Two half days. I needed sleep and I had travel plans for touring an mixing to deal with…
Day 16 – Mark’s recordings from the Sonelab recording days need to be imported into the Logic files for each song and they also need to be put in the correct folder on the main album HD and the back-up HD. Files replaced (eg guide vocals, guitars) need to be put into a new folder called ‘replaced’. A reel of tape is a lot easier to keep track of. This takes a couple of hours.
Next I look at some keyboard ideas I’ve had in the back of my mind – Blue Like Mars needs a string machine. At Matthew’s studio he has some Casio controller with only a few sounds – the strings were cool. I recorded the idea there into my iPhone. Now I’m at my place I have an almost infinite number of possibilities for the sound. I really need to narrow that palette down. I didn’t really do that yesterday or today. Note to self…
I found an Oberheim based sound in Spectrasonics Omnisphere and a Chamberlain string/flute sound I liked in G-Force M-Tron (virtual mellotron). Maybe these are right. I need to go back and see. It apparent was that the basic idea does work, and the string synth meshes nicely with MS’s BVs.
On to I Can’t Stay – I have an idea that a broken sounding pump organ though an old transistor radio would be right for he track. Eventually I find a patch in Omnisphere which sounds like strings from a silent movie and I try to mix them with an old patch I used on Music IAFL and Antidepressant called Romeo and Juliet – it’s a vinyl sample based sound – sort of sparkly and gritty at the same time. By the time I’ve figured this combo out and recorded a half thought out part it’s late and I’m tired again. I go home unsure if I actually did anything of value, other than chores.
Day 17 – KIm Gordon is recording across the hallway, she is bloody loud.
First thing I install a new power conditioner / battery back up. The old one died a few days ago. If there is a power cut (outage) when I’m working on the album it could be a disaster, unless I have short term battery back up… More dull stuff, but important.
I have a listen to I Can’t Stay from yesterday. The ‘vintage’ string sound is good but the Romeo sound isn’t. Neither are the distortion plug-ins I was using. I go back to the basic part and work a little more on it. It is working, but now I’m reminded of how inept a keyboard player I am and how out of practice I am with Logic. Everything is taking twice as long as it should… and I guess that will just have to be the way it is until I’m comfortable in Logic again. I will never be a competent keyboard player, but I know what I like and I can edit midi notes.
Once the first part is done I’m hearing more so I add a duplicate instrument and give myself some ad-lib tracks to try some top melodies and harmonies. I wrestle briefly, unsuccessfully, with Logic’s ‘take folders’ but they are not working the way I’d want them to so I just give myself 4 tracks to play with and once I have the various parts played I merge them… What is fun here is that there is no tempo for this song (of course there is, but Logic doesn’t know it). We recorded this without a click, so any editing I’m doing with midi notes is strictly by feel and what looks/sounds right. There is no quantize option available. At 7PM I have it sounding very old school. As in pre-WWII school. One more element and this will be finished. Also I had been thinking that this guide vocal is a keeper. I double and triple check. I am right. One phrase is out of tune. I can fix that. So that’s one less thing to do…
Thursday is TV night chez Cole – 30 Rock, Parks & Rec and The League. Signing off.