Longing for the day ...

Alive and Alone - percussion permission

This week I've been mucking about with the percussion parts. Not every song has one, but since that's my strong suit I thought I'd start there. As you may have noticed, I have a heap of percussion toys to play with and I've written some combination of snare, djembe, shakers, tambourine, etc into most of the tracks.

I've miked everything up carefully with the same combination of things including the ambient AKGs and so far I've gotten down Hearts With You (snare/hats/tambo) and Long 4 the Day (shaker/hats/tambo) all in one take each. Here's a pic of me playing the snare, etc on Heart's With You:
Can't wait to get the rest of them done this weekend!!

Alive and Alone - better than expected ...

Tonight, after a hard day back at the office I say down and listened back to the guides I recorded yesterday. I had feared that, given my fatigue levels and lack of concentration, some of them would be incredibly sloppy and unusable ... but actually, they're quite OK.

To be clear, there are some awful bits, but a lack of practice, too many distractions and the need to concentrate on so many aspects of the process will do that to ya!  :-)  In the end, only one track needed a bit cut out where I'd played a G or G7 for two long because I'd fogotten what I was supposed to be playing ... whoops!!

Next phase - I think I'll put down the percussion next. That's what I'm usually best at so it should be the quickest. Plus it will buy me time to rehearse the bits I'm less confident on before I have to record them. I'm thinking of going with this combination of parts:

1. Red Hot Blow:- Guit-stomp/Guit2 (slide)/Djembe-hats

2. Simplicity:- Guit/Rhodes/Whistle

3. Mighty Fine Day:- Guit-stomp/Guit2 (slide)/Piano

4. Forever Mine:- Guit-stomp/Whurlie/Whistle

5. When It's Over:- Guit-stomp/Banjo/Djembe

6. She Don't Want Your Love:- Rhodes/Guit/Djembe-Bongos

7. Long 4 the Day:- Guit-stomp/Mando/Snare-hats

8. Home Free:- Guit-stomp/Guit2 (slide)/Djembe-hats

9. Heart's With You:- Guit-stomp/Banjo/Snare-hats

10. Whiskey and History:- Guitar-stomp/Banjo/Shaker-tambo

I think that makes for a diverse selection with enough in common to sound like it's a single project. :-) Two songs have no percussion except the stomp box, which I'll play at the same time as the main guitar part. 

Here's what the studio looks like tonight:

Alive and Alone - stage 1 accomplished

Recorded all the guide tracks today. Happy with that but it's not as much as I'd hoped to achieve. I was hoping to have some of the main guitars down as well.

There were several reasons for delays - one was that I put the washing on and could hear the machine in the recordings so I had to stop and wait for that. Coulda done without the neighbour mowing his lawn, too. Another was the constant need to press record on three things: my laptop camera, the video camera; and Pro Tools. The stop, then process, etc. It would definitely have been easier to have someone else doing all that.

Also, I didn't do even close to enough practice, so my fingers are killing me. Some of the tracks were a bit ordinary towards the end but I just wanted to get them done. All good, anyway ...

So, tomorrow I get to listen back, make sure they're all good enough and, if so, start working out what to put with them ... and, of course, record the actual guitar parts next.

Looking forward to the next stage ... 

Alive and Alone - the plan

In 2007 I released I am Leaving! I am Leaving! and toured the USA and Canada, playing some solo acoustic shows on my way to interview people and attend the Independent Music Conference in Philadelphia, at which I played more shows. The general response to my shows was unbelievably positive, but one question that came up was why my album was full studio production when my show was me and an acoustic guitar.

Reasonable point ...

When I returned, I immediately set about recording an acoustic album, equipped with what I'd learned from the first one, some of the original songs and some new ones. The plan was to release it along with what I'd learned from the first release and hopefully do better. Unfortunately, in the middle of the recording, a crisis hit and I got divorced, so never finished the recording. Getting back to that has been one of my goals for some time - the time is now!

I'm keeping it simple - each song will have a maximum of three parts, all played and sung by me, recorded in my study/lounge room. The main part will be me playing guitar and singing lead, the other parts a variety of instruments that I think suit the song. I've blocked out the three weekends of January (5-6, 12-13, and 19-20) that I don't have the kids with me, which gives me all day every day to record. The idea is to get down roughly one part per weekend, and I'll do the revisions and editing in the evenings through the week.

For the tech-heads, here's a video of how things are set up for this recording and a look inside the studio:



Here's the setlist (in no particular order):

1. Red Hot
   

2. Simplicity
   

3. Mighty Fine Day
   

4. Forever Mine (formerly Vital Signs)
   

5. When It's Over
   

6. She Don't Want Your Love
   

7. I Long 4 the Day
   

8. Home Free (formerly Be Free)
   

9. Heart's With You
   

10. Whiskey and History

If I get time, I'll throw in a bonus track or two.

First goal for this weekend is to get the studio set up and sounding good. Tomorrow I want to get some guides down, and hopefully most of the main guitar parts. I'll post updates and samples as they come along ...