Dan Costello and I are working together on a Christmas record with the kids he teaches down in Tribeca. The goal: Record 6 backing tracks in 3hrs to bring to the school over the next two weeks, so then the kids can add their vocals.
I had my piano guy come over to tweak my piano. I had in mind that we would be doing most of the session on piano. Of course Dan came in planning on doing mostly guitar. We changed gears and set up the guitar station. After a quick set up of some AKG C414 in a stereo pattern on the old Martin, we were ready to have a go. I also set up a dynamic mic for Dan to sing a scratch track into. We had to figure out the best way to get a clean guitar take and also a scratch vocal. After two passes of singing and playing guitar, it was apparent we were getting too much vocal in the quietly plucked guitar tracks. Dan decided to sing a scratch vocal after and then rerecord the guitar. And around and around we went.
I suggested again that we return to the piano. Dan is, by far and away, a fantastically talented pianist. A quick movement of the stereo mics into my standard placements, and we were ready to go.
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| Daniel on the Piano |
Set up: My old Wurlitzer piano has a lot of charm. Its very warm and buttery for an upright spinet. However, age is not without its quirks. If I open it up to mic it from the interior, there are few notes that are a bit tacky. Meaning they tick, or make noise when struck. So I mic this piano from the sound board. It has a very smooth and rich sound. It still captures the full range of the piano, and it alleviates any pedal noise or hammer ticks. I spread the mics apart, and put them right up on the board. I use my ears to find the best spots, although at this point, I've done it enough to know right where to put them. I add a room mic high in the room to capture the natural ambience of the overall instrument as well. Sounds Great!
Jingle Bells came to life like a lightning bug. Dan laid down a smooth and quintessential Christmasy sounding rhythm track and then overdubbed a simple melody track with the same set up. We both agreed, this was the way to go.
The six Christmas songs came pretty quick and easy. We maybe did two passes of each, and then the same for the melody. We can keep the melody or lose it after the kids perform. Its handy to have it in the mix for the kids to sing along too. Its like the bouncing ball.
After piano was tracked, we went back to guitar. I suggested whole note open chords. That seemed to work on the verses, but Dan felt it a little boring on the chorus'. He played another pass with a jangley strum on the chorus and the song felt much better. Then Dan played Ukulele to the Dredil song and we were finished.
We're a good team. Always have been. I enjoy working with Dan and look forward to a few more projects with him here in the near future.
Next step is to capture the kids. No, that came out wrong. The next step is to record the kids. Then we'll add some jingle bells, badda boom badda bing, and the thing is done… after mixing = )
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