Studio Up and Running

Project Underway…

Hi All:
This has been a long time in the works.

This project started out in the early '90’s. On a Tascam 38 Eight Track 1/2" Reel-to-Reel deck. The original tracks, including the sync track, were recorded on the Tascam 38 Machine. Useing a Mackie 1204, First Generation, 16-Track Mixer…

The Project was… to Capture the Six tracks that were on the 1/2" reel of tape to a Hard Drive, at 24-bit reselution… The DAW Hardware included a Hoonteck STA 2000 A/D Capture device run by an Intel 800 mhz, with XP Home as the Operating System and n-Track v4.1 build 1980, as the Multi-Track Recorder/Editor… controlling the STA 2000 in a 24-bit configueration…
The tracks that were on the 1/2" tape included Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Voice, Steel Guitar Dobro Guitar and a Sync Pulse Track, for aligning future tracks…

The project isn’t complete just yet. Addional tracks will include Electric Guitar, Fiddles, Three-Part Vocal Harmony Two-Male… One Female, and…

For anyone interested, an mp3 compression of a “Rough Mix” can be found …

here

The page will be found by accessing the redirect … then to index… then to WendyProject…

Sorry about the redirect… :O ???

The tracks were edited and assembled useing n-Track v4.1.5 build 2032 through build 2038… And, the Project will continue useing whatever n-Track build is currently, available, useing a P-111 1.2mhz 512 meg. Daw and an Intel P-4 1.7mhz 512 meg. DAW… There were and are… as many as 20 segments of tracks on the n-Track Time-line… The Audio cards that are used in the Editing machines for this project are S/B Live 5.1 's…

That’s the technical backround of the rendered/compressed mp3 file…

Bill…

Bill,

Very nice work on this. Sounds like you have a handle on it.

Is that Len MacDonald on the Dobro© and pedal steel? Sounds like some of Len’s great work.

Please give my best regards to Mrs. MacDonald. Tell her that Len lives on through his music.

Thanks for sharing.

Don

Hi Bill,
Good job, Bill.

Another----Don

Hi Don and Don:
It’s nice to be able to get into these rolls of tape … There’s lots of memories in them… You see… we were quite traditional in our interest in the music we did… However, Leonard, was more-so than me… There was a strict formula and disipline that had to be adheared, to… Leonard seemed to assume that part of the Projects…

It’s like… how can you play the “Blues” if, you’ve never been homeless? Well. Something, like that… I find that I am more Southern Contemperary ? than I am Traditional…

But, if you go to where you think you’ll find that music, it just isn’t found there… If ya go lookin for Celtic music where I live, it can’t be found… Cajin Music eminated from these parts when the French were expelled from these parts and they setteled in the Gulf of Mexico… Yet… if ya go there… you’ll find some of that music, but not a lot of it being played… It’s “Blues” that you’ll hear… Well…

But, I think it all came from Church Music or Gospel Music… Well, that’s what I think… And… the Lyrics tell a story… Anyway, they should…

Leonard and I promoted the story tellers in these parts… I have reames of tape that I’d like to browse through and get it captuered to a Hard Drive. They were never ever finished… They are all “Works-in-Progress”… That was the part of the music we did that we could never agree upon… Did we argue about it… Or What?

There were other people close to us… But they were an infringment in the music that Leonard expressed…

Leonard’s young fellow, Bob is a Steel Player Extrodinere… It all came from the Old Man… Leonard said to me one time… I wish I could play like him… ??? I couldn’t return anything on what he said… except… I said… Leonard… you played like that years ago… but you forgot all that stuff… Bobby’s Touch to the strings is a little more “Bottom End’ie” Than Leonard’s touch… More like Paul Franklin’s… I wouldn’t tell Leonard… that… :O :laugh:

You’ll see Leonard’s wife, Mary, at all the local Shows that promote the local entertainers from these parts… Bobby, has stepped into the Old Man’s Shoes… very well… He takes Mom out to all the Shows that he does…

It escapes me… :O ??? How did Leonard and I ever find the energy to do all these tracking sessions and Play the Bars and Work, and all… And bring up our families? And still have Fun doing it?

Bill…

Bill …its a labor of love… and, in your case, well worth it…
…i love that classic style of country…Lefty, Earnest, H. Thompson, Patsy, Jeannie Black, F. Young, etc.

thanks for the song

cliff
:cool:

You See… Cliff:
I grew up hearing names like Owen Bradley, and Harlen Howard…

Then recentlly, well… sense I’ve been playing with DAW’s and n-Track, and … when I was still buying CD’s… I would look at the Jewelcase Liners, and see those names being refered to, by the Up-and-Commers as people in the buisness that they’d like to have known… It sortta makes me feel soo old… Hey… I’m only 23-24… Well. in my Head… I am…

Gaynor… told me… not to forget to take my B/P pills… So did the doc… :O :laugh:

Bill…

Hey Bill,
I second what Cliff said, I enjoy the classic stuff. I’ve played the guitar a number of years, 30 or so I guess I’m an old fart, last year I bought a mandolin and this year got my old fiddle fixed up. I looked around for the Canadian old time fiddle music, found that it is hard to find. I found a CD by a fellow down in your area “Gordon STobbe”. The Cd is called Canadian old-time fiddle hits there is lots of good stuff on it.
Any way Bill to make a long story short keep at it.

Don

Hi Don:
Gordon Stobbe, lives just down the road from me. He is a very active entertainer in-and-around the BlueGrass Music Scene in these parts… He has a Great Touch on his fiddles… Both… Right-and-Left Hands. I’ve never played on any Stages with him… But I’ve played with guys that has been on his Stages… There’s a HUGE Bluegrass community in these parts… In the summertime they follow One-Another around the Campgrounds where they gather-and-play all weekends, till it’s time to Hit-the-Grind, for another week… Yea… You’ll find Gordon doing Session Work just about anywhere you’ll find a Microphone… He’s well known, in these parts… There’s some awful good musicians, around here… Trouble is, their “Buisness Sense” is poor… and they don’t move Up-the-Ladder, like they should… Gordon, doesn’t fall into that crowd…

Well. that’s what I think…

Bill…

I couldn’t help but Google the names…

Owen Bradley…

http://www.countrypolitan.com/bio-owen-bradley.php

and

Harlan Howard…

http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/howard.html

I’m not one that does any amount of searching, on this browser… I know Tom S does… But this was a nice afternoon for me to play Google…

[EDIT]
This is only a little bit of what is up here on these guys…

Bill…

I worked in a “classic” country radio station back in the mid 70’s. Everytime I had to fill out those damned BMI logs, H. Howard was all over the place. Then I went to AC station, then to rock station. I still love the old country stuff… And, I am proud to say, now my son (25) the rocker has learned to appreciate the likes of Billy Sherrill and that crowd and the contibution they made to the heartfelt, cryin-in-your-beer songs of so many classic artists.

Like I said before, thanks for an appreciative moment.

cliff
:cool:

Just had a listen Bill, very nice lap steel sound.

Hi Willy:
This is the first bit of track mixing with those Yorkville YPM1’s… I’ve been listening to them sense I replaced them… just before Christmas… when the Tannoy’s Failed. I think I’m not hearing the Bottom end… as I should… I know you have a pair of Yorkies… and. I know it’s tough to make a “judgment”… A question I have is… How in your words/observation would you describe the Bottom-End… of what you hear, with your set-up? Or… could that be something you comment on?

I believe I can listen to these Yorkies longer than I was able to listen to the Tannoys… during a “Mix Session” Those are some of my early observations of them… so far… And, I think the “APEX/Sweet Spot” area is much more defined, or… not as Broad as the Tannoys were… :O ???

Thanks in advance, for telling me what you hear, and telling me like “It Is”…

Isn’t that just a bunch of “Taste”?? Sorry, for pinn’in you down…

Ya gotta know Leonard… He was a “One Take” kind’da guy… If you asked him to do it again, IT would never be as good… He put his Heart-and-Soul into IT, the first time… So you had better have the “Trim” set right from the Get-Go…And… he was one to not play with the EQ. “In-the-Mix”… Or anything else… for that matter… However, I have a small amount of Andweda Lite Verb “Small Room Brite” added to whatever he had on the “Take” he did… Nothing was added to the Dobro Track…

This guy was the best I know… on the Stage and in front of a mic… And his Set-up was always the same… on the stage and in the studio… He used one of those AKG mics… ?? It looks like a Flat Lollie-pop… with a square mesh screen about about 2" on-a-side… and about 3/4" thick…

Does anyone know the model?

Bill…

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I think I’m not hearing the Bottom end… as I should… I know you have a pair of Yorkies… and. I know it’s tough to make a “judgment”… A question I have is… How in your words/observation would you describe the Bottom-End… of what you hear, with your set-up? Or… could that be something you comment on?

I find that the bottom end is quite discernable, actually, probably to the point that I still have a bit of trouble translating from the Yorkies (which sound great) to my home theatre setup (with sub!). Usually there’s bugger all bass guitar in the mixes through the HTsetup, so I have to mix just a fraction bottom heavy in the control room…

Willy.

Hi Willy:
Thanks for the reply to the question… I’m gonna work on doing some mixes in the studio without running any subs… Then… play the “Mix” on anything anywhere I can find to listen… Ya know… when ya think ya got IT right… It’s the worse ya ever heard when ya start hearing it back on other systems.

I’m beginning to think that “Subs” makes the ears Lazy and screws with your Senses, to Energy, at the “Bottom End”…

Bill

Yeah, I don’t use one in the studio either. Gave away my Altec Lansing AC33 too.

Hi Willy:
I use a pair of Altec Lansing ACS 45.1’s at the Editing Desk, I have… I can remember useing them almost from Day 1… I don’t have or use anything else at that desk… I can “Walk-Away” from a mix I have created there, and almost expect that it’s CLOSE to what I would expect when I import the .sng file into the studio enviroment… You can “Tweek” till ya get tired… Then come back to the first Take… If I ever lost them to failure I would feel completely lost at that editing desk… It’s not what ya use… It’s what ya get used to useing…

But so far… those Yorkville’s are becomming nice to listen, to… :O :;):

Now, if I can just get n-Track to “Launch”… build 2042

Bill…

Bill,

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your “labor of love”. The sound on your song is really crisp and clear. The bass is not overwhelming like so many songs today. Yet it’s “there” in that you can hear every note clearly. The lady knows how to sing a country song. Reminds me of Loretta or LeeAnn Womack.

I have played country music since I was a kid in the 60’s. During the 70’s and 80’s I lived in Nashville and worked the road and the studios and the clubs. Then in 1992 I moved back to my home in Illinois and hooked up with some of my old pickin’ buddies. One of them was a steel player, Jerry Mandorca, who is still one of the best steel players around. He plays swing and jazz stuff as well as country. I’m trying to talk him into doing an instrumental CD. He doesn’t think anyone would want to hear an old fart play old songs.

I noticed a little bit of “pitch wobble” on Len’s closing note on the steel. Did he do that, or is that some tape wow? Some of the younger folks here won’t know what that means!

About three years ago, I produced 2 CD’s for an old bandmate of his from the early 50’s, Smoky McCoy. He’s well into his severnties. I played everything except the steel and dobro (that was Jerry’s job), and my wife Linda and I sang backup harmony on a 20-song set of country covers of songs from the 30’s to the 90’s. Songs like “Driftwood On the River”, “What’s Going On In Your World”, “Four In the Morning”, “Take Me As I Am Or Let Me Go”, “Is It Really Over,” and even “T For Texas”. It took me about a year and a half to finish the project. I think I was prouder of that project than anything I’ve ever done.

Enough about me. I just wanted to compliment you on your work and thank you for sharing it with us. It was really refreshing!

Don

ps I remember some time back we shared in a discussion about the first “fuzz tone” on record. We both agreed that it was Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry”. At least I believe that was you.

Hi dontuck:
I had a reply ready to post this morning, before I did the morning run… But something happened… it didn’t appear…

I can tell… you have a few stories to tell about your work…and playing out on the Road…

It’s hard to explain just what IT is to anyone who has not worked on the road… and IT grows on you and gets in your blood… The players you work with everynight becomes your family… They can make IT awful tough on you if, ya can’t get along with them… And I’ve seen some of them get Road Feavor… That can rip a big strip off ya…

But for me… IT was awful nice to get back home and play in the smokey/grungy Bars that ya know so well… :O :laugh:

Leonard used to get me outta some awful bad Spots on Lines of songs when I wasn’t paying attention… or watching some Sweety… in the audience… Ya can’t get away with doin that too many times… and survive, when your on the road…

Bill…

[EDIT]
I remember that very well… Wasn’t that guitar line just “Stellar” for that song? Whoever worked and was behind those tracks couldn’t have done them, any better…

Are songs that sound like that being worked-on today? :O ??? I think… NOT… But mabey, I’m too Old-School…

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It’s hard to explain just what IT is to anyone who has not worked on the road… and IT grows on you and gets in your blood… The players you work with everynight becomes your family



I can really relate to that Bill. It’s been sometime for me know although I do find the same is true somewhat of my small church worship music team. It’s a kind of support-network-friendship.

In some small way places like this can be like that.

OT: I’ve just spent two days (business) with a fellow country man of yours today and yesterday… Ontario. Some distance from you I think, but we don’t get too many Canadians around these parts.


Mark