Sing, baby! Sing!

Since my last check in, I've made a lot of progress (finally) on the vocals. The following songs are in the can, ready for drums and the final mix:

• "A Typical Wednesday"
• "Falling Apart At The Seams"
• "Raindrops Falling Down"
• "Girl"
• "While I Was Gone"

These tunes represent an average of five vocal performances per tune (lead vocal, some doubling leads, and up to three-part backing vocals). I had a good night last week where I actually got almost three entire tunes in the can in about five hours before my voice gave out.

All the vocals are being done through a Berhinger B1 condenser mic set at cardiod and prerouted through a Mackie board where compression and limiting are added, then into ProTools where additional compression and limiting are added. It's sounding rather nice!

Started working on "Hole In My Heart" tonight after I finished "While I Was Gone", but my voice started to give, so I hung it up.

Five in the can - I'm halfway home!

Cheers!

Vocals - "A Typical Wednesday"

Well I did finally get the vocals started on the Scotch 45 session tonight. Screw the end of the construction around the studio - it was time to sing. I started on "A Typical Wednesday", which is a fairly brief song, with a bit of a Beatles "Getting Better" vibe to it. The lead vocal went down with only a couple patches and then I built up a double-track for the choruses and finally four tracks of backing vocals that come in on the bridge from Chorus to verse. It took about an hour and a half to track.

I started in on "Falling Apart At The Seams" but the lead vocal is kind of precise and I'm not hearing it all that well right now, so I stepped away and will pick it up tomorrow night.

I am really going to try and get these vocals done in short order while my voice is pretty strong, so I plan on singing for the next two nights and seeing what damage I can do!

Cheers! - Jer

Session news - guitars and delays!

Good news and bad news on the Scotch 45 front:

The good news is that the guitar work appears to be in the can. I listened to Aaron's work again (which KILLS), and added my own touches to the balance of songs, and after going over them and over them, I have to believe the guitar work is in the can! I'm sure I'll find a little something more to do on them after some time away, but perhaps not - in which case the end of the road is well in sight.

I was planning on hitting the vocals this week (and may still get to them), however, events are converging to push them out a little later than planned. Specifically, there is a road construction project going on just a couple blocks from the studio. Due to the project, traffic is being diverted right to the studio door 24/7 for the next week. The roar of jake-brakes, the rumble of busses, the thump of hip hop from over-amped kids in under-amped cars, all make for a poor atmosphere to try and get vocal tracks done - even at this hour of the day (830pm). Since the project is due to be completed in a week, I think its best just to take some time off and chill, enjoy the summer to come, and play with the dogs.

Learning new stuff on the ukelele is also fun (my grandfather's 1929 Hollywood).

Cheers - Jer

Session update - Aaron rocks four tunes!

Aaron Taylor visited the Club studios in south Seattle yesterday and added some rockin' guitar work to "Gone", "Hole in my Heart", "Reminders of You" and another tune I can't remember the title of in a six-hour session. Always a joy to work with and despite a hand injury that had him inventing new fingering for some parts that wouldn't strain the Ace bandage he sported, Aaron was focused and inspired as he ripped through the parts. Despite my best attempts to influence everything he was playing, the parts sound great! Thanks, Aaron! We took a break for some great teriyaki, courtesy of Yum Yum and ended the evening both fat and happy.

Yes, it's late

When I started the Scotch 45 sessions, the intention was a sort of "instant karma" approach, where things would get decided and get done quickly. Unfortunately, the calendar is no respecter of such plans. Here it is, almost a month after I intended having the session shipped to iTunes, and I'm still missing the guitar work, vocal work and mixing work.

When John Lennon recorded "instant karma", I have to remember that he had a band, the whole engineering team at Parlophone/EMI/Apple and a mainline into the manufacturing process. So I guess I can give myself a little break.

I do have the guitar work scheduled now, and in the meantime, I am going to get vocals completed next week.

The good news is that the tracks sound great! And after all is said and done, isn't that what matters most?

Scotch 45 sessions report

The new sessions are motoring along. Now both keyboard and all bass parts are complete on the 10 songs. I had a great day last week where I both created and recorded five of the bass parts in a little over five hours. It helped that I had spent days in advance just getting the bass sound the way I wanted. There are those days as a musician when the mind and the skills are in harmony - when what you hear in your head you can play immediately with your hands. This was one of those days. In addition, the immediacy of the session is preserved by this rush of activity. It sounds and feels both unified and fresh.

Next up - guitars! I've decided to play most of these myself, but we'll see how it goes...Rod and Aaron are far more skilled.

Cheers until next time!

Scotch 45 sessions update

Here it is February already and I'm making fairly good progress on the Scotch 45 sessions. Tried a pass at "Shrug It Off" - a bouncy (for lack of a better term) rocker, but just wasn't feeling it, so I laid down a tune called "Falling Down" which I think is more in keeping with the feel of the session so far.

Keyboard parts are almost complete on ten songs, representing about 30 finished performances. I'm pretty happy with how things are starting to sound.

Aaron Taylor and Rod Moody are on board for guitar work, which is very exciting.

I'd like to have these sessions completed and ready for iTunes by April. I still believe it can be done!

Cheers!