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.

Today has been a good day.

Today we (Studio Stew and I) have done a lot in a surprisingly short time. This means that i am now listening to cd with a draft mix of the entire album.
Yep, it's finally getting there.
And it has double bass on it...

Nearly two years since we started but we have one possible piece of recording to do (it's one of those things that might not work) but, that aside, we're onto mixing and mastering.
WOOHOO!

Now all i have to do is sort out some gigs, find a manufacturer, create the artwork, sort out a venue for the launch, arrange advertising etc etc etc...

What the hell, today is still a good day.

Of Polls, progress, profits, piracy and portents.

So, the poll closed and the voting public had their say. And very helpful it was too. Half of you said cds, half of you said downloads (approximately). So based on that i am absolutely no further down my decision path. I think i would need a larger sample size but, as i shall come to, it no longer matters.

Progress on the album has leapt forward despite my recent, resurgent cold. We've had Adam in giving the skins a battering, Hils has been back in demonstrating more of her multi-instrumentalist skills and we've also had Mr Chisolm and his banjo joining in the shenanigans.
There's still about half a dozen things left to record and then we're into mixing and mastering; which seems to involve Stew and I getting ever more picky about 64ths of a second until we have to go outside and remind ourselves what the sun looks like. But it's still kind of fun...

Anyway, once we've got the songs finished we've got to decide what to do with them. Or rather, we've decided what to do with them. You see the problem is, people just aren't buying cds any more. Not just my cd i should point out! Even good stuff isn't selling in that format.
And for a tiny label like SOUP they just can't afford the up-front costs of runs of cds and then sitting on the boxes. Basically the profit margin isn't there. And it's not like we can rely on the download sales to offset the initial cost, after the VAT man and Apple have had their chunk there isn't a great deal left.
So sorry to all those folks who were hoping for a cd but unless i can figure out a cheap way of producing a high quality short run, then it's soft copy only from now on.

So why aren't cds selling anymore? Is it because of music piracy? Should we all be rushing out to petition the government to run the digital britain bill through the house as quickly as possible? Should we bollox. It's got bugger all to do with piracy. The buying public has moved on, that's what's happened and we have to move with it. What we should be doing is petitioning our MPs not to sign the digital britain bill because it's a bog-awful piece of knee-jerk, lobbyist-led legislation that cannot be currently implemented and can be abused in the future.
But that's probably a different blog...

And what of our 5th alliteration? Well, i reckon there's two sides to that. Firstly, if musicians can't make money on hard-copy sales and (perversely) there's not enough return on soft-copy sales then you've got to expect gig prices to go up. Or the quality of music to go down i guess, but i doubt it's that straightforward.
But return on investment will have to come from somewhere (and don't give me that "sell t-shirts and signed records" shite; that's for established bands only i'm afraid, otherwise it's just more upfront investment and capital tied up in stock).
Secondly little labels like ours will leave the market, they'll concentrate on areas that will guarantee a living. This, i think, would be a bad thing as it will just further the gap between the major label artists and the bedroom amateurs.

Well, that's tonight's depressing blog. Just remember the good stuff! Album's into the finishing straight now, one day soon we will be finished.
Oh yes, and we're playing at Verve in Leeds on the 15th of april so if you're in the vicinity why not pop in. While it's still free...