Big Mono - Guitar Tracking Reflection

The day we set out to record guitars for Big Mono I was double booked and was working on an ambient piece of music for a short film project. The studio was booked at the exact same time, so I met with the Adam and Jaxon and helped set up. We set Jaxon up in the control room and patched the guitar through to the amp in the live room so we could drive it hard without going deaf. We used an SM57, an MD421 and a C414 distant on a Blackstar HT Stage 60 Valve Amp with a digital fender strat set to 12 string mode on the leads and a fender Jaguar during the rhythm sections.

Here's an awesome article about micing guitar amps that is very relevent to our approach. One Amp Three Mics

The day we set out to record guitars for Big Mono I was double booked and was working on an ambient piece of music for a short film project. The studio was booked at the exact same time, so I met with the Adam and Jaxon and helped set up. We used an SM57, an MD421 and a C414 distant on a Blackstar HT Stage 60 Valve amp with a digital fender strat set to 12 string mode on the leads and a fender Jaguar during the rhythm sections.

I had complete trust in Jaxon to fit tasteful guitar into the song so left to continue my work in the other studio. I came back towards the end of the session and they were both excited to play me what they had laid down. As they packed up the live room I sat and had a good listen to the whole track and was very happy with the guitar parts. The intro was the same line we had on the scratch track with some longer notes ringing out under the synth part and the chorus was heavier and more rhythm driven than the scratch track but it worked much better.

I wasn’t behind the wheel in this session and I have kept this reflection quite brief because there is not a lot for me to reflect on. I believe it was good to give Jaxon some freedom and a bit of space to be creative. I’m really glad things worked out the way they did. We are a great team who fit together like pieces of a puzzle and the song itself is bigger than anyone of us.