Don’t take that tone with me

David was back in recording the CD examples for the Christopher Parkening Method books, so I snapped a couple pictures.  You can see the micing technique we used for the Legacy CD here.

(Also note the fancy cardboard box we used as a music stand!)

I got back from a great trip to Austin.  Everytime I work with Bobby Bookout I am impressed with his songwriting.  This is going to be a phenomenal album.

I start recording the metal band This Soul Divided Friday.  We had a preproduction rehearsal tonight and I dig where they’re going.  I’ve wanted to record a metal project for a long time and these guys are great.

Ben (my chief engineer) has been working with some amazing hip hop clients. I really dig ABC…  Check ‘em out.

I just found out that the Dallas Morning News reviewed the recently released Les Eason & the Steen Regimé CD, New World.  The review is rather positive and speaks well for what a great songwriter Les is.  Read it now.  Producing that CD and developing their artwork was a fantastic experience and Les and Curtis have become a great friends of mine.  Go buy it on CDBaby or iTunes. PS- FarisWheel did the album art, as well, and the photography was by my Chief Studio Engineer, Ben Mercado. 

David Brandon was back in the studio the other day to begin recording guitar tracks for the Christopher Parkening Method Books (book 1 & 2 published by Hal Leonard), so I figured it was finally time to get back and finish my thoughts on recording classical guitar.  

 After discovering a mic position we both loved, we still were getting too much nail sound.  David is an impeccable player, but even a player with stellar technique squeaks and clicks a little.  Classical guitar, traditionally, is meant to be warm and round with no nail clicks or extraneous noise.

To solve the problem, we moved some of my bass traps around.  The traps have a 15-inch external diameter and a 12-in internal.  They are hollow and sealed on both ends.  I placed one in front of each microphone so the pickup pattern went just through the curve of the trap (see the diagram).

As the sound of the guitar hit the edge of the material, some of the high frequency energy was absorbed.  The lows and mids came through beautifully. Viola, instant warmth without the clicks or squeaks!

The album is available on iTunes and Cdbaby.

Time to get back to David Brandon’s CD, Legacy. When David called me to record him, it was a massive honor. Here is one of the greatest living classical guitarists and a mentor of mine entrusting me with documenting his life’s work. It was a great opportunity… and a little daunting. David is known for his incredible tone. Afterall, he was a student of Andrés Segovia and Christopher Parkening. He knows what he wants to hear and has impeccable taste.

We started the project by listening and analyzing many of Parkening’s great recordings. Most classical guitar is recorded from a distance. The tone is round and warm, and the distance from the mics minimizes nail clicks and squeaks. But it also increases the noise floor. David wanted to capture the depth of a Parkening recording, but he wanted to develop his own sound. He was looking for something intimate. Something immediate and close but rich and human feeling.

We wanted to record with a little bit of space. Afterall, you normally wouldn’t mic a nylon string the way you would a steel string (the old 1 mic on the sound hole, one on the 12th fret is out). Close micing magnifies all the things classical guitarists hate: nail clicks and string squeaks.

So here’s our solution:

My “large” room isn’t that big. We’re talking about 10’ x 13’. We’ve got a 9’ ceiling. The room is treated well and sounds really balanced. We’ve used broadband absorption and diffusion, with a special emphasis on the ceiling.

I placed David at the back of the room facing length-wise. I made sure to get a bench for him to sit on that was the perfect height for him… and that wouldn’t squeak or make odd noises!

I wanted to kill the reflections of sound from the wall behind him. Eliminating that would help with a lot of phase issues. So I used a series of bass traps I own (custom made by Ryan Dixon, a fellow engineer and studio owner) in a semi-circle behind him (see the diagram below).

We spent 12 hours (yes 12) testing mics, preamps and positions. We tried a pair of vintage U87s, a pair of Peluso P12s, a pair of KM81s, and pair of Scheops MK4s, along with a few other pairs. We tried MS, XY, and numerous other techniques. All of the mics sounded good, but the Scheops took the cake. I borrowed the pair from a friend, Matt Quick, who is the director of the Live Sound Program at South Plains College. The MK4s were extremely transparent. The frequency range was balanced from top to bottom. What an amazing pair of mics. I have to own a pair.

As far as preamps, we tested a stereo pair of Amek 9098s, an API A2D, and a Hamptone tube unit. The API was the clear winner for this application. It’s got a tight low end and beautiful top and matched with the MK4s perfectly.

Before the session, I did my homework and researched classical recording techniques. I tried every one of the textbook approaches. We’d find elements of what we were looking for in each position we tried, but we were still missing the magic. So I finally decided to do what my gut told me: walk around the room and listen for sweet spots!

That’s my first approach when recording a more pop-oriented project. I found 2 spots at the front of the room (about 8 ft. apart, 5 ft. above the floor) that sounded beautiful. So I put the mics there. Viola! Richness, texture and magic!

But we’re not finished, yet. Next time, I’ll share the “secret” David and I discovered about minimizing nail clicks and string squeaks. Until then…

I recently had the pleasure of recording a CD for classical guitarist David Brandon. David is one of the finest guitarists in the country. He was a student of Adrés Segovia and Christopher Parkening, toured an recorded with Parkening for many years, has recorded with Julie Andrews, and runs one of the most successful teaching studios in the country. He is also long-term friend.

I was the first assistant that David ever hired at his teaching studio and I taught for him for 11 years. He was a mentor to me and gave me the chance to start a musical career. So you can imagine how honored I was when David asked me to record his first solo album.

The CD features 17 original pieces that have never been recorded. As a matter of fact, it’s his life’s work (and for those of you that have heard him, yes, Country Jamboree is on there!). I had heard these pieces as a kid when I studied under him and, later, when I taught for him. What a thrill to get to work on the project!

In the coming weeks, I will detail how we created David’s unique sound on the CD. By the way, if you don’t have it, you can purchase it here. Cheers.

Tonight I had the pleasure of playing with one of my favorite songwriters Daniel Markham. I produced Daniel’s first album for his former band Waiting to Derail. If you don’t have the CD, you should buy it. And I don’t say that just because I was involved. I think Daniel is a truly gifted writer and there are just some great songs on it. And I am proud of that record. It’s not hard to make a good CD when you have a great musician and gifted songwriter to record.

It was really a pleasure to get to play with Daniel in a real minimalist setting. And it was a challenge to play musically since I’ve been off of the live circuit for a while (Amy and I are building a new project right now… retooling seems to take forever). The last tune was a nod to Pink Floyd so I had a blast pulling out my best David Gilmour. Gilmour is hands down my favorite guitarist of all time. He uses so much negative space… and every lick is a brilliant gem. Something I never seem to attain.

Daniel finished the night by performing a reunion set with his former bandmates from Waiting to Derail. It was magical. They have such a great vibe. For those of you who were not there, this is probably the last time they’ll be together. It was bittersweet, because I really love that band. But at least I got to be there.

Happy 4th of July! Last night I had the pleasure of getting together with my guitar buddy Scott McCraw at my studio to try out his new Garnet Herzog preamp. Designed by Gar Gillies, the Herzog came to fame in the mid-60s when Randy Bachman (The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive) discovered a new tone recipe. Randy would plug the output of a small amp into the front end of a larger amp. This produced a fantastic tone, but the output of the smaller amp would obviously blow the larger one.

Gar would repair Randy’s amps and finally asked why he kept blowing them up. He offered to build Randy a unit that would do the same thing in a safer way. The Herzog was born. Most recently, it has been used by Gordie Johnson of Grady and Big Sugar fame.

We tested the Garnet Herzog using Scott’s Strat (2 humbuckers), my strat (single coils) and an ‘88 PRS through a Marshall 1987x 50 watt, a THD Bi-Valve and a Bogner Ecstacy 101B on a ‘68 Marshall 4×12 (with celestion 85 watters) and a Bogner 4×12 with Celestion 25 watt green backs (yes, the Bogner logo has been modified slightly).

Man, this thing smokes. Scott & I played ungodly loud! This thing smacks the front of the amp hard. In my experience, that’s one of the secrets to good tone… especially with a non-master volume Marshall. The 87x is a ’80s attempt to recreate the Mashall Plexi. Great amp with that Marshall punch, but you’ve to smack the front end to really make it growl. The Garnet does this better than anything else I’ve heard. I used to use a Real Tube or a Carl Martin Hot Drive ‘n boost. Both sound great on the front of the Marshall. But the Garnet completely takes the prize.

My buddy’s Bi-Valve is a stunning amp. It’s on of the most unique tones I’ve ever heard. With the Herzog in front of it, it turns into a fire-breathing dragon.


Next up, the Bogner. And this is where my mind was blown. On the other amps, we ran them hot, loud and distorted. On the Bogner, we tried the Herzog on the clean channel first. It sounds incredible. Fat and rich. And it reacts like a tube amp driven hard into distortion. It is a tube preamp, but I’ve never found ANY preamp that you could put in-line with an amp that reacted right. Distortions or preamps in line always seem to limit the dynamics of the amp (like putting a compressor in the chain). The amp response curve changes drastically or goes away completely. Not with the Herzog. Turn it down… play softer… it just feels right.

The Herzog is a holy grail of tone. I could see it being used to smack any good amp to get more out of it or use it with an optional footswitch on a clean amp. For recording, I can’t wait to try thing thing on a voice or drums. Wow. I have to have one.