Posts about the making of ‘Sweet Simulacra’

Mixing of the new cd is complete!

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… or as complete as my wallet will allow. heh. The rest of the session went pretty fast with little fanfare. Paul and I re-tracked more vocals and added a few extra keyboard tracks here and there. ‘Ego’, ‘Sweet Simulacra’ and ‘First Five’ got the treatment they deserved and sound even better with the additional parts. Just some extra junk to push them further along (or off?) the bridges, as if the listener needed to hear more noise in the mix.

Today we’re doing a photo shoot. My friend Amanda kindly offered to take them gratis! She rented a colorful suite at this over-the-top, chic hotel and will be taking individual and group portraits. Should be a fun time. Better than doing the cliche ‘band standing in front of brick wall’ or ‘band standing on railroad tracks’ or ‘band covered in honey, running naked off cliff while being chased by pack of George Rodrigue Blue Dogs’ photos.

I’ll put a few snippets of the new material up this week. So check back soon for some music instead of words.

Marathon Monday

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Don’t you like my smarmy post titles?

The past two days have been long 10-11 hr. sessions. Working early in the morning for my day job, trying to bill for at least 5 hours and then running up to the studio for noon to 10pm mixing is gonna wipe me out by the end of the week. I’m still having a blast. We’ve redone a lot of vocals and tweaked a few more. When I say ‘tweaked’, I should say ‘tuned’. Yes, I will admit to you dear reader, jeff is using pitch correction software here and there instead of re-singing some of the stuff. We’re taking full advantage of the digital age, but not overdoing it. The vocals still sound very natural – not like that Cher song heh. Paul is being extremely careful to keep it all in check.

Yesterday Trey and his bro Chris (The Brothers CaraMichael) stopped by to listen and suggest a few drum enhancements. They also helped rearrange the audio bloodbath ending to ‘Little Doll’. The song had quite a jam session in the rough mix so we trimmed it back a few bars and rearranged some of the parts so they build up nicely to the end. We also discovered and implemented several forgotten Holt keyboard parts that were even better than the original take used in scratch version. ‘So Green’ didn’t need too much help, so that one was done soon afterwards.

Jumping back to Chris, I must thank him for introducing me to Cubase and the wonderful world of computer-based multi-tracking software a few years ago . It has helped me become a better songwriter because I can try out lots of different ideas quickly. I don’t know how I lived without it before. Everything was so painful to get out or maneuver around once it was on a cassette 4-track or even the cheesy digital 8-track with only 100mb of storage. Still, I am far from mastering it in terms of getting quality sounds and mixes, hence-to-for-with the need for Paul and Artisan’s help.

We added a few more surprises to ‘Ego’ and ‘Be Cool’ today. Funny experiments mainly to ‘Ego’. That exercise was just too fun. Tye came in to the control room scratching his head wondering what the hell we were doing. I won’t spoil it for you though. They are tucked deep in the mix – nothing terribly overt. Paul also rendered a version of the song without them in case the rest of the band freaks when they hear it.

Paul has also made instrumental versions of the tunes as well, in case 2 years from now I want to have someone else sing them. Or maybe he is secretly entering the songs in a Dallas Karaoke contest with William Shatner as a guest star. “MY MY MY alchoholicalterego ego E-Go! egough. COMES stumblingintotakethe FAHHHLLL for MEEEE – AND HE’S GONE!!!” Please reference his version of ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ if you don’t understand.

Mixin’ Fun Has Begun

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Friday – GLosers CD release was greatness – lots of new and old faces drinking, listening and buying ‘shuffled’. I’ll post a review of the album later.

Saturday – Back at Artisan. Was nice to see Tye and Paul again. We started late on Saturday afternoon due to technical difficulties but were able to complete ‘Hollywooden Dreams’. I think Paul wanted to get that one out of the way because it was his least favorite track (I am paranoid and making assumptions of course), but when I presented him with the over-hyped string part, he was giddy and provided me with several bursts of praise once he heard it all the way through. Glad I’m shelling out the extra bucks to spend a lot of time with each song’s mix so they’ll be as polished as possible.

Next, we began working on ‘So Green/Human Reel’. There was a question with Chris’ piano part in the rough mix, but we determined it was warbly due to 2 takes appearing simultaneously. A quick edit job (mute this here, open this there) did the trick and now it sounds correct. As previously noted, I tortured Chris, one of the best guitarists in town, with this quick piano run-hook that was really easy to program on the computer, but hard to actually play live – hehe.

Perhaps I should compile all of the mixin’ notes and post the highlights at the end – I’m afraid of this blog thingy turning into short posts like:

Got up at 6:21 am
Shaved – but my razor was dull – urgh! I need new razors
Smoked a cigarette outside – it was cold! OMG this weather!!
Decided to telecommute today – but my connection was slower than usual. Oh well. It beats that traffic! LOL!!!
etc. etc. blah blah freakin’ blah.

Anyway – here’s the proposed order of the cd if you care. Chris came up with it and I likey.

1. Sweet Simulacra
2. First Five
3. So Green/Human Reel
4. Ego
5. Little Doll
6. You’ll Come Around
7. The World’s Ventriloquist
8. Anymore
9. Mariner’s Dilemma
10. Hollywooden Dreams
11. Be Cool

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

/in , /by

Long long day. Got up early to finish some lyrics for a song called ‘Anymore’. I had several different lines and finally was able to shape the best ones into a good bridge. Got to the studio at Noon and started with backing vox. Paul and I had some fun overdoing or ‘YES-afying’ some of them for ‘The World’s Ventriloquist’. 4 part harmony staccato, falsetto punches. I doubt they will make the cut, but I’ll make sure I burn a copy of the song with them for a bonus track on this site. Mark Pittman will shoot me if I leave them on the final version.

Eric stopped by to finish his last lead guitars for the remaining coupla songs and sang backing ‘bahs’ for ‘Anymore’. We then took a late lunch break and consumed massive doses of cholesterol in the form of mexican food from Blue Goose. Even though the studio is a long drive away, the number of restaurants in nearby Addison is staggering.

We returned a bit too sated. My next batch of backing vocal flubs caused me to meltdown a bit. Was unable to sing a part on ‘Little Doll’ correctly. I eventually settled down and nailed it – but the self-deprication was in full effect by that point. I think Paul has grown weary of my repeated requests for God to damn me. Thank goodness Holt came in to relieve me of my recording duties.

Chris took care of about 5 keyboard parts, playing on a beautiful grand piano, rhodes and a vintage Hmmond B3. The songs are coming together and we’ll have a ton of parts to choose from during mxdown. ‘Little Doll’ in particular was quite nice and I got all goose-bumpy during his rendition. I think he broke his wrists during ‘Ventriloquist’ – a lot of bang bang bang bang bang bang chords to play.

Just a couple more days remain to finish about 3 backing vox, one guitar part, percussion and hopefully a few cool science experiments!

Saturday Studio Notes

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Holt arrived first to record on three tunes before road-tripping to Austin for a gig with Salim. Extremely efficient session. More lead and backing vocals. Eric layed down more lead parts in the evening. He’s such a perfectionist, which I admire, refusing to allow even a single blemish to get through to the final take.

After a satisfying session we went to the Flying Saucer to check out Nick Ramirez’s band. Nick also plays in Olospo with Chris. They did a phenomenal cover of Men at Work’s ‘Overkill’. I need to re-buy those first two albums and examine them with adult ears. Oh, and bring back bad memories of complete awkwardness in junior high.

Friday Studio Notes

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The day flew by quickly. Tons of lead vocals. I sang meh ass off. A song called ‘Hollywooden Dreams’ proved quite difficult since it is quiet and mostly falsetto. Paul and I tried to pick the best lines, examining the timbre and breath with a microscope. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m trying to sing this stuff and would prefer a true professional take over. What the hell though – they are my babies. I’ll deliver them as best I can. Perhaps someone will want to adopt them and give them better clothing and food. Ok, enough self-deprecation – a constant theme of mine.

Eric started doing lead guitar parts tonight. We set up the amp and ran a long cable into the control room so he could just hang out with us while he recorded = a laid back and comfortable way to track if you ask me. Punch-in instructions didn’t have to be relayed thru the pa, which would have taken twice as long to get everything ‘correct’. No headphones either. We just listened to everything over the monitors and were able to provide guidance with no interference whatsoever. Eric is another guy I can’t believe I have the opportunity to work with. He paid close attention to the demos and made sure to get all of the hooks right, while making them sound so much better. I can’t wait for you to hear this cd. Joe and Eric have simply killed their parts.