My new one-man-band indie rock album, FREE!

Discussion on new albums, developing listening skills, critical listening to others' work, as well as TOMB members' MP3 links, online recording critiques

Moderator: cgarges

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

My new one-man-band indie rock album, FREE!

Post by jgimbel » Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:08 pm

Today I'm releasing my album, called City Shade/Country Sun (by Jesse Gimbel). Home recorded and mixed, mastered by Tape Op's completely amazing ipressrecord.
http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

Download it, share it if you want to! It'll be free for a week, and then switched to "pay-what-you-want" after a week (August 6), with a minimum of $1 to cover Paypal fees.

For those of you who were involved in my thread about a song I was working on a while ago, that song (Down River) is on the album. I did a music video for using various places in central and eastern PA, including Centralia, Linfield Industrial Park, Limerick Power Plant, and a number of places along the Schuylkill River. If that's your kind of thing you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU-Z8my7tNg

Thanks!
Last edited by jgimbel on Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

mscottweber
pushin' record
Posts: 231
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:22 am
Location: St. Charles, IL

Post by mscottweber » Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:08 pm

I remember when you posted the earlier version of "Down River" here and I really liked it, so I was super excited to see that you had the full album out.

The album has a great vibe to it! The drum sounds throughout it are very cool, and very unique, as are the electric guitar tones.

All around, great job! great songs and great mixes, you should be proud of this!

On "Illinois" did you do the vocal trick where you have a close mic and a room mic but you only compress the close mic so that the big notes get a ton more room sound without really getting much louder?

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:25 pm

Thanks so much! Haha yes that's exactly what I did on Illinois. The guitar and vocals were recorded at the same time for that, and along with the song before it (Indiana) it's just one long take. I first recorded that song years ago and came across the compression idea you're talking about by accident and thought it was such a cool sound!
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Tue Aug 10, 2010 12:24 am

Just to post here again, the album is still free. It was changed to name-your-price, but I changed it back to free, because I'd really rather just trying to get as many people to hear (and hopefully enjoy) the album as possible. Feel free to spread it if you feel so inclined!
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

User avatar
Gregg Juke
cryogenically thawing
Posts: 3544
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:35 pm
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Contact:

Re: My new one-man-band indie rock album, FREE!

Post by Gregg Juke » Tue Aug 10, 2010 3:59 am

Yes, very cool tunes and sounds.

The drums are definitely unique.

GJ

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:42 am

Thanks Greg.

Just bumping this, shamelessly. Looks like the TOMB may have helped me find people to play the album live. As if I wasn't thankful for the board enough.
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

User avatar
Jeff White
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3263
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by Jeff White » Sun Aug 29, 2010 12:08 pm

Hey Jesse... Thanks for the shout out regarding the mastering. You should be really proud of this record. It's fantastic and you did a great job!

Jeff
I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

User avatar
austin
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 167
Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:47 pm
Location: Baltimore
Contact:

Post by austin » Sun Aug 29, 2010 5:01 pm

This stuff sounds great! Yay for one-man bands!

Zoltar
gettin' sounds
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:39 pm
Location: Ontario Canada

Post by Zoltar » Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:09 am

I am enjoying this. Great songs, I like the Down River video also.

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:46 am

Thanks so much guys! Since Jeff did such an awesome job on the mastering I'm holding him and his friends hostage to play live with me, which will mark the first time my one-man-band stuff has ever been played live!
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Thu Oct 14, 2010 7:59 pm

I've got a video from the first show I've played for this album. I'm not sure how kosher it is to post that here, but I figured it wouldn't be too bad since I met the guy who mastered the record and ended up basically getting me set up with a band, with him on guitar. Disclaimer - I'm new to playing my music live!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4nEsmgyapQ
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:58 pm

Probably past the point I should still be posting on this thread, but I've got another short video for one of the songs, and more on the way:

For The Road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Ia9Rqllhs
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

User avatar
vvv
zen recordist
Posts: 10139
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 8:08 am
Location: Chi
Contact:

Post by vvv » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:05 pm

I been listening to this the past cuppla weeks.

I hear, if ya ain't mind my sayin', some Westerberg, Malin, Adams, even Tweedy, butt the playin' is better than half of what they release. 8)

Mikey gives it 4.5/5 olives.

(I have never given 5. :wink: )
bandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

ThumpyBumper
audio school graduate
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:34 am

Post by ThumpyBumper » Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:19 pm

what gear did you use on this album? mics, pres, comps? live drums, not programmed? sounds very good.

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:39 am

vvv wrote:I been listening to this the past cuppla weeks.

I hear, if ya ain't mind my sayin', some Westerberg, Malin, Adams, even Tweedy, butt the playin' is better than half of what they release. 8)

Mikey gives it 4.5/5 olives.

(I have never given 5. :wink: )
Sorry I totally missed this post, thank's so much! That means a lot! I think those are definite people that I consider colleagues as far as sounds (someday maybe more than just in recording sounds, that'd be a trip!)

ThumpyBumper wrote:what gear did you use on this album? mics, pres, comps? live drums, not programmed? sounds very good.
No programmed drums whatsoever - never programmed, haha!

I was trying to remember what exactly was used on what because I've been making some nice upgrades here and can't remember exactly what I got when. I knew I had detailed track sheets somewhere, but I found them, and it turns out they're from the EP from earlier, but at least it'll give me basic idea of what I had. I also recorded this over a number of months and set up for each song separately, as opposed to doing all the drums with one setup, etc, so that makes it a bit less consistent what I was using.

Guitars were generally an SM57 on the grill, with an MXL603 as a room mic, usually panned about midway to the side, even when the close mic was more centered (I don't mind lop sided guitars). The guitar was usually a Squier Tele (which I love, it has very dark pickups for being a Tele) straight into a Vox Pathfinder, using a 1x12 cab that I built with a WGS Veteran 30 in it (favorite speaker I've ever heard). Bass I believe was always a D112, with the same setup as guitar (Pathfinder > 1x12 - I didn't have a dedicated bass amp at the time, but it sounded decent to me). I believe acoustic guitars were an MXL603.

Drums were generally my MXL 603s on overheads (still are, the only MXLs I use constantly these days, though I just got my first KM84 so we'll see what happens). Either spaced pair or Recorderman. I didn't really do close micing of toms too much because I only had kind of crappy backup mics leftover when I was recording drums. The drums in mixing were always a bit of a struggle, trying to make the toms loud enough without the cymbals being too loud. I'm a recording drummer only though so luckily I was able to balance as best as I could, so it didn't yield the most terrible results. Snare was always an SM57, about 6" back from the snare (without close tom mics, a really close snare mic just popped out way too much). Kick was always (I believe) the D112, placed right around the whole in the head - at the time I wasn't aware that putting a mic inside the kick drum wouldn't kill it! These days I have much less issues getting kick attack, haha! So that was it on drums I believe, two overheads, Recorderman when I wanted a decent amount of toms, snare and kick. I may have used my AT4050 as a room mic, I don't remember exactly when I got that one though. If I had it at that point, I would have been using it on acoustic guitar too, I don't remember.

Vocals were always either an SM7b or an AT4050, with the exception of "Night Song", where every mic I tried just did not sound right at all with the mix I had, and I loved the mix, ended up using a D112 with no EQ whatsoever. Last mic I would have expected to work but with my usual mics I couldn't get anything even close without crazy EQ.

Anything else like cymbal crescendos, chord organ, etc. were the MXL603 or 4050.

As far as preamps, I was using either the Studio Projects VTB-1, a beautiful dual API 312 clone from Regular John Recording, or the built-ins on the Firestudio Project I was using on that album. I don't remember what month I got the 312, but if it was toward the beginning of my recording, then the majority of the tracks went through that (anything that didn't take more than two mics - guitar, bass, kick/snare, vocals). I believe that was the case actually. Love that thing.

There's no outboard compression on the album whatsoever as I didn't have any outboard compressors at the time. All compression was ITB using the free plugins I used the most then - the Classic Compressor, and the Rough Rider.

So definitely nothing fancy on that album. I hear lots of issues with the album but I'm not dissatisfied with it over all. Now that I've got nicer gear but know how to get okay sounds without it, it'll be fun if I decide to start making music again.
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 26 guests