All Through The Weekend
Jenny and I spent last weekend recording piano tracks for the album. She did all of the work. All I did was sit at the laptop and click on things. I did do some dancing, though, and lots of waving my arms around while Jenny played, but mostly I just clicked and dragged. Joe Ballman came in and helped me set up things. We suspended two condenser mikes high above the strings of the piano, having lifted the lid so high up that it was leaning against the wall. I was paranoid for the first few hours that it was going to fall. It didn't. Anyway, then we set up a room mike not far from the low strings. I have no idea if this is proper mike technique, I mean, I got it off a website and from watching my friend Ron mike things. I'm no expert.
At one point Jenny said "I'm it! I'm the band!" And she was so right. Her playing was so good. She really worked hard on these pieces. In between long tours and all she still managed to find time to sit down and practice the songs. I was impressed with her playing. The entire two days we were laughing and singing. It was a smooth, wonderful session. We started to get a little tired by the end, and there were a couple of songs that we weren't sure would turn out.
But they turned out great. I've spent this week piecing the takes together. Digital production is a wonderful thing. I was able to take sections from different takes and splice them into sections from other takes. In some cases I sped up the tempo of the song in order to make it move along a little better. I suppose some purists out there might take issue with my fiddling, but I say whatever it takes to make a good song. I think recording is like painting, or doing collage. You piece bits together to make the final product. It doesn't all just fall into place. You have to knead the dough a bit.
Of course, I kneaded a bit too much during the editing last night and accidentally wiped out one of the songs. So now Jenny and I have to get together tomorrow to re-record All Through The Morning. I suppose something had to go wrong. You can't have anything in life just handed to you now can you? It's part of the trade off of life. Well, we're so close to finishing the record I can taste it. I'll keep you posted.
At one point Jenny said "I'm it! I'm the band!" And she was so right. Her playing was so good. She really worked hard on these pieces. In between long tours and all she still managed to find time to sit down and practice the songs. I was impressed with her playing. The entire two days we were laughing and singing. It was a smooth, wonderful session. We started to get a little tired by the end, and there were a couple of songs that we weren't sure would turn out.
But they turned out great. I've spent this week piecing the takes together. Digital production is a wonderful thing. I was able to take sections from different takes and splice them into sections from other takes. In some cases I sped up the tempo of the song in order to make it move along a little better. I suppose some purists out there might take issue with my fiddling, but I say whatever it takes to make a good song. I think recording is like painting, or doing collage. You piece bits together to make the final product. It doesn't all just fall into place. You have to knead the dough a bit.
Of course, I kneaded a bit too much during the editing last night and accidentally wiped out one of the songs. So now Jenny and I have to get together tomorrow to re-record All Through The Morning. I suppose something had to go wrong. You can't have anything in life just handed to you now can you? It's part of the trade off of life. Well, we're so close to finishing the record I can taste it. I'll keep you posted.