Album Project Picking Up Steam

I'm happy to report that I've been getting into the studio a lot over the last while, and I am chipping away at my album project, while still finding time to work on other projects here and there as well.  As the album takes shape, its looking more and more like a blues/rock driven album, with a little country and pop flavor sprinkled throughout.  As I've been mostly focused on guitar tracks lately, I thought I'd share a few pictures and tidbits on the recording process.

This is the signal path that virtually everything I record goes through.  The Vintech preamp sounds fantastic. The FATSO is a very versatile piece, that is used in a variety of ways depending on what I'm doing.  All in all, a nice front end for tracking.

My main amp for recording is a 1995 Matchless Chieftain, great sounding clean and a killer distortion as well.

This setup from a recent session has an AT3031 condenser mic off axis on one speaker and a Fathead II ribbon mic on the other speaker.  Great definition and clarity on one, warm and round on the other.  Blended together it makes for a nice sound. I believe this picture was taken while tracking  "Trying to be a Man"

This recent session used a Sennheiser MD421U on one speaker and an Audio Technica ATM650 on the other. These dynamic mics have a classic sound to them, and are currently my "go to" mics when tracking electric guitars.  I believe this session was while doing some tracking on "Still the Same". 

Tracking yesterday through this set up - one guitar into 2 amps. The Line 6 amp is set to the Fender Blackface model. This setup was used while tracking guitars on "Funk n' Groovin' ", which is a tribute song to everyone who ever had a garage band and a dream.  My Line 6 M13 has some stereo effects that sound amazing in a setup like this, but for today, I had nothing on except a tube driver and a tiny bit of compression.  The Matchless has a beautiful tube reverb so I almost always track with that on, but the Line 6 amp is usually recorded drv and reverb is added in the mix.

I'm very close to being done with the guitar tracking on this project. I have a few odds and ends left...  I also have a couple bass tracks, and a couple songs needing drums finished.  After that, its down to the vocals. Even though I've tracked a few vocal parts already, I'll probably retrack everything, as I've been getting a little better practiced both with my singing and with capturing the sound I want.