UmbreonStudios.com

Listen: Harrisburg

My goal with this song was to record a song as if a singer/songwriter had hired me to record a demo. In a case like this, I want to record the song with some energy, add some details and interest and keep the budget down. This is not supposed to be a CD-ready master.

This song was written by Josh Ritter and I pretty much copied the form from Josh’s album, Golden Age of Radio. I shortened the intro and picked up the tempo a little. I wrote my own vocal harmony. These are the same kinds of change I would make if a songwriter gave me a cassette.

Although I set up the instrumentation as 2 guitars, bass, drums, I recorded the 2 guitar parts on 3 tracks. I was trying to get a fuller guitar sound so I recorded the 2 rhythm parts in stereo, while the solo is in mono, mostly for separation. One guitar strums chords throughout while the second adds some punch on the chorus and one verse. The second guitar never overlaps with the solo guitar (so, live, one player would cover both parts).

The bass part was generated by Band In A Box. This is a quick, easy way to set my form, get a steady rhythm and ensure my parts stay together. I sent a midi file to Pro Tools and used an acoustic bass patch from my sampler.

The drums were programmed in midi. I needed a straight beat for the choruses and a little shuffle rhythm for the rest. Simple, easy and effective. I set up drum sounds on 3 tracks (for control), and used the Pro Tools included synth, Xpand2 as a sound module.