Ok, so we have 2 mixes of this new song. We had hoped to do a sun records style take of it, fairly low tech, raw and i think we have it, but there are two differing opinions on which opening to use?
I wonder what we'll do?
Aha! I have it! I shall ask you , Dear Reader, to help us pick.
Ok so here's the plan. I'll go find the Polling software component, load up a player or two with copies of the song, post it to an article and then you can listen and pick.
Brilliant! Let's crowd source this sucker.
Even better, your reward will be to download the one ya want :-) It'll be our Easter Present.
Ok, stand by, this is going to take some technical jiggery pokery to make happen...hmm.
We recorded on Saturday and today was mix day and y'know what, we're done.
Ah but there I've gone and given you the punch line. Oh well, here's some of todays fun anyway.
We started today by borrowing some studio monitors to test out, whilst we were picking them up, I spotted some other cool objet de musical art :-)
If I was a guitarist or an Amp Dude these would be meaningful to me, but as the Harp Dilettante, all I can say is 'oh, lookit pretty!' or "Gee I like that font' (sigh).
I am sure they are cool.
The next phase was putting the borrowed monitors into the studio and testing them with various sounds and songs, including some rare Mark Hunter tracks (jazz!)
Later on during the finalisation of the mix, it turned out the bass response on the monitors was up too far and there wasn't enough bottom end on other test playback devices (the car, the boombox, the ipod). As none of us had a flashlight to hand I had to use the Flash function on the phone to brighten things up so we could check the teeny tiny dials on the monitors.
BTW they were very nice.
There was quite some discussion about the opening of the new song and various arrangement items. When you're working with Tape, it behooves you to Have Your Sh-- Together Before Pressing 'Start'. There's none of this Namby-Pamby 'what if' that accompanies Digital Production.
Meanwhile, I contributed in the manner that any Executive Producer worth his salt contributes. I made John a sandwich.
Here's my latest art piece entitled 'Desk With Lunch Roll'.
I make quite good sandwiches, ask any member of the band :-)
And last but not least here's another bit of the song being mixed.
It's done, we're reviewing it :-) Stand by for what we do next! Thrills! Spills! Lunch!
No it's not Jesus, that'd have to be a Sunday gig. or is that Monday? I forget my catchetis....catta...hoosie whatsee. Could be the Easter Bunny.
We're rolling the Bald Rock away from the entrance to the cave (i'm surely gonna burn for these puns) this Saturday night, so if you haven't arranged the traditional Flee-From-Sydney-Easter-Holiday and you find yourself wandering the deserted ghost town streets of our beautiful city, why not tread the pilgrims path to the Bald Rock and there, behold, will be some guys playing in a pub.
For was it not written that Beer will be provided, along with reasonably priced meals, and yea verily, shall there be the sounds of merriment and music. Also sayeth the good book, the beer shall not be provided in the sense of 'free' and yea shall thee buy thy own beer, and not too much, for Ye Boys In Blue Do Lurk with Vans of Roadside Breath testing and loss of license may ensue.
For the heathens I'll translate: We're playing at the Bald Rock this Easter Saturday March 30th , from 8:30, we probably will have a guest. 69 (oops) 15-17 Mansfield St Rozelle.
There's a drumkit in the kitchen? What could it be? Yes, you guessed correctly, we're recording again (give yourself a point).
Here's Theo, I caught one THIIIIIIS BIIIIG! Theo earned a new nickname today, he shall from this day henceforth be known as The Last Word. No further explanation shall be provided. Amen.
Continuing our love of exotic locations, we visited amazingly exotic...interesting...deepest..... darkest.......err.....umm.......Stanmore
Right!. We're officially the first band to record at the brand new House Of Hits (mark 2) studio where the amazing John Mc used us for fiendish experiments, finding out how to tweak his new environment and we were willing test subjects.
John is a Dude of Sound (blessed be he that abideth as the Dude, for he shall receive no gutterballs).
For todays studio test much work was done to get the environment ready and see how well the studio handled exterior noise and to make sure all the bits and pieces were working.
Rosie, Mr Wizard and Redline were already in business when I got there today, they had already been at it for a while, getting tones and running cables. I arrived whilst they were jamming to test the monitor headphones.
I think I've gone a bit Birdy Num Nums.
Hurrah, all was well! No tape slough, no unexpected glitchs, everything functioning smoothly.
From there it was onto laying down the guitar, slide, bass and drum with a guide vocal.
John removed the guide in order to review the instrument channel recordings.
By Midday, things were swimming along nicely and we had the pleasure of Ms Jo F's company to sing with us today, accompanied by 'Card' Fitzgerald (go you good thing! gold for Australia! Gold for Cumnock!).
Borrowing from our recent experiences with The Sydney Harmony, we tried some harmony arrangements at the end, and yes folks, it's still hard back to class!.
By the end of the day however, harp, slide, harmonies, you name it, done and dusted.
Now it's up to John to do his mix and then this sucker is being released into the wild. Fly!! Be Freeeeeeee!
The song should be available in the next few days. Famous last words but what the heck.
Could this be the start of our next approach? a series of singles? There is quite some discussion about it. Stay tuned!
As our mate Happy says at the Bald Rock, 'Happy Days, Happy Days'
We're going to record a brand new song tomorrow for the sheer heck of it. Our good mate John Mc has recently moved his studio and needs some guinea pigs to test out his new setup, which includes this fabulous vintage 2 inch tape Unit :-) if you are a long term reader of this site, you might remember when I first came across this device several years ago, I was all Analogue Fanboy about it...(sigh)
We're the willing volunteers for this experiment and we're all greatly looking forward to the session.
Ms Jo is coming down to add some vocals and we're going to try and hustle this song out the door as swiftly as is practical.
Tonight we got together with Redline to refine the arrangement. here's Redline, Mr Wizard and Rosie sitting around the kitchen getting 'Sweet Adeline' together (working title).
I am using this new iPad/Garageband/USB mic for all our guide track recordings and I am pretty impressed with this little thing.
Tomorrow we get to try it for real on some serious analogue gear.
Stay tuned for some pics and vids from the production this weekend.
Whilst our website was offline, we arranged the first window of opportunity to record a new song. Ok, make that we converted it from a Quantum Super Positional state to an actual 'oh, I guess we should start at 9:30' state.
Yes, the cat's out of the box. Will it work? Will our plans turn into a jumbled pile of physics notations? Will our cobbled together contraptions yield the required equations?
This Saturday we'll be charging the Flux Capacitors! Stay tuned for some blog updates as this suddenly coalescing sequence of random events mutates towards an audible outcome! And remember, if anyones going to make sense of this, it's your friends in the 'cellar!
Read all about it here first! Mystery! Excitement! Multi-tracking! Cats!
back to class!.
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