I Shall Be Released

Post date: Apr 27, 2013 2:18:2 AM

One of the most significant events of the past year was the death of Levon Helm, most famous for being part of The Band.  He was probably one of the most talented drummers ever.  There are not a lot of drummers that can sing lead vocals and drum at the same time after all!  At the Love for Levon concert, by far the most impressive song was Grace Potter singing "I Shall Be Released".  As with many songs written by Bob Dylan, a long list of artists have covered the song.  The most famous version recorded by The Band features the late Richard Manuel singing an almost impossible falsetto with nearly unprecedented raw power and emotion.

Regardless, this is an incredibly hard song to sing and this recording was only really meant to be a demo of a new tube microphone that just arrived.  The vocals are far from perfect and since the vocal track and the guitar track were recorded at the same time via a single microphone (remember.. demo), it is difficult to overdub and correct parts of the song.  However, the harmonies we managed in the last chorus make it worth listening to the whole track.

Production notes: the main track was recording using a MXL 960 tube mic.  Guitar and lead vocals were recorded simultaneously in mono.  Vocal harmonies were overdubbed with the same mic later.  The organ sound comes from KONTAKT and recorded in two parts as overdubs (part 1: chords, part 2: organ solo).  There is some light reverb applied to the vocals.  The lead vocals have been softened with transient master and an initial compressor to soften transients followed by a heavy compresser to smooth out the volume difference between the vocals and guitar.

I Shall Be Released (MP3)