Ramblings
More Skyline Motel
On 07, Aug 2012 | No Comments | In Ramblings | By admin
It was another amazing weekend in the studio with Skyline Motel. We went back in to The Brown Owl studio and came out with 5 more incredible songs. Last time around the band was joined by legendary guitarist/producer Richard Bennett, who everyone was in awe of, since you know,he’s played on and produced records by people like Steve Earle, Billy Joel, Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill, just to name a few. Well, this time around the girls and guys invited amazing artist and keyboardist Gabe Dixon to join in the fun. There were flutes and Omnichords and CP70s and dulcimers. There was dancing and shouting and beer drinking on Day 1 and beauty and reverence and contemplation (and more beer drinking) on Day 2 as we navigated the dreaded “Triple Ballad” (cutting 3 ballads in one day). A great time was had by all.
For those interested in some of the more technical details of the session, some highlights were: the pair of Schoeps CMC6’s that I used on toms. The Schoeps have a fairly hot output, especially compared to something like a Sennheiser 421, so I needed to pad them -20dB at the preamps, but they sounded absolutely fantastic. In general, I love using either ribbon mics or small diaphragm condensers on toms. For the dulcimer (played by Daniel Tashian) I used a Royer SF-12 stereo ribbon mic. The passive ribbon needed lots of gain from a pair of old NightPro preamps, but sounded amazing with a healthy amount of 20K cranked into it via the NightPro’s Air Band EQ. On a side note: NightPro (which you may have never heard of) is now back in business and called Maag Audio, and they’re making some great stuff. They’re known for the Air Band that I just described, but their 6 band EQ is one of my all-time favorites and their preamp with Air Band is a perfect match for ribbon mics.
As always in my sessions, the Sony C37 played a prominent role. I used one on snare drum and one on Daniel’s acoustic guitar. The Sony C37 (I was using the solid-state “P” version rather than the tube “A” version) has an amazing way of making close-miked sources sound incredibly natural and life like. Those that know me, know that it’s my favorite mic ever made.
That’s it for now.
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