Artist Name: The Ty Faherty Band Title: It Takes Two Genre: Americana Rating:
Equipment
Universal Audio Apollo x8p, Apple Logic, Electronaut Stereo Tube Mic Preamp, Rupert Neve Designs Portico II Channel, Barefoot MM45 Monitors, plugins from UAD, FabFilter and Black Rooster, Collings, Taylor, and Bourgeois acoustic guitars, A&F Drums, Bosphorus Cymbals, Oahu vintage lap steel, Gibson, Fender, and Bollendorf electric guitars, vintage Fender Amps, Neuman TLM 49; Shure SM52, Beta 98, SM59, SM81 on drums.
Music
“It Takes Two” is an Americana song written collectively by Ty Faherty (lead vocals and acoustic guitar), Kyle Bollendorf (electric guitar), Isaac Strader (bass) and Ron Brashear on drums and engineering. Tom Volpicelli mastered the track.
Reviewed By Marty Peters
This is a solid effort that falls just short of our Spotlight feature, primarily due to a few volume, tone, and balance concerns. The track starts with a full-bodied strummed acoustic guitar, quickly joined by a prominent electric guitar panned at approximately ten o’clock along with a kick and snare playing a rolling beat. Ty’s impassioned lead vocal comes in next, with a tone quite a bit sharper than the other sound sources. A pillowy bass guitar joins in at the one-minute mark, rounding out the instrumentation. While all the performances are strong, the balances, particularly on the left-panned electric guitar, fight for position with the vocal, and we find ourselves being pulled to that position constantly. The lead guitar at 3:14 appears to be louder than the lead vocal it replaces in the mix.
Suggestions
The band owns some very sweet gear [yeah! -Ed.] including the Barefoot Sound MM 45 monitors! Typically, when confronted by the types of balance issues we are hearing here, we head straight to the monitors for clues. In this case, however, given the quality of their listening system, we would have to assume that the choices were intentional. That being the case, we would suggest a remix, starting with the rhythm section, the acoustic guitar and vocals only. Get these primary sound sources well balanced before bringing in the electric guitar. In our view, the electric should provide interest and color to the mix but still support the foundation. Regarding the lead guitar, there is no need to have the solo louder than the lead vocal. When the vocal drops out, replacing it with a sound at a corresponding level keeps the mix even and prevents unnecessary energy fluctuations.
Summary
Easy solutions!
Contact
Ron Brashear, [email protected]