Tag Archives: recording

Thornfield CD: the final session (kind of)

I’ve been slacking on writing an update on where my band’s first album stands. So here goes!

Eric, Carrie and I spent the Sunday before Memorial Day in our final big recording session. Petras came in and did his final bass tracks during the first hour . . .

. . . we stretched our limbs and prepared our souls for the work ahead . . .

. . . and then it was up to the three of us to check everything off our master list and get this thing done.

With 19 tracks in various stages of completion, we still had lots of work to do–some djembe for our song Lucien . . .

. . . Eric’s awesome ipad organ for Watchman’s Back and Mary Sang . . .

. . . some of Carrie’s main vocals for Dive Down Deep, Breathless, and others . . .

. . . some re-do’s on parts of Eloise . . .

. . . some re-do harmonies from yours truly on Scarecrow (I was a tad bit off my game on the first go-around) . . . a lot of tambourine-ing . . .

. . . some glockenspiel for kicks (which adds a ton to the fabulous song Dinosaur), a little melodica, etc, etc.

6 1/4 hours after we entered, we were putting the final touches on the final songs.

You may remember that during our previous session, I had unexpectedly and irrationally been filled with terror when I approached the microphone to record my lead vocals on a song that had quickly become the embodiment of my recording fears: the dreaded Green Wheat and Poppies. After spending most of Sunday recording harmonies and banging the tambourine against my thigh, it was all coming down to this song.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from my emotions when the moment came. I gripped the mic stand to prepare myself.

But guys . . .  once I heard the guitar track playing in my headphones, I was 100% calm. It was 100% enjoyable.

I actually had fun.

I thought about the words I was singing, what I wanted to convey when I first wrote it, and just . . . let go.

Looks like the terror was a one-time thing, perhaps caused in large part because that was the first vocal track I had attempted (in retrospect, not a good idea–I should have warmed up to the whole thing with some harmony tracks).

Victory!

So what’s left, you may be asking?

Well. Well, well, well. I vill now tell you, ja.

So: our engineer Rick gave us his initial mixes last Wednesday. But as this is a self-produced album, it’s our responsibility to weigh in on the mixes and participate in that process to the fullest. So we have been listening to each track over and over, taking notes on any changes we want (lots), met Friday to discuss them all, and have emailed our list to Rick.

This week, Rick will re-mix with our requested changes, and give us the new set.

Then, we will listen again and take detailed notes again.

Then, we will schedule a meeting with him to go over all our thoughts and get the final mix in place. This will include re-recording any tiny pieces that just can’t be re-worked with digital magic (hence the “kind of” disclaimer after that words “final session”). At that point, we will listen to all the tracks together in the studio and make the decision that that’s all she wrote. (Which I hope we can make in good conscience–I don’t want any of us to feel like we’re compromising on the quality of our stuff.)

Once that’s accomplished, it’s just (“just”! Hah!) a matter of putting everything together–editing the amazing pictures that my friend Zane took of us the other weekend and deciding on an album cover and an EP cover. Divvying up the 19 tracks into an album and an EP (the EP will be released a little later) and finalizing the song order on each of those. Getting copyrighting and all the legal stuff done. Finalizing the verbiage we need on the album with all the right credits (I’m already terrified of forgetting someone). Getting the graphic design for the jacket done. Placing the order for the CD’s, and paying our dues and going through whatever channels we need to get it on itunes and other methods of digital distribution.

And then, having a CD-release party/gig, promoting the heck out of it using whatever channels we can, and seeing once and for all if this lovely album is going to make any more than approximately $40.

Which I think it will . . . but ultimately–and I say this from my heart–I don’t care if we never recover our investment. Because guys–I love this album. I’m proud of this album. And I’d do it all over again even if we were our only audience.

But let’s be honest–I could definitely use a margarita (or three) to help me get through these final steps.

Over and out!

The terror of the microphone

My story of our 2nd studio session wouldn’t be complete without a brief story about my experience recording lead vocals.

Carrie is our main singer and band leader, and for the most part, I stick to harmonies and guitar, with a little rhythm (egg shaker + tambourine) thrown in here and there. But there are a few songs–currently Denali, Green Wheat, and Pierced Through–that I take the lead vocals on.

After having an easy time getting clean guitar tracks during our first session and having a blast singing my heart out doing scratch vocals, I wasn’t really nervous about session #2. At all.

The situation: it was 1pm. Eric, Carrie and I were loaded in, tuned up, and warmed up, and our engineer Rick was ready at the mixing board. We had a couple hours before our friends Jon, Graham and Peter arrived to lay down their instrument tracks, so we needed to get lead vocals done for all the songs they were contributing to.

Which, for the purposes of this story, included Denali and Green Wheat.

Carrie started off strong with great takes on Scarecrow, Eloise, and a handful of other songs.

Eric continued, nailing his lead vocals on Dinosaur and Lucien.

 And then . . . it was my turn.

I stepped into the recording room and approached the microphone.

It had a funny little gold screen in front of it, which I’m sure serves some very important purpose.

And suddenly it was time to sing . . . for real.

As soon as I put the headphones on and faced that microphone, the nerves hit me like a punch in the gut. I felt that sinking/whooshing feeling, and all my breath support checked out of my body and went to hang out on another planet. Far, far away from my lungs where I really needed it to be.

“Rolling,” said Rick. The guitar track started playing in my ears. I stepped closer to the mic and opened my mouth.

guikgl

Somebody let me outta here!

Yes, I had a sense of humor about my own terror and hammed it up for the camera, but sadly that didn’t mean that the real terror went away.

I recorded a first take of Green Wheat–disastrous. Breathy, erratic, and the more erratic I heard myself getting, the more erratic my vocals became. But I pushed through the whole song even though I knew it was destined for deletion, just to give myself time to calm down and get into a groove.

After the first take, I turned to my bandmates and our engineer, who could hear everything from their perches on the other side of the glass. I couldn’t help but pity them all–nothing is more painful than sitting through an erratic performance by a nervous performer. I know from experience–it makes your soul kind of crinkle up and your cheek twitch.

“Um, wow,” I said. “Uf! Okay. I’m pretty freaked out right now guys.”

Oh, you guys. I psych myself out over lead vocals, purely because I know my part is the center of attention. Put me in front of the same mic to do harmonies, and I’m fairly calm and collected. But as soon as my brain registers “YOU ARE IN THE SPOTLIGHT, BABY,” something inside me clenches up and tries to wrestle my confidence into oblivion and beyond.

But that said, it didn’t make sense to be freaked out, dangit. It was totally irrational:

a) All three of these individuals had heard me sing lots in the past, so I had nothing to prove to them.

b) I’d been singing fine up until this point in this exact same studio, with this exact same group of people.

c) If I recorded a bad take, it could be deleted forever, so no horrible consequences were hanging over my head. In fact, I could record 100 million takes, and only the one I liked would ever be heard by the Peoples.

So why? WHY???

I just had to try and rationalize what was happening, or at least isolate some factors that I could perhaps control. The factors that came to mind were:

-I usually sing these particular 3 songs while playing the guitar–seated, and kind of hunched over my instrument. So standing up to sing them felt very different.

-When I stand and sing into a mic at our live performances (or at church), I usually hold the mic in what my husband calls my ‘death grip’ and kind of brace myself with the stand. Having something to grab that anchors me physically helps me feel more secure emotionally. I even rest my lips on the actual mic sometimes, especially if my eyes are closed, to maintain my sense of place and balance. So: standing next to this gold-screened mic with nothing to grab or touch, just my tall and lanky body hovering near it, made me feel unmoored. Unstable. A leaf in the wind.

With this quick (out-loud) psychological self-analysis complete, our engineer Rick (bless his heart) gave me a mic to hold that wasn’t even connected to anything–it was just something to grab.

Then he turned off the overhead lights, leaving only the red glow of the twinkle lights.

I sang in the dark for my next take, gripping the mic with all my strength, and alternately gripping my own arms and torso (and possibly collarbone? hard to say what I gripped during that frightening time).

The results: much better, but still quite wavery. By the third take, I was feeling waaaay better. So when we moved on to the next song, Denali, I was able to get it in one take–woohoo!

As of right now, Denali and Pierced Through are done, and I am pleased with the results. But sadly, after those 3 takes of Green Wheat, I decided to jump ship and leave it for another day. What’s that saying? “He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day”? Right-o.

So the lead vocals for Green Wheat will be attacked during our last session. I can do this . . . right?

Any recommendations for beating this frightful monster of nerves? Because it’s highly annoying.