Why did you decide to make this recording

Julia: At concerts people always ask which CD is like what they have heard us perform. This makes it really easy to explain! All these tracks were recorded live at concerts.

Why did it take two years to get all the tracks recorded?

Fred: Well, we don't travel with a recording engineer. I just set up the recording machine and it runs unattended, so if I have the levels set too high and there is an overload the track is no good.

Julia: Or if a cord isn't plugged in, or there's feedback, or babies crying, or motorcycles, whatever, we have to discard the recording, even if the performance is good.

Fred: You can actually hear rain on the street on one of the tracks - I forget which one. We decided it wasn't so distracting as to have to throw that one out.

What do you use for a recording machine?

Fred: I have a Roland VS-880. It's practically an antique. I think I got it in 1996. I made some special patch cords and I tap into the insert jacks of our amplifier and take four dry tracks. The VS-880 will only do four at one time.

What's special about these cords?

Fred: They are regular 1/4 inch phone plugs on one end and TRS plugs on the other. I soldered a jump-wire between the tip and sleeve so that the signal gets split.

You said the signal is dry?

Fred: Yes, the insert bypasses any reverb or EQ we might be using for the performance. There is a little bit of "room" in the vocal tracks because of the mics we use.

Julia: Having the different cuts recorded in different rooms made it tricky to get the presence consistent from track to track. We had to add some reverb to bring them together.

What do you use for mics? Fred: We use ATM 31-A condenser mics. We like the big envelope.

Julia: I especially don't like a harp right in my face. It also gets in the way of playing the harp.

Fred: I have a "Pick Up The World" contact pickup in the guitar which I run through an LR Baggs active DI. Julia's harp has a Fishman contact mic which we run through a Fishman pro-EQ Platinum DI. We have it set so the harp sounds very natural.

What about the other instruments? Fred; The violin on this CD was made in 1917 by Wurlitzer. It has a Navy contract sticker inside which says it's a first violin. My guitar is a custom 12-string built by Nick Apollonio in 2001. The fingerboard is wider than normal so I can do some classical-esque finger picking. The pennywhistle is a brass Burke in the key of D.
Julia: Fred built my harp about seven years ago. He did the fancy inlay but forgot to put a date on the instrument. The box is quite large for a harp this size, so it has a big sound.

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