“Filthy Rags” Project Finished

Posted on 14. Apr, 2015 by Tim Bushong in News

Harry and Melissa Becker are a husband and wife team who are, along with a drummer Josh and bassist Ken, known collectively as the band “Filthy Rags”. Hailing from Fort Wayne, IN, they are a working band who plays in every kind of setting you can imagine, and rocks every one of them.

This is yet another ‘hybrid’ project, with some songs recorded elsewhere and finished here, and other songs completely recorded, mixed, and mastered here. The other weird thing is that some of the previously recorded songs were played in an idiosyncratic “A-432” tuning (which made overdubs a pain!), and if you really want a mind-bending trip down conspiracy lane, just do a search—you’ll be glad when you’re finished with that little excursion.

Tracking the band "live" is my favorite method.

I first met Harry back in the mid-2000′s, when he was playing bass for the band “Lathe”. I thought then that his timing was excellent, and he really played with confidence and aggression. Hard rock and metal music absolutely need to be approached with a sense of passion and aggression, given the dramatic topics that are usually being sung about, and “Filthy Rags” has this down, I believe in most part due to Harry’s riff-centered songwriting style.

Multi-layered guitar parts provide the soundscape, and propel the music forward. Metal has always been about the mighty riff, and the punch, but without emotive, capable, and searing vocals, it’s just instrumental background (no offense to instrumental groups—you’re cool, too—I’m talking about melodic song-oriented stuff here).

"Drop just ONE MORE NOTE...!"

And this girl can sing! It’s not all that often that I get someone in here who can just belt it out on a consistent basis, but Melissa Becker is just the one. And from a whisper to a roar, too—with (listen closely, DAW users) no pitch correction. No auto-tune. No Antares, no Pitch Doctor, no Melodyne—zip, zero, nada.

Not quite sure why Shawn's kid is filtering the air...?

The rhythm guitar parts on the previously recorded material were a little fizzy-sounding for my tastes, and after EQ-ing my mouse-hand right off, I turned to an old and trusted free plug-in from Voxengo—the mighty Boogex—after a car-listen epiphany hit like a “coulda had a V-8” moment. I used it solely as a cabinet emulator, and it really enriched the existing tones.

For the guitar stuff that we recorded here, I used the combination of a Zack Wilde MXR Overdrive/Marshall 2150 combo/Peavey 4×12/MXL Ribbon/Joe Meek pre…

Old, ratty, and dependable gear

…and then for the 2^nd pass it was the 5150 head/Fender 2×12 cab

(w/Celestions)/ADK51 and Shure 57/Spirit 328. Harry liked the Marshall tone so much that he wanted exclusive rights to it! I totally understand, man—totally…