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Wednesday 12th October 2011
Most of the songs are warmed up - if not quite performance ready. We have 15 songs in contention and we'll probably put 11 of them on the finished album. There are sometimes songs which just don't quite come together in the recording sessions or which despite coming together fine just don't seem to sit right with the other songs on the album. So it will be interesting to see which songs make it on to the final selection. As an example we recorded the tune set Lucy George/Katy's Goose for the Freedom album 11 years ago. However despite us really wanting the tunes on the CD and despite a 'Save The Goose!' campaign by our friend Philip Lane of Mantra CDs who was looking after the manufacture of the album we just couldn't get it to sit the way we wanted. So 11 years later the tunes are first on our list of possible tracks!
Today I have been working on those tunes and also on a newish song called What If? They are both in Open A tuning and both played on Hope (in case you don't know my guitars and my cittern have names). Hope is my Bartram Cutaway. It's been good getting to know Hope again. It's been a few weeks since I played on her and there was a comfort in getting re-acquianted. The final song to work up will be Patrick which is a tribute to the Irish people and good ol' St Patrick himself. With luck I'll make a start on that tomorrow.
Tuesday 18th October 2011
Yesterday was a good day. Duncan travelled up from London and arrived at lunchtime. We spent a bit of time working out where all the recording equipment would go but we settled on a control room and on a live room. By late afternoon we were ready to do a few a takes and to see how things were sounding. We started with my guitar part on One Step Foward. The sound was good so we went for it. From previous recordings I was aware that things that you play well when you are not recording seem to take on a different degree of difficulty of you're standing in front of a recording microphone but we settled down quickly. We had to stop for the usual play it fine until three bars from the end and the slightly less usual the ladybird is banging into the light but we got the guitar track down. I laid a rough vocal guide so that we could add the other instruments and we'll do the real vocal track later.
We finished around 9.30pm and talked until about 11pm when we both ran completely out of steam and headed for our beds as quickly as we could in case we fell asleep on the stairs.
It's now 7.30am and I've already been up for an hour and lugged myself round Ross on Wye to get 30 minutes of exercise. The route I have is pathetic really for anyone even remotely fit - but I lost most of my fitness when I broke my foot some years ago . . . so this is junior stuff really. But as Duncan says ' You have to start from where you are'. Quite so.
So here's to today's recording and who knows what we'll end up with.
Saturday 22nd October 2011
Once again I type this just after sunrise having lugged my self around Ross on Wye to get some exercise. The recording sessions have gone very well. Out of the 15 songs we're recording we have 12 of the base or bed tracks down. I have a slight thought that we may end up re-taking one of them but we'll see how it sounds with fresh ears over the next couple of days. With luck there's only Desire, How Long O Lord How Long/Levianthan's Dance and Intro Song/Tunes to do. And yes as Duncan mentioned yesterday we are going to get a better name for Intro Song.
I'm really quite enjoying the process. This is a good place to record in. Yesterday morning as I finished getting ready to come down stairs I could hear Duncan practising. Years ago when we recorded the Freedom album by bedroom was over our music room and I could hear Duncan warming up on his keyboard each morning. It is such a good thing to hear and put a smile on my face before we did a thing. Yesterday was much the same thing except that when I did come down I'd found that he'd been recording the keyboard and bass part to one of the songs we'd done the day before.
Yesterday Duncan had suggested that we try to record 4 of the bed tracks. By dinner we'd only done 3 - though we'd also finished two vocal tracks which we're part of our task for the day. After dinner we thought we'd see whether we had enough energy left to record 'May The Road Rise To Meet You'. Seemingly we did because we think that we got a nice take and we even had enough left to try a slightly different chord structure on the last chorus. Fingers crossed.
So we are cracking on and I like how we are finding time to do takes here and there. I'm looking forward to seeing how today goes - and tomorrow I don't have to exercise so I get little sleep in. Hurrah!
Thursday 27th October
This is hold-our-breath time. On Tuesday afternoon we were working on the vocaltrack for 'Red Ribbons' when we noticed a noise on the track. It wasn't an audio noise picked up by the mic - it was clearly a random drop in from another track. Just a split second's worth. Then some more. Clearly something had happened to the file on the disc and it was potentially corrupted. We tried to back up the song and save it but the recorder wouldn't let us.
While Duncan explored the symptoms I got on the phone to Yamaha for some technical assistance. It soon became clear that our digital recorder was malfunctioning fairly seriously. Tuesday night was a time when distraction was called for so we watched Michael Jackson's This Is It on DVD and we were blown away by the music and the dancing and the fly on the wall nature of it all. I'd seen it maybe 3 times previsouly but it's so good that I was blwon away all over again.
Yesterday we left the house at 6am and were at Yamaha in Milton Keynes for 9am where Steve had promised to look at our machine. He had it for much of the day but we collected it mid afternoon. I have to say that Steve and the service that Yamaha gave us was terrific. We brought it home and Duncan backed up until after midnight.
So now the anxious wait again. As I write this Duncan is trying to re-load the songs and to check to see whether there has been any long term corruption of the files. I'll be in the room with him in half and hour and we'll see if we still have our songs.
Friday 28th October
Phew - it looks as if we are ok! During the course of yesterday we re-loaded and played most of the tracks for the new album. The only one which seems to have been corrupted is the one which we noticed on Tuesday as we went through the vocal takes for 'Red Ribbons'. And we didn't need that particular take. It was a very anxious few hours and I'm glad that they are behind us. Having lost the two days we are behind schedule and probably will not finish the recording before close of play tomorrow. That's not a total disaster as we can add in a bit more recording time early in 2012 to finish things off. What we have done is to set a list of priorities and we are trying to lay down those takes in order.
As I write it's just before 8am and Duncan has already been working on a drum part for Desire and he is now recording it. Breakfast soooon. Then we 're going to work on One Step Forward which we're hoping will be the opening track of the album.
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