album blog part 5
I tried to give this track a little more mood… a little more darkness.
5. Body Of Mine
Trivia:
- There are 49 tempo changes in the .sng file. Mac would have raked me over the coals.
- The electric piano is the Purgatory Creek Rhodes library. I love this library. It’s a great, straight Rhodes and it honks when you dig in.
[blogstart … track 1 … track 2 … track 3 … track 4]
Kbub, how was the vocal recorded? I think I’d like Thom’s vocal better if it were warmer, more up front, less dynamic variation - e.g., through a tube condenser with an optical compressor, sung sort of in an unforced manner.
But this is great. That’s just a quibble. I don’t notice any sync problems with the drum track. The bass sounds killer to me. And the noodling is, as you note in your notes, entirely appropriate.
Tom. Yes! I got so obsessed with cleaning out mud that warmth suffered. The result is that in general, I find the tracks a little harsh.
For the vocals I used an AKG C3000B (LDC) through a Mackie pre straight into an Audiophile 24/96. EQ and delay from n-track, Kjaerhus compression, and either SIR or Garritan reverb. I like the AKG. It’s clean, but it’s far from warm. The word I think of is crystalline. Tubes would have helped (mic and/or pre). I probably should have had him sing closer too (and force less, as you suggest).
I think you’re being kind about the timing. Thom is used to playing solo (or duo) and he uses the acoustic like a snare drum in the chorus of this song. The tempo changes (and compressing the heck out of the acoustic) are an attempt to keep things tight. I’m sure you can still hear smushing between the acoustic and snare.
Thanks for the comments on the bass and Rhodes. One of these days I’ll devote an entire blog post to what I went through trying to get decent bass tracks. If there was one thing most responsible for how long this project took, it was all the trial and error on bass tracks. I finally had to just put it down and step away. 