A Quick Update...A Minor Setback...Studio Gremlins

Hey Kids! It's been a long time since I've added an update to the Digger Phelps Recording Session proceedings. We've mixed "Nightingale" as much as humanly possible and I think we're finally done tweaking around with it. It has been a great learning experience for us. After a greasy breakfast at The House of 200 Omelettes in Long Branch last Sunday (7/25/04), we began recording the next song for the project - "Slow it Down". We decided to record this next since we are considering using it as our addition for the next Main Man Records compilation (scheduled for release later this year). After a quick set-up, we ran through "Slow it Down" a few times and got what we thought was a good take after a short time. Everything seemed to fall into place pretty quickly and it was sounding fantastic - we each laid down our tracks and had a surprisingly "big sounding" recording. We threw down a quick scratch vocal and were satisfied with our work - taking only about six hours to get all of the basics done.

The next day, after mixing the song onto CD, Brian sent MP3s out to all of us to hear the song - which is when we all realized that something just wasn't right in the timing right after the solo break in the song. Breaking it down, it appeared that the band wasn't completely together coming out of the solo and listening to it the next day with fresh ears - we quickly came to the consensus that something needed to be done. Upon my suggestion, Brian tried a quick "punch in/punch out" on an errant cymbal hit that appeared to be causing much of the problem. We knew the "punch" was going to be a long shot as there was not very much room for error. One minor slip up and the whole drum track was going to be ruined...thereby ruining the whole recording --- and that's exactly what happened....

We were able to salvage a rough mix of the song (with the sloppy outro intact) which is available on the MP3 page at our website - Give it a listen, but remember this was a rough mix of the song with minimal tweaking and little equalization - and absolutely no effects. I think it represents the sound we were looking for on this track.

Back to the drawing board -- this past Thursday (7/29/04), we gave it another try. Since we really hadn't altered the levels very much, we were able to get rolling very quickly on Thursday - getting a really good take of the song after about three tries. In fact, we were all prepared to keep our "live" tracks on this tune because we all really felt like we nailed the song. Listening back, we were very excited about the prospect of leaving all of our tracks as is - keeping that "live" feeling to the song and then adding the vocals and additional percussion over the rest of the remaining tracks. While listening back on headphones, Clint discovered that the "click track" seemed to have bled over onto some of the other tracks - most significantly the two guitar tracks. While the song is rolling along, you can't notice it in the louder parts of the tune, but in some of the breaks in the song - it is quite obvious. Basically, it means that the "live" guitar tracks will have to be done over so that we can get rid of as much of the "click track" bleeding as possible. Essentially when beginning a new recording, your primary goal is to get a good drum take and then build off of that. So, we have a good drum take for "Slow it Down" that we'll be able to build upon. This coming Thursday, our goal is to get the rest of the tracks re-done and perhaps begin recording yet another song. Now that we're getting the hang of microphone placement and levels with the equipment that we're using, the basic set-up goes pretty quickly.

Featured Beverage of the "Slow it Down" Recording Sessions:

Amstel Light


Studio Session Time: 12:00pm - 6:00pm (7/25/04), 6:00pm - 10:00pm (7/29/04)

Total Hours These Sessions: 10 hours

Grand Total Studio Session Time for this Project (*not including the additional time spent mixing "Nightingale"): 21 Hours


CT
DP