Music Pro Media: Brent Mason - Recording Guitar DVD

Having already reviewed a couple of Music PRO Media DVD’s in the past (see below for links) I already knew that this is a company that is passionate about guitar and creates interesting DVD’s that are totally different to anything else on the market. Brent Mason – Recording Guitar is not an instructional guitar DVD where you will learn about scales and harmony it is an in-depth look into the process of recording guitar tracks from Brent and what gear was used and it even includes a PDF booklet with all the TAB for the performances on the DVD.

The DVD is broken up into 3 main sections, the first section jumps straight into a song written by Brent Mason called Rain and you get to see Brent layering all the various guitar parts for this song and see how they all mesh together, this includes using different guitars for different textures such as his Telecaster, Les Paul, 12 String PRS and gorgeous PRS Dave Grissom goldtop. In this song Brent plays some slide parts too including a double tracked harmony solo, you can follow along in the tab with the final mix that is also included and there’s also a stripped down play along version included too which with all of the electric guitar parts removed. It is a great way to see how to create rich, textured recordings using multiple layers with different tones, effects and phrases.

Part 2 of the DVD is a look at Brent Mason’s gear from his array of Fender, Gibson and PRS guitars to his multi-amp setup and also a look at all of the effects on his pedalboard. Brent explains how each pedal is used and gives examples of how they affect the sound, he also does this with his guitar and amps so you can see the difference each piece of the puzzle makes to his tone.

Part 3 is another breakdown of a Brent Mason song called ‘Burn That Six Strings Down’ and it includes a really cool outro solo of which Brent does 4 different versions and each of these are included in the TAB pdf, just beware you might want to warm up for a couple of hours before attempting this kind of fast country Chicken Pickin’! Once again with this song Brent layers multiple tracks with different feels, tones and effects such as Tremelo. You can see how some parts are the main body of the music driving it along, some parts are just to embellish in certain parts of the song.

In between all of this great material are interviews with Brent about how he became a session guitar player and how to work with producers. Brent has played on a lot of tracks over the years and has extensive experience, just check out his Bio (http://www.brentmason.com/bio2.html) for a list of some of the music he has contributed to. While you might not be a country music fan per se it doesn’t mean that you won’t get anything out of this DVD, this DVD shows you how to think beyond simple rhythm parts to make professional sounding recordings and is well worth the $39.95 asking price.

To purchase this DVD check out the Music Pro Media website – http://musicpromedia.com/brentmasoninfo.html

Music Pro Media: Brent Mason - Recording Guitar DVD