(photo by Gabe Duke)We recorded accordion tracks for St. Josephina (quick! band meeting: is is St. Josephina or St. Josefina?) and San Jacinto last evening, as well as glockenspiel on You Do Too. It was an easy evening, not too warm in the cabin, brownies to keep us sugared up and happy (thank you, Caitlin!), and we were done by 9:00. Intern Matt diligently took notes, completed his "what's a pre-amp" quiz, learned about various mics, and was his usual helpful self.
Recording the accordion keyboard part on San Jacinto was easy and went quickly. The St. Josephina bass accordion part was a little tougher -- in order for the microphone to pick up the rumbling bass, it had to be close enough that it was also picking up the click of the buttons as I changed notes. It was a challenge to change notes with a minimal amount of clicking, but any clicks on the recording will be Firm Evidence that we used real instruments.
Recording the glockenspiel was trickiest. It is a tough instrument to record, as it can sound annoyingly "pingy" if not miced correctly. If the microphone is too close, than it will catch the click of the mallet hitting the metal bars. If it is too far away, the microphone will loose the pitched tones and the tune won't carry. After a few tries, Allen found a microphone set up that worked well. Allen said that a toy piano works well for the glockenspiel sound, but there can be pitch issues (but do let us know if you have a perfectly tuned toy piano in your attic that you'd let us use).
Jonathan left early to play a show at Cous Cous, and I lobbied hard to change the album to Jonathan Vassar: Rock the Glock, but Allen revoked my Stand-In Producer title, and nixed the idea.
Next up: vocals.
Recording the accordion keyboard part on San Jacinto was easy and went quickly. The St. Josephina bass accordion part was a little tougher -- in order for the microphone to pick up the rumbling bass, it had to be close enough that it was also picking up the click of the buttons as I changed notes. It was a challenge to change notes with a minimal amount of clicking, but any clicks on the recording will be Firm Evidence that we used real instruments.
Recording the glockenspiel was trickiest. It is a tough instrument to record, as it can sound annoyingly "pingy" if not miced correctly. If the microphone is too close, than it will catch the click of the mallet hitting the metal bars. If it is too far away, the microphone will loose the pitched tones and the tune won't carry. After a few tries, Allen found a microphone set up that worked well. Allen said that a toy piano works well for the glockenspiel sound, but there can be pitch issues (but do let us know if you have a perfectly tuned toy piano in your attic that you'd let us use).
Jonathan left early to play a show at Cous Cous, and I lobbied hard to change the album to Jonathan Vassar: Rock the Glock, but Allen revoked my Stand-In Producer title, and nixed the idea.
Next up: vocals.
All this techie stuff is fascinating for the uninitiated. Are we initiated now? Anyway, it's too cool! I love Gabe's picture, too. Go, Matt!
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