Rough Mix of "Nightingale"

Here is a very rough mix of "Nightingale" from the other day. Again, nothing has been EQ'd yet - and there are some improvements still to be made on my guitar track. Once these tracks are mixed down to a digital four track recorder, we'll be adding some more vocals and possibly percussion and another guitar track.

This will give you an idea of how the song will take shape from its beginning -- right up until the final mix and subsequent mastering process to remove tape hiss and generally "clean up" the recording.

Your comments are welcome...

CT
DP

"Nightingale" (Day 1)

After a hearty breakfast at the Americana Diner in Shrewsbury, Brian, Clint, Michael and I headed over to Big Ed's Audio Pharm to begin work on the new record. Thursday's pre-production session proved to be well worth the effort as we were able get going with only some minor tweaking of the recording levels. 'Nightingale' is a pretty straight forward mid-tempo rock tune - one that we've already discussed as an opening track for the record. There were several false starts before getting a take that everyone was happy with. Some of the false starts were attributed to an instrumental free-form jam section that we decided to add to the beginning of the tune. It turned out to be well worth the effort though, as it really adds a bit of dynamics to start off the tune/record. Most of the false starts were the result of attempting to play the song to a "click" track. For those who may not know - a click track serves as a metronome, keeping perfect time. It's used as a reference to make sure that the tempo of the song does not speed up or slow down. Because of the nature of this song, we found that in order for the song to breathe the way it is supposed to - playing to the click track was inhibiting the performances - so we ditched it. Once the click track was gone, it only took about one or two more takes to get the one we wanted to keep.

One of the things that we've decided to try with this record, is to see if we can record the songs "live", rather than tracking each individual instrument. We spent quite a bit of time on Thursday evening cordoning off the amplifiers in seperate rooms in the studio, doing whatever it took to keep the instruments from bleeding onto each other's tracks. This will give us more control when we go to mix - but will still leave us with a "live" sounding recording. Unfortunately, the take that we kept had a great performance by Clint on the drums, however, both Michael and myself decided to re-do our tracks, recording them seperately to get better performances.

After the main guitar tracks were finished, Michael and I worked on adding some additional tracking to the ambient beginning of the song. Michael providing some cool sounding feedback - me adding some extra "fiddly bits". My main guitar track proved to be a bit frustrating to get onto record as I was plagued with a case of additional string noise coming from my guitar that I did not want on the recording. With a bit of work, I was able to get a take that I'm satisfied with. After that, Clint, Michael and I left Brian to re-record his bass track. He was getting a bit flustered with all of us standing around watching him (making wise ass remarks, of course) - so we made a run to the Spirits Mega Store for some beer. Brian recorded his track while we were gone, but plans on recording an even better take during the week.

With only one spare track left on the 8 track recorder, we decided to lay down a "scratch vocal" (a vocal track added for reference that is normally later scrapped for a true take. After a very quick mic set-up and sound check. We recorded a take -- and we were so happy with the performance that this will probably be the take that makes it onto the record. At least I redeemed myself as a "One Take Johnny" after floundering through my guitar track a bit.

Next, we threw a really quick mix of the song onto CD so we could see how things were progressing. One of the things you learn about recording is to listen to your mix of a song on several different stereos. I always believe that the best place to listen to a mix is in on your car stereo. Most people listen to music in their cars - so you want to make sure that it sounds good where people will most often hear it.

After playing back the mix a few times, we were all convinced that we had tracks that we could work with when we start to mix. This coming Thursday, we'll start 'EQ'-ing the tracks, giving each instrument its own unique tonality.

All in all, it was a great first session. A very productive seven hour day.

The recording has begun.

Today's Beverage List:

Amstel Light
Rock Green Light

Studio Session Time: 11:00am - 6:00pm
Total Hours This Session: 7

Grand Total Studio Time Carlos is a Jive Turkey Sessions: 11 hours

Carlos really IS a Jive Turkey...

Some of you may be wondering just what the hell this blog is all about. First of all, I have to say that the whole idea of "blogging", the words "blog" or "online journal", make me want to head for the hills. I decided long ago that I would not enter into this fray unless I really had something that I wanted to talk about and share over this crazy internet thing that the kids are all hip to nowadays. Finally, years after everyone else is "blogged out", I finally have a reason for a "blog".

Tonight, May 27th, 2004 began a new chapter in the life of my band, Digger Phelps. This is a journal to document the progress of the recording of our 2nd full length CD, Carlos is a Jive Turkey. Now you know where the title of this "blog" comes from.

When I say, "my band", it's for lack of a better term. The truth is, this band is really about four long time musicians and friends, working together to try and write songs that are entertaining for us to play - and hopefully just as entertaining for people to listen to. This year, Brian, Clint, Michael and I decided to embark on a new journey. After years of recording in other people's studios and paying for studio time to record our songs - we decided to pool all of our knowledge (and funds) together and purchase an old Tascam 388, 8 track recorder. Our hope is that this will enable us to finally make the record that we want to make without the pressure of having to get something done while under the weight of the ticking studio clock. We know that this will be a long process, with a lot of experimentation - but that is also where the fun comes in.

Influenced by the Wilco film, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, we all thought it would be a great thing to have complete control over our own recording. Some of the ideas that we've been discussing include taking each song one at a time - recording a few different versions of each tune, not just playing them as we have at live shows over the past year. Stripping each song down and building it back up, we hope to find some new ways to look at the tunes we have prepared for this record.

Tonight was technically the first night in the studio. The studio being Big Ed's Audio Pharm (better known as Brian's basement). Brian did some great work overhauling his basement into a rehearsal space and now studio space for us to try to work our magic. Since Brian is a former Tascam 388 owner and knows the most about recording, he has been entrusted as sound engineer for this project. Our first day of real recording will be this Saturday, however, we took the opportunity to do some pre-production work this evening in preparation for Saturday's recording session. We mostly worked on Clint's drum sound tonight - getting a good level for the recording of the drum track. The "mic"-ing of the drums is very important and can make or break the whole recording. Guitar sounds are usually easy to work out - but drums can be very erratic.

After working out drum sounds and getting a good headphone mix, we called it a night - all set for Saturday's first session where we will record the first tune for the new record - "Nightingale".

Oh yeah - almost forgot...tonight's featured beverages:

Rock Green Light
Yeungling Light Lager

Today's Studio Session: 7:00pm - 11:00pm

Total Hours Studio Time This Session: 4

Grand Total Hours Carlos is a Jive Turkey Sessions: 4 hours