Amp recording: miking a speaker cabinet vs. using IRs
This is one of those music techie posts that if you’re not actively involved in recording music, you can probably go ahead and skip. But recording guitar amps in small spaces can be a challenge, if you don’t have the opportunity to turn up the volume a little and stick a nice microphone in front of a speaker cabinet. So I decided to do some tests of an alternate recording method. I’ll discuss what I did and share some audio files after the cut.
Adam Yauch and the Beasties
The Beastie Boys and MCA (Adam Yauch) formed part of my early musical vocabulary. I was in high school when they first hit, soaking up all the influences that I could, and they seemed to walk the line between the new sounds of hip hop and punk and rock. They had a sound all their own and Adam’s voice, and sometimes his bass guitar, were an important part of that.
The Beastie Boys are irreplaceable. Adam is irreplaceable. And way, way to young to be felled by cancer. For all you and the Boys influenced me and gave to me—to all of us—thank you. We can’t, we won’t, and we don’t stop.
The future of music?
How do independent bands without major label budgets fund their recording, manufacture, promotion, and touring? Nobody’s quite cracked the code, but there’s lots of ideas—and one of them is Kickstarter: here for example is Amanda Palmer (a personal favorite) who no longer has her major label footing the bill for production, manufacture, distribution, and promotion of her just completed album.
But does it work? Well, in Palmer’s case, she’s already raised over $160,000 which is nearing what the video above says would have been her major label budget. So obviously, in her case, it works extremely well.
Will it work for all musical acts? You know, I think it just might, as long as an artist is smart about scaling their request and offerings to the size of their audience. If you look at the number of funders, Amanda Palmer has “only” got around 3300 backers at the moment (by the time you read this, I’m sure it will be higher). That’s great! But that’s also not an unattainable number of fans. Of course, she also has people donating up to $1000 (although very few). I’ll bet that any band that builds up a local following of 200-500 people, with affordable levels of pledging from maybe $1 to $25, could easily raise $5000 to manufacture CDs, merchandise, do some paid promotion, etc. Perhaps a more popular band with 500-1000 fans with pledge levels maybe up to $50 for a CD/ticket package could even fund an album, promotion, and small club tour.
As a fan of Amanda Palmer (and her previous band, Dresden Dolls) I was happy to pledge for the album (and if you’ve listened to the video, you can hear some of the songs). But as a musician myself, I’m excited about the possibility of funding future releases and shows via Kickstarter. I thought of doing that for The Misery EP but it had been so long since our first release Grasping At Straws that I wasn’t sure if there would be any interest at all. Now that we’re “back on the map” perhaps that’s what I’ll do for the next one.
New amp in Ember Studios: Laney Ironheart
You may remember from my previous post that I’ve been looking for a new tube amp to join my Kemper Profiling Amplifier in Ember Studios. At the time I thought I’d get one of the more interesting micro-amps out there. Well, I’ve brought a new amp into the studio, but it’s not a micro amp after all. It is the Laney Ironheart. I’m going to include a cut so that those of you who don’t care about gear can be spared a long review. But for those who do care, below the cut are both my thoughts and some quick sloppy clips to illustrate them.
Subdivisions
Did you know that Rush will release their first new album since 2007 on June 12, 2012? Rush is a favorite of the Ember Members; in fact, we recorded a cover of Subdivisions while we were working on The Misery EP. To show our general appreciation for Rush, here is our cover. Enjoy!
Oh Marshall My Marshall
Today, “the father of loud,” the “Guv’nor” has passed away, at 88 years old. Dr. Jim Marshall OBE, inventor of Marshall amplifiers, has left the building. I’ll leave the biographies and obituaries to other sites; here’s how my life intersected with his inventions.
When I was first falling in love with music, it was with Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page’s guitar sound became the sound I heard in my head, for what I wanted to sound like. And part of that sound was the Marshall amplifier.
You see, a guitar amplifier doesn’t simply make something soft louder. It’s circuits and tubes change the tone, add richness and depth and rumble and grit and energy—and if you turn up the gain or volume like the classic hard rock and metal artists did, that distortion that could go from creamy to gut-wrenching.
When I started playing clubs, as soon as I could save up enough money I bought a Marshall speaker cabinet, then a Marshall amplifier “head.” Even when I started playing clubs all the time and moved to a “rack of doom” rig, I used a digital preamp and a tube power amp from Marshall. Marshall was always the sound I heard in my head. Even later when I moved to more boutique amps with esoteric features and tonal options, the sounds I was chasing, more often than not, were variations on the Marshall sound.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Jim Marshall’s particular tonal sensibilities shaped much of the music that we grew up with and loved, indirectly weaving his way into the joy and dreams of millions of fans and musicians. Thank you for the dreams you inspired in me, Dr. Marshall, and may your dreams be as sweet.
Come (Google) Play with us
That’s right, Ember After has infiltrated another music store! We now have an artist page on Google Play.
Right now, you can listen to and purchase The Misery EP. We’re working on getting all of our music available there. Go get it!
New pedal in Ember Studios: TC Electronic Alter Ego
I find that between releases is the perfect time to swap out gear and bring new instruments and processors into Ember Studios. New sonic textures and instruments inspire creativity, bring new excitement, and helps keep everything fresh. I’ve sold a number of cherished instruments and processors and over the next month or so, I’ll be adding new tools and toys and writing about it here. I’ve had a weekend to play with the first new addition, a TC Electronic TonePrint delay pedal called the Alter Ego, a customized version of their Flashback delay that was designed in cooperation with ProGuitarShop.
More after the cut! Read More
Video for Misery now on YouTube
There is now a video for the song Misery up on YouTube! If you’ve wondered what the words to the song are, or you use YouTube as your main channel for music discovery, here you go!
Our intention is to eventually create an “official” video for this (and other) songs from The Misery EP that are far more involved. However, the more creative and involved a video…the more time it takes to complete. So until then, please enjoy this placeholder video.