|
Studio Diary
This page will be updated by
various member of T Chant.
2-20-05
Written by David
This past Tuesday I recorded my bass
parts for special project song. It will feature some of us from T-Chant
and some members of the band Matt was in while living in Hungary. Matt
will take the tapes back to Hungary in a few months once all the T-Chant
members have finished recording their parts.
The guitar, drum, and vocal parts
were all pretty much set and as I listened to the tracks I felt that for
the majority of the song the bass should just pound out eighth notes. As
much as I love progressive, complex music - I also love simple, straight
ahead stuff. So I decided the eighth note part sounded right but playing
it with my fingers didn't give enough of the drive that the song called
for. The part needed to be played with a pick. Now I've been playing
bass for over 20 years and haven't used a pick in about 19 years! This
made me a little nervous about recording!
To make things even more nerve racking,
the night before I went into the studio I asked my wife, Sonya, to
listen to and critique my bass part. She liked everything except for
middle breakdown section of the song. Matt had given me a bass line that
he used to write his vocal parts to and I had stuck pretty close to it.
It's kind of a funky walking line. Well Sonya said "That line would
sound better if you slapped it." I don't play slap that much and to use
that technique for a line that moves the way this one does is quite a
challenge for me!
So I go into the studio thinking "I can
barely this song! What am I going to do!" I explained all this to Matt
and Bill at the studio before I started recording and thought I was in
for a long night of punching to fix millions of mistakes. To my surprise
everything went smoothly. I had to punch some stuff but much less than I
expected.
I was also able to create a part on the spot
for the intro of the song using a sort of flamenco style of finger
strumming. I have been working on this technique for a while now but
have never used in a song.
The end result was a bass part that I
really stretched myself on and I am very happy with the results! It is
so easy to just stay with what you are good at but with that kind of
thinking you will never get good at anything else.
I would also like to say that I think I
got the best tone out of my Kubicki Factor ever. The FireWire strings
sound fat, punchy, and twangy all at the same time.
2-12-05
Written by Bill
...and a good time was had by all!
Last night David, Matt, Myself and then the Englishman with the flying
fingers-Tim got to hang out at the studio and mostly blab and enjoy each
others company for a while. We then talked Tim into messing around with
David's song "Time goes by" and the stuff that he improvised sounded
(predictably) cool and fitting.
David and I are considering asking Ty Tabor (Jelly Jam, Platypus, King's
X) to master the song "The Golden Way", and I cannot think of a better
song to have him add his signature sound to! I cannot think of anyone
off hand that does a better job of mastering than Mr. Tabor, one listen
to the Platypus and the Jelly Jam CDs should convince anyone with an
ear for pro audio production!
I am getting inspired to work harder at practicing and writing, we have
something special here and I want to make it the best band it can be
with the little time we have to put into it.
"Somethings" is almost ready to mix now that most of the final touches
are laid down. Matt's wood flute parts absolutely make the song sound
huge and dreamy! David might possibly add an E-Bow bass part in as well,
we will see...
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of "Bill's repetitive ramblings
about the band" coming soon to a theater near you!
( make sure to check out David Mastick's new endorsement page at:
www.firewirestrings.net )
1/8/04
Written by Bill
I am glad that all of my vocal parts for the 3 songs we are currently recording are finally finished. The songs are shaping up better than I expected, but I plan on fixing a few guitar parts and possibly doubling more parts at the end of "The golden way" for more of a grand exit to the song.
Hopefully we can borrow the talents of Rich Hunt (former engineer for Eminem and new owner of my old Purple Blitz amp) on mixdown and possibly mastering.
The process is a bit slow but I am pleased that we are steadily moving forward and having fun at the same time.
Matt and I are sketching out the next 2 songs which will be a Rengeteg/T-Chant combined effort with both bands performing in their own language (how strange it is to have a multi-lingual singer!)
One of the next songs on the plate after those 2 will probably be a new version of "The Morning" which was played live originally in 1989 but never recorded in a studio. We plan on expanding the song and going with the dreamy feel even futher as the song lends itself for more of an epic production.
I want to thank David for all the work he has done with this site and for his "hip" wife Sonya for being willing to add her talents to this band, she has added a "life" to these songs that I feel few other drummers/percussionists can.
Hopefully in the next couple months we will have a decent mix of 1 or 2 songs to post on the site, stay tuned...
12/3/04
Written by Tim
Bill and I recorded background vocals for "Time Goes By". When I went to visit I had no intention of doing any vocals, but this is the way things shape up in a free flowing collaboration. It was really fun to sing with Bill again and to have our voices on tape with Matt. What a great song!
I brought a cheap Superlux ECO-H6A out of my car that had been there since the NAMM show in January. It's a cheap (sub
$50!) side address condenser that I used for my vocals. It was the first I had used it. Not bad really. Superlux gave it to me for free so I won't complain a bit. The low end was a bit lacking but otherwise smooth and, for the way the tracks need to slot in with the rest of the vocals, it worked quite well.
Bill used his own mic (???). Much better low end for his richer voice and much better suited to his lower vocal part. Sometime soon I'll add keyboard.
Earlier in the day Sonya recorded a drum track and Dave put down bass for another song that Bill wrote but I don't know the song.
11/26/04
Written by Matt
We’ve been recording for a few months already and I’m finally jotting
down some thoughts about the process. Spending several nights a month
with some of my favorite people in the whole world has been good for my
heart. We eat meals together, laugh (mostly at Sonya’s massively obtuse
statements) together, record some really great music together, and have
a beautiful time.
The songs are slowly taking shape and its
fun to see what grows out of nothing. Most of the basic tracks are
already on tape and the time has come for Carolyn and Bill and I to sing
a bit. On Wednesday, I dropped my son Temmon off at his friend’s house
and recorded the lead vocals for a beautiful song David wrote call “Time
Goes By.” That was an uplifting experience to say the least. Carolyn
will be adding her harmonies this weekend (if the demon of
time-consumption doesn’t gobble up what little time we have to do such
things).
I’ve been holding back on adding drawings
to the website. I wanted to have the 3 new songs we’re working on done
by the time I start messing with the web page. Soon.
10/1/04
Written by Bill
Matt and I (Bill) got together to
continue working on "The Golden way". I needed to fix a guitar part that
had a drop-out from a bad guitar jack. What ended up happening was that
I basically re-recorded and doubled most of the parts with my own guitar
(The Ernie Ball) with a completely different guitar sound (single coil strat-sound). I also ended up using
the lead channel from my Marshall 9001 tube pre-amp for a thicker/higher
gain sound to make up for the single coil pickups lower output. I was
trying to get the same tone from the original sketch recording which was
fairly heavy but well defined (Ty Tabor tone) and I think got it close
enough to be satisfied (for now anyway;-)
I look forward to hearing this song as a final mixed and mastered
recording!
I must say that this is probably the most fun I have had in a very long
time, this is a very special group of musicians who are more selfless
than many people would believe, we are GREAT friends! It is truly a
blessing for me to work with this group of people once again.
9/25/04
Written by David
We spent yesterday recording "The Golden Way", laying down the guitar,
drums, and bass live. Because of our individual schedules, we don't get
to rehearse very often but we got the tracks down after just a few
takes.
|
