n-Track Studio's Featured Artist of the Month

JANUARY 2001


The Five W

 . Featured Artist's Web Page: http://www.capital8.com/


Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin - USA

Who: Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Piano -- Michelle
Lead Guitar -- Scott
Bass, Guitar, e-bow -- Mike
Drums, Percussion -- John

http://www.capital8.com http://www.mp3.com/capital8
mailto:chrism@mailbag.com
When: In early 1999

Why: n/a

What: Pop music back to the forefront

In Short:

 Influences are Teenage Fanclub, R.E.M., Fleetwood Mac.
(..) We've been compared to The Pretenders, Semisonic, Toad the Wet Sprocket, late 60's organic rock

Capital 8
by Alessandro De Murtas
Featured Songs: 
100
May

Capital 8 was formed in early 1999. The band's first show was in August 1999 as a five piece. In November 1999, one member left for Minneapolis. C8 played its first show as a four piece in February of 2000. The band is currently recording songs for a CD that will be released in the fall of 2000. Unlike the many manufactured, Capital 8 brings rock and pop back to the forefront. The term "pop music" these days tends to make one think of pre-pubescent singers bleating heart on sleeve sentiments, baring their midriffs, and shilling disposable products. Capital 8 plays music that's reminiscent of the "pop music" of another generation: ringing guitars, stick-in-your-cerebrum hooks and melodies, soaring harmony vocals, and driving, danceable rhythms. It's music that offers real and learned observations of life, liberty, and the pursuit of unemployment. It's celebratory and unpretentious. It's also good with beer and pizza.
Tips and Tricks from Capital 8 using n-Track Studio.

(..) How we make our sound? Here's what we've done: We're a four piece rock 'n' roll band. John plays a standard Pearl drum kit. We used SM57s on the toms and kick. We put some sort of Audix mike that we borrowed on the snare. We used a bunch of low-end Shure dynamic mics as overheads and on the hi-hat. Mike and I both play guitar. Mike prefers Rickenbacker 360s. I prefer a tele sound - I'm currently using a G&L ASAT Classic. We both play through Fender tube amps. We close miked the amps using SM57s. Michelle plays an Ibanez bass. We went direct through the bass to the mixer. Mike and Michelle both sing. We used either an SM57 for vocals or a AKG SM58 rip-off. All us recorded seperately to keep the mix clean. Observations after the session - get better mics it makes mixing much easier! However with some patience you can still get a good sound using inexpensive mics. We record everything on a home-built PC. It is a dual Celeron machine running NT. We are using a GadgetLabs 824 for our sound card. The key component is an IBM 7200 RPM drive. The current tracks were recorded using n-Track Studio v2.14.


We have been able to get as many as 40 tracks with effects. As far as effects go, we use all kinds of freebies we've found on the web. The key things have been Jezar's freeverb and Flavio's included plugins as well. We've compressed and eqed probably every track. Since we're fairly new to this, we experimented a lot and don't have any real standard practices. We are finding it is best to get the sound you want before you record instead of trying to eq it later. This is the best tip we can give anyone. Make sure the equipment you have is capable of getting the sound you want. Don't expect plugins to make you sound good. They may be able to hide a bad performance (and they will be able to make a great performance better!) but they won't make a bad performance good.

Breaking News 


Thursday, November 2nd, 9:30 pm - Globe East, 2028 E. North Ave., Milwaukee, with Random Maxx and Sunspot

Saturday, November 11th, 10:30 pm - Tasting Room, 1100 E. Kane Pl., Milwaukee, with Another Penny

CDs for Sale: WIP, Planned for late March 2001

What's Being Cooked Up?
Featured Artist of the Month - Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Are you an n-Track Studio's User? Would like to be reviewed? Send email to alex@n-track.com, reporting as much info as you can. Also including your recording equipment, procedures, tips & tricks for advantage of all the n-Track Studio's users.


(..) We're rehearsing several new original tunes that should see action during the next few shows, and we're planning on recording during the holidays so we can finally (finally!) have a CD to sell by March. We're planning on playing out (a lot) in the next few months. We hope to see you in the crowd.