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Having laid down my tracks, it's time to finish off the editing. Sahara was straightforwards, and there wasn't anything to do with Red. Autobahn took quite a bit of time to work through, mostly because of the flute track. Rob laid down about five takes, but there were quite a few differences between each one. Scott and I had to go all of the takes, cutting and pasting the track together. Waiting took a lot of time, though. We had something like twenty or so edits for the guitar tracks. But, I think we're finanlly out of here.
My retake for Red Leaves was miniscule -- Brett added an extra kick that I didn't catch, so I had to go back and play a note to match it. No worries.
Waiting For Rain was a bit more involved, but still pretty straightforwards. The last time I came out here, I rerecorded one run (in the 2nd B section). After listening to it a number of times, I didn't much care for what I did there -- it was functional, but not much more. So, I worked over it again to give it a bit more life.
Sahara Dance was more of an effort. The last time I came out here, I laid a scratch track down before running out to beat the snowstorm. Listening to it this time, Scott and I decided that there was a bit of crimp with it. It was okay, but the problem was that it started off strong and then didn't go anywhere. After working with a few ideas, I hit on reintroducing Shahin's theme from earlier in the song. The solo doesn't continue to climb into higher and higher skies, but it does take a direction that should hold people's interest.
Having spent several months working on an album that has me soloing almost every single song, I have a new found respect for lead guitarists. It's hard to come up with something new to say every song -- something that isn't an awfully lot like what you said the last time.
This morning, we've knocked out about four songs -- mostly easy edits. Shahin's out in the main room now, getting ready to do his track for Waiting.
Today, we're back out at Dragonfly, working on getting the final edits and recalls for the new album. Shahin is coming out to rerecord his part for Waiting, I have to retake my solo for Sahara Dance (as well as some touch ups on Waiting and Read Leaves). Hopefully, we'll be finished in a decent timeframe, and then it's off to mastering.
To be honest, I'm getting tired of these songs. I've lived with them ever since July of last year. I've listened to seven different mixes of each of these songs, through untold number of combinations. I'm starting to get sick of them. They're good songs, but I don't know how much more I can listen to them. Once they go off to masters, I'm going to put them aside for quite some time. Maybe in a few months/years, I'll like them again, but time will tell.
Looks like things are begining to get back on track; we're going to be heading back out to DragonFly in about two weeks. Hopefully, we'll be able to knock off the edits and the recalls in one day.
12 inches of snow and 4 foot drifts at the studio. Not gonna happen today...
After we packed off Rob and Shahin, it was time for me to do my fixes. I had a number of runs to correct, mostly me foolishly playing a major pentatonic over a minor chord. Scott and I walked through the songs, and I got most of the fixes in one or two takes (after warming up).
Then we got to Brazilian Cafe. I had originally planning on redoing the solo to use minor scales instead of major scales. I worked out the minor scale runs and played it once or twice. And it sounded very dischordant. Scott and I talked about it for a bit, eventually deciding to leave the major stuff in place, as it sounded much more pleasing (even if it's wrong).
Before I got a chance to retake Sahara Dance, the snow was just too much. For those who have been out to Dragonfly, you know what the hill is like when it's dry. Icy is even more not good. If you loose traction, you're either going to be in a ditch or in a tree. So, we pulled the plug and will revisit at a later point in time.
Shahin has finished up his retakes. His playing seems a little slack today, like his heart's just not in it. It took us quite a few takes to get down the part for Waiting For Rain. After that was a key shift touch up for Chronicles and then a retake of Autobahn. I had wanted to redo a few parts in Snipe Hunting to better match Anthony's playing, but we started to run out of time with the snows closing in.
Haivng lived with the rough edits of all eight songs for the last four months, I decided that Authbahn needed something else to keep it moving. That something would be a simple melody. To that end, we brought in a flute player today. Rob Holmes came into to add to the tune. His work went pretty well; he did about five or six takes, with some small course corrections as we went along (mostly due to my poor attempt at charting rather than his playing). Now, we're going to move on to the guitar recalls.
Today, I headed back out to Dragonfly to finish this album, this seemingly never ending album. We have a few things that we need to get done with this session:
I was hoping to track my bass fixes today, but editing took forever. In particular, we had to fix some rhythmic things in Sahara Dance, and they were darn tricky to track down. But we finally got them to a happy place.
Tomorrow, we start the recording in earnest.
Tonight, I headed out to Night Sky Studios to get Anthony down for Snipe Hunting. I was looking forward to this for a while for two reasons -- (1) I like Anthony's playing and I'm thrilled to have him on the album and (2) there are sections of this tune that I've never known what to play, so I'm interested in hearing his take on things.
Man, what a difference it makes to work with a pro. The entire song (with an alternate take or two) done in forty-two minutes. And it's just sick. To be honest, I don't know if I will be able to play his version of it when we go out live, but I'll definitely make the effort.
We were only at it for a few hours today. For the most part, we were just tweaking the songs here and there (fixing a few drum fills, lining up parts a wee bit better). That's the good news. On the not-so-good news part, we are probably going to be postponing the album until early next year.
Autobahn is a strong tune, but it needs a more clearly defined melody. Waiting needs the guitar line done again from scratch. About 50% of my runs are out of key (mostly major penatonics against a minor key). So, we need to do quite a bit more before it's ready to go out the door.
We've worked over Robert Frost for about the last two hours. To be honest, neither one of us have any idea if this song is done or not. To me, this is the weakest tune on the album. There's not as much there there as needs be. But, the clock on the wall says this is a good mix.
We didn't around to Snipe Hunting, though. So, it looks like I'm going to be coming back to the studio on Friday to finish things out.
It's got a few performance problems (mostly mine, as it turns out), but this one is probably one of the better songs on the album with regards to self policiing dynamics and such. In any case, it's done, and with a minimum of edits.
It's only taken about two hours, but I think that we're done with Sahara Dance. The hardest part about this mix was the guitar lines -- we had a few different takes to pick from, none of which really agreed with each other. So, in the end, we built the rhythm track out of other parts (cut/paste) and then took the lead line and ran it through a pitch shifter to give it a more Middle Eastern feel.
I think that we're as done as we're going to be on Waiting. Jeez, if there wasn't a lot of cleaning up that had to happen. First, the drums and guitar are rather varied in their rhythmic placements. Then, there's the small detail that there are two guitar tracks which are 85% the same. There's just the small wrinkle that a good run is in take 1 but not in take 2. And vice versa. The two tracks do sound pretty good together, so we're going to leave them both in (sort of a natural delay effect).
We also couldn't use most of the percussion tracks that we had. There was too much ambient noise for it to survive. Fro a bit, I thought that we might be able to use the noise as an effect (kind of a wind-ish sound), but there was too much human noise (clothes rustling, bleed over from the headphones) for us to get away with that.
After listening to the reference mixes last night, we have quite a few changes to make. The chords in Autobahn are too cutting; they need tobe brought back. Brazilian needs some volume changes and the ending chords may require a retake. Soho only has two changes -- the ending trill on the bass solo needs more oomph and there's a snare hit that's completely not there.
We've done a fair amount of tweaking and balancing with the tune, but I think that Autobahn is nearing completion. As it turns out, it's a pretty bass heavy tune. There's not a lot of guitar in the song to carry the melody, so I'm pretty much the show. That probably needs to be changed (although you might say it's a wee bit on the late side for that observation), but we'll do that at a later date.
The main thing for Soho was cleaning up the various guitar tracks and tweaking the volume levels of the bass. This was mostly because Scott had worked some editing on the track last month. I'm not sure if we're all the way done, but were going to move on for now.
So, maybe the best time to work on the slowest song of the album is not immediately after eating a truckload of sushi. Rather than risking nacrolepsy, we're going to move on to Soho.
We've spent the most time on Brazilian so far, but that's with good reason. Of all the tunes on the album, Brazilian and Waiting are probably the most commerically accessible. So, it makes sense to spend more time on them. Now, we'll get some of the easier ones out of the way, like Robert Frost and Soho.
We've added a bit of verb to the bass to soften it up in the mix, and then we plowed through the percussion parts (almost all of the shaker has fallen to the wayside, and a lot of the cabasa had to be doctored). We're pretty much done with the first track (and it only took four hours! Yippee!). Time to break for food.
We're working on final run through with Brazilian. The guitars have some delay and verb on them, and they sound good and alive. The drums are pretty good; the room's natural feel comes through. The bass, on the other hand, is pretty flat. It almost sounds like we're in different rooms.
After a month off, we're back in the studio to do the mixdown and mastering. We're going to start off with Brazilian, working on getting the EQs set, the right effects applied to the right instrument at the right time and (of course) the ever-so-humbling efforts of making all the notes line up in time.
As it turns out, the bass tracks weren't as far off as we had first feared. Scott pulled out AutoTune and ran it across my tracks. There were more than a few notes that were off by a semitone or two (man, is that ever humbling), but we decided that the notes were either in the realm of things we can live with or they were something that we'll just AutoTune back into place.
So, that wraps it up for the recording phase of the project. Mixing to follow in about a month or so.
Brett's just finished the hand percussion tracks -- we did Brazilian, Autobahn and the intro to Waiting For Rain. That's the good news. The bad news is that Scott wandered in during the recording of Autobahn looked at me and said, "I think that the E string is flat on this take." That's the good thing about fresh ears. In any case, I get to do two parts of the tune all over again.
After we had all finished what we were going to do, we sat through and fine tooth combed all eight of the songs, one after the other, looking for anything that was so unacceptable it would require immediate attention. Two more bass punches surfaced, as well as quite a few cut and pastes. But, for better or worse, the songs are done. We're going to start to work on the hand percussion for a few tunes (Autobahn, Brazilian Cafe and Waiting For Rain).
Shahin has made his round of patches and I found two more boo-boos, and now we're going to go over the very rough mixes and determine if there is anything else that we just can't stand to have in the songs.
I'm really starting to not like these tunes anymore.
After we finished editing Waiting, Shahin left to take a break and grab lunch. I went back and finished all my punches and corrections, so I'm done with bass tracks for this album, for better or worse.
We've finished tracking the guitar line for Waiting; now it's time to edit it together. We are going to keep the intro from last month and paste in the rest of the parts all around the new track.
Shahin has finished up his takes on Soho, and now we're retracking Waiting For Rain. When I was going through the roughs last night, there were enough problems with it to justify a complete retake. We're having some issues with getting good takes down, so we're going to try breaking the part into rhythm and melody, tracking each seperately.
Since we had a short day yesterday, we tried to get an early start of things today. I got a copy of all the rough mixes last night and spent about an hour or two going over them, making notes of the parts that need work.
This morning, Pedro and I worked on cleaning up the bassline for Brazilian; there are still one or two futzes in it, but I can live with the end result.
Shahin's out in the main room right now, working on getting the rhythm tracks for Soho. Once we get this, we'll move onto the melody line.
Shahin had just finished laying down his final take of Snipe and he was walking back into the control room to hear how the rough cut sounds when the power went out. Actually, the entire section of Haymarket lost power for some godforsaken reason. We hung around for a bit, trading stories and talking about what to do next before finally calling it for the day.
The good news is that I will be on time to make my pickup at DCA. The bad news is that tomorrow is going to be rather long day.
Snipe Hunting has been going well. Shahin's energy is back, and we've got some pretty good takes. There's a small problem with the first B section, and I understand why it's there. Shahin's having problems playing the chords strongly and then moving to where the fills are. So, now we're just going to get the chords by themselves and then paste them together in post.
Shahin is out in the main room working on Soho. It's not going as easily as any of us had expected. In fact, after about a dozen takes, we only have about half of a take that is usable. For some reason, the energy just isn't there.
So, rather than continuing to try and beat a dead horse, we're going to move on to Snipe.
Red Leaves is pretty much in the can. Shahin is trying to do a hyper quick run for the intro of the tune, but it's looking like it's just not going to happen.
-- Update --
Nope, spoke too soon. It took a more than one or two tries, but Shahin finally got all three of the intro runs down.
The melody piece was mostly a two taker. What's been taking the most time with the guitar tracks this time around are the syncopatied stops at the end, as well as the final guitar run. We did about fifteen takes of the outro stops and maybe a dozen of the final run, but the result sounds pretty good.
Shahin's completed his rhythm track for Brazilian. We switched through different guitars two or three times before we found the one with the best bite. The main guitar that Shahin uses for the melody is a warmer, darker sounding guitar, so Scott and I talked about using a lighter guitar that has more high end for the rhythm tracks. Now, we're going to try and get the lead track solidified.
After a decent night's sleep, we're going to try and get the guitar tracks today. Last night, Shahin got a first try at the melody line for Brazilian, so we're going to try and finish that out, add some rhythm chording and maybe put a small harmony line in the second A section.
I pretty much remembered most of it. Which is a relief, as it was only about four weeks ago that I got down on disk. No punches this time, just three takes with cut and pastes as needed. Now Shahin's up on deck. I think he's going to start off with Brazilian.
We pretty much two taked Autobahn. So now I have to see if I can remember how to play the part that I did a scant month ago.
Brett has pulled Robert Frost out in two takes and two punches, so it's on to Rain.
And there's a snag. While listening to Brett trying to redo his part on Autobahn, I noticed that all three of us get way, way off the click around measure #116. We get off so much that I'm going to scrap that back half of the song for all three of us -- so we all get to redo that part.
While this sucks, at least we caught it now, rather than during the mixdown. Rather than stopping to wire all of us up, we're going to press on with the drum lines. I think that Robert Frost is up now.
We've decided to retrack the drum lines for the other three songs from last month. Brett's in the room right now working on his part right now.
Sorry that I haven't been reporting this morning, but I've been doing my tracks all day today. Soho went pretty easily -- it's an easy song that I've played quite a few times, and I knocked it off in about five or six takes (hey, it takes me a few times to warm up), with maybe three or four punch-ins.
Brazilian was quite a bit harder. The main sections I nailed pretty much on the first try, but it was all the fills and the syncopatied breaks with the drum kit that was a bit challenging. I think that one was about 8 takes and a half dozen punches.
Red Leaves was every bit the abyssmal mess I expected it to be. Two freaking hours on it -- something like 25 takes. Basically, the way I have been playing the A section live was to thump a bit and then do about 5 plucks right in a row. I've been able to get away with it live because the whole thing goes by so quickly that no one really notices. No such luck with a recording -- all the glaring deficiencies are there for everyone to hear.
So, we took several takes with me trying to get the pluck in, and then I decided to simplify the line. Pedro suggested changing the second quarter of the section, and then I worked on a new first quarter. It's a much simplier line, and now it allows the song to breathe better. It freaking better, after that many tries.
No good for my ego, you have to understand.
We only have thirty minutes left on the day, so we are going to try and get a run through of Shahin on Snipe Hunting. We've been talking about getting another bass player to guest on this tune, so if we get Brett's and Shahin's pieces down, then we as group will be finished with this piece. We don't have much chance of this, but we can take a stab at it.
-- Update --
The one time through didn't really work, so we're going to call it for the evening.
When I went through the rough mix of last month's work, the part most in need of work was the drum line for Sahara Dance -- there are a few parts where the line gets a wee bit sloppy or a flam or two is a bit hesitant. Brett's out in the main room right now, working on nailing the retake.
-- Update --
On the second try, we got a good take that only needed one punch and one cut and paste.
All in all, this has been a very good drum day.
In what has to be record time for us, all of the drum tracks for the new songs are complete. I think we're going to take a short break and then try to retrack one or two of the tunes from last month.
We've taken something like ten to fifteen takes, and none of them are working all that well. One of the little details about this composition is that the pace changes about four times (104 bpm to 120 to 114 and back to 120). Throw in the timeliness issues that we had experienced before, and the idea of trying to play to a varing click was probably too much to try to swing. So, we work with the click for the first 15 measures and then wing it from there on out.
The downside of this approach is that we have to get the complete take right. We can't cut and paste from another section, since there is virtually no chance of the other take being at the exact same tempo and phrasing. So, this adds a fair amount of pressure to each performance.
We went through the song about ten or fourteen times, each time getting a little more stressed. This is a hard enough song all on it's own -- it's easily the most complex tune we have on the list. To say it's been a challenge doesn't quite cover the bases.
Right now, I'm listening to the drum tracks for Brazilian Cafe. This is one of our more syncopatied tunes (along with Red Leaves). As far as I can tell, the very first take that we did was the best one. Each one has had it's problems ever since that one, so this is probably the one that we are going to use.
And we've now finished the percussion track for Snipe Hunting. It only took a few takes. We had a couple of whiffs, but the fifth take was almost a completely perfect one from Brett. We just took the intro piece from the 8th run and pasted into the start, and that one's in the can.
It's been about five takes, but I think that we have a pretty workable drumline to Soho. The last of the bunch feels to best, but there's a itsy-bitsy problem with the final drum break. Brett's out in the room, trying to punch in the part.
To be honest, I've been pleasantly surprised with Brett's improvement. We're still wandering a bit off the click, but it never strays far and never for long. The overall feel is much better than the last time around.
This happened the last time as well. Both of the engineers are out in the main room, working with Brett on his kit and his sound. The previous time we were out here, both Scott and Pedro offered some advice and tutelage to Brett. For the most part, he sort of listened, but didn't change all that much. I think his response was to downplay their comments on the grounds that a) Brett's not a pro and b) they don't really know this kind of music anyway.
To a degree, I can understand this -- when studying with Anthony on Tuesday, I figured out that my right hand articulation isn't sufficiently clean. Instead, I've been using hammer ons as a crutch to get around my speed issues. I know that I should work on this, but I decided not to do so with a studio date just around the corner. Once we're done here, I'm going to spend a lot of time on my right hand, but I don't want to risk worsening my already paltry playing when it's been good enough to get me here.
Having said that, though, I think it's a bit of waste to dismiss their comments. Regardless of their knowledge with this particular genre, comments about drum kit setup, timeliness and general musicianship really shouldn't be discounted. These guys are pretty good at what they do -- particularly Scott. It's my thought to drain as much knowledge from these guys as I can (without being a jerk about it) while I'm here.
I'm just hoping things will be better this time around.
While Brett and Shahin were setting up Brett's kit, I've been taking a listen to the rough mixes of the last time we were here. On first blush, it's better than I had been expecting -- I have about a half a page of corrections that need to be made, half a page of editting/mixing changes that are needed and a quarter page of whining about the performances. Hopefully, we'll have some spare time on this go 'round, and we can try to fix some of the performances. Otherwise, we're going to have to do call backs during the mixdown.
To finish out this round of time in the studio, Brett is in the main room working on a congo piece for Autobahn. Hopefully, it will help add some drive and energy to the tune.
One of the things uncovered during Shahin's tracking was a problem with my solo during Sahara Dance. From 9-12 (of a 16 bar solo), I went fairly low on the neck -- like in the low G range (3 fret, E string). It sounded decent enough when I was by myself and Shahin's scratch track was way in the background. However, once Shahin's real take entered in the mix, the low stuff during my solo really muddied the waters.
I went back and punched in the last half of the solo (since 13-16 built on 9-12). To tell the truth, the newer version of the solo is better than what I had before. Previously, I was starting to run out of ideas, and I was going with a more or less Western sounding solo. This time, it has a significantly more Middle Eastern feel to it. All in all, I'm much more satisified with the solo.
We've had a few more patches and punches to Shahin's stuff. Part of Robert Frost needed some more melody, and a segment of Autobahn need some rhythmic changes. Both of the songs should be stronger now, though.
In my absence, Shahin and Pedro have almost finished the other three tunes. They're working on finishing Sahara Dance right now. According to Pedro, Autobahn and Robert Frost were one takes. We'll need to go back over them and make sure that everything is okay, and then get another take regardless.
The idea here is (basically) more is better. Since we're not pressed for time (Shahin the machine strikes again!), I'd rather have more available options for when we go to editing. No one is completely perfect and having at least two different F# notes to pick from can only be a good thing.
Shahin has been out in the main room for about an hour, working on his tracks (the idea being to play in the same room as the drums with the same ambiance). He's gone through Rain a few times, and now we're working on some effects pieces (playing the C section with a bit more aggression to up the energy and that sort of thing). I have to leave to attend a business meeting (day job and all), but I'll be returning later to see how things are going.
After two hours, five takes (the first two didn't really count -- I was still waking up) and six punches (three fretted notes and three different segments in the solo), I'm finally done. I'm still not all that thrilled with my solo in Sahara, but I can live with it.
"Living with it" has been one of the guiding principles of this studio session. This is not a release for a major album or a setup for label interest. So, perfection is not required. We're just trying to get it good enough and clean enough to release it to the public without having to hide our faces.
After I finally finished tracking Robert Frost, Scott came back in and listened to the drums and bass together. When we laid down the drum track this morning, there were a few places where the track gets on and off the click. At the time, we acknowledged it, and then moved on, thinking that it was good enough.
Unfortunately, marrying the existing drum track with the new bass track made the anomolies in the drum line stand out. So, Brett got back behind the kit and started to play, listening to both the click and my track in his cans. It's taken a bit of time, but I think the drum part is much stronger than the previous one, more in line with the rest of the tune.
I've finally finished Autobahn -- I got a pretty decent finish to the solo -- and then it was time to move on to Robert Frost (the idea being that I could knock it out relatively quickly, take a stab at Sahara and then pick up whatever was left over in the morning). That was the original plan. However, Robert took a bit longer than I had expected.
The way I'm being recorded this time (at least, this is the way that seems to work best) is that I play the song three times: the first time, I'm remembering how to play all the parts, the second time, I'm getting the feel down, and the third time is about 90% right. After that, we go back and clean up as needed (working on fills, cleaning up some fret buzz, that sort of thing).
The crimp in the plan comes with the way I'm playing Frost. It's a pretty straight ahead, mainstream (almost pop-ish) tune for about the first ninety seconds or so. Then, I start arpeggiating the chords and pretty much keep that up for the rest of the tune. The consequence of that is the sustaining tones of the chords ring through the changes, making punching in and out rather challenging. In other words, I ended up playing the same few parts over and over.
I've been working on Autobahn for about the last hour. It only took about nine punches, and even with that, I can hear that I need to redo the solo piece (something about playing a major scale in a minor key).
We had a little extra time with Shahin here, so we took a few stabs at the drum tracks for Soho. While I think that we have better versions in us (and we'll probably redo it later), but at least it's on tape as scratch.
It took me three tries and about a half a dozen punches (mostly fills -- not the fill itself, but trying to catch the low F after being high on the neck and making it there strong on the downbeat. I was having some issues), but my part of Waiting For Rain is done. There are some parts that I'm less than thrilled with, but I think it's pretty good.
Shahin's here now, so we're going to go over the recordings we made this morning without him and see how they are or are not going to work.
On my way out to the studio, Shahin rings me up and says that he's going to be a bit late. What was originally expected to be a half hour has turned into (so far) three hours. So, Brett and I have been working, trying to do our best.
And, as things have gone, we have laid the drum tracks for Robert Frost and Sahara Dance. Sahara was particularly hard -- there's so many open spaces where Shahin is soloing for twenty-some odd bars, and it's really easy to get lost. But we eventually got it down.
I think that now we're going to start to lay down some bass tracks on top of the drums stuff we already have.
Man, what a day. First, I was up until 3am or so for the past two days, writing out charts (not for us, but for the engineers. It's hard to keep track of where you are in a song when there isn't any words). Then, I had to get up at 0 dark thirty to make it out to the studio on time. Couple that with a four hour load in/set up window, and a long day is had for all.
I think tomorrow will go better. All three of us will have more sleep, everything will be set up already, and we should have the full ten hours open for work.
The drum track(s) for Autobahn are each about 95%, but none are completely there. So, it's another call for the wizard, and I think we're going to be good with it.
We gone though Autobahn about half a dozen times, and things are almost there. We are consistently rushing the tail of the song ahead of the click track. After we take an earful, we'll decide if another try (or ten) is in order.
We've listened to the drum tracks of Waiting, and it's pretty good. Scott wizarded one section of the piece, and we're good to go. Now, we're moving on to Autobahn.
And we're done with the drum tracks for Waiting For Rain. We've added a new part in the middle (the idea was to break up the sameness of the tune as it exists). While this will hopefully make things go better, it has the side effect of causing Brett to rewrite his drum tracks in the studio. There were some moments of frustration, but we've got a good solid foundation upon which both Shahin and myself can build.
Well, after rebuilding a drum or two, we're still occasionally getting a hint of metal. Hopefully, it will be buried in the mix and no one will notice.
I think it's time to break for lunch.
We got it! It's a loose screw on the inside of the tom. Now, all we have to do is take the drum apart...
After a few hours, we've gotten the drums set up and tuned. Now, we're starting to work on level checks.
As we're working on the low tom, Scott is hearing a faint rattle coming from the drum. We're trying to isolate where it's coming from, but so far not much luck.
So, we're out at the studio, working on loading in and setting up. This is always the part that most frustrates me, so, of course, it's the one of the more crucial stages.
Namely, we are in the midst of setting up the drum kit and configuring the mics. It's so important to get the right placement, but it just takes hours. Hours that cost money, might I add.
The good news is that Brett is working closely with Scott on tuning and set up. Scott has a mountain of experience in general and even more with drums. Hopefully, there's some good pointers being traded out there.
So, in about two weeks, we are going to go into the studio to record. It's either going to be an EP or an LP, we haven't quite decided how deep our pocketbooks are as of right now. But more to come on this soon.
After a long day at work (nothing quite like three or four interviews to just make the day fly by), I headed back out to the studio for today's vocal work. Nick and Mike were going out at noon to finish up the guitar tracks from the night before, and then switch over to vocals.
As I walked in, Nick was walking around the control room, singing to himself as the music tracks played in the background. He would go through a verse and a chorus, then start over. So it would seem that the guitar parts were done and now they were getting ready to do the vocal tracks.
Mike was on the couch, and he let me know that the three of them had been working on the lyrics and melody pretty much all day, to the exclusion of the guitar parts. Scott did make a few edits on the supporting track (evening out the snare hits, modifying my sixteenth notes in the chorus to use a segment I had laid down with a more even attack).
I really couldn't hear what Nick was singing all that well for the first part of the night; the backing music was up fairly loud and he was singing mostly to himself and Scott. After a while, I was able to pick out what he was doing, and I think that it works pretty well with the song. As I usually do with the vocal line in these situations, I tried to find harmonies that would work for the song (both the placement of the notes as well as the pitches themselves).
After a few more rounds of practices and tweaking the line, we broke for dinner. I had grabbed some food on my way in, so we sat around the couch, munching on burgers and talking shop. Scott was telling us stories about some of his experiences on the road, as well as some of what his clients have been through (both in the studio and afterwards).
Back to the singing, though. Nick practiced it a few more times. It was getting kind of late, so the decision was made to scrap trying to lay down the vocal track for keeps; rather, Nick went into the booth, warmed up a bit, and then put a scratch vocal to tape (or, to disk, I suppose I should say for accuracy).
We'll be heading back to the studio in a few weeks to round out the vocals as well as tweak any instruments still needed. Scott is getting married this weekend (congratulations again, Scott!), so any recording is going to have to wait until he gets back (for obvious reasons).