Band on a budget - the recording process part 19

Ok, this is well overdue. Stuff has happened, like Christmas, and other things, that have delayed progress, but there has been some progress.
Here's an early listen to the third track I've been working on, Northshoremen:
https://soundcloud.com/the-southern-wild/northshoremen-20180121/s-kN8Re
It still needs the lead guitar parts adding and the backing vocals. There may yet be space for some banjo and or mandolin. If these do go in we'll make space for them by cutting bits from the accordion and existing guitar parts.

I've also made a bit of progress with a solo thing I've been working on for a while:
https://soundcloud.com/blinddrew/road-song-20180121/s-GVItz
This isn't the latest version, but it's the last one I've got downloaded.

Today though I went back to the band stuff and had a look at Denmark Street. The bass part is full of glitches and needs completely re-recording, but this should be straightforward. In the meantime I've been fixing all the glitches in the drum track and sorting out the odd timing issue with my guitar part. Sadly the other guitar part is also going to need rerecording. Add it to the list...
On the positive side, this should be a simpler mix as we're going for a much more stripped back vibe on this track - I think.

Band on a budget - the recording process part 16

Just a quick update from me this time. I've done more work on Words (despite saying I was parking it for a bit, meh) and it's shaping up reasonably well. The latest version is here: https://soundcloud.com/the-southern-wild/words-20170930/s-XUZsU
I've had some feedback from my listening group that I'll need to factor in:
Vocals too loud.
Drums a bit boomy in the 100 - 150Hz zone and a bit dull overall.
Bit of a glitch in the bass part at the opening of the bridge.
Oomph drops off a bit too early after the peak when it comes out of the bridge.
All of these are workable.

The challenge now is how long it's taken me to get to this point.

So this afternoon I'm going to try and blitz Shadowbones and see how quickly I can work it up to a first cut.

Band on budget - the recording process part 9

Well, that's the vocals done. Pretty happy with what I've got over the last couple of days even if it has taken longer than I'd have liked. Not for technical reasons this time, just because I was knackered this morning and didn't get going 'til lunch time and because of the competition recording yesterday afternoon (which went quite well I think, and I now own a shiny new mic, see below:

We'll give that a spin at the next band practice methinks).


As for the actual vocal recording, that's largely been hassle free. Just a case of setting up to try and minimise room noise, getting the mics aligned to minimise phase issues and then setting levels. Very much stuff I've done before lots of times, the only difference being using the Art pre-amp to try and add a bit of colour - to be frank, I'm not sure it's made a great deal of difference but I'll have a more analytical listen later. There's certainly nothing I'm unhappy with there.


Next up is recording my acoustic guitar parts.
Arguably this should be pretty straightforward as well but there are a couple of complications:
1) a couple of the parts are quite complex, particularly Northshoremen, and
2) I've never really been happy with the recorded sound I've got to date.


So for the rest of this afternoon I'm going to experiment with some different mics and placements to see if I can get something better. I'm pretty certain I should be able to. I can't believe that it's an issue with the kit - no matter how budget my set up, I'm sure it's capable of what I'm looking for.


Right, enough prevaricating, let's crack on.

A brief note on classifications.

It works like this: a category 1 error is a musical error that i make on stage but no-one else (not even Dr Jones) notices; i make a lot of these. A category 2 error is a mistake i make but only Dr Jones notices (I make a few of these - i tend to get away with them because we have so few recorded tracks that people don't know the songs). A category 3 error is one that the audience notice; sadly i make a few of these as well.
Some people hardly seem to make errors at all. I've seen Boo Hewerdine play a few times and been struck by how incredibly precise he is. At one gig he played for an hour and twenty minutes and there was just one brief moment of fret-buzz in the whole set. Most people wouldn't have noticed but i was kind of fixated.
But that whole paragraph above is just filler whilst i nervously broach the idea of a fourth category of error. I propose a category 4 error should exist for the those times when it's such a collosal fuck-up that you have to re-start the song.
The reason that i find myself suggesting this new category is because a meer category 3 doesn't seem nearly enough to describe my screw up on monday. We'd got a last minute support with Eileen Rose and the Holy Wreck and i managed to open up the gig with the wrong chord and an absolute unholy balls-up of our opening song. I swore, Dr Jones laughed, we started again.
Every one else was very good though!
Enjoy the odd photo to take your mind off it...