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[hargerst]

here's a link to a Christian Funk group I did a week or so ago, which I thought turned out pretty well:

http://www.myspace.com/jasonglasser

It was a pretty standard setup:

Drums
Kick: ATM25
Snare: SM57
High Hat: MXL 603
Overheads: MSH Omnis
Toms: Sennheiser 604's

Guitar
Pedal board direct to mixer

Bass
Direct into mixer

Keyboard
Mono direct into mixer for piano and organ, stereo for horn stabs

Heather Vocals
Scratch track: Beyer Soundstar MkII
Final Vocal: MXL 190

Backup Vocals
MXL 190

Session Notes
I had Chris (the guitarist) lay down two rhythm tracks which I panned left and right. His solos went to a 3rd track.

Jemal played a mono keyboard track, then we added a mono organ track, then stereo horn stabs.

On our first recording pass, I recorded drums, bass, rhythm guitar, keyboard, and Heather singing a scratch track. Then I recorded a second rhythm guitar track. Next, I added an organ track, then a stereo horns track.

We brought in all the 3 backup singers (including Heather as a 4th backup singer) and I had them lay down 4 backup tracks to give me 16 voices. I moved them around after each take to give me a different vocal density for each track and I didn't let them hear the previous tracks in their phones. On the 4th pass, I just told them to sing whatever they felt like singing.

I had Heather sing a final vocal on the MXL 190, but her scratch vocal had so much more energy, I just used that and didn't worry about the bleed from the speakers. I did use some of the call and responses from the 190 track mixed in with the scratch track.

Finally, Chris laid down some lead guitar stuff that sat behind Heather's vocals and that was it.

The whole session took about 5 hours, and we mixed the next day in about 2 hours. I used RNC compressors on the vocal, snare, keyboard, organ, and horn tracks to even out the levels. The main reverb was the Lexicon Alex on setting #6 (small room) and I added some reverb during mastering with the Ozone.

Yesterday, I did a shorter radio mix which I think turned out even better than this mix.

[hargerst]

Basically, I just posted this to point out that you don't need a lot of fancy stuff or (spend weeks in a studio) to make a "decent" recording.  They're already getting a lot of rotation and interest on Christian Radio stations, and they've been approached by a small indie label.

No, it's not a world class recording, but it's good enough to get them a lot of interest and airplay.

[Dave Martin]

Well done, Harvey!

[organica]

thanks for sharing this .
Nice job !