On Monday, May 9, I show up at studio A around 12:30. The door is locked and the music dept isn't opened yet. I call Sasha to find out what time he was gonna meet me. It sounded like he almost forgot. He shows up about 15 minutes later and unlocks the studio and we get started. I started messing with the levels of the tracks and got it to where it sounded pretty good. next I started working on the solo. there was bits that I wanted to blend the first solo with the second. Sasha refreshed my memory on how to mute sections out of that passage. then was the vocals and decided to compress it so that the louder notes didn't stick out too much.
when it came time to bounce it to my flash drive, we once again came upon the issue of it sounding slower than the pro tools session. Sasha called Brian and he came down , meanwhile, Sasha routed the output to the summing box. We ended up making another stereo track and took that output through the summing box to a external cd recorder. I guess the problem was that when we changed the settings on the pro tools sessions to 44.1, we didn't change the master clock setting as well and that's what was causing the glitch in our playback. I am so glad the song is finally mixed down.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Zombie Ate My Mix!
May 4, 2011
12:30p - 1:45p
I showed up in Studio B in order to mix down the song, and I should have known, or I should have taken a hint when I couldn't get into the main computer to access the music files that it was not oging to go as smoothly as the recording session did. I had to go downstairs and ask for a password to log in upstairs, and once I did that, I couldn't access the studentshare and needed another password! I waited for Sasha to show up, and he had to call Brian to get the password.
Once we could get int there and retrieve the song, we opened the session and hit playback. I noticed immediately that it was much slower than what we had recorded. Sasha agreed, and we tried to figure out the problem. After some thinking, Sasha opened a plugin in Pro Tools so that we could pitchshift the song so it would playback faster, and it improved a little but was still not right.
Then Sasha went into Studio A to send me a copy of the song from the main computer at the right speed, but it still didn't translate upstairs, so we had to scrap the mixing session and I rescheduled for this coming Monday in Studio A to try again.
12:30p - 1:45p
I showed up in Studio B in order to mix down the song, and I should have known, or I should have taken a hint when I couldn't get into the main computer to access the music files that it was not oging to go as smoothly as the recording session did. I had to go downstairs and ask for a password to log in upstairs, and once I did that, I couldn't access the studentshare and needed another password! I waited for Sasha to show up, and he had to call Brian to get the password.
Once we could get int there and retrieve the song, we opened the session and hit playback. I noticed immediately that it was much slower than what we had recorded. Sasha agreed, and we tried to figure out the problem. After some thinking, Sasha opened a plugin in Pro Tools so that we could pitchshift the song so it would playback faster, and it improved a little but was still not right.
Then Sasha went into Studio A to send me a copy of the song from the main computer at the right speed, but it still didn't translate upstairs, so we had to scrap the mixing session and I rescheduled for this coming Monday in Studio A to try again.
In the Studio
April 30, 2011
10am-2pm
After we got to the studio and met Sasha, we started setting up Eric's guitar and Tiffany's vocal mic. For Tiffany's mic we used the AKG 414. Sasha suggested that we put two mics on Eric's guitar amplifier, which gave it a well-rounded sound. We ended up putting the drum machine through a DI, and then it was off to setting up the Pro Tools session. I was a little rusty remembering about the aux sends, but Sasha was there to fill in the gaps.
Once we got started, we ran through the song three times, and the third take was the best. Then, while I was in the iso booth and having a hard time coming up with a guitar solo, Sasha came up with a cool idea for the middle of the song that Tiffany liked, so we went with that instead. Then I recorded the bass from the control room. Once we got set up, everything went pretty quickly.
10am-2pm
After we got to the studio and met Sasha, we started setting up Eric's guitar and Tiffany's vocal mic. For Tiffany's mic we used the AKG 414. Sasha suggested that we put two mics on Eric's guitar amplifier, which gave it a well-rounded sound. We ended up putting the drum machine through a DI, and then it was off to setting up the Pro Tools session. I was a little rusty remembering about the aux sends, but Sasha was there to fill in the gaps.
Once we got started, we ran through the song three times, and the third take was the best. Then, while I was in the iso booth and having a hard time coming up with a guitar solo, Sasha came up with a cool idea for the middle of the song that Tiffany liked, so we went with that instead. Then I recorded the bass from the control room. Once we got set up, everything went pretty quickly.
During setup
Eric in the iso booth.
Me and Sasha in the recording room.
Tiffany on vocals.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Yesterday afternoon, Eric dropped by so We could go through the song again and make it as solid as possible before we go in on Saturday. Tiffany programmed the drum machine and I got my bass out so i could figure out my parts.
Today I will practice my bass part and do some thinking in preparation for tomorrows session.
Today I will practice my bass part and do some thinking in preparation for tomorrows session.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday practice session
April 23
noon-2:30pm
Today Eric came over so we could work on the transitions from verses to chorus and back. We decided to slow down the tempo a little and give a few extra measures for a solo. I was toggling on the drum machine from verses to fills, and messing up the timing, but we figured out a fix for that problem.
noon-2:30pm
Today Eric came over so we could work on the transitions from verses to chorus and back. We decided to slow down the tempo a little and give a few extra measures for a solo. I was toggling on the drum machine from verses to fills, and messing up the timing, but we figured out a fix for that problem.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Fleshing out "Please, Mr. Zombie"
On Sunday, April 10, my friend Eric came over at around 4pm so we could work on Tiffany's song. I set up some drums from my BOSS recorder just so we would have something to follow along to. Tiff was working at the piano, trying to figure out the notes for Eric.
At one point I borrowed the guitar from him because I had an idea of what Tiff was trying to tell him, so I demonstrated what I thought she wanted in the song. He is more of a guitarist than I, but every once in awhile I get in tune with what the other person wants in a song. We recorded parts of the song like verses and chorus.
Link to the vocal/drum track demo
Link to the vocal/guitar track demo
At one point I borrowed the guitar from him because I had an idea of what Tiff was trying to tell him, so I demonstrated what I thought she wanted in the song. He is more of a guitarist than I, but every once in awhile I get in tune with what the other person wants in a song. We recorded parts of the song like verses and chorus.
Link to the vocal/drum track demo
Link to the vocal/guitar track demo
Found a project
For my project I decided to work with Tiffany on a song for her film she's making. The song is called "Please, Mr. Zombie." She wants to do her own vocals, and also have electric guitar, bass, and drums. I think I will ask my friend Eric to play guitar, and I can do bass.
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