17 NOV 03
Recording Guitar - Some info and session data
| This area is for some session infomation on guitar recording and will also have some session information and specifics. |
| This is all part of our long term Blues / Rock session project. I would like to thank a few folks for this November 15, 16th session. Over 30 hours of recording was completed, and this could not have been done without the help of the following folks: Kent Wilson - Gibson 1968 Les Paul Standard and ES-175 Guitars Stephen Conrad - Fender 1960 and 1962 Strats and his playing Kristin Scott Landis - for arranging the transportation of Kent and Stephen from New Orleans, for babysitting us all, and making sure we were well fed. Thanks to Kris also for her chef expertise. To Peristyle Restaurant in New Orleans ( 1041 Dumaine St., New Orleans, LA, USA) for sending a plane load of food along with Kris to feed a mob. To Sky Jet and their reduced charter rate on a Cessna Citation X to bring folks, food, and equipment out to Van Nuys for this session. Thanks to Mark and his crew for waiving their pilot fees. Dr. Z for an amp (Carmen Ghia) that worked with any guitar, needed absoulutely nothing and no attention or changes, to work with any guitar and any player. |
| November 16, 2003 - Blues and Rock sessions. Click on most photos for a larger image. As this project continues, there will be updates and additions. |
| This was all recorded by bypassing the board altogether and going direct from the ViPRE to either a Nagra or Stellavox SP7 and Dolby SR noise reduction. All of the recording consoles we measured did not have the S/N ratio of the ViPRE and had coloration or SS aspects to the original signal. The primary speaker setups used were a Mesa Boogie 1/2 open back cabinet with a vintage but reconed Jensen P12R, a Rivera C-210 open back cab with 10" Celestions, and a Z-Best 2x12 Cabinet. Mics were Shure SM57, 421, GT-67 and as mentioned below. |
| This is the panel settings on the Dr. Z Carmen Ghia. This amp was used for about 70% of the work. The Ghia has the stock supplied GT-ECC83S in V1, and a 1980s JAN GE 5751 matched phase inverter. The rise time on the ViPRE was set to Medium, up from the MS settings on the Univalve, and the db was set another -2db down, as the Ghia was stronger. The rise time was able to be raised due to the 5Y3 rectifier in the Ghia, where the UV has a solid state rectifier. The Ghia needed no changes for recording. |
| This is V2 in the Univalve. This is a Tung Sol long plate. This tube is used for the output driver and the tone stage. |
| A number of tubes were tried for V1, and this was the final result to be used with a 1960 Strat, 1962 Strat (both rosewood slab boards), a 1981 Gibson ES-175, and a 1968 Les Paul Standard with original P90 pickups. Specs on this tube: GE 56-15 date code 5751 Black Plate 2.6/1680/024/70.0 and on the B side - 2.9/1800/027/66.7 |
| 1953 Mazda 6V6GT. Univalve voltage set on low setting. |
| Amplifier settings as used on the Univalve. Level adjustments were made directly on the ViPRE. (for info on the ViPRE including full operators manuals, specs, etc., head to the GT section elsewhere on this website) |
| Fender Tube Reverb used on the Univalve. On the Dr. Z Carmen Ghia, and EMT plate reverb was used. The Univalve was not quite as happy with the EMT characteristics when trying to have it's high level input fed direct. We wanted to bypass as much in the way of preamps, channel strips in the board, patch bays, etc., so we tried to go direct and non-digital as often as possible. The end result as folks said, were totally transparent recordings. |
| ViPRE rise time settings for the Univalve. Due to a rather sharp attack, the vintage sound of the 50s and early 60s recording methods and charter could not be duplicated with fast rise time electronics. The ViPRE's rise time control is something like a "time machine". Lowering rise time is like going back in time ... think of the smooth vacuum tube consoles of the 40s and 50s and those RCA ribbon mics as an example. We had to go to a Medium Slow rise time with the UV. A medium rise time worked for the Ghia, as that amp has a 5Y3 vacuum tube rectifier. The db +/- 1db pot. These are not your normal pots. A normal pot is nothing more than a continuously variable resistor, and as the resistance changes, so does the frequency response curve and the loading throughout the preamp. Listening with headphones and A/B'ing this preamp with any other preamp will show even the most diehard critics. This preamp uses stepped deck ceramic switches, so you can keep a true differential signal path, repeat settings to 1db and reap other big benefits. Set at +2db The +/- 5db pot set at +40db. Total is 42db for this Univalve session setting. |
| Mic termination was set at 600 ohms. This gave a much more vingage sound to the Audio Technica Mic, which is really nice for a very inexpensive large diaphram studio mic. In the Balanced Bridge position, the ViPRE would be like many other very high end preamps, termination with a more background noise, a bit less S/N ratio, and about 4800 ohms of termination. Going to transformer termination which is fully differential and not combined at any point in the entire signal path, and dropping to 600 ohms had advantages. More bandwidth, mic proximity could be farther by quite a bit, giving a much more open sound, and allowed the use of much less expensive mics and an expanded mic inventory, as all our mics could be used. |
| A great mic for a lot of the sessions .... this fellow is a large diaphram mic that is held in a suspension shock mount. They are one of the few large diaphram mics that can handle over 150db SpL, or darn close to that. These mics are well kept secrets, selling for about $199.00 on sale at places like Guitar Center and Sam Ash. That even includes the suspension mount! No pad or roll off was used. |
