Recording Week Wrap Up

Recording Day 5 went pretty smoothly with laying down the last of the tracks that I had on my agenda.  All in all, the "Beautiful Silence" tracks are sounding really good so far but of course this is only the very beginning.

I took both Thanksgiving and Friday off, more or less to just laze about the house and catch up on a few other odds and ends.   After riding my bike post the recent tune-up, I also caught up with a couple of old friends via Zoom that I hadn't talked to in awhile which was very pleasant.  I also did the usual late night video game playing with my sister which usually ends up with a slew of swear words here and there due to whomever we end up playing with at random.  Modern games are interesting and quite amazing at times but I still sort of long for the olden days of PS1 or before, if I'm completely honest. 

The weekend was mainly about ticking a few boxes on my long outstanding task list of songs.  The biggest agenda item was doing some additional recording on "The Effects of Connection", a one-off track that was originally a Defrost Nixon song that'll hopefully be mixed and released fairly soon.  It's a true B side but it's actually perfect for sending to Peele to work on, to see what he can do with it, and so on.  I also finally got the radio edit blip done for "As Evening Brings Tears", basically the cut down version for the video which is just about done and edited.  The blip was literally a blip...I think it was 3 whole seconds of audio.  I actually called the recording tracks "Guitar Glue" since it's just there to glue two other pieces of audio together where it was spliced in order to shorten the length of the song.

After that, it was time to put the microphones away, take everything down, and then move all the other junk back upstairs to the studio.  It's always a sad thing to do but I will have 2 weeks off in December so hopefully the mics will be coming out again soon, although I really plan to be doing more mixing at that time.  I'm also hoping to start blueprinting the new Jazz Machine album over Christmas break as well.  Lots of fun stuff afoot but nothing yet finished and ready to print, I'm afraid.  Hopefully soon.

Recording Week Day 3 & 4

Recording Day 3 is really easy to talk about since nothing really got accomplished whatsoever.  I had a bunch of random errands to do and so I embarked on driving around town which mainly took up the majority of the day.  I had to drop off my bike at the Trek store and then I ventured over yet again to Guitar Center for a new power cable since Focal sent me a defective cable (yeah, go figure).  While I was in the area, I decided to stop at Crumbl and check out the newest high end cookie maker.  For the record, the cookies aren't as outrageously priced as you'd think since they're the size of small cakes but I will say that they're nowhere near as good as Batch & Box.

Once I got home, it was late enough that it wasn't really worth trying to do any new song recording.  I instead opted to start tinkering with the redo of the main vocal on "Only With You", the track that's more or less holding up the "Mirror Land" EP since there's a bit of distortion on the vocal that simply bugs me every time I hear it.  In attempting to redo it, I ran into the exact same issue...unwanted distortion.  And so, this completely blew the rest of the day as I frantically did research, trying to figure out where the issue was coming from since none of my meters are showing in the red.  Grrr.

Day 4 went much better.  I actually laid down 3 more tracks from the "Beautiful Silence" album, songs that I'm calling "Silhouettes", the "Hey You" song, and then the title track of which I started late into the evening.  I finally finished around 9pm and then edited the track the next day.  I find that I play a bit better at night usually, and considering that the title track is both delicate in nature and a bit on the tricky side, I opted to just try to knock it out.  It's also considerably quieter in general at night so it seemed like a good choice in order to minimize the noise level on the recording.

I ended the evening by starting to watch an indie film called "Alex/October".  It was a painful way to end the day since the film's script and dialogue simply do not work on a believable level.  Oh well.  I guess that's how screeners go sometimes.

Recording Week Day 2

I'm not sure why I'm calling these posts "recording week..." since I won't be recording all week.  That's false advertising right there, although I think false advertising these days can't simply be called "advertising".  Okay, let's not go there right now...it's too early for that.

Day 2 was actually highly productive since I laid down 3 new songs for the "Beautiful Silence" album.  It takes about 2-3 hours per song, and that just means setting up the session in ProTools, finding the right tempo, getting the mic levels set, and then only recording the base acoustic track (usually 3-4 times) with a scratch vocal as a guide.  Doing the composition track, where you compile all the best parts into one track, takes about 30 minutes to complete.  If you're doing the math and following along, you can probably imagine how many hours go into a completed song since I'm only talking right now about the bare minimum.

These three tracks are pretty important to the album, especially "Can't Let It Go", one of my fav's of the new material.  It's a fairly simple song and there won't be much going on so getting the base acoustic part correct was highly important, both in sound and playability.  I was quite shocked to see that the track clocked in at just under 7 minutes in length!  And, here I thought it was one of the shorter songs on the album.  Go figure.  My playing so far has been pretty impressive and I've finally turned the corner of being album to play much quieter, more expressive, and so on.  I'm liking it.

I also worked on a song called "About the Time I Met You" which is one of my first real takes at trying to do something very early Floyd-ish ala the "Meddle" album.  The guitar part is so simple that I didn't know if I wanted to pursue the song at first but there's just something nice and pleasant about it.  I'm not sure it'll end up on the album since it's kind of in the wings but it's there if needed.  Either way, it'll be released at some point.

The last track I worked on has no name and I've simply been calling it "REM-ish Tune", meaning R.E.M. of the "Around the Sun" or "Automatic for the People" sort of sound.  I think I'm the only person in the entire world that likes "Around the Sun" and even the band has apparent distaste for it.  I'm not sure why because I think it's fairly wonderful except for a few small bits here and there.  Anyhow, my song just has some sort of feel to it that reminds me of those albums but I still have no idea what the song will end up being about.  Sometimes, it just remains a mystery until the end.

I finished the recording session at 11:40pm, believe it or not.  I got a late start so I simply decided to pound away into the evening, trying to stay on track.  It's also quieter in the neighborhood in the evening so I sometimes prefer recording with open mic's at that time.  I'd like to get as much of this album blueprinted as possible this week, especially since I have countless other things to work on.

My day ended with starting the screener "Fresh" that I requested a couple of weeks ago.  It started quite fun and light and turned very dark and disturbing quickly but I think I overall like it so far.  I also will admit that I like getting screeners and such from studios, and at least posing like I'm someone to be reckoned with in the film industry (even though I'm obviously not).  It's amazing what a hundred dollars membership a year will buy you.

Recording Week Day 1

Day 1 was pretty productive and went as planned, which tends to be a rarity, to be honest.  I've learned over the years that if I don't start with a bang that my entire week can quickly fizzle.  Since this week started well, I'm remaining hopeful.

Half of the day was really concentrated on the prep.  My day job work had been really hectic all week long as usual so there was really little time to prepare during the week.  Therefore, Day 1 consisted of moving tons of items out of the studio space and off the floor, changing strings on two guitars, setting up the mic's, and so on.  I did finally lay down the acoustic part on "Never Say Never" which had been on my agenda for the past 2-3 months and then laid down the base acoustic track for a very, very old song that used to be called "Mistress of Radiance".  I have no idea what it's called now; that's still TBD.

"Mistress..." is a funny song for me because it's literally one of my oldest and from the very first group of actual songs that I ever wrote, actually from the late 80's.  Now, that group of songs came after writing only in my head (not on an instrument) multiple melodies and such throughout my late childhood years, and then after my very first songs on guitar when I was initially learning to play of  which a) I haven't played since that era for good reason and b) wouldn't ever subject anyone to since they're painfully juvenile and amateur.  After getting through that awkward phase of guitar and childish writing, I came up with an initial group of songs that I just never did anything with, and that's where this one comes from.  Of course, these songs are also rather juvenile, I mean, the original title says it right there, but I've been reworking the lyrics, some of the melodies, and even a bit of the playing style to make it sound more up to date for my work.  I started tinkering with this one about six months ago and was surprised that it actually sounded decent in its reworked form, and hence it has found its way to a recording after a few decades of sitting idol.  I'm not sure what I'll be doing with these tracks yet but I did decide to finally just start getting them down on tape...er, disk.  See?  I'm showing my age right there.

I didn't get enough practice and warm up time before this recording week so I am admittedly struggling slightly with my playing but I think it's good enough to go forward.  I also recently blew the muscle sheath in my pinky finger on my fingering hand and so I'm now also right in the middle of battling constant trigger finger issues in that finger.  I started with trigger finger only on my middle finger a few years ago which surprisingly improved a bit over time but my pinky right now is pretty tough and tight.  I do believe I'll have to get hand surgery at some point in the near future but I'm putting it off as long as possible.  Fun.

I ended the day with the usual On Patrol Live, some video game playing with my sister online, and then with a viewing (or at least starting) of the film "To Leslie" of which I received a screener for.  I was less than impressed with it, and that's disappointing since it sounded right up my alley.  Oh well.

Prep

I don't have much to report except for the fact that I'm in "prep" mode.  I have next week off and so I'm gearing up, both mentally and physically, to do some pretty heavy recording after not doing any for quite some time.  I've spent most of this year mixing, polishing, studying up, learning new techniques, and so on.  I'll openly admit that I'm quite eager to get some actual recording accomplished.

Prepping is always a ton of work, not surprisingly.  There are many decisions to make, songs to write down, pieces to work out, microphones to connect and place, strings to change, and so on.  I also usually have to do a decent amount of moving items around since I seem to always have my studio floor covered in various "junk", things that I for some odd reason decided to acquire and/or simply have no other place to store.  I've found out the hard way that a clean floor is pretty essential when you're trying to move around with a guitar strapped to your chest while wearing headphones, dodging cords, etc.

I've been arguing with myself about what songs to focus on.  Since I want to do actual recording, I'm thinking I'm going to focus on the "Beautiful Silence" album.  I wrote most of these tracks about 3-4 years ago and so they really do need to come to life soon anyhow before they start to fizzle for me mentally.  I'm actually really excited about this album since I think it's really quite something, although it's fairly simple in nature.  It'll be a very interesting vocal follow-up to the "Opsimath" album, and it's hard to believe that I finished the writing of that one just about 20 years ago so I guess I'm fairly due.  I'll also be dabbling in other "ponds", as they say, including starting work on some of the compiling stages of the next Jazz Machine album as well some random ancient one-off songs that may or may not end up on an EP...who knows.  And, of course, there will be mixing going on.

I'll probably be blogging quite a bit next week so don't be alarmed.  I usually have a lot to say once I get into the trenches.  Hopefully, they're not too dirty this time around.

I'm a Mod

I have been pondering and lusting over the idea of buying a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster in Daphne Blue for probably 2 1/2 decades.  I've gone through multiple iterations of wants over the years, more recently switching to the Telecaster Thinline '69 style, which they did happen to make in the right color for a small amount of time.  This argument has continued to fester in my head, like I said, since around 1998.  I even inquired with Sweetwater earlier this year about ordering a Custom Shop Tele but was once again put off by the price tag.  I mean, seriously, 4K on a Tele?  It just sounds absurd and I know, just know, that if I spent that much on the instrument, that it'll get into my head to never play it because, well, it's just too damn expensive to ever touch.

Therefore, I finally broke my stupor and broke down by going in a different direction.  Yes, that's right, I opted NOT to do the Custom Shop guitar and instead get it from the still fairly new Fender Mod Shop, as they call it.  The Mod Shop basically gives you an American Standard instrument of your choice but you get to choose the color, the neck, the pickguard, the pickups, and so on.  In short, it's basically the "custom shop" of old, meaning pre this bizarre era where guitars cost 4-10k, especially if you want someone to make it look like you've been playing it for the past 50 years and abusing it (still a bizarre thing to pay a large amount for, in my personal opinion).

I also got a bit of a deal on the thing which is actually what finally tipped me over the edge; they're running a 10% coupon right now, and that actually adds up nicely on the price tag.  In fact, it was so tempting that I also purchased a Mod Shop Fretless Jazz bass, the other instrument I've been pondering for the past 2 years.  I actually picked up a used MiM Fender Fretless Jazz bass not that long ago, just to try it out, and I was impressed enough that I thought I'd upgrade.

Strangely, both instruments arrived one day after the other.  In fact, the bass completely freaked me out since I wasn't expecting it for another 15 days or so.  I immediately fell in love with the look of it, though, and the sound is way better than the MiM that I'm now selling since I got to choose the pickups, and so on.  It finally prompted me to pull out my old bass amp which has been sitting in a box in my garage since I moved to CA.  I've thought about pulling the thing out many times but the thought of moving all the boxes and such just scared the hell out of me.  In any event, it was a good move and I can't say how nice it is to be able to just plug and play a bass at a moment's notice, rather than plugging it in via ProTools, finding a setting, grabbing headphones, setting up a session, and so on.  It's just much nicer this way.

The Tele came today and I feel pretty ecstatic with it as well.  It's Daphne Blue, like I said, but it has a roasted maple neck so it's rather dark, and then I got Texas Special pickups on it which I've never actually played before (they're usually Fender Custom Shop oriented).  I was pretty impressed with how many more guts they have over my American Standard pickups and it was immediately noticeable with only playing a couple of notes.

So, yeah, I guess I greatly approve of the Fender Mod Shop.  I mean, you're literally getting a Custom Shop guitar but at American Standard prices...which is pretty amazing.  I predict that if the Mod Shop really takes off, they'll raise the prices by at least 1k per instrument.  I'd get in now, if interested.

Both instruments will absolutely be prominent in upcoming recordings.  In fact, the fretless bass is really going to be used heavily on the new Jazz Machine album, partly why I wanted it.  I think fretless just sounds better with that style of music, plus I love doing a lot of slides when playing bass.  I can't say enough how flat wound strings on a bass really help that situation (I had never used them prior to a few months ago).

Also, I finally got around to listening to the "Mirror Land" mixes that I did about a month or so ago and I was pretty impressed.  I feel like I'm finally evening out the bass in the mixes...which is huge.  I know it's taken beyond forever but hopefully there will be a payoff.  Also, my cover of Throwing Muses "Two Step" will soon be available for download on Bandcamp for free because I can't rightfully charge for it without paying royalties, and my new mix of it is sounding pretty good overall.  I think maybe even Kristin Hersh might approve.