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.