I haven’t posted an update in a little while now – I AM still working, though with the holidays life has been busy, but in general I’ve been going back and working on stuff that’s already tracked that I think could be a little better. Pracrastinating, really, before turning to what should be a really hard solo to tackle, but it’s at least making for a better recording.

After doing a WA-14 and SE4400a comparison a little while back, and then adding some acoustic rhythm parts that I’d missed previously on that Am song I just wrapped up, I walked away with a new appreciation for just jow good the SE4400 or any C414-style mic sounds pointing at the fretboard around the neck joint on an acouystic. The guitar tone for that C#m song I’d recorded early on, where I’d positioned the second track’s SE4400 closer to the body, I think worked better when it was a sparse, mostly acoustic song, but as the arrangement got denser, that darker, woodier tone for that one take wasn’t working as well to my ears, so I went back and re-recorded it with a SE4400 in loosely the same spot as the VR1 had been. I kept the original track – I’m not sure how I’m going to handle it in the final mix, if at all, but I’m considering panning it center, mixing it way back, and absolutely smashing it with a compressor, and then pulling it out during the choruses and solos where there are electric rhythm guitars as well.

As originally recorded:

New right-channel recording, without the original panned center

And then all three tracks, with the old R track panned Center and mixed back a little, though before it occurred to me to smash it with an LA-2A style compressor:

I think the intro sounds a little thinner like this, but the brighter tone works better, I think, as more things get added in.

I’ve done a few other supporting overdubs here and there, as well – partly because I was having some issues with the wiring of my PRS in the neck position, and partly because while it’s a great sounding guitar, the absurdity of using a neon-red RG for a clean toned melody line was too great and besides I wanted to get it on the album somewhere, I doubled the clean-toned “echo” line I talked about a few posts back so there’s now a darker clean PRS neck pickup tone to one side, a slightly crisper clean RG tone to the other, and my Strat lead sound dead center. One of the things I’ve seen with vocal harmonies is your ear tends to accept them a little better when they’re an odd number, for some reason, so I’m applying that basic arrangement approach to my lead lines. Similarly, there’s a couple songs where the melody guitar is my Strat, but there’s a bridge where the Strat is also playing a rhythm part before the lead comes back in; I’ve added a center-channel take as well, now, that I’ll mix back with the same lead tone as the melody guitar, to help ensure that it doesn’t feel like there’s a hole in the mix when the solo drops out. And, similarly, there’s that Smashing Pumpkins like moment in one of my songs – Billy Corgan was always gratuitous with his layered electric guitars, and the bent octaves sounded a little thin, so using my Suhr 6 I recorded a pair of doubles (as well as the existing center channel one that was already there) that I’ll plan on reamping through a seriously oversaturated Rectifier when the time comes.

So, quiet few weeks, but there’s work going on behind the scenes. Some drum programming too, working on fills for songs that don’t currently have them, as well, but that’s less interesting to talk about.