Nothing specific or grand to report today so much as I can provide the few of you reading this with a preview of things to come.
The songs that have final vocals have been uploaded to Jesse's server so he can do mixing in Baton Rouge during the week. He's got tears on the pavement to almost where I want it... I'm not sure where it stands in his mind, but I usually have to assume that if he sends me a mix, he's happy with it. The Ballad of Two Friends of Mine is still not there yet and I don't believe he's worked on anything else, but we'll get there.
So anyway:
A long (long time ago in a galaxy far away) time ago Jesse and I took some photo's for a Cowboys of Porridge album which at that point was still just a joke between us and Don. Then we did some photo shop magic to make the album cover.
Well in my Educational Technologies class this semester, one of my assignments was to create a tutorial on how to do something. I was thinking about doing a StudioONE tutorial on how to do the assignment that I still have to do for "Cluster C" which is all about sound editing, but the FirePod has unsynced itself with my laptop and I'm, darn it to hell, just to lazy to reboot at the moment. So I made a quick tutorial on how we made the Ridin' Steam album cover. I made sure to have a Cowboys of Porridge song playing in the background so people could get a preview of what the albums going to sound like, that is to say, this is what it would sound like if you were hearing it over the phone.
So there is the link to the tutorial on how we basically made the album cover. It's missing final tweaks to make the final image a duplicate of what's below but the filters are essentially the same. There is a snippet of Dead Man's Curve playing in the background. Not an exciting update I suppose but it's all I have to report for now. Hope you enjoy!
Not much to report today. It's Valentine's Day. But obviously, as I'm blogging, there is something.
I was cheated from slumber today as I hearkened to the ring ring ring of my telephone at a early hour of 10am. It was Rick calling. He wanted to borrow an old Sigma acoustic guitar that was sitting around in my room. He wanted to hotrod it into a "campfire beater." I said okay and got dressed, apparently he was around the corner when he called.
Anyway, that wasn't that big of a deal. I was already 2 hours more into sleep than I was planning on since I told my girlfriend to wake me up at 8am when she woke up... She woke me up and instead of hanging out with her like I had originally wanted, my sleep deprived body said "okay, have fun, I'm going back to sleep." I haven't been sleeping well.
I made a doctors appointment and ran some errands and headed over to Trips house about noon. I was picking up the final mixes from the In Liquid album. Have to do some final listens to make sure the whole album sounds roughly the same. I haven't had a chance to listen yet since I left Trips house and immediately went to work and just got home from that. While I was used to working 9-10 hour shifts for the last 4 years at the casino, this past month of working 4 hour shifts has left me unprepared to actually work 8's again. I'll be burning cd's for Cheesy, Jesse and I in the morning so we can each listen and make commentary. Which will most likely end up being Jesse making commentary since Cheesy seems totally disinterested in the whole process and I simply lack the ear.
But while I was at Trips, I did manage to do something CoP related. I laid down a lead vocal for Holy Man. Lots and lots of "oh yeah" in that song. I didn't snap any pictures for today's blog so you'll all just have to imagine me yelling "oh yeah" into a mic and Trip trying not to giggle and he says "uh... okay, do it again, watch your pitch on yeah."
It was funny. Trust me.
So that's about it... In Liquid album almost done, Cowboys of Porridge album about 50% done on lead vocals... Still trying to get Kory to do a lead vocal on something. Beginning of March not looking like a good release date anymore, but maybe the end of March. We can release it for my birthday. Maybe on March 29th, the same date Stephen Lynch is playing the House of Blues in Houston.
Happy Valentine's day to all your lucky oatlings out there and may this years harvest be as bountiful as lasts.
Today was excitingly productive. Which I suppose it needed to be for those of you keeping up with this since it's been almost 3 weeks, I think, since my last post. Well, things stagnate.
Rick came by today and laid down some fiddle. I set up the room with a chair and condenser mic in the usual place behind the computer and set up a condenser way off in the corner for a little more open airy sound.
To be appropriate, we started with the intro. First take was good but not what I was looking for so I had Rick redo it and he razzed me because I'd been telling him "play whatever you want, I don't know how to play fiddle so I can't tell you what to do"
Okay, so I know what doesn't sound good... that doesn't mean I know what WILL sound good.
Dead Man's Curve tracking screen
After that we moved onto Dead Man's Curve. You know, the end of the album. Actually the logic was do all the songs that don't have harmonica yet and we'll see how things go. Dead Man's Curve just happened to be the next track in the list that didn't have harmonica. It took a few tries, three I believe, and that one was in the bag. We moved on.
It was a little more peculiar working with Rick than Kory or Tim. I've known Rick a lot longer than the other two guys, but probably talked to him less over the last 10 years than I have Tim or Kory in the last three months. That's not a problem so much as it's odd. The really peculiar thing is that while I told all the musicians the same thing "I want you to do what you do best and what you feel comfortable with and unless it's terrible, you play whatever you want. I'm probably not gonna tell you any different," each musicians has become increasingly... less confident? That's probably not the accurate word but the point is:
Tim showed up, played his thing, had ideas, did takes, said he was or wasn't happy with stuff, gave actual feedback as if he were an active member of the band and these songs were every bit as much his as ours. It was great, he really took ownership of the songs and there were songs where he said he just wouldn't fit in and he would ruin it by being there.
Kory didn't have that option, being on drums, but he had almost the same approach, just a little more unsure about himself. Kory came in, played his parts and wrote a few that were different from what I'd programmed and would stop me in the middle of recording saying "I can do that better, I know I can." We'd redo it, but even when he takes were perfect he always had the question "Is that what you're looking for? Was that good enough? Do you want me to do it again?" I quickly learned Kory always thinks what he played could be better so I just assured him it was fine when it was and we moved on.
Rick warming up to some random fiddle part
With Rick, things were different. He loves the tunes, thinks some of them are going to be hits and just wants us to "remember the little guys when we go places." Optimistic indeed. I like that. Also, an amazing player he didn't need much coaching but he didn't seem particularly pleased or disturbed by any takes. It was "here's what I got" and lets go. I asked him if he wanted to do a solo on Mowin' the Shoulder and he said "Umm, sure I can try that." He finished and I asked how he felt about it he said "I'm not sure, we can listen." We did it again, same question, response: "I think it was better." We did it again, same question, "I think it was better. Is that what you're looking for?"
Again, Rick is amazing and I was just pleased as punch to have him come play (and he expressed flattery at having been asked) and I'm not displeased with the experience but I feel like I wasn't the right person to be producing his parts. I think had Jesse been here we'd have come up with some different stuff, of course we'd have probably recorded 2 songs in the hour and a half we worked today, not 6.
But to not leave everyone on the edge of their seat, here's a preview of what to expect for the album. This is Rick warming up for Two Bowls of Porridge. This particular cut didn't make it onto the album but you'll get the idea.
Hope to see you in the fields, the reaping draws near!
.JPG)
.JPG)