[Harp-L] Re: Cotton recording

[diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Mark, 
I've been in a studio setting where I was asked to play direct. This was about 18 years ago. The recorder and board were both professional analog tape. I was laying a chromatic track with a specific harp intro written out for me to play. The key word here is analog. We weren't trying to make the chromatic sound electric even though I was hand holding the SM58. 


It may not be a modeler that was used for the Cotton session but for some reason someone felt no one would notice the difference between a mic'd amp and a direct feed that was made to sound like an amp was used. 


My brother owns a pro digital recording studio. Separate isolation booths for singers. Isolation boxes for amps. Neumann and Sennheiser mics. The whole nine yards. There seems to be the norm to go more direct nowadays and make adjustments down the pipeline. I don't think it was so much Cotton's idea to record him the way they did as it is a move Alligator is making. 


mike 
www.harmonicarepair.com 




----- Original Message -----
From: "MARK BURNESS" <markwjburness@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx, harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2013 1:26:49 PM 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 117, Issue 20 

It sounds to me like a mic straight to desk (which may well be digital itself?). Not saying there definitely isn't anything else in the chain, just there's no obvious "give away", & agree it doesn't sound like a mic'd amp (irrespective of tube/SS/modeller). 

Recording harp played into a mic, fed straight to the desk, has been a common way of recording since within a few years of the advent of blowing harp through an amp. It's very much a traditional means of recording. 

Mike, you may well get a similar sound with a modeller, but that doesn't necessarily mean that someone else, on another day, in another studio might not hit a similar sound by different means, as Richard says, there will at least been some EQing at mixdown. 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx" <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday, 18 May 2013, 13:17 
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 117, Issue 20 

Richard, I own and use a Digitech along with owning a Roland Cube, a pa, a horde of analog and digital stomp boxes and 2 tweed amps. 


I use the Digitech sometimes with my amps when we play small clubs and there is no room for my pedal board. 
I've even used the Digitech direct into the pa a few times. I programmed 6 amp patches and set up several presets when I only wanted reverb, vibrato, etc. 


I'm not saying it's a bad sound. I'm just saying I can hear the difference between a tube amp and solid state amp or digital amp modeler. Your mileage may vary. 


What I'm hearing on Cotton's recording sounds like he is going directly into the mixer with a digital processor somewhere in the signal path. The amplified harp does not sound like a miked tube amp to my ears. Since Cotton seems to play harp directly into a pa at gigs it would make sense he didn't use a tube amp on the recording session. I have recordings of other harp players that sound like there is a digital processor in the mix as well. It's a very distinct sound. 


mike 
www.harmonicarepair.com 
----- Original Message ----- 


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Message: 2 
Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 16:04:01 -0400 (GMT-04:00) 
From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] New James Cotton cd 
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Message-ID: 
<5263875.1368821041617.JavaMail.root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 


Snip... 

I thought we were past this nonsense about amp modelers having a weird sound that makes them instantly distinguishable on record from a "real" amp (you know, the kind of amps that grow from special Amp Trees somewhere in the natural world). Amp modelers don't have an "inherently compressed" sound any more than amps do. (and of course, tube amps happen to compress whatever sound is put through them. But never mind.) 

In any case, by the time an instrument has been recorded, mixed, and mastered for a commercial release, it's usually been through 2-3 stages of compression and/or limiting at a minimum. Don't blame it on the amp modeler. 

Thanks, Richard Hunter 




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