Oscar here! Finally finishing up bass tracks this week from the home studio...

Stuff is sounding great, looking forward to tracking some stuff as a full band at Jeff's later this week.

Here's the stuff I've been using on this record. My overkill pedalboard (I do a lot of session work in town as well as creative work with my other band, this there's a lot of stuff on this pedalboard that I don't use with Crazy Aces): I use the Dimension Reverb from Source Audio for it's bass-friendly spring sound, the OFD for fuzzes (also from Source Audio) and that EBS Tube preamp pedal is on pretty much everything I record. I do use octave down effects on some of our last record, but probably nothing on this new one. An older Aguilar tube di is my recording box of choice.

I set up my Aguilar amp in a guest room & use that cheap MXL large diaphragm condensor through a tube preamp. It works surprisingly good!

Then there's the basses! I'm fortunate to have a lot of options. I generally use Fenders in my regular work, but with Crazy Aces I get to use some more diverse stuff! In the back row there is a Senn p-style with flatwounds, a weird Ibanez semi-hollow (laying down) and an upright. Up front is the Eastwood Sidejack BassVI that I use a lot with this band, a 60's Yamaha full hollowbody, Waterstone Hopf copy with tapewound strings, my trusty 60's Decca/Teisco that gets the most use in Crazy Aces and a newly acquired '75 Rickenbacker 4001 which I hope to use on this record.

the basses:

recording amp rig:

pedalland:

Crazy Aces on facebook
at Reverbnation
my personal website

Last edited: Mar 11, 2014 15:42:23

I don't own anything he does, much less know how to use it.

O.K. We're done tracking and mixing!
Good thing because I am wore out and need to get back to the real world (the one in which I actually earn a living, LOL)
I have the first (hopefully final) set of masters in my hand and will review them tomorrow.
It's been a long road that took longer than we had originally hoped but we achieved some goals along the way including the ability to record live, four piece, here in my basement. We recorded the main, rhythm tracks this way for the last three songs we recorded and it sure felt great. We actually re-did two songs that we had already started recording a few months ago in order to capture a better, band feel and it worked great.
This was a great learning process for me and now we'll have the ability to release singles or full length records as we wish with little expense.
We may have broken a Crazy Aces record for number of tracks on one or two tunes. A sight like this is rare for us but quite fun indeed.

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

CrazyAces wrote:

We actually re-did two songs that we had already started recording a few months ago in order to capture a better, band feel and it worked great.
This was a great learning process for me and now we'll have the ability to release singles or full length records as we wish with little expense.
We may have broken a Crazy Aces record for number of tracks on one or two tunes. A sight like this is rare for us but quite fun indeed.

HOLY PIXELS!

Jeff, this is great news really & everyone is looking forward to it. On the migration to recording 4-pc, do you still feel that the ability to collaborate electronically - everyone juggling the rest of their lives - contributed to being able to maximize the time when you do get together and hit on that "feel" more when you all fire up at your place? Seems to me this is one positive aspect of data sharing in the "information" age (whatever the hell that means). I love the vibe of everyone playing in a room and wonder if the first thing helped enable the transition to the second.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Thanks for the feedback Jeff; that's what I was lookin' for, theory vs. reality. And I can appreciate that everyone has different approaches; was just truly curious.

Will be waiting to see how that new Epi sounds.
(I have this sinking feeling I'm gonna end up spending more than just the cost of the CD...)

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

The whole "virtual session" / submitting parts from home definitely takes MORE time in the long run! Between time taken to upload/download, waiting for the next player to submit a part, no producer on-the-spot to direct, and the fact that tracking by yourself always takes longer (engineering issues and psychological issues)you definitely waste more time. It can all work out though!

We definitely plan on doing more whole-band tracking in the future. It's just better for so many reasons. Still, in a pinch or when geography is an issue, virtual sessions can yield a great result and is definitely cheaper in terms of studio rental.

Crazy Aces on facebook
at Reverbnation
my personal website

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

It's not" greatest hits vol.3"?

Great news Jeff. Wishing you much success with the release!

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Through out my years of following music trivia, it's always been the background stories that I liked the most. When you don't have any idea why an album was named, there's always been some mystery. I sing along with every instrumental song I hear.