Country Music’s Digital Surprise
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Singing Steel

Kim at the Window Kim Parent, vocal synthesizer.

It's a natural segue from keyboards to vocals, because on this song we deployed background vocalist Kim Parent like a keyboard. Kim, a recording artist in her own right, has backed up Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Jo Dee Messina, Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers, Phil Vassar, and many others. We had her sing a standard harmony part, but in the choruses I also asked her to pretend she was a synth. Using four tracks, we recorded her singing sustained "Aahs," and built chords of the type that an '80s rock keyboardist might have played. Here's an example. Note how stark the unprocessed vocal sounds without reverb:

Tony Paoletta on Steel Tony Paoletta's steel slides added a crucial "country" vibe.

By stacking electric and acoustic guitars, piano, and Kim's voice, we were building up the choruses in the way I'd hoped--grandiose like 80's rock, but organic like country. I knew the capper would come when we added steel guitar.

On steel we had Tony Paoletta, a long-time performer on the Grand Ole Opry with Jeannie Seely, as well as with other artists including Patty Loveless, the Judds, and the Dixie Chicks. As I mentioned, I think of steel as functioning something like a string section, although the crying sound is also one of the most distinctive features of country. The thing I most wanted to hear from Tony was a big upward glissando leading into the choruses:

I just loved the effect of that sound when we mixed it with everything else. I think now that I may have been influenced by memories of Yes, believe it or not. They sometimes featured a swooping steel guitar in the hands of Steve Howe (also a country fan, by the way, heavily influenced by legendary picker Chet Atkins).

Gimme Some Skins

Underneath all of this we had Bobo Benefild on drums. (So far, Bo Billy and Bobo have resisted the urge to form a duo.) Bobo plays with Colt Prather, and has also worked with Trace Adkins, Chris Cagle, B.B. King, and Doc Severinson. Bobo keeps great time, gets great sound, and can hit the drums hard like a rock player, which was certainly in order here. Here's a sample of Bobo entering at the first chorus. Note how the accuracy of his timing makes for a good feel, especially during fills. It's hard not to rush or drag during a fill; good drummers stay in the pocket. Note also the sound of the drum kit flat with no EQ or effects--you'll hear quite a difference in the final mix.

Bobo Benefild on Drums Bobo Benefild and Bo Billy--a match made in heaven.

Lead Vocal

Bobo's Drums

"My typical recording setup is much like my live set," Bobo explains. "I have a Pork Pie endorsement contract, so any time I can play my Pies I will. I use an 18''x 22'' kick drum, 13'' snare, 10'' tom, 12'' tom, and a 16'' tom. For cymbals I use all Sabian AA hand hammered (I also have a deal with Sabian). All the heads are Remo coated Emperors."

"It is important to make sure that, when tracking, all the songs sound and feel different. I mean, if you bought a record and all the songs were the same, why buy the whole album? Each song tells a different story and it's my job to help the listener get to a place where each story is standing on its own."

With all those instruments covered, let's now talk about the lead vocal, the reason why we all were there. Bo Billy recorded most of his vocals on his own. He has a good studio at his house in White Bear Lake, MN, and since he was comfortable working there, he recorded most of his vocals ahead of time, working to guide tracks. He used a good Neumann mic, without EQ or other processing so that we would have flexibility while mixing.

One of the main things that attracted me to this project was Bo's unique singing style, which mixes rough-edged, authentic country with a lot of soul, which he picked up from gospel music he heard while growing up in Florida as well as through his lifelong admiration of Elvis. One of my favorite moments in his performance of this song comes towards the end, when he mixes country grit with a soulful falsetto.

Mix Decisions

And now the penultimate step, the mix (penultimate because after the mix you're still not quite done). The mix is itself a performance, featuring hundreds of decisions about each sound--decisions involving relative volume, tone, compression (control of volume differences over time, used to keep sounds in their "place" in the mix and also as an effect), pan (left-right) position, delay, reverberation, and more.

I think mixing works best when I focus on aesthetic decisions and trust the engineer to cover the technical end. So I (or, in this case, Bo, who also had production input) might say something like, "How about a little less woof on the snare" and John the engineer would translate that into an effective equalization setting, without a lot of tech talk having to go back and forth. Ultimately the music is supposed to affect your feelings, so I try to talk in terms of feelings while I work. Plus it really bugs engineers when producers try to out-geek them.

Studio Alternate View The Yamaha 02R96V2 digital mixer can control Nuendo and other software directly.

Once we had a mix we liked, we sent it along with the others to be mastered by John Mayfield at Mayfield Mastering. Mastering is the final tweak that makes a record sound finished. Working with the stereo mix, and using very high end equipment, the mastering engineer makes (hopefully) small but surprisingly important adjustments, mostly to equalization, compression, and overall volume. These days mastering engineers are often asked to use extreme compression and limiting so that average level is as high as possible. This is because there's a volume "arms race" under way on the radio. None of us wanted that sound, which drains the life out of a mix, and instead John Mayfield gave us back what we had given him, but better, with more clarity, definition, and punch, which is the kind of work he is happy to do.

And here is how it sounded, at least within the fidelity limits of MP3. We can only play you 30 seconds here, but I certainly encourage you to get the whole thing for just 99 cents at iTunes!

Spencer Critchley is an award-winning producer, writer and composer with experience in digital media, film, broadcasting and the music business.

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