Artist Name: Lee Harry Title: I’m Not Angry Anymore Genre: Male Rock Vocal Rating:
Equipment Used
Mac Pro with MOTU 828mk3 interface, running MOTU Digital Performer 9 with Waves plug-ins, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX and Trillian, Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4, and Avid Artist Mix. Yamaha 01V96i digital mixer, JBL LSR4823P monitors, Shure KSM44 mic through ART Pro MPA II preamp. Martin HD28V, Fender Strat, Kurzweil Artis SE keyboard.
Production Notes & Credits
“I’m Not Angry Anymore” is a male vocal rock song, written, performed, programmed and recorded by Lee at his home studio. Travis Greer supplied the guitar solos.
Reviewed By Marty Peters
This month’s SPOTLIGHT is a superb high-energy track, with plenty of attitude to accompany its excellent performances and arrangement.
Starting with the programming, Lee has knocked it out of the park with his drums. The tones achieved via Spectrasonics Stylus RMX were stellar through our monitors, particularly the tom and cymbal sounds. The “playing” is amazingly convincing here, with fills an actual player would play and no “octopus” histrionics to be found (thank you very much!). We also give high marks to the Spectrasonics Trillian bass software. In Lee’s able hands they create a killer rhythm platform for the other sound sources.
As we have pointed out repeatedly in our SPOTLIGHT reviews, the quality of the arrangements evident in these “best of” submissions certainly sets them apart and that is again the case with Lee’s track. He wisely kept his “transistor radio” effect on the intro lead vocal short, and the panning used to transition it to the full frequency vocals was executed seamlessly to our ears. In his production notes, Lee credits his friend Travis for the “wailing guitar solos.” Yep, and tasty with great tone and touch as well!
As we have said many times through the years, all of this sonic goodness isn’t worth a hill of beans without a mix of equal skill. Fortunately Lee’s chops are just as good in this department. Not only is everything tracked with TLC but the balance is spot-on throughout a tricky arrangement. Kudos!
Suggestions
Lots to love and learn from here, friends. The quality of today’s software-based instruments is tremendous, and in capable hands can yield impressive results. That said, without practice, effort, and more than a little experimentation, the advantages are often underwhelming.
Lee has obviously spent time learning his tools, all the while remembering to use them in a way that underscores realism rather than gimmickry. The results are topnotch!
Summary
Crank it!
Contact
Lee Harry, [email protected]