1 Uppers Studio Time
This past weekend the 1 Uppers spent a lot of hours in the recording studio putting down tracks for a CD. We managed to get through four takes (each) of six songs on Saturday despite losing a few hours to ProTools gremlins. Our intrepid drummer and engineer Eric Eagle did a great job of getting all the electrons in line, and once we got underway we had a very productive session. One of the interesting setup exercises in the studio is capturing good tone from all the instruments, and since I’ve spent the past year really massaging my sound, this was something that meant a lot to me. The most common approach to putting a microphone on a guitar amp is to use a Shure SM57 slightly off-axis. For decades I carried a pair of SM57s for this purposes, but they were a casualty of my car being broken into a few years ago. Kris loaned me a Sennheiser e609 for my guitar amp which sounded really great. I’m thinking of ordering the e906, which is a slightly upgraded version of that microphone. It has a smooth openness to its sound that isn’t present in the SM57.
I’m pleased with the results of this weekend’s recording and I look forward to getting back into the studio to work on additional elements (solos, fills) and more songs. The 1 Uppers was originally started with the intent that we’d cover some country favorites just for fun. At some point the creativity started to flow and we began to write originals. I’d say we probably have a full CD of material to put down, and it’ll be a fun summer project to realize this project. Bits ahoy!