Attentioon Weedy - aqbout Cyndi's country album....?

[John Eppstein]

Weedy, back at The Womb you had a very interesting thread about the making of Cyndi's "Detour" album in Nashville. Since that's no longer easily (if at all) available I was wondering if you could give us a recap of that? I'm especially interested in the vocal recording techniques (and anything else of note?)

[weedywet]

Sure but like what?

Her vocals were done mostly live with the band playing. Cyndi was in a large booth with a u47. I think I used a 1073 but it definitely went to a Fairchild 660 and then an API 525. Neither being hit very hard.
Little bit of delay and or plate reverb in the mix. Either with EMT plate or the UAD Plate plug in.

The guest vocals were done similarly. Vince Gill and Allison Krause were U67.
Vince sang live and played acoustic sitting right next to Cyndi in the booth.
Allison was an overdub.
Willie Nelson was the same 47 done separately as an overdub.

[unitymusic]

Damn, what a session/project that must have been. Thanks for sharing.

What studio was it?

[weedywet]

Mostly Sound Emporium. A bit at Front Stage.
And mixed at Blackbird.

2 rough mixes made it to the record. One from the first day at Front Stage and one from Sound Emporium on the day we added backing vocals.

[weedywet]

Oh and I forgot to mention Emmyloud Harris!
I think she must have also been on the 67 as she and Cyndi sang at the same time.

We also had Brenda Lee in but unfortunately that didn’t work out. But that was a trip.

[weedywet]

Oh and I forgot to mention Emmyloud Harris!
I think she must have also been on the 67 as she and Cyndi sang at the same time.

We also had Brenda Lee in but unfortunately that didn’t work out. But that was a trip.

[Bob Olhsson]

Too bad Quad B was turned into offices by a bunch of suits. If you liked Sound Emporium, you would have absolutely loved old Quad, probably enough to do most of your future recording there. The NashVegan suits have no idea of what they've actually got here.

[weedywet]

I’m sure you’re right, Bob.
If it had been up to me, given the choices, I would have done it in Blackbird D

I’d much rather have been able to use the console rather than having to bring in a mountain of outboard preamps.
But the only thing that I recorded through either the SSL or the V was a direct inject synth.

[John Eppstein]

Sure but like what?

Her vocals were done mostly live with the band playing. Cyndi was in a large booth with a u47. I think I used a 1073 but it definitely went to a Fairchild 660 and then an API 525. Neither being hit very hard.
Little bit of delay and or plate reverb in the mix. Either with EMT plate or the UAD Plate plug in.

The guest vocals were done similarly. Vince Gill and Allison Krause were U67.
Vince sang live and played acoustic sitting right next to Cyndi in the booth.
Allison was an overdub.
Willie Nelson was the same 47 done separately as an overdub.

How was monitoring done in the booth? Cans? Small monitors? "live with the band" would seem to imply direct monitoring of the performance sans cans....? Like it waqs done in the old days?

I believe that you had also said something about a couple of songs having live scratch vocals off the floor? Or did O get that wrong?

[nobby]

Emmyloud Harris!

Pun? Typo? Freudian Slip?

[unitymusic]

Mostly Sound Emporium. A bit at Front Stage.
And mixed at Blackbird.

2 rough mixes made it to the record. One from the first day at Front Stage and one from Sound Emporium on the day we added backing vocals.

You ever tracked any albums at Blackbird? From what I've heard they have a pretty nice collections of mics. Are the live rooms equally as impressive?

[weedywet]

How was monitoring done in the booth? Cans? Small monitors? "live with the band" would seem to imply direct monitoring of the performance sans cans....? Like it waqs done in the old days?

I believe that you had also said something about a couple of songs having live scratch vocals off the floor? Or did O get that wrong?

ALL of Cyndi's vocals were the live ones (not 'scratch'... just live with the band).

she had headphones, and an individual mixer, in the booth.

[weedywet]

Mostly Sound Emporium. A bit at Front Stage.
And mixed at Blackbird.

2 rough mixes made it to the record. One from the first day at Front Stage and one from Sound Emporium on the day we added backing vocals.

You ever tracked any albums at Blackbird? From what I've heard they have a pretty nice collections of mics. Are the live rooms equally as impressive?

I mixed there, but haven't recorded.
The rooms are nice, but not terribly live.

But all of the recording I did was really made possible by mountains of gear hired from Blackbird.
including the U47, a few La2as, Ba6a, Fairchild, and a bunch of discrete preamps'