Friday Dec 14th. I play, I listen, I sing.
10 AM start.
First thing – quickly review yesterday’s recordings to be sure we are ready to move on. We are.
First up – Kids Today – The guitar track was played live with the guide vocal and it has a vibe which I’m 99% sure I won’t be able to improve upon so today we look at it and see if there are weak sections… I’m already pretty sure I know the answer – the chorus sections could be tighter – I match the sound with the Kemper (Fender Deluxe model) and we fix it. Then I overdub a part that will hopefully not be noticed, and will just sound like the one guitar, it backs up and strengthens some key chorus chords.
Then I look at the idea I noted in LA and after 1/2 hr of playing it quite well I admit that not all of my ideas are good…
Next I check the live guitars on Diminished Ex, It’s Late and I Can’t Stay and I expect to find things that will need fixing but I’m wrong.
It feels like we wasted a bunch of time doing nothing but really we saved time by not assuming that the guide would need to be replaced.
The only guitar part I have in my head I can’t play – I have an idea for It’s Late which involves my Strymon Blue Sky pedal. i drive home to get it and when i plug it in I blow it up, using the 18v cable instead of the 9v one. I will need to put some red tape around that 18v cable… This will have to wait. Strymon responded pretty quickly to email and said they can fix it quickly…
The rest of the day is spent singing Diminished Ex. Which would be fine if the guide vocal was weak… but it is very strong.
I think we have it bettered. I will check back in a few days. I then double track the whole thing down 1 octave, in a range where it’s semi spoken, almost whispered. The idea is to back up the main vocal which is high in my register, but it may end up being more than this, we’ll see. We make rough mixes with the high to the fore and the low.
Then file management. Mark copies recordings to my back up HD.
4 PM finish. Home to get ready to drive South tomorrow to play in Annapolis. Listened back to rough mixes and am especially happy with Period Piece after all the grief it gave me, it may have been worth it…