Tools of the Trade, Part 2

I thought I'd take a second to talk about the specifics of the second track, as well as correct a rather glaring omission I made from the first tools-of-the-trade post.

In my efforts to provide a complete picture of my recording setup, I didn't include two of the most important items in the studio: my studio monitors and headphones.  Without these, mixing and mastering would be an impossible process.  The M-Audio AV40 speakers and Grado SR60 headphones have been perfect for providing clear, uncolored playback of the tracks.



On this track, I once again relied on my Variax 500 guitar and Variax 700 bass.  Models of the leftmost guitars - a Gibson J200 and Gibson Nighthawk - were used for the rhythm work, and the Gibson ES-335 was used for the lead parts.  For the bass, I used the same Gibson Thunderbird model as last time.



I didn't use my amp or effects on this track.  I initially sent the guitar through the Pod XT Live, but I noticed as I was mixing it that there seemed to be some noise and clarity issues with the track.  It's possible I just didn't have the levels right at the time.  In the end, all the guitar work was directly recorded to the audio interface.  For the electric parts, I used an amp simulator plug-in - CAPS AmpVTS - which I seem to recall was set to a '59 Bassman.  I didn't have quite the same vibe as using my own amp, but it did allow me to do get some late-night recording done.

Another change with this track was that I ended up using some recorded drum loops rather than Hydrogen.  I picked some up last month from Beta Monkey, who were having a special on their already very reasonably-priced drum libraries.  I didn't get too adventurous with them this time; maybe on the next track.

Images:
All guitars images provided by Wikimedia Commons
Speakers/headphones: Marshall Brown, Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0