Now that all of the gear is plugged in and warmed up, it's time for Issac to lay down the guitar overdubs for "Live And I Learn"
See how Vance Powell:
Produces Issac through the guitar overdubs
Doubles the clean verse guitar parts
Tries out a Beetronics Swarm, a Gamechanger Audio Plasma, and an original Acetone Fuzzmaster for the distorted fuzz tones on the guitar
Adds rhythmic edits to the heavy guitars to emphasize the groove
This is your chance to join Nashville legend Vance Powell and The Weird Sisters at the world-famous Blackbird Studio and watch them craft "Live And I Learn" from Start To Finish.
00:00:23 Now we got everything
set up for the guitars.
00:00:25 Yesterday
when we were
at Blackbird
I kind of felt like,
when we were doing the demo,
that I liked the sound of the Fender amp
in the Verses.
00:00:36 What I felt we'd do is
possibly try to replace
the Marshall in the
verses with the Fender.
00:00:42 So we're gonna see what that,
how that works.
00:00:46 Let's do this,
let's just keep this where it is.
00:00:52 Fender verses.
00:00:55 So, let me hear that sort of,
the verse riff.
00:01:11 So we need a pad on this guy.
00:01:13 At 67.
00:01:48 Alright, so,
what I'm doing here is
balancing the 57 and the 67,
I put a tiny bit of EQ on one of the mics.
00:01:58 I think it was the 67.
00:02:00 And then what we're gonna do is pan this
so that I can just hear
what they sound like.
00:02:05 I'm gonna pan them here on my monitors.
00:02:09 And so, let's go from the first verse.
00:02:12 Groovy there?
Alright cool. Does that feel like,
feel cool?
I like that sort of doubled thing.
00:02:59 So, right at the top,
hit the Intro licks also.
00:03:04 Yeah. Except,
I want a little bit of reverb.
00:03:08 Give me one second here.
00:03:10 Let me just hear that lick.
00:03:18 A little bit something
to make it different.
00:03:23 Yeah, cool.
00:03:25 Alright, here we go.
00:04:11 Yeah man, that was groovy.
00:04:13 Cool. I'm gonna move
a couple things here.
00:04:15 Let me move these Clavs
down to tracks that make more sense.
00:04:19 23 and 24.
00:04:23 And then let me show you
what we've got here sonically.
00:04:26 This is yesterday's sound.
00:04:36 Cool. And here is today's.
00:04:45 When we put them together
we get this.
00:05:01 It's pretty groovy.
00:05:02 How about this idea.
00:05:05 How about maybe this is a
little bit of a wah-wah thing?
Just a little rock in the wah-wah.
00:05:10 I'll give it a little something.
00:05:11 You know what I mean?
Let's kind of make it funky.
00:05:16 You know what I mean?
OK, here we go.
00:06:03 Yeah man, I loved that.
00:06:06 That's cool.
00:06:07 Alright, groovy.
Let's get the second verse.
00:06:09 Then we're gonna come back around
and get these heavy parts.
00:06:12 Cool?
OK, cool. Now, in the solo
we have the same part, I love that.
00:06:50 Do you have anything you wanna confess?
Any sins?
On the very first,
the beginning of the verse.
00:06:57 Yeah, let's get in on that.
00:06:59 Yeah,
I think I kind of want to just make it big
and swell a little bit.
00:07:02 OK. Do you want to come in right
at the very top of the first verse?
After those hits?
Let's get those hits
clean without the wah.
00:07:10 Yeah, so let's get those first.
00:07:20 OK, cool.
I'm gonna punch you in right after.
00:07:41 Yeah man.
00:07:45 Little cross-fades.
00:07:47 Now, in the solo,
I'd love for you to do
that same sort of vibe
but really like maybe find the spot
with the wah and then just leave.
00:07:56 So it's just static through the solo part.
00:08:01 There you go.
00:08:03 There you go.
00:08:04 Yeah, that's cool.
00:08:39 Cool.
00:08:40 Any confessions in there?
Let me do one more.
00:08:44 You got it. I loved it.
00:09:18 Awesome. Confessions?
No, that felt good.
00:09:23 Let's do this heavy sort of double.
00:09:26 So this was originally the B:assmaster,
right?
Yeah.
00:09:31 Alright, cool. So,
let's maybe try something different.
00:09:38 There's a couple things,
I know you've got stuff.
00:09:41 I've got a couple things
that are pretty cool.
00:09:43 Let me grab one.
00:09:45 We'll nerd a bit.
00:09:47 First thing.
00:09:48 This is the Beetronix Swarm thing.
00:09:53 That's first one.
00:09:54 Second one, the Plasma pedal.
00:09:57 Plasma pedal. Wow!
The third one is the original
Acetone Fuzzmaster.
00:10:07 That's the original one.
If you wanna try that,
it's just got 9V batteries,
you just plug into it.
00:10:11 OK, cool.
00:10:12 Yeah, if you've got a...
00:10:13 maybe slide away your Bassmaster.
00:10:15 The B:ASSMASTER.
00:10:17 I do wanna try that. That would be cool.
00:10:23 We'll get some noise here.
00:10:26 Alright. So, then,
turn that, it's on,
which is awesome, now it's on.
00:10:32 And you got two different tones.
00:11:06 I like the deeper one.
00:11:07 Let's try the Plasma.
00:11:09 OK, cool.
00:11:10 Yeah, mute over there.
00:11:14 If you don't know what this is,
this is a
Gamechanger Audio
Plasma pedal.
00:11:23 And this pedal actually generates Plasma
through a xenon tube.
00:11:39 I'm gonna get the other one.
00:11:41 -OK.
-I'm not sold on the Plasma pedal yet.
00:11:45 Let me get something fatter.
00:12:39 Let's try that.
00:12:40 Let's do that, let's definitely do that.
00:12:42 So I'm just gonna drop you
right in on this track, right?
Here we go.
00:13:23 That's sick.
00:13:25 I do feel that...
00:13:26 Yeah, I think we can get it again.
00:13:28 Yeah.
00:13:29 Let's get it again.
00:14:06 That felt pretty good.
00:14:07 -Felt good to you?
-Yeah. Can I hear it?
You got it.
00:14:41 Alright cool.
00:14:43 -Feel good?
-Yeah, let's get the next one.
00:15:19 It could be a little bit too noisy.
00:15:21 So, let's do...
00:15:22 That's fine,
that's kind of what I thought.
00:15:25 Leave that alone. Let's go do
the back choruses. Right?
I love that.
00:16:37 Now let's see if we
can get it to really gate.
00:17:00 Keep going.
00:17:14 So, let's do it with the Acetone.
00:17:17 The Acetone is gonna be badass there.
00:17:34 Alright, cool.
00:18:04 Let me see. Let me just check here,
I love these little edits
that we did yesterday,
that just sort of
mutes all these areas in-between
where the break is.
00:18:21 Let's just see here
if this works. I think it will.
00:18:28 Even though I'm a big fan of cross-fading
and things like that
sometimes it's better
if you don't cross-fade.
00:18:36 Sometimes the...
00:18:38 that cut is really cool.
00:18:44 I'm curious to hear that,
I'm not 100% set on that sound.
00:18:47 I've got one more pedal to check.
00:18:49 I'd like to say that
right now we are in the:
"Let's try it out and see."
Cool. Let's see here.
00:19:26 Yeah, what do you think now?
Yeah, I like it, I'm into it.
00:19:36 One little thing here...
00:19:39 Yeah, that timing issue?
Yeah, a little timing issue.
00:19:43 I think it's just a little back
in the beat there.
00:19:52 Yeah.
00:19:53 I think it's just a little.
Let me see if I can...
00:19:59 Well,
whatever that was that was better.
00:20:02 So Mike, here's a little thing we need to
sort of sort out a little bit later,
we'll talk about it.
00:20:09 There's a little bit
of editing in the track,
obviously we didn't do yesterday,
that Mike and I've been
talking about doing.
00:20:17 We'll...
00:20:19 we will cross that bridge here.
00:20:22 Now let's talk about this ending,
half-bridge.
00:20:25 Are you cool with that?
You like the sound?
Oh yeah.
00:20:28 Yeah, it's pretty cool.
00:20:29 I think Tim is to win a lot,
to be honest with you.
00:20:32 Now will be the bridge at the end.
Are you in tune, everything cool?
Yeah, let me check these
other strings real quick.
00:20:39 I'm trying to keep it a little bit flat
because I'm hitting so hard.
00:20:45 Alright, here we go.
00:21:14 Yeah, something like that.
00:21:16 Pretty good, pretty slippery.
00:21:18 Question, should I edit these spots?
Should we edit this?
At the very end?
At the end, yeah.
00:21:27 We would leave them in there.
00:21:39 That was one of them out.
00:21:49 I think out.
00:21:50 It's pretty sexy.
00:21:51 I agree.
00:21:54 I remember why we would leave them in
but that's better.
00:21:57 It's just better.
00:22:05 You know, this heavy thing is pretty,
it takes a lot of space.
00:22:09 Yeah.
00:22:11 It's way funkier that way.
00:22:13 Alright, cool.
00:22:15 Now let's do
the little bit of wah.
00:22:20 Your wah at the end.
00:22:24 We didn't do the wah at the beginning.
00:22:26 Just regular guitar.
00:22:29 Yeah, exactly.
00:22:31 Here we go, I'm gonna start
from the top of the bridge here.
00:22:52 One more time.
00:22:54 Cool?
I think so man.
00:23:38 That felt good.
00:23:40 I like that.
00:23:41 I like the spring, the spring in there
is pretty groovy.
00:23:44 Yeah.
00:23:46 A little bit of Fender reverb action.
00:23:50 Alright, cool.
00:23:51 Now let's listen to the guitar,
see what you think.
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Vance studied electrical engineering in Missouri and started his career in live sound as a front-of-house engineer. In 2002, he moved to Nashville in order to become studio manager and chief engineer at the legendary Black Bird studios in Nashville. In 2006, he co-founded Sputnik studios along with Grammy-winning engineer Mitch Dane, still in Nashville.
Vance Powell has won 6 Grammy awards working with rock artists such as The Raconteurs, Kings of Leon, Jack White, Pearl Jam, The White Stripes, The Dead Weather and more.
Powell's domain of expertise is definitely mixing and producing rock music. As shown in his pureMix videos, Vance likes to experiment and create new fuller and exciting sounds using all kinds of pedals, echos, analog outboards and plug-ins. Vance was used to recording to tape and definitely has an analog approach that makes him commit to fewer good sounding tracks rather than piling up takes in Pro Tools.
His goal is to make something new and warm that fits the band's vision with upfront snare drums and powerful guitars. Rocking.
