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Description
Left To Swing started out over 1.5 years ago as tracks Mason sent to me with lots of samples from various media outlets. Verses and choruses were written, squeezing out all but one of the samples, but leaving us with a gaping breakdown. Much of the time between writing and mixing was spent trying to figure out what to do with that breakdown, as it seemed too spare on its own, but definitely needed a change up from the pace of the verses and chorus.
Mason envisioned a female vocal in the breakdown, so after some fits and starts, we had A. Gair read from Neruda's "I'm Explaining A Few Things", as translated by Nathaniel Tarn, to take us through the breakdown.
Several things happened that made this mix a mess: we recorded three different times using different equipment, Mason was still perfecting the use of said equipment, various parts were re-recorded, and the levels were all over the place. In between the first recording and the mix, we completed another song with an altogether different feel (Why We Travel).
Vocals were recorded in the basement of my apartment, except for my breakdown vocals, recorded in Mason's house. We used the following equipment for recording vox:
1) Microphones: AT2020, Joe Meek JM37
2) Pre-amps: Joe Meek SixQ
3) One tape-together pop screen on a busted mic stand
As far as themes go, we didn't go much farther than the anger and disappointment that often comes with reading the daily news or listening to it. Methods used to sell us the news are discussed as verbs in the chorus.
Huy Dao
Huy Dao: lyrics, vocals, arrangement
Bryan Anderson: percussion, mastering, initial editing of song structure
Mason Wolak: guitars, bass, engineering, mixing
A. Gair: spoken word in middle breakdown section
Production Notes: The shear variety of equipment used to produce the guitar and bass sounds in this song warrant mention. All of the overdriven rhythm guitars in the song were recorded with a Gibson Les Paul fed into my homebuilt TMI Cyclotron, a 2 W Push-Pull guitar amp. The amp was driving a Marshall 1936 2X12 cabinet that was mic'd with a JoeMeek JM37 condenser mic fed into a Mackie Onyx 400F preamp.
The guitars are presented in the mix "as is" (no EQ or Compression) with the exception of the use of the Blockfish VST plug-in to emulate tape "saturation" to warm up the sound and make it seem a bit less "digital".
The tapping intro and outro portions of the song were recorded with a Gibson SG using the Line 6 Gearbox plug-in set to the Bogner and Diezel amp models. The phasing was added after the fact with Nomad Factory's excellent (and free) Phaser VST plug-in.
The clean-ish guitar solo that comes after the second chorus was recorded with a Vox Tonelab (on loan from friend Mike Schuette). The tonelab was also used to record the flanged lead line that precedes the heavy part of the breakdown.
The clean 5/4 rhythm lines in the middle section of the song were recorded D.I. into the Onyx 400F and were modified with the Amplitube 2 VST plug-in using the THD bivalve amp model.
Bass guitars were recorded D.I. using a combination of the the Amplitube 2 bass amp model and the AmpegSVT Uno plug-in.
Drums were recorded with Bardl dynamic drum mics and Behringer C-1 Condenser mics on a Yamaha 16 track mixer. The kick drum was replaced with samples as we were unable to get a "tight" enough kick sound, and snare drum samples layered with original snare drum track.
The song was tracked and mixed in Mackie Tracktion 3.0.3.3. The majority of dynamics and EQ processing was done with the Waves Musicians II set of plug-ins or the included T3 plug-ins. Waves Trueverb and DestroyFX Ambience were used for reverb processing. The song was mastered in Digital Performer with the included plug-in set and PSP Vintage Warmer.
Mason envisioned a female vocal in the breakdown, so after some fits and starts, we had A. Gair read from Neruda's "I'm Explaining A Few Things", as translated by Nathaniel Tarn, to take us through the breakdown.
Several things happened that made this mix a mess: we recorded three different times using different equipment, Mason was still perfecting the use of said equipment, various parts were re-recorded, and the levels were all over the place. In between the first recording and the mix, we completed another song with an altogether different feel (Why We Travel).
Vocals were recorded in the basement of my apartment, except for my breakdown vocals, recorded in Mason's house. We used the following equipment for recording vox:
1) Microphones: AT2020, Joe Meek JM37
2) Pre-amps: Joe Meek SixQ
3) One tape-together pop screen on a busted mic stand
As far as themes go, we didn't go much farther than the anger and disappointment that often comes with reading the daily news or listening to it. Methods used to sell us the news are discussed as verbs in the chorus.
Huy Dao
Performance Credits:
Huy Dao: lyrics, vocals, arrangement
Bryan Anderson: percussion, mastering, initial editing of song structure
Mason Wolak: guitars, bass, engineering, mixing
A. Gair: spoken word in middle breakdown section
Production Notes: The shear variety of equipment used to produce the guitar and bass sounds in this song warrant mention. All of the overdriven rhythm guitars in the song were recorded with a Gibson Les Paul fed into my homebuilt TMI Cyclotron, a 2 W Push-Pull guitar amp. The amp was driving a Marshall 1936 2X12 cabinet that was mic'd with a JoeMeek JM37 condenser mic fed into a Mackie Onyx 400F preamp.
TMI Cyclotron Guitar Amp used to record "Left to Swing"
The guitars are presented in the mix "as is" (no EQ or Compression) with the exception of the use of the Blockfish VST plug-in to emulate tape "saturation" to warm up the sound and make it seem a bit less "digital".
The tapping intro and outro portions of the song were recorded with a Gibson SG using the Line 6 Gearbox plug-in set to the Bogner and Diezel amp models. The phasing was added after the fact with Nomad Factory's excellent (and free) Phaser VST plug-in.
The clean-ish guitar solo that comes after the second chorus was recorded with a Vox Tonelab (on loan from friend Mike Schuette). The tonelab was also used to record the flanged lead line that precedes the heavy part of the breakdown.
The clean 5/4 rhythm lines in the middle section of the song were recorded D.I. into the Onyx 400F and were modified with the Amplitube 2 VST plug-in using the THD bivalve amp model.
Bass guitars were recorded D.I. using a combination of the the Amplitube 2 bass amp model and the AmpegSVT Uno plug-in.
Drums were recorded with Bardl dynamic drum mics and Behringer C-1 Condenser mics on a Yamaha 16 track mixer. The kick drum was replaced with samples as we were unable to get a "tight" enough kick sound, and snare drum samples layered with original snare drum track.
The song was tracked and mixed in Mackie Tracktion 3.0.3.3. The majority of dynamics and EQ processing was done with the Waves Musicians II set of plug-ins or the included T3 plug-ins. Waves Trueverb and DestroyFX Ambience were used for reverb processing. The song was mastered in Digital Performer with the included plug-in set and PSP Vintage Warmer.
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damiengh
Need this with my coffee in the morning. Energy brings one up to speed quickly here, you got me there man and I'm out of the gate. Loved your change of tempos and mix.
There is a lot here to listen to here and it is going to take more than one listen.
Your amp has definitely done it's job. I want one.