"Mercy Walked In" - Home Recording Process - Hear

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Here's a gospel song recorded in my home studio:

http://gregcutshaw.com/Samples/Mercy%20Walked%20In.mp3

The pedal steel is an MSA Legend played through a Fender Steel King amp mic'ed with a Shure SM57 into a Studio Projects hybrid preamp. Similar recording for the Fender Nashville Bender tele (first two lead guitar parts), 5 string fiddle (NS brand) and Ovation lead guitar (3rd lead part) except a Fender Princeton Reverb amp was used. All parts used a Hall Of Fame reverb unit set on CHURCH mode.

All tuning was accomplished with new Peterson Strobo HD tuner set on either SE9, PE9, Guitar, EQU (dobro) or Vln (5 string fiddle with -5 cents offset). The Fiddle always sounds sharp to my ear with all the Peterson tuners so I detune that setting a bit. I pluck the fiddle when tuning so maybe it changes a bit when it is bowed?

The dobro is an 8 string Gold Tone PBS8 using Shot Jackson's 7 string tuning with an added 6th string in the upper register. A Shure SM-57 placed about 2" from where the strings meet the body seemed to capture the dobro tone in good fashion. I did try a condenser mic but it also registered all the picking noise so the directionality of the Shure did filter out a lot of extraneous noise.

I created the drum (ToonTrack EZDrummer) and piano (ToonTrack EZKeys) parts on the PC using Reaper and a lot of edits to the stock patterns and riffs. The piano sound is pretty awesome in the mix and far better than any sound I can get from my cheap studio piano. It also saves a lot time just picking the piano riffs I want then changing the chords and adding some end sustains. I used the Reaper midi editor for all of the drum changes and the EZKeys editor for most of the piano edits.

I ported the drum .wav file to a Zoom R24 where I layed down all the real instrument tracks as cited above except the bass guitar did not use an amp as it was plugged directly into the Studio Projects preamp. Then all Zoom tracks were ported back to the PC using the Zoom memory card for a final mix in Reaper.

This was about 10 hours of effort including deciding and documenting the arrangement and chords. The final mix was saved in .wav format and then converted to an .mp3 file at 320 kbps fixed using the Sound Switch converter app. The mp3 converter available in Reaper creates a lot of artifacts and I don't use it anymore.

I spend just over an hour on the final mix. It would have been easy to spend another 2 hours on it to improve the end product. For example one of the instruments has some hum at the end of the recording and I could go back and filter that out. There is some over compression on the steel parts and it would have been better to add more volume envelopes to those parts instead of taking the quick way out and compressing the uneven parts. If I really wanted to fatten up the lead parts it would help to record them a bit more dry and follow up with stereo reverb in Reaper. To add some separation between the rhythm track and the lead parts, the lead parts were all panned 37% to the left for steel parts and 37% to the right for all other lead instruments. For the short 3 part fiddle section, the lead fiddle was panned center, 3rd harmony fiddle 37% left and 5th part fiddle 37% right.

Greg

jolynyk · From: Prince Albert Sask. Canada

Greg, that sounds very nice, great playing.

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Thanks much for checking it out Johnny!

I Don't pick out much anymore. Recording is more fun anyhow and less physical labor. It's very hard to listen to one's own playing for very long. I often have a habit of not striking all the strings multiple string grips at the same time, for effect. You can also hear me make quick tuning corrections with the bar to stay with the pitch of the rhythm track. The new HD tuner does save a lot time and frustration getting all the instruments more closely in tune with other.

Greg (still signing my posts!!!)

jolynyk · From: Prince Albert Sask. Canada

Greg what effects do you use on your lead fiddle? I like the tone you get..

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

The fiddle is run into the Hall of Fame reverb then into a dry Fender Princeton Reverb then to the Studio Effects premap with the Tube Side turned off then into the Zoom R24. No effects enabled on the Zoom or Reaper. It really sounds deeper if I record it dry and then use the STEREO reverb app in reaper to fatten it up! A real fiddle with a Baggs pickup would sound so much better but the direct tone from it, even unamplified, kills my ears. Too many gigs with ear splitting music years ago....

Greg

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