Most of
the songs were recorded live with two CAD M177 condenser mikes
(one on vocals, one on guitar) with minimal overdubs and effects
on the Roland VS-1680. On some guitar tracks, I used a combination
of mike and pickup.
"Gravedigger" was prodcued
differently to add variety, and I felt the song needed drums to
push it along. Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 3.0 and Cakewalk Pro Audio
9.0 were used to synchronize the drum samples to the rest of the
audio on the Roland 1680. Compression was not used anywhere in the
recording process, only in the mastering. The volume of the tracks
was maintained at the input stage, and carried through in the mixing.
I feel this gives a more direct impression of the music, even when
occasional saturation occurs.
Mastering was done with Sound Forge 5.0. I used the Wave Hammer
plug-in on the soft compression setting, and then normalized each
song to -1.0 db to avoid clipping while still maintaining the maximum
volume of the recording. CDs were burned with Easy CD Creator 4.0.
Note: The decision to self-produce (instead of using a duplication
house like Oasis) was purely a matter of logistics and finances.
Oasis did a great job on my
first CD, Mandala, but C&T was a much
smaller project with a much smaller budget. Main instruments:
Ovation Custom Balladeer super shallow bowl, Lark acoustic, Alvarez
6-string acoustic, American Standard Strat, Washburn Axxess Bass,
Musician's Friend Stomp Box