Our third day of recording was a very busy day! It was the last day we had scheduled in the studio last week and it was our goal to finish recording all the guitar, cello, bass, and vocal parts for our remaining eight songs. We started with all of Devin's parts at 10:30 in the morning. We had to take a break at two for a studio staff change and lunch. Then I recorded all of my parts, followed by Rock and Nate. We didn't quite have enough time to finish recording all of Rock's vocal parts, so we'll have to go back for one more day of vocal recording this upcoming week. After that it will be time for the mixing and mastering process and then CD release. Yay!!
Devin recording the vocals to Dagger.
Jon, our sound engineer.
Rock hanging out while I record cello parts.
James!
Me getting ready to record my part to Across War Torn Lands while Rock pretends to play the cello Lol.
Hmm...looks like we've moved in.
Sara, Nate's wife, filming while Rock records vocals.
Gabby, James' wife, checking facebook. I like the awesome motion blur!
Nate, waiting to play his bass parts.
I'm not sure which song Rock is recording here.
Sara!
It's finally Nate's turn!
James flexing his crazy drummer muscles.
Here's a short preview of some of the clips from our upcoming recording video and recording bloopers video. Enjoy!
Wednesday was our second day of recording and it was quite a day! We started at noon and ended at 10:30. When we got to the studio, our first task was to finish drum tracking on Answers, Found, Eleanor Rigby, Across War Torn Lands, and Keygripped. Tracking drums takes a lot longer than most people would think. They are not really an instrument where the sound engineer can just pick a particular part of the track and have the drummer re-play that part where the kick drum wasn't quite on rhythm. It never quite sounds right that way, no matter how much editing the sound engineer might do later. If James makes a mistake, we have to play the entire track again, so recording the drum part to five songs takes a considerable amount of time. We were able to finish tracking the rest of the 10 drum parts in about three hours. After this, Jon and his intern had to take down all the drum mics and get ready to mic all the stringed instruments and vocals so we went to lunch. We went to the Chuckbox on University and Mill. I had this:
It's called the Tijuana Torpedo. Those are green chilis. Mmmmmmmmmm.
When we got back to the studio, Jon and his intern put mics on all of our cabs and we got started recording.
Everyone played their instrument inside the sound booth while their amps were miked in the large room so no sounds of breathing, walking, coughing, etc. came through the microphone.
Vocals! Seen through the glass in the sound booth.
Nate recording his part for harvesting habits.
James "eating the microphone," although I'm not sure why...lol
James playing back a drum track so we can hear if there are any mistakes.
The analog gear rack. Pretty cool. Jon will run our tracks through this gear during mixing and mastering.
The owner of the studio is a member of the Gin Blossoms. He has skateboards displayed all over the walls of the studio.
Hmmm...Lol
The computer.
James playing back some drum tracks.
Rocking out to Across War Torn Lands!!
Read my next blog to hear about day three! More pictures and video to come!
Last night we had our first session of recording. Wohooo!! Normally, recording is not my favorite thing in the world for two reasons: The Air Conditioning Curse and Endless Repetition.
Air Conditioning:
The story behind this is that I have a curse. Every time I record, the air conditioning is broken or the person I'm recording with is crazy and insists on turning it off the entire time. Now, I understand that in certain studio situations you need to turn the air conditioning off when you're actually recording. The sound of the air can actually come through and blah, blah, blah. But we live in Arizona. When you're done recording, TURN THE AIR ON!!! I just love playing the cello when my fingers are covered in sweat and sliding all over the place so I can't stay in tune. It's awesome.
Endless Repetition:
Now I have no problem with practicing. I could practice the same piece of music over and over again for hours. It's stressed out recording repetition that I hate. When you record, it's nearly impossible to be relaxed. All you can really think about the whole time is that if you make even one single tiny mistake, even just a squeak or scratchy sound, your OCD perfectionist self is going to require you to play it again. If not, the people in the booth will. If you have to play it again, time will tick away on the clock and that's more money down the drain. AAAGHH!!
Last night luckily, wasn't bad. We had air conditioning. In fact, there were times when I was cold! I recorded my part in the sound booth and my band members were playing in the main room, which was warmer, but over all it was definitely tolerable. The only person who had to experience stressed out repetition last night was James. We were actually tracking drum parts last night, but we were all playing so that James could have the proper cues to drum to and so that we could use the recording later as a scratch track. His drums sounded great! The recording engineer really knew how to mic them perfectly and had great recording equipment. Today, our plan is to finish tracking drum parts (we finished four songs yesterday) and start recording the other instruments and vocals. Hopefully, it will go as smoothly as last night did. I'll probably have to record my cello parts today though, so here comes the stressed out repetition! ;)
This is a video about the studio we're recording at.
Check back for updates about today's recording session! Pictures and videos to come!
