Editors' Blogs

Since the launch of Readers' Tapes online, we've been getting a ton of submissions. Thanks to everyone who has submitted! If you haven't submitted a song for review, you can do it here.

Holiday Cheer

Typically we don't get many holiday-specific submissions to Readers' Tapes. But, as I was reviewing submissions this week, I came across a particular exception.

Rockin' Holiday Cheer

Coming in from Bullets Can't Kill Danny, this take on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is awesome! 

It was produced by Ryan John and Skyler Kilborn, engineered by Ryan John and Bret Belletto and Ryan also mixed and mastered the track.

I don't know about you, but I'm filled full of holiday cheer! This is a really killer arrangement and very well produced. I absolutely love the "Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! Yeahhhhh!!!" shout chorus at the very beginning. And the repeating quasi-screamo "Let the holidays begin" is classic. Great stuff, guys!

So, I'll save the recording critique for Readers' Tapes. But, in case you're interested, Ryan detailed the gear they used:

"We used custom drums made with Keller shells and Zildjian A Custom cymbals. We mic'd the kick inside with a Sennheiser e602, and outside with an M-Audio Sputnik. Snare was SM-57 top and bottom, toms were Sennheiser MD-421's, overheads were Neumann KM 184's, and we used Royer R121's as room mics. 

Guitars were done with a Roland Jazz Chorus w/TS9 pedal, Gibson Les Paul Standard and miked with a Mojave MA200 and Sennheiser MD 421. We used a Danelectro bass direct and vocals were done with the M-Audio Sputnik. The song was recorded to Protools M-Powered 7.4 on Mac Pro, and we used Waves API, Digi Pultecs, Fairchilds, hardware SPX90s for effects."

Happy holidays...

Justin