circa survive clean tone?

[xultrabluex]

the other day i noticed how ambient and 'airy' the clean tones are on circa survive's latest album "on letting go". any ideas on how producer brian mcternan achieved this? i'm fairly new to the arena of big boy studio recording.

[The Late Great Libido]

I know that Circa Survive hard pans the two guitarists' parts...one guitar hard right the other hard left...and they play completely different riffs. On a stereo system it doesn't stand out but listen on headphones and its very obvious.

Other than that I would suggest finding a good delay pedal (or plugin or whatever) and using a room mic for your amp if you can find a sweet spot in your recording room...perhaps in conjunction with a close mic. That should get you in the ballpark.

[xultrabluex]

Originally Posted by The Late Great Libido

I know that Circa Survive hard pans the two guitarists' parts...one guitar hard right the other hard left...and they play completely different riffs. On a stereo system it doesn't stand out but listen on headphones and its very obvious.

Other than that I would suggest finding a good delay pedal (or plugin or whatever) and using a room mic for your amp if you can find a sweet spot in your recording room...perhaps in conjunction with a close mic. That should get you in the ballpark.

that was one of the first things that drew me into the band; how the guitar parts play off of each other. very creative.

i've got plenty of delay pedals (a couple line 6 DL-4's a boss DD-6) but it also sounds like he's got some pretty good compression as well. whether that is a pedal or done in mixing i'm not too sure.

how far away and what type of mic are we talking here? up to now i've been using an MXL 990 for my room mic, placing it 3 feet from the source. concerning a sweet spot, should i walk around the room, mic in hand and with headphones on with someone playing through the amp?

[brandondrury]

I was looking for some particularly unique clean tone throughout this record. I didn't find anything new or revolutionary or that even stood out.

In fact, I didn't hear any "clean" tone on the entire album. Their non-high gain sound is pretty damn distorted. Of course, I've been a believer in the distorted clean sound for a long time. It's hard to say what amp this is. It could be a Vox. It could be an old Marshall. It could be an old Fender, but my gut says that it is not.

This is what a good amp sounds like regardless of how much gain you squeeze out of it.

We definitely have different definitions of "airy". My definition of "airy" is like that vocal sound of that Dawson's Creek song "I Don't Want To Wait....for my life to be oVER".

------

I'm definitely getting old. This band is entirely incompatible with me. I guess the Smashing Pumpkins will be Superbowl Cadillac commercials before I know it!

Brandon

[xultrabluex]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I was looking for some particularly unique clean tone throughout this record. I didn't find anything new or revolutionary or that even stood out.

In fact, I didn't hear any "clean" tone on the entire album. Their non-high gain sound is pretty damn distorted. Of course, I've been a believer in the distorted clean sound for a long time. It's hard to say what amp this is. It could be a Vox. It could be an old Marshall. It could be an old Fender, but my gut says that it is not.

This is what a good amp sounds like regardless of how much gain you squeeze out of it.

We definitely have different definitions of "airy". My definition of "airy" is like that vocal sound of that Dawson's Creek song "I Don't Want To Wait....for my life to be oVER".

------

I'm definitely getting old. This band is entirely incompatible with me. I guess the Smashing Pumpkins will be Superbowl Cadillac commercials before I know it!

Brandon

in retrospect, 'atmospheric' would be a better word for the tone i'm attempting to describe haha.
i'm aware that there is no definite clean tone on the album, i should have made that more clear. i saw them live and they used either a JCM800 or 900, i couldn't tell. actually, that right there might answer how they acheived their tone lol.

[brandondrury]

Oh ok. I could totally seeing these being JCM800s on the album. You never really know about this crap. For all I know they just plugged into a mixer or something. (Probably not).

That atmosphere junk is definitely delay and you should have no problem getting close with your delay pedals. The Line 6 delay thing is bad ass (which is strange for me to ever compliment the Marketer Of The Year like that).

Brandon

[xultrabluex]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Oh ok. I could totally seeing these being JCM800s on the album. You never really know about this crap. For all I know they just plugged into a mixer or something. (Probably not).

That atmosphere junk is definitely delay and you should have no problem getting close with your delay pedals. The Line 6 delay thing is bad ass (which is strange for me to ever compliment the Marketer Of The Year like that).

Brandon

thanks for the replies brandon.

it's amazing that the company putting out the most consistantly crappy amps has put out one of the most consistantly best delay/loop pedals. whuddathunkit

[brandondrury]

it's amazing that the company putting out the most consistantly crappy amps has put out one of the most consistantly best delay/loop pedals. whuddathunkit

I'm with you. Every time a dude brings in the Line 6 delay pedals, I say to myself "I want this!!". The opposite, of course, is true with their amps.

Brandon