Reel To Reel: Recording The Legendary Goodtimes

To capture the quintessential retro rock sound, The Legendary Goodtimes sessions began with 4 reels of tape, a Sony APR 5000 reel tape recorder, a Midas Venice console and a Crest CPL1288 dual compressor. It seemed a worthy, economical approach for a band that wanted to track live.

The Legendary Goodtimes tracking

So I miked up the band. Neumann BCM104 pair over drums, Audix drum pack on the kit, bass guitar direct out from a Ampeg SVT450, and miked a ’64 Fender Super Reverb with a SM57 close and a AT3035 far. I got levels and we were off!

Tracking proceeded smoothly as the trio played through their song list, knocking songs off one by one in two or three takes. But you know how it is; the first one is usually best.

I couldn’t resist and tracked them digitally in Sonar as well, just in case we needed a little more kick or something. We didn’t.

Mark records.the mix to tape

The results were just what we wanted; fat, rich bass, thick drums, driving guitar. It was a warm sonic palette on which to lay vocals. We overdubbed the vocals for precision and the resulting mix stayed analog until mastering, where I digitized and polished it into the record, “This Is Rock & Roll”!