Last time I discussed the recording of the third (or fourth) low budget Thanatos CD -- low budget being the only way I know how to record. I talked superficially about guitars but mostly it was about using your ears and your sense. I wrote I was going to discuss the pedals we used but seriously I think you could fill a sack with pedals and randomly pick a couple out and, if you had any creativity, make some good sounds. Some pedals sort of cancel each other out, some are hard to control and tweak the sound. I have a tendency to think that limitations force creativity and unlimited options create homogenization or even paralysis.

We (this pronoun referring to myself and Tim Larson) used a MXR 90 Phase, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Marshall Super Vibe, Marshal Reflector Reverb and Marshall Vibratrem.

The venerable MXR 90 phase pedal should need no introduction. If you can have only one phaser you couldn't go wrong picking this one. I just received one as a gift and after several months in the box I finally took it out and played it with both my acoustic and electric. Do not expect an insane number of sounds as this is not a Line 6 Pod. It just has a great sound. A slew of musicians have used this to pedal on a variety of instruments. I think it works really well with an acoustic (a use you do not see as often as on an electric). It gives a great "swoosh" when you are playing rhythms and, depending on your acoustic, you can get some interesting resonance out of the pedal. You can pick one of these up for around $80. If you are feeling crazy and have another $40 in your pocket you might look at the MXR 100 (more sounds, more options).

The Ibanez Tube Screamer? Well, it is an Ibanez Tube Screamer. The only problem with its sound is that everyone and their grandmother have used it for years. If you are going to use it you need to mix and match and find ways to make the sound yours. You can get one for around $100.

The real surprise were the Marshall pedals. The three we used did not include my favorite gear name ever (Edward the Compressor -- proving the folks at Marshall not only make fine gear but have a background in history). The Vibratrem has a vintage tremolo/vibrato. It sounds great, does what you expect and has a nice variety of sounds. The Super Vibe chorus rendered my old (20 plus year old) DOD chorus superfluous (it also has some vibrato capability). The Reflector is the one that had the oddest possibilities. Yes, it does all the things a reverb pedal should and sounds better than most. It is easy to use. But it also has reverse reverb which is fantastic for adding ambient landscapes to your tracks. The problem is fitting the sound in with what you are doing. Basically it is a matter of patience and timing but the pedal really pays off if you take the time. All of these should be available for in the vicinity of $80 (except the reverb which is $40-50 more).

Sometimes we used damn near all of these pedals on a track and other times we didn't use them at all. One problem that arose is that there were several songs that, upon further examination, were actually the SAME song. This leads to temptation -- a rather nasty temptation.

"Lets put effects on the guitar to disguise the fact that all these songs have the same tempo and chords."

Do not do it. Write new songs. Pick the best of the bunch and throw the others away.

Then there are microphones. After numerous discussions and articles picking a microphone is like picking out underwear. What fits one person is going to chafe another. Unfortunately you cannot try on either mics or underwear (due to health laws). You can learn about frequencies and features and figure out the frequencies and tonal qualities of your voice, maybe do some complicated calculations and contact sound engineers and PhD Or you could just sing into a variety of mics at studios, that friends own, that clubs own and figure out what works best for you. There are massively expensive Neumann mics and relatively inexpensive Shure mics. I have heard professionals swear by one or the other -- and sometimes both.

One of the things to consider about some condensers when you are recording in a home studio is that they can be sensitive. They sometimes pick up things you do not even hear, trucks rumbling by in the alley, your significant other on the phone in the kitchen, cats jumping for the studio doorknob and other horrors. You can, of course, compensate for this but you do need to be aware of it. Also be aware that sometimes a SM57 or SM58 is the perfect sound for a given song.

The mics we were using were the AKG Perception 200 and C2000B. The Perception is a condenser cardioid with phantom power and has a super warm sound. It is also not a dainty mic and can take a little bit of a whooping so you might even consider using it live if it works for you in a studio setting. They list around $490, but you can realistically find them for less than $200. The C2000B is a good, solid mic with low noise. Either or works fine for me.

One thing we did do is set one mic up about a couple of feet away from the other to record a second vocal track. The "far away" mic can be dropped down in the mix and fiddled with. It can be used as a mult since it will have a very miniscule delay. One trick I have used is to put reverb on the second track and then leave nothing but the reverb in the final mix for ambiance.

These musings are about to end but there will be one more related to mastering.