VIDEO: “11 AM DUI” funk jam. Sling back your 1000 mg gummy and vodka screwdriver. Yo Jersey! Another in our Garden State portrait improv series. Chris Buono (on Sketch 7-string) with an unreal opening chord progression until the cops show up. Lawrence Haber (on Orchid bass) with the get down. Rick Toone (hey! me!) swings the Gretch kit. CB’s fuzz tone is through Starbird handmade pedal by Tom Cram.
I made some excellent mistakes on this session.
Wanted to try recording the trio as if it was a small venue live gig. So the amps were tucked up under the drums on the riser, with Tweedle almost directly below the snare. This is realistic, and typical for actual working conditions, but introduced a whole set of complexities in the form of sympathetic vibrations.
The snare picked up frequencies of the 7-string guitar with all that ferocious mid-range and bled into every drum mic as a constant background roar. During the session, the room volume of the trio masked that buzz, so it wasn’t until mixing a few days later that I hit wtf?!
Correction involved a lot of creative EQ to minimize the rattle, but as you know from mixing, removing frequencies can alter the tone of an instrument plus make stereo imaging a challenge. The music was undeniable though, so these mixes are worth publishing.
Next session I’ll use baffles. Also, I’ve been experimenting with some unorthodox drum mods to avoid snare buzz — specifically to correct for the frequency sweeps that happen with tremolo use.
As I said, excellent mistakes.