This recording sure takes a long time, but its great fun to see how things start taking shape. I got a good version of "Roll Your Way" on Wednesday with just acoustic guitar. It took many takes to get through without a flub. I fooled with a delayed slap back vocal effect in the mix and I have a couple of mixes. I rehearsed "See You Tonight" and "Don't Let Me Down" last night but I need to practice to play them right. I'm starting to think about the songs I will work up for a CD collection. I had singers here last weekend and did not record the choir section of "Sweet Celebration"! Doh!

Here I am in my comfy shoes working on "Roll Your Way"

Wailing it out!

OK! I've been making good progress. My synthesizer was damaged in the move a few years ago and will not retain anything in memory when it is shut off and I have to go through several steps to get it reset and working. So I have written these instructions and pasted them to the keyboard. This will save me a lot of time since I have been basically re-figuring it out every time I use it.

I have also mapped all of the drum note assignments in my Alesis drum machine to match standard midi mapping. This way I can take drum riffs from the internet and play them directly through my computer to the Alesis and hear what they sound like.

For "Looks Like Rain" I added a bass track and some piano in the bridge sections. I've been playing with a percussion track but don't want just straight drumming. I'm fooling around with the congas, timbale, maracas, shakers, wood blocks, tambourine, and claves. I'm going to add a little triangle to the bridge. It's sounding quite nice but it is hard to program the drums to sound realistic.

I still haven't recorded demo versions (just guitar/vocal) for the 3 songs that I don't have any record of. I will be recording tomorrow night and I'll take a break from the percussion and just lay down these tunes live with me and the guitar.

Progress Report - March 10, 2010

It's been really hectic so I have not recorded much, but did go to Disneyland! I've got a drum track programmed for "Don't Let Me Down." I know I should just record it to get it down, but I can't help wanting to work it up just a bit. I've rehearsed "Roll Your Way" but I'm not satisfied with the lyrics for the last verse. I'm going to lay it down anyway as it is the next time I get in the studio. I ran through "See You Tonight" a few times and there are some rough spots I need to work out before I record it.

I've got my computer files fairly organized. I have several hours of what I call "bits and pieces" which are basically ideas I have recorded over the years on cassette and transferred to the computer. I have cut these cassettes into separate mp3s for each idea. I also created a folder of lyric ideas I had written on the computer instead of my composition book. The recordings from band rehearsals with Blackstone have been cut up into individual songs and I separated the better versions into a "Best of Blackstone" folder. I also have all the recordings from Millennium. I think most, if not all, of these were recorded after I left the band, but it is mostly the songs we did while I was in the band and don't sound any different than when I played. I was only 16 and just did rhythm guitar anyway. I’ve got a picture of me from then that I have to post sometime. I guess I need to get a lot more pictures up. Maybe it’s time to start working on a real website.

Saturday Session - Housekeeping

Woke up at 6 am, showered, and went downstairs to the studio. Worked from about 6:30 to 11, then I had to take care of things in the real world. I finished cataloging all my songs and found only three that do not have any recorded version: "Don’t Let Me Down", "Roll Your Way (version 2)" and "See You Tonight (version 2)". I'll have to rectify that in short order. I also updated my recording chart logs for the last 6 or songs I have recorded. I ran across some idea clips and put them in the Bits and Pieces folder. This was all time consuming although it doesn't seem like much. My complete list of songs is now on the blog as a page under "Catalog" where I have attempted to list the year the song was written and a co-writer if there was one.

98 Songs total. When I figure out how to format the page better I will identify which ones are good enough to be played. I will also identify the ones I am going to record now.

I did get a chance to work on some vocals. I am still having trouble with the bridge in "Looks Like Rain". I think I will have to change the wording just a bit so I don't have to jump to that note with the word "rain". I played around with the choir part on "Sweet Celebration". When I can get it charted I'll get some vocals from my daughters and their husbands so it won't sound like a bunch of Steves :)

Catalogue

I've been rehearsing some of my cover songs, working on playing and singing. I have also been going through all of the computer files I have of lyrics, mp3s, imported cassettes, etc. I have a lot of duplicate records which I am consolidating so I have only one version of each thing. It was fun listening to some of the old Blackstone rehearsals (circa 1981). I figured out how to save all of the TASCAM recording data to files on my PC. So I have backed up everything off the TASCAM studio.

I am cataloguing all of my songs with an approximate year it was written and a co-writer if any. I'll post that once I have it compiled. A lot of the old songs aren't worth anything but the learning experience. But some of these old songs make it into new songs. And a song is never finished. Even while recording "Must Be Love", "Sweet Celebration", and "Looks Like Rain" I was changing a word or a line here and there. There's a good 25-30 I feel are good enough to play in public.

I plan on doing some more recording this weekend. I want to play around with remixing "Sweet Celebration" I definitely want to redo the choir stuff at the end so it doesn't sound like a bunch of Steves :) If I can transcribe it to notes I may get Branson, Kate, and Nancy to sing the choir stuff with me. I definitely need to scratch most of the other songs and start over.

"Looks Like Rain" demo

I have a good vocal-guitar demo of "Looks Like Rain". There is one place in the bridge that I'm doing something with the vocal that I don't like, but it captures what the song sounds like so I have a record of it. That's the main goal right now.

I got out my old Yamaha DX27 synthesize and fooled around with some of the basses but didn't find one I liked the sound of.

NASI Meeting

I spent a good part of the day in the studio. Wednesday I attended the monthly Salt Lake meeting NASI songwriters meeting. I had hoped to play "Looks Like Rain" and get feedback from the group but I didn't get the chance. There were a about 30 attendees and 12 or so wanted to perform their songs. The lesson part went to about 8:30 and I had to leave around 9. I listened to a few good songs and had to leave. Rich Parkinson gave a seminar on recording and gave me a good idea about using a mic behind the guitar. So that's what I did today. I put an SM57 and an AKG vocal mic in front of the guitar and my Audio Technica condenser mic behind my shoulder. I spent a few hours recording "Looks Like Rain" and I think I'm getting some of the best acoustic guitar sounds yet. Then I spent some time working on a second guitar part to make it fuller.

Monday's a holiday so I plan to record the two guitar parts and put a vocal track on it. It will be a good demo at that point. I've been thinking of drum and bass tracks for "Looks Like Rain" and other production and arrangements ideas. I have a synth thing running in my mind for "Us". I hope to spend some time programming some drum tracks on Monday as well. I'll start brushing off "Don't Let Me Down" and "See You Tonight" and reheasring them.