City of Love

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City of Love - cover art
Design: Linnae daSilva

© 2001 Michael A. Bedrosian ℗ 2008 Plutonian Music (ASCAP)

Links

The Left Hand Set

  • Michael Bedrosian – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums
  • Chris Schmandt – Drums
  • Dan Horowitz – Piano
  • Chuck Koch – Horns

Songs

  • Love Power (Horns: Chuck Koch)
  • Venus Rose from the Sea
  • Slowly
  • City of Love (Drums: Chris Schmandt)
  • A Beautiful Day
  • Tears and Beers
  • Trying to Lose (Drums: Chris Schmandt)
  • Tree of Life (Drums: Chris Schmandt / Piano: Dan Horowitz)
  • Fortress
  • November
Love Power – rough mix with mouth horns
Slowly – early version
Fortress – early version

Recording

  • Room – Montier Road
  • Multitrack – ADAT (8 tracks, or linked for 16)
  • Mixer – Mackie SR24.4
  • Stereo Mix – Lynx L22
  • Mastering – Bob Katz (Digital Domain)

Notes

How to convey a horn part when you can’t write charts? Simple – add mouth horns! Fortunately, Chuck nicely interpreted my idea on two tracks (recorded with an EV 664), adding his own flair.

Most of the guitar parts were played through an Ampeg V-4 with V-2 cabinet, a massive rig with way too much power for anyone’s basement. This experience led me to understand Jimmy Page’s guidance: small amps sound big. But Ampegs are cool . . .

Chuck went with me to the Greater Northeast to buy the new mixer. I kept piling on tracks during this project (eventually linking two ADATs for 16), so I needed more channels to do the mix. Unfortunately the mixer didn’t have the headroom to keep everything from mushing together. When I left some headroom, as heard in the outtakes for Slowly and Fortress, it didn’t sound bad. Lesson: leave headroom.