Band on a budget - the recording process part 15

Needed to give my ears a rest for a bit so I pulled this little teaser video together just for a change.

Band on a budget - the recording process part 14

Well I have been doing quite a bit more work on Words and it now sounds like this:
https://soundcloud.com/the-southern-wild/words-20170826/s-lsaXF
Still needs plenty doing to it, e.g. all the main stems will need some volume automation to bring out (and down) different bits throughout the song, the piano bits will probably need some decluttering, it still needs a couple more bits of ear candy - some kind of back vocals bits and some rhythmic bits.
Aside from all that there's a bit of in-band debate about the synth part and whether it is required or not, and this comes down to what we want the end product to sound like.
I shall be parking this one for a bit now though as I've got a bit too close to it for any objective analysis. I think it's shaping up the right way but a bit of distance is required before any next steps.

So now I just have to choose what to work on next...

Band on a budget - the recording process part 13

I managed to pull a muscle in my back yesterday so instead of being out and about making the most of the good weather I have been sitting here fiddling with knobs- Finbar Saunders eat your heart out.

I've been working on Words still to try and get a bit more separation in the instruments, a bit more lift to the drums and get the vocals a bit more consistent.

Here's where I've got to so far: https://soundcloud.com/the-southern-wild/words-20170813/s-KubY3

Next step will be to work on the bass sound a bit to help it cut through (add a bit of amp simulation to start with I think) and then look at compressing the drums a bit to get a bit more control on them.

Then it's probably going to be a case of parking this one whilst we consider production and other instruments.

Band on a budget - the recording process part 12

Well that was a pain in the arse but it's now done.
Sorted out the guitar parts for Words over the last days or so. Took the 23 takes of the main rhythm guitar part and comped them down to a best section then did some tweaking to line everything up nicely to the drums.
When I was doing the recording I also recorded some supplementary chord work that I've also been sorting the timing out for so dull job done but I think it's shaping up quite well.
Fixed a little error on the main vocal as well by substituting a previous take.
Next job is to lob a High Pass Filter (HPF) across all the channels apart from the kick and bass and do a little EQ and light compression on the acoustic guitars.
After that we're waiting on the other guitar parts and then I need to get everyone over to have a listen and agree a production approach - personally I think a bit of piano would work very nicely so I'll have to see if someone fancies giving it a go.

In the meantime I'll start having a look at the guitars for Northshoremen.

Here's a little screen shot of what I've been working on the recently:

[EDIT] and here's quick render of how it's sounding so far: https://soundcloud.com/the-southern-wild/words-20170806/s-jaBeu

Band on a budget - the recording process part 11

Thank you to everyone who's been reading along, especially if you've been emphathising with the guitar tracking issues, so far it has been every bit as challenging as I was expecting.

Sadly however now it all slows down...

I'm back at work tomorrow, so from now on we'll be looking at occasional weekend time and snatched evenings here and there.
We are in a bit of a pause period anyway though, I have one more bit of recording to do (some organ sounds via my guitar pedal) and then it's tidying up the guitar parts and sending all the stems over to the guitarist for him to record his parts. All of which is pretty dull and mechanical really.
The interesting bit really starts again when we've pulled all that lot together, got some basic 'faders-up' mixes for everyone to listen to, and start thinking about how we want to produce the songs.

All of which will have to wait to for a bit, as, dear reader, will you.

Thanks for staying with me this far, I'll be updating again with each bit of progress along the way but it will be far more intermittent.

Because this is the internet, here's a picture of a cat: