Quality Audiogeekery in Northern New England
I recently recorded Gin Mill Julep, an old-time folk trio (mandolin, upright bass, and accordion, all 3 sing). We got space in an old church building in Buxton right on the Saco river. It was a great sounding space. The recording was old-school style, live performance, no overdubs.
Still working on the mixes, but I’ll have an audio sample up soon.
This site has been quiet, but I’ve been doing a lot of recording lately. Much of this is for Freakwitch, where I’ve been recording guitars along with the basic tracks that Jon Wyman recorded at his place several weeks ago.
My approach to recording has been working well. I find interesting rooms (such as a big open room in an old mill, a church, a dance studio, etc) and record. I (of course) bring acoustic panels with me, and generally set up so that I can get nice dry close mics (with panels), as well as huge room mics with lots of reverb. This way I can dial in the exact amount of reverb (which I can of course “carve” with EQ and compression etc.) that I want. This approach sounds better than any reverb plugin, in my opinion.
You can hear a great example of this in a recording I did a few months ago for some friends. They are a hand-drumming duo, so we recorded in a big live room (this one was at the mill). I didn’t mix this, but just did the tracking for them.
It’s a very interesting approach to recording. It makes gearlust somewhat of a moot point; with good mic technique, acoustic panels, good rooms, and good performances, you don’t need hyper-expensive boutique gear. So, send all your expensive mics and preamps to me, since you don’t need them anymore. ;-)