Question Mark

Posted April 3, 2011

QUESTION MARK

New track by Jonathan Kemp: vocals, guitars, bass, drums, synth

Here is the first song I wrote as part of my most recent project. I always record a full track when I write songs, creating the song as the recording ensues. This is like the first page in a musical sketchbook. Comments welcome, it's a work in progress.

Using an Apogee Duet and Logic 9, the drums were recorded first, in an untreated garage attic, in mono, using an MXL 2001 placed in the rafters with a big yellow foam windscreen, and an EV RE11 inside the kick, which had some pillows stuffed in it. I took all the bottom heads off the toms and the front head off the kick to get an early '70s sound. Also, I duct taped some tea towels to the toms and snare like they did with Ringo's kit on Let It Be. The RE11 was used on the guitar amp, an Ampeg Rocket from 1959, and on vocals. The bass is an Epiphone Viola "Beatle" bass and was recorded through the guitar amp.

It was the first recording I did for this project, so it's certainly not immaculate, but it's got something going on I like. Did my best to "master" the mix and get it to a reasonable volume level without too much processing, but I really don't have the right equipment to do this properly. For this I used the Puigtec EQP-1a plug-in, the Renaissance De-esser, the C4 Multiband compressor, and the Nomad Factory LM-662 (awesome Fairchild clone) to somewhat adequate results, I hope. My monitors are a pair of vintage Auratone 5C's and a pair of KLH 32's, both from circa 1973, and I use a set of Grado SR-60 headphones.