I’m recording my band Sunday.

[EOengineer]

My current project is gearing up to record a follow up to our first EP this Sunday and I thought some here might be interested in following the process. I’ll do my best to document it as we go and answer questions if they come up.

Forgive the shameless self promotion but I’m posting links to the first EP here as it will be relevant since I’m following a similar strategy as the first EP session, but making some adjustments I will document later in the hopes I’m able to overcome some of the shortcomings in that initial effort. I’ll get into that later.

The Setup:
We rehearse and record using a totally silent rig consisting of the following going straight into logic and monitored back through an Aviom system. I’m using a Presonus Quantum interface to keep latency as low as possible for our drummer:

Drums:
Roland pads and Roland/Yamaha cymbals -> edrummin10 brain -> Superior Drummer 3. This setup will not change for the upcoming session.

Guitar 1:

When rehearsing I use Helix Floor direct for everything. For the upcoming session I’ll be using Helix for fx and then running into my Superlead and Suhr RL.

Guitar 2:
This rig is typically a Tonex/HXFX hybrid for rehearsal.

This is going to change over to HXFX into my Mark III into a captor.

Bass will be DI through Helix Native. Vocals are an sm58 straight in but we will overdub those later.

Goals/Improvements
Probably the most significant change coming into this session is moving away from modeled amps towards tube amps with reactive loads.

While I’m not expecting significant differences in sound quality, sending the amps in is just closer to my “get it right on the way in” ethos. I like making decisions up front where possible to avoid option paralysis later.

In a perfect world I’d also have cabs in the room so we get some real interaction with the guitars and air moving, but that’s not feasible right now.

I’ll follow up with more pics and details as I set up for the session throughout the week.

 

[sleewell]

sounds super fun!!!!!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Have a blast!

 

[la szum]

Wow. That looks like a blast.

Are you guys also writing during this time, or just tracking
material you already have worked up?

Look forward to watching it all unfold!

 

[EOengineer]

Wow. That looks like a blast.

Are you guys also writing during this time, or just tracking
material you already have worked up?

Look forward to watching it all unfold!

We’re all written, just trying to get everything tracked so we can get this crap out the door.

 

[la szum]

Haha! Kind of sounds like you confessing that you want to get this material tracked so you
can write more, or stop obsessing over these songs.

 

[EOengineer]

Haha! Kind of sounds like you confessing that you want to get this material tracked so you
can write more, or stop obsessing over these songs.

Yeah we’ve had these songs in the can for over a year but hit some delays trying to balance shows with recording. At this point I’m just ready to get the material out there so we can go (hopefully) play more shows.

The local gig market for original bands is about as bad as I’ve ever seen it. We’re hoping getting more material out there helps us get our foot in the door.

 

[HomespunEffects]

I love it, man. Great job!

 

[la szum]

Pulling for you guys. Got some tight material and a really good vocalist.

 

[EOengineer]

Pulling for you guys. Got some tight material and a really good vocalist.

Thanks man I appreciate that. Will see if the larger DC area agrees soon.

 

[Space Pickle]

Cool, I love following these kinds of threads. Put your stuff on Bandcamp!

 

[megametal7]

Good luck with recording.

 

[QQQ]

Have a great time. Can’t wait to hear the results.

 

[Space Pickle]

I like that you keep gourds in the studio.

 

[EOengineer]

I like that you keep gourds in the studio.

Tone gourds are life.

 

[EOengineer]

Anyone run into any issues using a reactive load for extended periods (4-5 hours)? I think I'm mostly wondering about heat.

 

[newpedals]

My current project is gearing up to record a follow up to our first EP this Sunday and I thought some here might be interested in following the process. I’ll do my best to document it as we go and answer questions if they come up.

Forgive the shameless self promotion but I’m posting links to the first EP here as it will be relevant since I’m following a similar strategy as the first EP session, but making some adjustments I will document later in the hopes I’m able to overcome some of the shortcomings in that initial effort. I’ll get into that later.

The Setup:
We rehearse and record using a totally silent rig consisting of the following going straight into logic and monitored back through an Aviom system. I’m using a Presonus Quantum interface to keep latency as low as possible for our drummer:

Drums:
Roland pads and Roland/Yamaha cymbals -> edrummin10 brain -> Superior Drummer 3. This setup will not change for the upcoming session.
View attachment 39422

Guitar 1:

View attachment 39425
When rehearsing I use Helix Floor direct for everything. For the upcoming session I’ll be using Helix for fx and then running into my Superlead and Suhr RL.

Guitar 2:
This rig is typically a Tonex/HXFX hybrid for rehearsal. View attachment 39426
This is going to change over to HXFX into my Mark III into a captor.
View attachment 39427

Bass will be DI through Helix Native. Vocals are an sm58 straight in but we will overdub those later.

Goals/Improvements
Probably the most significant change coming into this session is moving away from modeled amps towards tube amps with reactive loads.

While I’m not expecting significant differences in sound quality, sending the amps in is just closer to my “get it right on the way in” ethos. I like making decisions up front where possible to avoid option paralysis later.

In a perfect world I’d also have cabs in the room so we get some real interaction with the guitars and air moving, but that’s not feasible right now.

I’ll follow up with more pics and details as I set up for the session throughout the week.

Wow. Best wishes.

If convenient, will you specify your virtual signal chain while recording?

Specially interested to know if you will record with any noise gates, delays or virtual reverb pedals switched on in your multi effects.

Or you will use plugins

Or a combination of both.

And the reasons behind it based on your experience.

 

[EOengineer]

Wow. Best wishes.

If convenient, will you specify your virtual signal chain while recording?

Absolutely as I figure it out.

What I do know for sure if that the drum setup is pretty stable. There I am using SD3 with the Death expansion. You'd think that one is for metal but it has some really nice general purpose sounds. Im using the maple kit reinforced with a kick and snare sample buried in there just to punch things up a touch. The processing for tracking is just the Plugin Alliance SSL E series, though I am flirting with the Lindel series 80 channel strip as well. That goes into the IK pultec and then the IK bus compressor just barely touching the peaks with a slow attack and fast release.

Bass is direct with Logic Bass Amp Simulator but might end up with Tonex as I really like some of their bass sounds.

Specially interested to know if you will record with any noise gates, delays or virtual reverb pedals switched on in your multi effects.

We don't use a ton of gain and the environment itself is pretty quiet electrically so we've never had a need to gate coming in. Sometimes I will gate the vocal mic as its our only live mic and loves to pick up the drumsticks hitting the cymbal pads if I really lean on the vocal compression.

Or you will use plugins

Or a combination of both.

And the reasons behind it based on your experience.

These are points I am still deliberating but I will follow up as decisions are made. Last night I did a preliminary test taking my Superlead into the Suhr RL into Helix with a greenback cab and comparing that to the Helix 2203 through the same cab. Obviously not an apples to apples comparison but the Helix doesn't have a decent Superlead so I was trying my best.

Ultimately I was surprised to find that it was significantly easier for me to get the Helix 2203 "in the zone" for the session. My Superlead is a monster but I think I'm still apprehensive to really crank it into power section overdrive with the RL for extended amounts of time, and that is likely making the difference. For sure there is more life in the top end of the real amp, but I'm quite pleased with what the Helix is delivering considering the added flexibility and simplicity.

I'm starting to lean towards just running guitars direct, and controlling a Helix Native instance per guitar via MIDI.

Also - I stumbled across the Helix Placator (BE-100) model last night and holy cow does that sound awesome.

More to come over the next few days...

 

[EOengineer]

In preparation for the session I migrated the amp head rack down to the rehearsal room where we will be recording.

While I’m leaning digital I’m still going to try a couple of these through the Suhr tomorrow as a test. I’ll try to track some of it just for comparison’s sake.

 

[EOengineer]

Just wrapped up the group tracking session a few mins ago.

Not gonna lie guys, this was a bit of a roller coaster going in. I spent hours over the last few days hand wringing getting helix native presets set up for both guitars and then programming MIDI control of those presets into my foot controllers, getting things balanced, etc. I felt like I hadn’t spent enough time with the 2 reactive loads to trust them with my amps over a full day of tracking where my attention was going to be divided by also performing.

Enter this morning I can’t shake the feeling I’m chickening out by not using the amps with the reactive load.

So I tore down the digital rig and got down to business. Here’s where I landed.

My Rig:

The Ceriatone 2204 turned up about 1/3 worked right away with my beloved Burny Les Paul. Amp tone was edge of breakup and then the Centura is boosting for higher gain. Worth noting I have the input bright cap bypassed on the 2204, just works better with the Klone.

The Centura absolutely rips in this setup. I’ve grown to appreciate how that circuit works with 4 hole and 800 series Marshalls. If I’m being honest I missed my Helix time based fx. I use the space echo and particle verb quite a bit and would probably just put the Helix out front of the 2204 if I could do it over.

The Suhr RL really delivered. Big fat tone that cut through with a solid top end and upper midrange bite that I haven’t experienced in my modeling options. Through a York Audio M25 mix 7 IR this setup worked the entire session. Zero dialing in.

The Other Rig:

Budda SD-18 into the Torpedo Captor was less inspiring but neither I nor the other guitarist get along with this amp. I pulled it because it was low wattage and I wasn’t comfortable throwing the Mark III or Recto into that scenario as they both push the captor hard right up at the upper range of it’s wattage limit.

We will see what I can get out of it tonally after trying some other impulse responses. I suspect we end up retracking that guitar through one of the Mesa’s and the SD-18 gets moved on.

We got through 3-4 takes of 7 songs over 4 hours so I’m a bit exhausted at the moment. I’m gonna relax, order some dinner, and will follow up later this week with some audio examples if any of this is presentable. Maybe even if it’s not.