The Studio: Day Three

The Studio: Day Three (Tracing My Steps)

Today's session was dedicated solely to the production of what is to be the first single off the album: 

Tracing My Steps.

But first, we had to break down all of Ryan's drums and clear them out of the studio. It was a bittersweet moment removing all the microphones that Dave had spent so much time placing to perfection. We also had to take down Dave's bass drum microphone fort. Ryan's little car was, once again, packed to the rear-view mirror with snares, toms, and cymbals. I do have to say, though... tearing down the equipment was a lot less time-consuming than setting up, which was nice after a couple 10-hour days of recording. 

Onward and upward! 

An Old Song With A New Spin

I've been playing Tracing My Steps on the acoustic guitar for years, and I want to beef it up a little bit and give it some new flavor for the album. Not only are we adding more instruments, I've actually ADDED A CHORUS TO THE SONG. Seriously, for four years, the song had no chorus and I always felt like something was missing. It's about time.

In rehearsals with Ryan and Jason, we tried for many hours to lay down a fitting drum beat for the song, but nothing seemed to fit quite right. Frustrated and out of ideas, I decided to take the song into the studio and let Engineer/Producer Dave take a whack at it.

In one of the smaller studios, we begin another exciting journey.

Equipped with the vocal and guitar scratch track and his drum machine software, Dave pieced together sound upon sound with his computer and within two hours, he had a SICK drum groove constructed that was exactly what I had been looking for. You'll hear what I mean when the single is released...

It has almost a latin feel to it.

After a few more tweaks here and clicks there, Dave had the track where he wanted it. 

Here comes the cool part: 

Dave asked Ryan to bring his cajon to the studio today. For those who have never seen a cajon, it's a wooden box-like percussion instrument with metal snares inside that give it a distinct metallic buzz/snap  sound when you whack the side of the "box" ("cajon is Spanish for "box" or "crate")

...Okay, so we didn't have THIS guy recording with us, but I'm sure it would have been a great time. Next time we'll call that guy up to jam with us too...

Dave recorded Ryan playing on bongos, congas, and the newly acquired cajon. We eventually settled on a combination of live instrument recordings and computer-synthesized sounds. Mixed together, you get a realistic sound without the hassle of having to own every instrument under the sun. Computers are a great thing. Sometimes. Well. Most of the time.

Dave setting up the microphones for the cajon and bongos.

Done For The Week

After a few hours, we're ready to call it a night. 

NOW, we take the mixed track that Dave constructed this evening and we send it to Jason, who will put together a nice bass line for the song and we'll all get together to finalize the song arrangement. For now, it's time to take a little break to regroup and prepare for the next recording session dates.

What are my next steps? I will take the drums-and-bass versions of the songs and get together with my guitarist, my string arranger, and other instrumentalists to nail down what each of them will add to the mix in the coming recording sessions.

The next thing we'll be recording is Jason's upright bass and my acoustic guitar.

Until the next session,

Stay tuned!