Editing, Overdubs, and Ice Cream

This week Darryl and I both have been busy editing our songs. I must say that we captured some great performances from both groups of artists. Last night(Wednesday) we were back in the studio recording the congos and B-3 parts for “Joy of Knowing You” which is coming along great thanks to Darryl’s producing skills. It is truly amazing to hear the Hammond organ and Leslie speaker cab in action. It made the hair stand up on my knuckles!

For Eric Peter’s project, the one I’m producing, Tyler and I are rehearsing electric guitar parts and getting ready to track them soon. Also, Brenda Kerr has agreed to play some xylophone on one of the tunes and I’ve contacted a percussionist to record as well. Oh…and you’ve seen pics from EP’s basic tracking date and now here are the mic and preamp selections.

preamp-and-mic-considerations-for-ep.pdf

Lastly, I WANT SOME ICE CREAM!

Progress…

Today I get a chance to listen to the tracks we recorded of Eric, Don and Darren from last Thursday’s tracking session. If digidesign would send my upgrade to ProTools 7, I would have already listened to them. Nonetheless, I’m excited to sample these treats.
Since the last post, Darryl and I have been getting ready to track Jeff Woods. Darryl is producing Jeff’s project and I’m engineering. I know I’ve said it before, but I really like working with Darryl and I say that after we have spent countless hours in the studio and in preproduction for almost a month. With that being said, Darryl and I tracked Rob(Bass), Tim(Drums), and Randy(Keys) last night. We got some good stuff from these guys and it was reunion of sorts because I used to run sound for them. Here are a few pics from our time together:

Darryl and the guys discussing the game plan.

Piano sounded great with these AT4033’s(Darryl’s Idea).

Me gettin’ the sounds right. It’s already 10:30pm! That’s it…no more smiling.

“It’s beautiful Clark!”

Tell us what to do Darryl. Special thanks to Adam and Rudy for their assistance in this project.

First Tracking Session Complete

Well…the first tracking session is done and thanks to Eric, Darren, and Don we have a good foundation for both “Bedlam and the Fuse” and “Traveling Onion.” It was great to have such creative people to give great ideas and to bounce ideas off of. I’m excited about the potential of these tracks and I will report progress of overdubs and more session pics will follow. Here are few pics to look at:

Eric had the big room to work in. Don’t let this picture fool you…he was jumping all around the room and lighting guitars on fire.

Eric and I discussing some particulars about the song before beginning.

Darren laying down the fat beat with a smile.

The production crew: Me, Josh, Darryl, and Ryan (left to right)

None of the pics of Don came out…maybe because of his fast playing. Hopefully EP will have some that made. Also, I’ll post a pdf of the mic and preamp considerations for the tracking date soon.

Rehearsals

Last Wednesday and Thursday I spent some time with Darren(drummer) and Jody(Keys) rehearsing for the upcoming tracking sessions. We auditioned beats and sounds that we felt would enhance the recordings. I feel priveleged to work with great musicians and especially one’s with instruments and ProTools setup in their domisials. Here are some pics from our time together:

Tracking Soon

Next Thursday Darryl and I will be tracking Eric Peters. Between now and then we’ll be very busy making last minute preparations. Today, I have a rehearsal with Darren Foster, drummer on the project, to get the beat side of things ready to go and tomorrow I meet with Jody Underwood, pianist on the project, to rehearse his parts as well as programming.

Last Friday we had what is known as “Piranha Hour” at MTSU. Basically, every student in the recording program books their studio hours for the semester at one time. It took me 2.5 hours to book my stuff but I was able to get the bookings I needed…yippee! I’m really excited about these songs.

Last week, Darryl also let me hear Jeff’s voice on a demo he recorded.  Amazing voice! Darryl is actually the producer on Jeff’s project and I’ll be engineering. The band for Jeff’s project will be some guys I used to run sound for at my church. It will be good to work with them again. Darryl has done a great job of getting this project together and I look forward to working on it.