Studio Day 4

December 3rd, 2009 | By Kal

We started Studio Day 4 with the return of the piano.  We decided to re-record three piano parts that we already had from the first two days for various reasons.

Vedere, which I felt came out best this time, was recorded far to fast first time round.  I remember thinking at the time, that it was hard to take a breath between singing the lines, but with the pressure of the studio, we pushed on.  The beauty of the way we are recording material is that at each stage, not only do you get to hear the tracks, but we do as well.  A few weeks of listening to it and we decided to start from scratch.  This didn’t just mean redoing the piano, but we also had to redo the vocals, because they would be out of time with the new version.  Again they are guide vocals, but they really help when you’re adding new parts, or when you want to know what the finished song will sound like.

The other songs we started from scratch on Day 4 were All I Ever Wanted and Can’t Help Me Now.  These were re-done for another reason.  You.  One of the most frequent comments I heard was that all the first versions of our songs sounded the same, and you had a point!  How different can 6 tracks of piano and vocals sound?

Now, as you will hear on their latest versions, both songs are based around Rob’s acoustic guitar, which I feel gives them more of a rhythmic nature, if you’ll pardon the pretentious undertones of that statement!

Speaking of Can’t Help Me Now, while I may have mentioned this a lot, it really does sound different.  Give it a listen!  When I added my bassline to it on Day 4, Jim commented that it took on a Caribbean feel.  While that wasn’t my intention to start with, I kind of like it, and at least I now know that if all else fails I’ll have a career as a Calypso bassist to fall back on!

The day finished with an hour or so mixing down the tracks.  This basically means quickly sorting out each song that we had worked on so that you can hear every part, and then burning it to a CD.  Unfortunately, this also means that some parts interfere with others, or don’t mesh well, as the tracks have not been finished, but we really want your feedback on what parts you think work and which do not.

All in all, after a good nights sleep, I can say that I am proud of what we have achieved so far.  At first I might have been lulled into the idea that because we had added more and more parts to the songs, they could be compared to a finished article, but now I see the recordings for what they are – a stepping stone, that we need you to jump on and tell us what you think.  We are currently booking the next two days in the studio with Jim and between now and then, you will really be able to help us.  Like Matthew, one of the people who said that the songs sounded quite similar, your comments could drastically influence what we do next!

Studio Day 3

November 30th, 2009 | By Kal

No, you haven’t missed anything, this IS studio day 3.  Our first two days were back in October, when we put down piano tracks and guide vocals and you can find out about our exploits here and here.

Back to day 3, and it was refreshing to start off with some basslines.  We are using a method called track recording.  This means that rather than just play everything at once and record that, we record each instrument one at a time – which kind of makes sense as there are only two of us!  When a band track records songs, they would usually record the drums first, then the bass, and then the rest of the song.  Without drums, the basslines were the next best thing to get our song ideas sounding song-like.

The first song I got to add a bass part to was I Wanna Know and before long I’d worked on Island… and Something to Me.

The order of the day meant that electric guitar came next and I can report that I managed to rip a couple of solos – which is obviously the dream.

After a quick spot of lunch we were back in to the studio with an afternoon of acoustic guitar.  I don’t know how many acoustic guitars you will have seen, but for me there are two types.  The type you can plug in to an amp – ‘electro-acoustic’ – and the type that you can’t.  For these parts we each used Rob’s guitar, which is an electro-acoustic.  However, rather than plug it in – as would seem obvious to me – we went into the booth and played into a microphone.

This was the method that Rob used, for example, to record an acoustic part for All I Ever Wanted, and it added a more ‘natural’ sound.  The recordings allowed you to hear every sound coming from the guitar, not just the note, but the sliding and percussive sound of the strings.

In and out of the sound proofbooth, playing acoustic guitar, the afternoon seemed to pass very quickly, but we got a lot done.  If we are anywhere near as productive tomorrow as we were today, then we’ll certainly have some very new-sounding songs to upload for you.  As ever, I will post a blog tomorrow night telling you all how we got on.  Tomorrow we’re due to really get into Can’t Help Me Now, and we’re planning some big changes.  It might finally show what the music in the project is going to be like – constantly changing.  You’ll have to head over to the Songs section as soon as we upload the new versions, to have a listen and tell us what you think.

Anyway, speak soon, I’d better get some sleep, as we’ve got a long day ahead of us, tomorrow!

Update: Back to the studio on Monday

November 28th, 2009 | By Kal

I’ve just got home from Rob’s house where we spent the whole day (from about 8.45am!) rehearsing ahead of our return to the studio on Monday.

It must have been the pressure of having a deadline, but we had a really productive day.  I got the bass out again (see last time here) and we worked out basslines for most of our song ideas and similarly, the strat was working over time.

In readiness for using the aforementioned instrumentation in the studio, Rob and I went to our local music shop and bought a tuner, and maybe it was my brain trying to justify how much it cost, but it all sounded a lot better after I’d used it.

What does this all mean for you? Well, when we’re finished in the studio, we’ll be uploading the latest versions of our songs as soon as we can, and you will be able to see how they’re progressing.  In rehearsals today, some of the songs sounded very different, which surprised me, and I co-wrote them!

I’ll post another blog on Monday night after our first day and let you know how we got on.  Forgive me if I’m not as eloquent as usual though as it’s all a very long and tiring process, but I can’t wait because it’s what I love to do.