I promised a post about the recording process, so gosh darnit, you’ll get your post!
It’s pretty easy to forget all the hours and effort that went into the album now that it’s here. Now it’s a cute little package with lovely (and freakin’ irritating) plastic wrap on it and a fantastic horsey on the front, and man that carrot looks yummy, doesn’t it? All orange and crunchy-looking and carrotty… Apologies, I digress. Anyways, the point is, we put a lot into this thing, and it’s easy to forget it now that it’s “over.” But, recording is a process; you don’t just go in, play the songs, and *poof!* you’re done.
So, on a basic level, there are a few steps to making a recording: Tracking, Comping/Editing, Mixing, Mastering, and Drinking. Tracking is literally where you play your instruments and sing your vocals and record the sound that comes out of them/you. Comping is where you pick through what you have recorded and decide what you want to actually use in a final version of a song. Editing is what it sounds like: Magic! Mixing is the painful process of deciding how loud/quiet/forward/backward/left/right/effects/no effects each part should be. Mastering is, well, um, mastering is confusing. But I’m told it’s like icing on a cake. A cake made of sound. Mmmm, cake. I hope it’s chocolate… Drinking is when you’re so tired of mixing that you have to punish your liver to keep yourself from killing your bandmates.
We worked with James McLaughlin at The Sound in Charlottesville, VA. Say “hi” James!
Hi James!
He was our magician. He kept us grounded. He had five decision-makers to deal with a lot of the time. Lucky him!
The way we did things was like this: First off, we went in for an entire weekend to lay down all the rhythm tracks. So, the whole band went in to, basically, play through the songs live. Of course, each person was isolated from the rest so that his or her part could later be manipulated by itself. That’s where magical things like headphones and sound-proof glass come in. So, even though you’re separated from everyone, you can still see and hear them! The hard part about that is that some of the songs are nigh impossible to follow without hearing the lyrics. SO, on some songs, a person would have to sing a “scratch vocal” part instead of play their instrument. That way, all the other people playing could hear the words and play their part correctly. The problem with that is that the person who sang would have to go put in their instrumental part later (what they call “overdubbing” in the biz. Cuz we’re in the biz now). Anyways, I had a pretty good time during this part of the process. You may have noticed that the tracks on the album are all pretty up-tempo, and that is because of a little something called adrenaline. My heart was racing the entire weekend! We did 8 hours on Saturday, and 8 hours on Sunday, and knocked out the rhythm tracks for 12 tunes. Pretty sweet. Notice how I’m assuming that you, Dear Reader, have actually listened to the album. If you’re using it as a coaster, then shame on you! Cover-Art Horsey mad at you!
So, after that one marathon weekend, we came in on several occasions to do overdubbing. The people who sang scratch vocal parts laid down their instrument parts, solos were overdubbed (Gasp! They weren’t live? Actually a couple of the solos we used were done live. Go us!). We also had to add all the vocals. All of this overdubbing took countless hours. And I was unemployed for almost all of it, so I was present for all of it, even when it wasn’t my turn to go in the special room to sing or play guitar. Anyone who went in the special room to sing or play their instrument (unknowingly) got their ass handed to them by the room full of tired, judging people. T’was quite amusing! Some parts were done in a take or three, others took dozens of takes (GROAN).
Once tracking was finished, it was on to mixing, which is just hell. You listen to the same parts of the tune over and over and over and tweak and tweak and tweak until you get it right. Poor James, I think he’ll never listen to our stuff again! I never really realized that your ears can get tired, but they so can! I’d get in the car after a mixing session and turn the radio off to give my ears a few minutes of sweet, sweet silence. Ah!
James did the mastering. I guess that makes him the cake decorator.
We all did the drinkin’.
There were some wonderfully fun moments, there were some mind-numbingly boring moments, and there were some horribly painful moments. But, I found myself thinking that I could do this all the time, money-permitting. Well, maybe not mixing. But anyways, we worked hard, and we made something we’re pretty proud of, and that’s something. I’ve spent my whole life worshipping albums other people made, and now I have one I’m part of.
Here are some pics I took while in the studio:
The Dr. is in.
Darbix doing what he do.
Me doing... I don't know.
Gina smell good.
Jared putting his back into it.
Chris always looks like this when he sings.
I have a lot more pictures of the studio, so perhaps I shall make an album in our Pictures tab. Stay tuned for that!
