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Winner No. 1 Charlie in the Box, The Ariadne Thread Sophisticated pop from Boston's Willem Hartong and friends. Photograph by Jenene Chesbrough
We put out the call for submissions to our first Homegrown CD Award contest back in the November ’99 issue and on the Web, and Acoustic Guitar has been receiving a constant stream of recordings ever since that share these important traits: they’re recorded, produced, packaged, and released by the artists themselves. The first batch of entries we reviewed is very impressive, a testament to the depth and variety of grassroots talent out there and the technological powers that these musicians now have thanks to the home-recording revolution. So after much listening and consideration, we’re happy to present our first Homie award to Boston-area band Charlie in the Box for the CD The Ariadne Thread. Along with the award comes a $1,000 gift certificate from Sweetwater Sound, experts in recording gear and music technology. An outlet for singer/guitarist/producer Willem Hartong’s mostly original songs, The Ariadne Thread was recorded with the help of a number of Hartong’s musician friends, some of whom are part of the band’s lineup for live performances. Although Hartong had been involved in the recording projects of other bands, The Ariadne Thread is his first effort in producing a full-length album with his own songs and ideas. A collection of acoustic-based pop/rock songs that sometimes bring to mind the music of R.E.M. and Dave Matthews, the The Ariadne Thread has a fresh sound that belies the fact that it is mostly a bedroom production. The emphasis is on mature songwriting and clever arrangements, rather than on chops alone. We were particularly impressed with the clarity of all the featured instruments. Although we paid close attention to the sound and style of the acoustic guitar parts, The Ariadne Thread also delivers excellent presence in lead and backup vocals, as well as a tight rhythm section of electric bass and drums. In the packaging department, this CD also shines, with cool artwork and photography throughout its 12-panel booklet. In laying down these songs, Hartong and coproducer John Morrical used a setup that features several mainstays of ’90s home recording. Revolving around two Alesis ADATs; a Mackie mixer; API and Avalon preamps; and Shure (SM57, Beta 58, and SM81) and Groove Tube microphones, the "studio" moved around a variety of locations. Five songs on The Ariadne Thread were recorded during a two-week lockout at a friend’s house in Vermont, while others were tracked over time in various apartments. Although Morrical—who also contributes organ and piano parts—had some previous engineering experience, many of the recording techniques used on The Ariadne Thread were learned during its production. Hartong and Morrical achieved most of the album’s present acoustic guitar sound with the tried-and-true method of two small-diaphragm condenser mics (Shure SM81s), but they also tried out some less orthodox procedures. They found that the Fishman Matrix pickup on Hartong’s Larrivée guitar helped it to stand out in a dense mix, and they made use of it on a few cuts. They managed to add just enough pickup to the miked signal to beef it up without creating a plugged-in sound. On the song "Bait," the guitar was run through a small tube amp, which was miked from a distance, creating a huge rhythm sound. "I heard Ani DiFranco did that," says Hartong, and he adds that it gave the track a quality that he wasn’t able to achieve any other way. A solid drum and bass sound is an important ingredient for a successful band recording, and The Ariadne Thread shines in both of these departments. The live drums were recorded in a living room with high ceilings via a combination of close miking and room mics high up above for ambience. The electric bass—which has a coherent, up-front presence throughout the album, without ever sounding muddy or cloudy—was recorded direct through an Avalon preamp. In fact, Hartong attributes much of the album’s sound to this box, saying that "the preamps were pricey, but definitely worth it." Like most musicians who are recording at home, Hartong realized partway through the project that he would need more equipment than what he owned or could borrow. Realizing that it would cost almost as much to rent an additional ADAT recorder for the two weeks that he’d need it as it would to buy one, he scraped the money together and purchased several pieces of gear, with the intention of selling them after the project to recoup the costs. Ultimately, this approach proved to be more cost effective, and Hartong was free of time constraints. Trying to mix the album through an analog Soundcraft console, Hartong and Morrical weren’t able to get the results they were hoping for. Although they were new to computer-based recording, they decided to transfer their ADAT tapes to a Digidesign Pro Tools setup running on a Macintosh. With the editing and automation features of Pro Tools’ built-in software mixer, they were able to finally achieve the desired sound. The superb artwork on The Ariadne Thread cover and booklet came together through a combination of efforts. "I was really lucky to meet this girl who’s a photography student," says Hartong. Along with a selection of black-and-whites from a photo shoot set up for the occasion, the 12-page booklet features lush illustrations, lyrics, and personnel information. Hartong himself created the artwork for the cover, and the assembly and design was left to Disc Makers (www.discmakers.com), which also handled the album’s duplication. Since its release in September 1999, The Ariadne Thread has gotten favorable reviews as well as local airplay. Currently, the album is sold primarily at gigs, through a few select stores, as well as on the artist’s Web site (www.greasywatermelon.com). Hartong plans to make it available on other Web outlets, such as Amazon.com. As for next time around, Hartong doesn’t have to think long about what he’d do differently: "Hire a producer. It just got to be too much to have to think about everything at once." In the end, though, he agrees that he got more than he expected by producing The Ariadne Thread himself, and what more could an independent musician want? Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, May 2000, No. 89. WANT TO ENTER YOUR CD in our Homegrown CD contest? We’re accepting submissions until September 1, 2000. Get the details and the official entry form at www.acousticguitar.com/Homegrown/Homegrown.html. |
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