Swamp Songs:
Swamp Songs is a recording studio in Lucan, Ontario, Canada with the goal of putting the fun and feel back into studio recording.

Owned and operated by Matt Weston, this home studio rivals many larger commercial facilities in room acoustics, equipment quality and variety, and experience.

The philosophy here is to have musicians do their best to get it right together, having each person feeding off each other’s performance and interacting together throughout the take.

Swamp Songs provides the best of both worlds – the feel and experience of playing music together, and the ability to fix those little mistakes that sometimes happen.

Swamp Songs provides “Sound with a feeling.”

Matt Weston of Swamp Songs answers ‘How I use my Peluso’s’:

CEMC6-SK
I love using this mic on the bottom of a snare drum, positioned about as far off to the side of the snares as you can get. It picks up plenty of snap but also gives the drum a great depth when combined with a 57 on top. It also seems to take high SPL better than a 451 down there. I hit hard and I can make a 451 bottom out; that has never happened with the Peluso. The CEMC6 makes a great cymbal mic too and I’ll often use it on the ride and/or crash cymbals if I’m doing a big setup.
I’ve also used the CEMC6 on plenty of acoustic instruments – hand drums, acoustic guitars, mandolin, etc. and it always sounds realistic and clear. These are my go-to mics for recording large ensembles (such as a concert band) when setup needs to be done quick and discretely. A pair of these provides great imaging and depth in coincident and near-coincident mic’ing techniques.

R 14 (Pair)
The R 14 is such a great sounding mic. I’ve used it on vocals, guitar cabs, drum room, violins, as a stereo pair for ensembles, the list goes on. It’s a really versatile mic and will take high end EQ boosts really smoothly, without sounding harsh or tinny. I’ve been using them on guitar cabs lately to get some really great distorted guitar sounds that are extremely full-bodied and present. The R 14 is also a great choice on harsh sounding instruments like glockenspiel or trumpet, making them fit into the mix in a much more comfortable way. Overall, it’s just a great mic to have around when you want things a little bit different than normal and it allows me to be more creative – always a good thing.

2247LE (Pair)
I bought a pair of these mics simply based on the fact that they were the closest in getting me a John Bonham-esque drum sound when used as overheads (especially in the Glyn Johns technique). Bob Breen at Canadian Audio Distributors let me try out a bunch of Peluso’s when they were new to Canada and these are the ones that got me really excited. They’re clear and present and sound fantastic on anything. They get use as drum overheads and room mics, acoustic guitar, ensemble mic’ing as an MS pair in concert halls (really cool!), and of course vocals. They also look great and clients always want to know more about them and get photos with them.

P-12
This is probably my favourite mic and is often my first choice on any lead vocal. The usual exception would be a harder rock song that is better suited by a dynamic; but if the lead is on a dynamic then the P-12 will be first choice for background vocals, giving them a different tonal quality and allowing the lead to remain distinguished. The P-12 has a lovely warm low mid response without sounding boxey, and the high end is pure and clean. It also gets a lot of use on acoustic guitar, drum room, and anything needing a clean, full sound. It usually makes singers sound better than they do in real life! For a real intimate sound I’ll put it through the LA-610 mic pre and compressor and it just sits right out front. For a more aggressive sound I’ll use an API pre and 1176 to add some grit. Either way the P-12 always sounds great and I wouldn’t be able to do a session without it!

As always, Peluso mics played a big role in the drum sound. I have switched around the way I do things since the last record though. On this one I used a 2247LE on kick outside, as well as the other 2247LE as a mono kit sound just above the kick. And the CEMC6 pair are used in cardioid as room mics. No drum samples were used on the record.