Apparently I missed the boat slightly on this and it’s been out for a week or two, but I’m not psychic so how was I supposed to know if the band don’t tell me! Anyway, Drunken Balordi’s debut single is out now on iTunes, with CD singles available from the band at gigs.

The two track single was recorded in Studio A at Metropolis earlier this year, with some additional tracking done at “Dights” studio (fiddle and accordion). It was mixed in my home studio and mastered by Andy “Hippy” Baldwin at Metropolis.

Of some note, I used this tracking session as an opportunity to test out SE Electronics’ RNR1 microphone for Music Tech. This is an ribbon microphone with active electronics designed by Rupert Neve. We managed to put it to use as a mono room mic on the drums, a neck mic on the acoustic guitar (alongside a FET 47 on the body) and as a vocal mic - although we went with the Neumann U67 on the finished mix. The enhanced top end of the RNR1 made it unusually (for a ribbon) suitable for picking up the high harmonics from the neck of the acoustic guitar. On vocals though we thought it lacked the definition that the U67 had - but that’s one hell of a mic to lose out to.

If anyone cares about the rest of the signal chain, feel free to ask in the comments as I made fairly good notes at the time.

Mike