Saturday, February 13, 2010

Listening to the Roughs

So, the record is done. Well, not totally done, but mostly done. Well, not mostly done...maybe fifty percent done...maybe 59 percent. Anyway, it's much more done than it was four days ago.

It's so done, that I've been listening to the roughs for the last couple of days. By roughs I mean rough mixes, which are slightly mixed versions of what we have now.

And I'm into it man.

For this record, we recorded differently than we have in the past. We put most of the instruments in the same room except for the bass on half the songs, because we were having trouble getting a good bass sound. Oh, and me, I was in my own little booth

And then we learned the songs, did some on the spot arranging, recorded 3 to 6 versions and then picked our favorite one.

No fixes on bad notes. No re-dos on solos. No do overs.

The way most things are recorded today and they way that we've done things on our previous projects makes use of the technology. Every instrument gets is own room and is therefore isolated from every other instrument. And every instrument gets it own track. So if someone makes a mistake, they can just go back and re-record their part.

The studio we recorded at is Bismeaux studios. It's the studio that Asleep at the Wheel records in. They have 128 tracks.

Now 128 tracks basically gives you unlimited...unlimitedness. You could re-record your part all day and all night until you got it perfect. Add that to the fixer-upper tools that are part and parcel of most recording software today -- autotune, the ability to move notes around -- well, the ability to achieve perfection is within your grasp.

But we didn't want perfection. We wanted performance. We wanted the feeling you get when you play live. We wanted to vibe.

And we got it.

I knew the guys I was playing with could pull it off. And they did, again and again. I even knocked out a couple of keeper vocals (though I'm no where near the studio singer that the guys are studio players, so I'll have to go back and re-sing some stuff. More on that later).

I love it when a plan comes together.

1 comment:

pwea said...

No wonder ' The Wheel " sounds so good on record with all that cool technology ! But the weard part is , they sound almost perfect on stage .. Lol .... any way EMQ .... I cant wait for your record too . Best wishes from way up north . -pwea.