours and the thing i noticed was that on his the snare drum is really full and popping, driving the tune.

Did you record the drums with just overheads or a single mic or did you mic the snare and then not mix it very high or use a lot of reverb on it or...?

"Drums are the backbone of a song" - Jimmy Page

[evan]

Hey, thanks for replying. Glad you liked the song. While I had hoped to make it sound like some Impressions thing, I quickly realized that wasn't really possible, given the short sessions I had (no time to experiment).

For the drums I had used two Neumann KM83's in a spaced pair overhead, and a touch of a 421 on the snare mixed in (in retrospect, a bad decision, because I got massive bleed). Bass drum was a RE20 on the front and D112 on the back. I compressed mostly the overheads to tame the cymbal (I had only used one), and added a little plate reverb on the OH's.

If I were to do it again, I'd probably have used the 4060 I had as an overhead instead of the 83's -- I'm taking a random guess that a lot of soul used a (single?) LD overhead. Also, my drumset was pretty trashy (I had to play the snare upside down to get a decent sound!), so that didn't help either.

Overall I'd have hoped for a cleaner, classier sound, but that was probably too much to expect when working in an unfamiliar studio with unfamiliar mics. I just can't get over how good the first Impressions record sounds -- the stereo mixing is pretty primitive on some of the tracks, but each instrument is so gorgeously captured it doesn't really matter. I'll be aspiring to that level of skill for some time, no doubt.