2 PM Slaughterhouse studio. LC, engineer Mark Alan Miller (MAM from here in) and M Schwaber is hanging around to help.
Slaughterhouse uses a Mackie 24/48 track hard disk system. At 88.2 we have only 24 tracks so MAM has transferred Pro Tools sessions on to the Mackie, with drums mixed down to stereo to save space.
First thing – Set up U67 for vocals and Coles + Neumann 140 for guitar.
LC’s acoustic guitar overdubs –
#1 – Inverse Midas Touch – intro and outro fake fingerpicking white album part. Sure enough, playing along with a vibey track is much tougher later, but we get there. My basic rhythm part is moving back and forth across the beat but it is good, so we play to it. It takes an hour or so.
#2 – Rod The Mod – Nashville tuned guitar double tracking basic acoustic to give 12 string sound to he refrains and to add a jangle to the verse. Fairly simple compared to the last song. The verse stuff may be too much, erasing it would be simple. I also thought of a counter melody for the bridge so I recorded it. Electric lead would probably play it but now I won’t forget the idea.
#3 – Basic guitar on Why In The World? – Never got this done in NYC. My new Taylor has really dull strings which I think will suit this part and I’m right. MS tells me through headphones that I have that Chelsea Girls thing – well, maybe, but the sound is right. Strangely I get this rather tough part recorded quite quickly. MAM moves a few hits around and the feel is fine. Move on.
#4 – Man Overboard – Nashville double track of the main riff/refrain – this takes a little while because I’m not sure whether to DT the whole part (which is something of a subconscious part) or just the melody. Eventually we go with the melody and the result is much stronger.
On to a vocal – we stay with Man Overboard and my voice seems to be working. I run through once, record three passes and 25 minutes later we have a comp. It sounds fine. Dave Derby will supervise master comps when he arrives.
Feeling good and also somewhat worried that my voice might not behave so well tomorrow I decide to sing another.
Why In The World? is a little less sung out, so we need to increase the pre amp gain a little, but the basic sound is the same. One run through, 3 takes and a couple of extra goes at the first line and I think we have it. I don’t want MAM to have to comp it tonight. He has enough to do transferring Pro Tools sessions for tomorrow.
M Schwaber and I track more guitars in the morning.