Current Tape Reviews
Artist Name: Rock Bussell |
Title: My Old Flame |
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Date Posted: March 2009 |
Genre: Country |
Equipment Used:
Korg D3200, Shure SM57 (snare), Nady and Behringer Mics (drums), Stedman N10 and MXL mics (vocal), DI’d Charvel electric, Ibanez Bass, JBPlayer 12-string, “cheap ass lap steel,” “an ancient Casio keyboard,” Pulse drum kit.
Production Notes & Credits:
“My Old Flame” is a male vocal country shuffle. Rock was the “one man band”, author and engineer on the track.
Reviewed By: Marty Peters
Recording: A well written, tongue in cheek song. As is often the case, some things work better than others here, so let’s start with the positive. The vocals, lead and backing, are very well recorded and presented. No over-compression, artifacts or sibilance. The electric rhythm guitar is also well recorded with just enough compression to tame its choppy nature. The full, rich, bass guitar is right on the edge of being too dominant in the mix, but it certainly keeps the shuffle alive.
On the down side, the electric 12-string guitar is suffering from some tuning issues, and it is rather obvious that (good intentions aside) the drums are not Rock’s main instrument. As a rule we refrain from performance critiques in this column, but we will make an exception in this case. The erratic timing issues are distracting, and the excessive beater head “click” on the kick drum only serves to accentuate the problem.
Suggestions: As we’ve said before in these pages, there are very few musicians out there that are equally skilled at multiple instruments. While we applaud Rock for the effort that he surely put into miking, playing and recording his kit, in this case we would suggest that he either find a skilled drummer to recut the part or find a software program that would quantize the part that he played. We would also urge Rock to move his kick mic back a bit in order to minimize the amount of beater head that he’s getting. A rounder tone will help “marry” it more successfully to his rich bass guitar tone.
As for the twelve string guitar: yes, they can be a bugger to tune, but it really does add something unique to Rock’s arrangement. Taking the time to tune it properly will pay dividends in the long run!
Summary: A good catchy tune with a lot of upside!
Contact: Rock Bussell, www.myspace.com/rockbussell, rocker9229@yahoo.com.
On the down side, the electric 12-string guitar is suffering from some tuning issues, and it is rather obvious that (good intentions aside) the drums are not Rock’s main instrument. As a rule we refrain from performance critiques in this column, but we will make an exception in this case. The erratic timing issues are distracting, and the excessive beater head “click” on the kick drum only serves to accentuate the problem.
Suggestions: As we’ve said before in these pages, there are very few musicians out there that are equally skilled at multiple instruments. While we applaud Rock for the effort that he surely put into miking, playing and recording his kit, in this case we would suggest that he either find a skilled drummer to recut the part or find a software program that would quantize the part that he played. We would also urge Rock to move his kick mic back a bit in order to minimize the amount of beater head that he’s getting. A rounder tone will help “marry” it more successfully to his rich bass guitar tone.
As for the twelve string guitar: yes, they can be a bugger to tune, but it really does add something unique to Rock’s arrangement. Taking the time to tune it properly will pay dividends in the long run!
Summary: A good catchy tune with a lot of upside!
Contact: Rock Bussell, www.myspace.com/rockbussell, rocker9229@yahoo.com.
About: Marty Peters
