I feel like I need to do some penance for my lack of musical endeavors (at least with regards to writing & playing). Maybe sing a few verses of Proud Mary?
Very nice holiday celebrations, a few familial, medical-type battles and a new kitten, Obie (seen in image atop blog in a blatant attempt to get more notice – he’s much cuter than me), all competed for my attention.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Recording magazine has started a feature for beginners – it’s called First Steps and is being written by Paul Stamler. I am going to attempt to follow along and incorporate what I learn as appropriate. In his 1st installment, he lays out his approach to the series offering a clip of a public-domain, klezmer song he recorded, “Arbeitsloz Marsch (The March Of The Unemployed)” – performed by Ottoman Underground, the analysis of which will serve as the series’ “spine.” It seems very clean and simple, but I’m sure it took a lot of knowledge and work to get to sound as such.
I need to make time for Get-Up practice as the yearly, spring cabin session is ahead – I have, at least, been listening to our songs to get them solidly in my head. I will also have to figure out how to accomplish some work on the record during a few weeks of work travel that I have coming up (working on lyrics, recording ideas on my phone, ???).
I said in a previous post that I was thinking about using bass and organ primarily for the Fool Play demo. I took to the keys this morning and was at least able to sketch out a bass part on organ for the current verse an chorus. Here it is with the vocals and keyboard drum track.
I tried a few other things on the keys, but nothing really worth saving. I’m really happy with the feel it will give the chorus. I’ve made a few tries at a soul/Motown feel in the past without success, but am thinking I might get out what I hear when all is said and done on this one.
I got my 2nd issue of Recording magazine (provided as a gift by a benefactor) and it turns out they’re starting a feature for beginners. How’s that for timing?
I really wanted to re-record the vocals for the Christie demo, but resisted and saved out an instrumental track so I can practice (on my way to Carnegie Hall).
Instead, I worked on Fool Play. I just had the idea in my head and a few lyrics. It feels like it should be soul-ish – a la Hall & Oates. I sang my idea over a beat. Hear is the naked vocal track:
I overcame a technical issue with the vocal track cutting in and out. I recorded the practice drum track (canned, from my keyboard), moved the mic away from the keyboard(then just turned off & unplugged the keyboard) and rebooted my laptop. Problem solved.
Hearing the naked vocal, I realize that I need to be careful of the breaths, sniffs and assorted mouth noises. I’ll be ordering the coupla filter-type pieces (or maybe asking for them for Christmas – hint, hint) before I record any vocals for finished tracks – still a long way away.
The next step is to figure out the chords. I’m thinking of using organ, bass and drums for this demo – maybe some spare guitar accents.
I figured out the my current DAW, Ableton Live 9 Lite, has a midi drum kit that can be “played” via the laptop keyboard. Experiments to come…
Christalization: I made further attempts at “drummage” this morning with no success – I think I definitely need to work that in early in the demo. Even though I played to a metronome, I think I still lost the beat at various places. I re-recorded the lead vocal and made some initial blips of background vocals.
I also played around with some picking on acoustic guitar, but it just muddied things.
Here is the demo that I’m going to live with and sing along with to get some more ideas flowing.
In the running for next track up for demo:
Fool Play (Been thinking about it most)
Future Psychic Girlfriend (most recently figured out the chords)
Black Friday morning found me working in some piano to my maybe-demo for Christie. Liberated by my newly-acquired headphone extension cord (20 feet! Thanks Radio Shack!), I stood at the piano and, realizing I’m going to need a lot of practice, plucked out a few ideas. I I made many attempts to record and finally got down a simple, not-too-embarrassing part from which to work.
I then picked up my bass and played, and recorded, a simple part without too much trouble. The drums I attempted to play on keyboard did not fair so well. I deleted the track and will determine how to handle those going forward. The track:
I think I’ll re-record the vocal track and work out some background vocals. At that point, I’ll probably call it a demo and move on to the next song.
On the research front, I ran (so far away) across this article and copied out a few tidbits (see below):
…greatly values being careful and patient, and taking your time. After you have mixed a track, he advises that you “put it aside and then listen back. I’ve always said that it’s impossible to mix a song in one day. You need time for everything to settle down and then go back to work at it.”’
‘Scott Horton provides services for new and established artists through Virtual Mix Engineer…
…reminds aspiring recording engineers that some things can’t be bought, “knowledge, above all gear, will take you the furthest (and is often the cheapest!). Read recording books, watch tutorial videos on YouTube, Groove3, Lynda, participate in forums such as Gearslutz and HomeRecording, and experiment hands-on. You’ll learn by doing, applying the rules, and then breaking them.”’
‘Rock drummer and studio owner Tyler Chen …recommends economizing by recording guitar and bass tracks at home “without the pressure wasting studio time. After you’ve compiled the perfect takes for each song, you can choose to either use amp modeling software (such as AmpliTube) or the ‘re-amping’ process. Re-amping means that your clean guitar tracks are played back through your amp and simultaneously recorded. If you re-amp at your home studio, it allows you to spend more time dialing in the perfect guitar tone and even re-amping the same track on multiple amps.”’
Last night I started digging a bit further into my initial DAW, Ableton Live 9 Lite, and began the demo process for the oldest, and most fully-realized, track I plan to put on the album, “Christie.”
I’m the type of learner that likes to get in and work with something – typical guy not reading directions, right? So I plunged in and made an acoustic guitar track (forgetting one verse and not worrying about the playing too much). It starts and ends rather abruptly – I don’t yet know why the ringing guitar didn’t stretch out at the end.
I then halfheartedly sang some vocals (I’m really selling this, yes?) to test the mic with the interface and how things would balance. I believe I added a little reverb on the vocal track with one of the plug-ins. Here’s the result:
I need to decide how fussy I want to be with/about the demos. They are for me to use for the final recording (which will be a complete re-record), so I’m looking to get the ideas down as a sort of blueprint I suppose.
Resting Guitars and Shrouded Standel
With Christie (just thought of the parody possibilities with respect to NJ’s governor), I’m fairly certain I’ll need to re-record to make room for the missing verse and make it a little cleaner. For one thing, there’s some extra noise on the guitar track – clicking of the pick against the guitar body?
Another need, of which I read a suggestion of along the way somewhere, is an extension cord for my headphones. It’s really tricky to fit the cord around things and if you forget and get up, there’s a not-so-gentle tugging reminder that you’re attached.
I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger (sorry). I bought the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB Audio Interface at a Guitar Center. It comes with the Ableton Live 9 Lite DAW (so that will be the 1st one I’m trying out) and some Focusrite and Novation plug-ins. I went with the 2i4 over the 2i2 to get midi input functionality that I might not use – my keyboard midi functionality goes directly into a USB on a computer as I understand after some initial research – oh well. I also forgot about the AKAI EIE I/O Pro which is in the price range where I ended up – trying not to question the purchase too much.
Anyway [insert line from the Genesis song here]… as you can see from the above picture, there are lots of knobs and meters and inputs – oh my! This old dog has a lot of learning ahead of it. It’s a far cry from the old TASCAM four-track cassette recorder I borrowed to make my previous solo recordings in my in-laws’ garage – they would be: “I Used to Know Her Name” and “Twisted and Torn Apart” – probably not suitable for public consumption. 🙂
I set the AI up Sunday night and managed to install the software and plug-ins. It was a little tricky getting the plug-ins to display in the DAW. After a little fiddling, so-to-speak, I recorded a few seconds of bass and, after a little more fiddling, was able to play it back. I got some extra, unwanted buzz on export (I don’t think I heard it when I was listening initially). Much to figure out. Here it is with the buzz:
Meanwhile, “Regular Folk” is coming along nicely and taking a decidedly political turn.
I wavered on whether or not to put in-progress pieces of work up, but decided if I’m taking y’all through the process, I’ll share and bare and hope you’ll like.
The song “Future Psychic Girlfriend” was merely a title I liked. I jotted down a few words that it inspired and got a tune in my head. Last night I figured it out a bit on my $50 Mitchell (pictured above) and recorded the snippet/sketch on my Android phone using the FourTracks Lite app – just something to get the idea down – here it is:
I slept on it (the song, not the guitar) and came up with another verse and few more bits of lyrical madness. I’m thinking new wave with a little funk/disco – I really want to have some fun with this one. I’ve got the title to the tune of Shake Your Groove Thing by Peaches & Herb in my head, but I’ve really got to steer away from that as it’s now being used to market incontinence products.
I also got an idea for another song, tentatively titled “Regular Folk.” Don’t know exactly where I’ll go with it. I volunteer pretty regularly at the Philadelphia Folk Festival and some years they really stretch the boundaries of what one might consider folk music. While I thoroughly enjoyed Todd Rundgren performing what was basically a Utopia concert a few years back, much of my group of ‘folkies’ were less-than-thrilled.
Hoping to get to Guitar Center today to get me an Audio Interface – yay!
My wife and I toasted 25 years of marriage (I tried to toast to another 25, but…)
Performed civic duty
Planned for laminate flooring in our bedroom
limped around and nursed foot pain
The sparkle in my Mom’s eyes was not just the reflection of the candles in her glasses.
What? Oh, yes – this blog is about making my album.
Did more reading and, in addition to the audio interface, figured I should acquire the following:
At least one piece of sound board
“First, get some soundproofing. Real soundproofing. Forget about egg cartons. Forget about carpet. They don’t work. You need a panel or two of some real soundproofing material” *
A reflection filter
“like the sE Reflexion Filter, mounts onto your microphone stand and stops room reflections from reaching your mic from the sides, or behind.”*
A pop filter
“like this one from Auphonix is possibly the cheapest way to take your recording quality up several notches.”*
Practiced piano for “Christie.” Looking at the keys as I figure out the chords sparks increased understanding through a perspective I don’t get playing guitar.
Also had a few new lyrical ideas which I noted under the umbrella of “Covering Myself.”
-Edtil Later
P.S. Top image is 1/2 of The Get-Up, David Husted & I, rocking Shermans Dale, PA in April of ’14 (Photo: Alan Schwartz)
I went up to my studio to practice bass and try recording a second track using Audacity and was having a hell of a time getting my Radio Shack adapter plug to work – I ended up realizing two things I really need to do:
2) I need to block out practice and writing time so that I don’t get distracted by technical stuff (ooh, shiny). Ended up only practicing bass for about 10 minutes. No matter how proficient I get at home recording and what the quality of my studio and DAW end up being, the songs and playing must be solid.
