A few of the members of Not on the Menu, one of the few bands I work with regularly, decided that they want to get some scratch guitar and vocals down for their "actual" guitarist so he can practice. Such a Needy Nancy that guy... This mix is far from perfect and far from done, but I do feel it's coming along very nicely!

Anyway... Drums were recorded many moons ago (Nov 2015) over at Sun Star Studios in Huntington Beach. Bass recorded in house (Squire Precision, mostly bridge pickup, using one of Logic's built in amp sims). Guitar is a Fender Musicmaster II from the late 60s recorded using a Rocksmith cable with Brainwork's RockRackPro as the amp/cab simulator, bridge pickup. Vox recorded with a SM57 going though a Rock Band mic interface I salvaged, yes a Rock Band pre-amp.

Not on the Menu - Eggshells Rough 20160522

Barebones Rehersal 20160525 @ Sunstar 3

Barebones Rehersal 20160525 @ Sunstar 2

Barebones Rehersal 20160525 @ Sunstar 1

Barebones Rehersal 20160525 @ Sunstar 4

Totally unedited.

Guitar is a late 60s Fender Musicmaster II, slightly modified. Switched between neck and bridge pickups. Going through a ZOOM H5 personal recorder through a line input.

Some of this material might be workable. I just don't know...
BRB while I learn more scales and try to make some sense out of some chord progressions and the circle of fifths.

Guitar Diddles - June 5 2016

This was a fun show! Hanging out with other bands, drinking beer, and the closed streets with the open market was way cool! I felt really hipster buying a $6 small chai tea, but it's all in good fun (plus it tasted good).

Recorded on the ZOOM recorder that I typically use. Microphone set was the XY stereo pair. Post FX in REAPER: little EQ work in the low end to cut the mud, stereo spread, and some limiting to bring the levels up.

The Barebones - Live at the 4th Street Market in Santa Ana (July 11, 2016)

Added a solo guitar solo
Goofed around with a different compressor on vox and added a bit of delay to fill up the space.
Goofed around with Logic's mastering presets. Not really pleased with the results ATM.

I'm pretty comfortable with the drums, but they lack that "punch". Probably going to re-mix due to the layers of guitar now. Need to hit the books on some reference material and general mixing as it's been a while since I last touched a DAW, or this song.

Eggshells Rough Bounce 20160630

Once again I was coerced into mixing and recording stuff for Not on the Menu.

Remixed bass drum and snare with some additional compression and a gate. Added two new guitar layers to add texture. Spliced in some previous takes to improve the flow for the vox a bit.
There's still a bunch of clipping everywhere before mastering, so I still need to work on automation and levels. Overheads are not where I would like them to be, but they cut through the mix regardless. Gotta work on taming those drums: the drummer is picky. Got any records I should really listen to to improve?

Since Evan (the drummer) has picked up a lot of great gear recently, a re-record is more than likely a possibility, but we're all poor musicians here so we'll make due with what we have.

Thomas Avent