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.
