Category: Studio Diary (Page 11 of 23)

Work continues on Slaying The Dragon. In the last month I’ve:

• re-recorded all of the acoustic guitar, and added some strummed chords in selected sections;
• re-recorded the Chapman Stick bass line
• re-recorded the drums
• laid down a new E-Piano track

Still to do:

• I have to decide whether the “guide” vocals are O.K. as they stand, or whether I should re-record. I’m leaning towards re-doing them.
• Re-record parts of the Hammond organ track (some parts of the guide track are perfect as-is).
• Figure out what the solo/bridge is doing

Over the last week I’ve mostly been tweaking the Chapman Stick track, and reworking some of the drum fills to get a nice, tight rhythm section.

Not perfect yet

As a break, I went back to Future Imperfect and decided that most of the L6-S lead guitar needs to be benched in favor of the BlueShifter, so that basically all of the guitar is performed on the same instrument. I’ve retained the L6-S on the outro, which is fine because it segues into the Finale which is all L6-S anyway.

I know: No-one but me cares about these things. It’s all just guitar, right? Wrong. These different instruments have character – even if it is only in my own head – which instruct the performances that end up in the track.

It is easy for me to be infatuated with the sound of the L6-S, but on reflection I could tell that there were two “characters” of guitar in the song when really there should only have been one.

And since the BlueShifter only shows up on one track on this album, it should have that track mostly to itself, I think.

Since finishing up “Future Imperfect” in February, I’ve been going back over the other components in the “Strange But True Steel Tree” suite and tidying up a few loose ends in the Prologue, Interludes, and Finale sections.

The song “Strange but True” became a problem, because I want to re-write the lyrics and re-title it “The Steel Tree”. In the process of doing that, I decided I needed to re-record the drums, guitar, and bass. Now it’s just waiting for me to finish up the lyrics and get the vocal re-recorded.

I also decided “Head in the Game” needed a third go-over, with some tweaks to the drums and a more aggressive bass. Then I went crazy and re-recorded all the guitars, using the Ibanez 540s instead of the telecaster. It’s sounding better, I think.

Now it’s time to return to the last remaining song on the album: Slaying The Dragon. I’m currently in the middle of re-recording the Chapman Stick and acoustic guitar.

I really think I have a shot at finishing this project up this year. (I mean the album, not the song, cheeky!)

Well, that trick worked, mostly. I copied the nice, tight drum track from the 120bpm project into the original, 135bpm project, and started re-recording the bass, locking in to the new timing.

Here’s a teaser, from the end of the guitar solo where everything is getting quite excitable:

Just listening to this, I can hear some places where the drum velocity levels should be tweaked a bit. The toms are a bit loud and brash, and could do with a little less reverb.

Still… it’s much better. Now to adjust all the other instruments to fit!

It’s February, already. Dammit.

I’ve been stuck on the drums in Future Imperfect for ages, succeeding only in making tiny incremental advances. Not working. 

I’m not a drummer, but when I flail wildly with the sticks on the old rubber pads, sometimes great stuff happens that couldn’t have been done on the step programming/pressing the keys on the synth technique. And I’m greedy. I want the coolness, all the way.

But this incremental thing isn’t working. There’s some drum fills and hi-hat stuff that I can’t do at 135bpm.

Therefore, I’m trying something slightly different. I’ve copied the entire project’s timeline and dropped the time signature to 120 bpm, and I’ve got a simple guide click track that follows all the 4/4 : 7/8 changes with beat hints, and I’ve replaced the new bass track (which rocks, by the way, no problem playing that in time) with a cloned MIDI version and dropped that into the new project – instant 120bpm guide bass to play along with (I know, I could stretch the original audio track using tools like Audition or even the built-in tech in SONAR, whatever it’s called, to get it to 120bpm, but this quantized MIDI bass track is working better for me, so there.)

If it breaks the block, it’ll be worth it.Now I’m trying to record the drums again, but at 120 bpm instead of 135. When I’m done, I’ll just copy the MIDI notes back into the original project, and hopefully we’ll have an excellent drum track, at the right tempo, that meshes with the existing bass audio and other instruments.

I’ve refreshed the Head in the Game mp3 on this site. The Chapman Stick has been retired in favor of the Carvin 5 string bass, processed using Amplitude 3 the Line6 POD 2.0.

I think it is much improved. While I was mixing the bass I improved the balance of some of the other instruments (most notably turning down the jangly rhythm guitar in some places).

Updated 14.April 2013:

Also re-did some of the drums. And re-recorded the bass. And all the guitars. And the lead monosynth. Then I remixed it.

For the last twelve months or so, I’ve been riding this big rig of musical energy that just kept moving forward, but it seems to have run out of steam. Future Imperfect sits on the hard drive, begging for me to finish up the drums which are only half-done, and I’m not able to push myself to do it.

My experience has been that if the muse isn’t there, don’t bother. I’m never happy with the results. So, as the new year looms on the horizon, I’m coming to terms with the fact that the revised schedule for completing album #1 is going to have to be, um, revised.

Still, that’s what plans are for. Revising.

All is not lost, however. I’ve recently picked up the Bass again, partly because I discovered my nephew was getting into the instrument and I wanted to review some reference material I was planning on sending him.

Then I started playing with Guitar Rig 4, trying to emulate the famous Chris Squire bass sound from the Fragile era. Some success, too. After running through some classic riffs, I loaded up the Head in the Game project in SONAR and started playing along…

Hmm.

As you know, I hate re-doing material that is supposedly finished and complete (/sarcasm) but I think the muse might be telling me that I need to put a little bit of work in on this.

Oh, and the Tone is in the Fingers, people.