I've known David Myers for many years and never knew that he played piano. He mentioned one day that he'd like to record one of his original tracks and asked if I'd produce it.
The track was recorded and mixed in Cakewalk by Bandlab. Guitars and bass were recorded direct using the Kemper.
I was completely blown away by his composition and playing. This has been a most enjoyable project and I hope there'll be more like this from him.
We recorded this song about four weeks ago. I used my Kemper rack for the guitars and was pleasantly surprised when I was able to use it literally the same way I use an amp (by backing off in places and then turning up to get more gain) The Kemper responded just like an amp!
This Santana song is not one of his more popular instrumentals but has been one of my favourite songs for a really long time. I’ve always wanted to do a version of this and thanks to my two very good friends, Dave and Larry I’ve been able to do just that.
My first thought was to do a completely different take on the song but after listening to the original I realised that the playing, feel etc was perfect.
This is therefore my tribute to a guitar player who had a great influence on me when I was younger and probably still does.
The only change that we made was to lengthen the song. I felt that the original version is just too short.
Mics used:
Drums:
AKG D112 (Kick)
SM57 (Snare and Toms)
Behringer B1s (Overheads and Hi Hat)
RODE Nt2A (Room)
Hammond C3:
SM57
Guitars:
Kemper (recorded direct)
Bass:
Sansamp (recorded direct)
Piano:
Roland FP8 (recorded direct)
Rhodes:
Lounge Lizard Soft Synth
The track was recorded and mixed in Cakewalk
I hope that you’ll enjoy this version of a beautiful song.
Due to the fact that we cannot perform live at the moment we decided to do a live stream from my studio. We performed our CCR Tribute show and I also recorded the live tracks in the DAW. Guitar was played direct via the Kemper and the Bass was played via the Line 6 Helix.
We setup four cameras (vocals, bass, guitar, drums) and filmed the performance.
I edited the video and put the audio together. It was very successful and went down extremely well.
This is our version of one of the tracks – Suzie Q.
I was given the Kemper Profiler on load for a few weeks to try out in my studio. Wow! It was outstanding. We were busy with a recording session at the time and I was so impressed that I decided to use it exclusively in the session. It turned out looking like a Kemper demo but I think that you'll agree - the tone was pretty convincing. I had to give it back to it's owner this weekend and I'm going to miss it. Oh well...
I also had two friends help out with the track: Larry Rose - Drums and Percussion and Dave Sharp Hammond C3.
The guitars went direct through the Kemper, I used a Marshall 1969 50 profile for all the guitars.
The Hammond was recorded with two mics on the Leslie horn and the drums were a collection of mics - D112 on the kick, SM57s on the Snare and Toms and Behringer B1s on the Hi-hat and Overheads. I Like the B1s because they're quite bright sounding.
The acoustic gtr was recorded with an SE2200H and the Bass went direct through the Line 6 Helix. My DAW is Cakewalk by Bandlab (used to be called SONAR). My audio interface is a MOTU 16A.
Today I had a friend come and visit the studio and he brought the Kemper Profiling amp with him. We decided to record a song using the unit exclusively to hear what this sounds like in an actual mix.
I used a Strat and a Les Paul to try and demo how well this works with single coils and humbuckers.
The track is a bluesy type song and I chose a JCM800 profile for the backing and the solo with the Strat but for the solo I added a Kemper Tube Screamer to give a bit more dirt.
The quiet part of the track I switched to the Les Paul on the same profile without the Tube Screamer and then for the harder section the profile was changed to the Mesa Boogie Roadking.
Guitars were a MIM Fender Strat and a Tokai Loverock LS98F.
I was blown away with this unit. It was really easy to get great tones and I found that you’re really spoilt for choice. The effects are top notch and you really don’t need much else for superb recordings.
I didn’t have the time to actually profile my own amp but I do have an in depth video demo planned for the near future.
Anyway the link for the clip is:
[MEDIA=soundcloud]temper59/kemper-profiling-amp-foxglove[/MEDIA]
Hope you enjoy.
