Artist Name: BOESCH Title: In These Times Genre: singer / songwriter Rating:
Equipment
Martin and Fender guitars, Toontrack EZ Drums and EZ Keys, Audio-Technica AT3035 mic, Logic Pro X, Waves plugins, Focusrite Clarett, FaderPort 8, Sony headphones, Yamaha monitors.
Music
“In These Times” is a singer/songwriter track. Frank Boesch was the ‘band’ on this one.
Reviewed By Marty Peters
Strong effort here! There’s a lot to like, along with a few areas that could be addressed to achieve a more successful outcome. Let’s dive in. Overall the track has a dusky, somewhat distanced ambience. The combination of sound source placement and processing gives things a bit of an across-the-room feel. Frank did a solid job with his drum programming here—the tom fills (particularly the one at the song’s modulation point) are handled quite nicely. The bass tone is relatively muted through our monitors, but we dig the melodic performance, as it produces most of the movement in this track. We also like the faux Hammond organ sound from the EZ Keys software; it provides a nice pad for the other instruments to ride on throughout the song. The vocals are well executed, and we’re particularly impressed by Frank’s harmonies, both the performance and the mix blend. Finally, while we can’t be sure exactly how it was recorded, the acoustic guitar has an onboard pickup-type tone that gives it a boxy feel in the mix.
Suggestions
As we said at the top, this is a solid effort. As far as fixes go, the ambience is a matter of taste and personal choice. While we’d prefer to hear a more upfront presentation, it’s no hill to die on! As for the acoustic guitar, David’s Audio Technica AT 3035 condenser mic would yield excellent results on his Martin guitar, either alone or in combination with the onboard Fishman pickup system. Our strongest recommendation, however, is that Frank considers having the song mastered. There is a plethora of mastering options available out there these days, and they can be much more affordable than one might imagine. In our opinion, a qualified mastering engineer could take Frank’s track to another level in short order.
Summary
On its way!
Contact
Frank Boecsh, [email protected]