Equipment (in order of appearance):
Tascam Portastudio 424 analog 4-track cassette machine
2 TDK Sound Master cassette tapes (SA IEC II/Type II High Position, 20 minute) Shure SM57 microphone
Shure SM58 microphone
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio Interface (used only as an analog mixer) Larrivee P-01 acoustic guitar (rosewood)
Takamine Tri-Ax magnetic soundhole pickup
Hohner Marine Band Deluxe harmonica (C)
Fender American Standard Telecaster electric guitar
Fender Mexican Stratocaster neck pickup
Seymour Duncan Little ‘59 bridge pickup
Blackstone Appliance Mosfet Overdrive effect pedal Danelectro FAB Distorion effect pedal
BBE Sonic Stomp effect pedal
Silvertone Model 1392 Amplifier
2007 MacBook running Snow Leopard, using GarageBand ‘08 assorted cables, sunsets, and rye whiskeys

Process:
This project was an exercise in working within limitations. Limited time (I only had the 424 for a week), limited equipment, and limited knowledge. My first problem was that I didn’t have an XLR to TRS cable, and the 424 has no XLR inputs. So I scoured my neighborhood until I found one. But when I plugged it in, I got a lot of noise, which varied depending on the position of the cable, like a radio antenna. Undaunted, I unpacked all my boxes of audio equipment and stared at them until a solution emerged. By plugging the mics into the XLR inputs of my Scarlett 2i2, and then running the signal out its headphone jack and into the 424’s input with a guitar cable, I was able to get some pretty good sound. I also used the 2i2 as a mixer, to allow me to blend two signals onto one track. I recorded all songs on normal speed, because I only had two 20 minute tapes, and wanted to record 20 minutes of material (high speed uses 2x the tape.)

“Evening”
I started with rhythm guitar on track one. I miced the acoustic guitar at close range with the 57, and blended in the signal from the Tri-Ax, which I found sounded better with the pre-amp off. Vocals went onto track two, followed by a second guitar part on track 3, and harmonica on track 4 (miced with a 57, which gave it some very nice bass). The acoustic guitar and the harmonica both got a bit of a vibrato effect from the tape- one of the surprises resulting from working in this medium.

“Banners of the Charlatan”
I started with a rhythm guitar part, plugging the guitar directly into the amp. I had a lovely clean tone in the room, but I just couldn’t get the mic placed in a way that captured it, and finally decided that I had to keep moving. Track 2 got the vocals, and then it was on to track 3 for the lead guitar. I used the Blackstone’s red channel for most of the song, switching on the FAB Distortion for the solo, which was completely
improvised, and rather sloppy. Ordinarily I would have done it again, but I wanted to keep moving, as I had two more songs to complete. Oh yes, the Sonic Stomp came out to tweak the EQ on the lead guitar, which was again miced with a 57, which also picked up the sound of the acoustic sound of the Telecaster, as I was recording in my apartment.

“Soldiers Claimed the Harvest”
I used both mics on the vocals, mixed to one signal on the 2i2. Lead vocals went on track 4, then backing vocals on track 3. Next I bounced track 3 onto track 2 while also adding another backing vocal take. Then I did this again, adding still more onto track 1. I played with panning and EQ on the mix to accentuate the effect of there being more backing vocals than I actually recorded.

"60 Cycle Hum"
I began with the acoustic guitar, recording it the same way as I had on “Evening,” but this time I used the Sonic Stomp to EQ the Tri-Ax. I realized when mixing that I’d overloaded it, although everything appeared okay at the time. Oh well, Keith Richards says he always overloaded mics when recording acoustics to get that “Streetfighting Man” acoustic/distortion effect. Maybe that’s what I was going for? Lead vocals went to track 2, and backing vocals to track 3. Another harmony vocal part went to track 4, along with the harmonica solo, which I simply played as it rolled around, before going back to singing.

I live mixed each song, running the left and right outputs from the 424 into the 2i2, and then on to GarageBand.

All tracks were mastered using LANDR, an online mastering software which charged me $9 for the lot. I used the low sensitivity setting throughout.

Finally, I put the tracks back into GarageBand and did some normalizing, before bouncing them back out to iTunes as CD quality AAC files.