The Return of Spring, Session 5

I feel as if I'm finally making up for lost time. Getting two solid sessions in this week has been a real blessing.

On August 2, 2007, I spent a whole day tracking acoustic guitars on "The Great Divide" and "Falling in Love Too Fast." Again, I used a mix-and-match approach to microphones, preamps, and technique.

"The Great Divide" is a tune that masquerades as an acoustic rock song. But, really, it could be played just as well with chunky electric guitars. It's hard to fight the urge to track an SG, just to see what it would be like. Being so, I played the "Main AG" as I would have played an electric part. I played chunky, palm muted power chords in the verses and slightly more open phrasing in the opening and recurring riffs. Playing power chords on an acoustic guitar took a little getting used to, but once I got it to fit with Dale, it worked well. The TLM-103 through the 8Pre worked great for this.

I left the main guitar out of the chorus to create a different texture. For this, I used a stereo, XY miking technique. This makes the chorus pop out and get wide when it makes its entrance. I used a matched pair of Audix 51 condensers through the 8Pre for this. The XY technique is almost the same as the mono technique with the acoustic guitar. The really important thing is to make sure the microphones form a perfect 45 degree angle and that the capsules are as close together as possible without touching. If you don't do this, you'll have some phasing problems.

I felt as if the song needed one additional strummy guitar in the riff section and the bridge. So I played some open chords in these sections. I tuned the guitar slightly differently to make sure all of the tones were diatonic: EADGAE...the ringing B didn't work for me. This tuning also prompted a happy accident. During the new breakdown section, I accidentally played a great alternate part. It kind of sounded like a sitar. I used a different pre and the Audix 51 mic in mono.

Next, I tracked acoustic guitars on "Falling in Love Too Fast." This tune is the only finger pick song of the batch. For this, the approach needed to be fairly simple, as the part itself is fairly difficult to perform. I used a simple mono set up. But, I also recorded the acoustic guitar's direct line. The part is quite percussive. Having a direct line (that doesn't pick up the hits on the strings as much) will probably be a good idea for other possibilities.

I have a five take rule. After five takes, I stop, and pick the best one. Then, if there are any edits that need to be made, I make them. But, by and large, if I don't have it by take five, I'm not going to have it at all. This one took five takes. Because this song is de-tuned, I noticed a bit of pitch-i-ness when I played the G on the E string. I may opt to retrack this with a different guitar if it's a problem. Under the microscope, sometimes, things aren't perfect. But, we don't listen to things under a microscope. We listen to them on iPods.

I spent the end of the day adding some organ parts to "The Great Divide." This helps make the chorus pop out even more. It was a good day's work.