Skye Ladder - 26 July 2012

Session times: 8:00pm - 10:30pm

Lost Horizons

Tonight we were going to record the vocals for Lost Horizons.  The backing tracks were recorded a few months ago, so it was supposed to be a simple vocal session.

Janie did a few vocal run-throughs to get warmed up and so I could set the recording levels correctly.   She did the chorus and verse parts in a couple of takes, but there is a bridge section where the lyrics are "It's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright".  If you say that quickly enough you end up with "tits alright", so we decided a lyric change was required.

Janie had been toying with the idea of a less structured approach to this section and had been riffing over the instrumental parts; some of which sounded quite good.  So, while Paul dashed off a quick lyric re-write, we played around with different vocal ideas and effects.  With the new lyrics, we ended up with just vocal and drums which added a very different feel to the song.  I also heard a similar, but more complex, multi-vocal in my head, which we recorded and added to the end of the track.

After all these changes, we agreed the song needed re-recording from scratch as several sections now needed to be altered and some of the instrument parts contained subtle mistakes we hadn't noticed before.  That will have to happen on another session as there wasn't enough time to do it tonight.

Skye Ladder - 16th August 2012

Session times: 8pm-11pm

Janie had brought her keyboard and Paul brought his acoustic guitar for this session.  I set up a stereo line and MIDI connection to the keyboard, and a CS02 mic for the acoustic.

Skye May Fall

This was a song that was new to me, so we planned on just recording a demo, but it turned into something else. Janie and Paul played and sang this one a couple of times while I got the levels sorted out.  Janie was messing around with some sounds on her keyboard and ended up with a piano plus some sort of phasing which sounded very nice, so we agreed a tempo, I put on a click and Janie recorded the keyboards.  After a couple of takes, we got one that was pretty good, and with a bit of quantizing sounded just the ticket. Due to the spacey sound from the keyboard, I thought the vocals would be good drenched in reverb and echo, so I set this up whilst Janie sang the lyrics.  Paul thought a distorted guitar playing power chords during the choruses. This added a bit of punch and he then suggested a Trumpet or Cornet solo. We spent about 30 minutes working out a solo that someone will play at a future session.  We also played around with different fade outs and ended up with one where the instruments fade out just leaving the vocal for a couple of lines until the vocal itself fades out on its own.

The result is, I think, the most powerful, anthemic songs that I've heard from Skye Ladder.  I can picture a full stadium with everyone waving torches.  It's quite long (nearly 5 minutes), but I think it's great.

Vamika - Session 3 - 15 August 2012

Session times: 08:45pm-10:00pm

Amy and Damien got lost on the way over, so we didn't manage to get much done, but what we did was pretty good.  The plan for tonight was to record bass parts for the tracks we recorded last time.  I set up a pair of CS02 mics against Damien's 4x12 cab.

Heading To Something

After a run through to set levels, it became apparent that it wasn't necessary to mic the amp in stereo.  There have been amps I've recorded before that really were in stereo, but this wasn't one of them.  It only took a couple of takes to get this one down so we moved on to the next song.

Long Way To Venus

This song is quite fast and rocky, so we decided the bass sound needed a bit more punch.  I remembered when we recorded the drums that I took the signal from the line out on the amp, which made Damien sound a bit like Flea from RHCP, so I left the mic in place and plugged in a lead to the line out.  When the toppy signal was mixed with the more rounded, bassy sound from the speaker cab, it was much more like Damien wanted.  After a couple of takes, there were a few places where we needed to punch in.  We also spent a bit of time doing the last note.  When Damien played the run through, he did a really good ending so we tried to emulate that which took a few goes.  There is also a place in the middle where the drums and bass must match.  Damien's take was almost on the beat, but rather than do another half a dozen takes getting it perfect, it was easier to line the bass up with some digital editing.


For the drum sessions, the guitar and bass were recorded on the same channel, so, as we had replaced the bass, the mixdowns I made at the end of the session didn't have any guitar.  This meant the bass was quite loud in the mix so Damien could make sure he was happy with his parts.

Skye Ladder - 9th August 2012

Session times: 8pm-11:30pm

I decided this time to try live streaming the session.  Fortunately, Janie & Paul were up for it.  I had set up my laptop so its webcam covered most of the live room and off we went.  Janie put the link on her Facebook page, and I'd put it on North West Bands.

Million

It became apparent after the last session that there were a few faint pops during the first verse and chorus on the vocal track.  Normally, you wouldn't be able to hear these with bass/drums/guitar etc, but this track is almost all just piano and vocal, so the pops were noticeable (well I could hear them anyway).  After a few warm-ups we got the take fairly quickly.

Respect

The demo for this song was one of the first I'd heard from Skye Ladder and although it was about 6 months ago, we hadn't actually attempted recording this track.  We tried for the best part of an hour,  trying different styles and sounds but nothing really worked.  We decided it was best to move on and try a song we had more of an idea about.

Can't Buy Dreams

I hadn't heard this track before, so Janie sang whilst Paul played his acoustic guitar.  Paul had written lyrics for a chorus, bridge and verse, but I thought the chorus should be a verse and the chorus and bridge me merged, so I set about recording the parts as I could hear them in my head.  After about an hour, I'd done a guitar, bass, organ and drum parts and Paul had written some more verses which Janie sang.  The song ended up nearly 8 minutes long and very anthemic.  It's really only in a demo form, so we'll have to re-record all the parts properly at a different session after we've had a good listen.  I sort of took over this song, but I think they like the end result.



By the end of the session, the streaming web site said we had had 20 viewers, but I don't think they watched all the way through. I email a rough mix of Can't Buy Dreams and we ended the session around 11:30pm.

Skye Ladder - 7th August 2012

Session times: 08:00pm-11:15pm

Million

The backing tracks for this song were done a few months ago, so we just needed to record a good vocal.

Janie did a few warm up takes, but for some reason, the signal kept clipping (distorting).  Looking at the signal onscreen, I couldn't see any reason for it.  The signal wasn't too loud (less than 40%) and the A/D box wasn't showing its clip led.  I changed the mic and cable for different ones with the same result.  After about 20 minutes of panic, I asked if anyone else could hear the noise.  Janie, Paul & I were all listening on headphones but only I could hear the clipping.  It turned out the volume knob on the headphone amp that I was connected to was a bit dodgy, so a bit of twiddling of the knob stopped the crackle.  I'll have to get it fixed.


It took about 45 minutes to get a good take, so I made a rough mix and we moved on to a new song.

It's Time To Go

We were just going to get a demo of this song, so I set up the CS02 on a short stand and aimed it at Paul's acoustic guitar.  Janie used the sE2200 we set up for the previous song, and after we worked out the tempo, we got a quick recording down.

The song sounded like something I heard before but couldn't place.  I kept thinking of Fairport Convention but that wasn't right. Paul sort of knew who I meant but couldn't get the band name.  Eventually he said Eddie Reader which led us to Fairground Attraction.  Phew.

The song sounded vaguely like 'Perfect', which doesn't really fit in with the other songs we've recorded so far, so I suggested we straighten out the swing and make it a bit more rocky.

I powered up my guitar rig and found a rock sound that seemed to fit.  The chords to the song were fairly simple so it didn't take much learning.  We selected a tempo, picked a drum beat and recorded a quick guitar track.  I then put down a simple bass line, played a drum part on the electronic drums, and added a hammond part.  Janie re-sang the vocal and I added a tambourine.  In all, it probably took less than an hour to get a decent sounding demo.

By this time it was getting late, so we packed up.  I did a quick mix to email to Janie & Paul and tidied up the studio a bit after they had left.

Vamika - Session 2 - 29th July 2012

Session times: 12:30pm - 4:00pm

We installed Damien's bass amp & cab in the stairwell and set up Amy's mic outside the live room. Dave hadn't brought his amp as he wasn't happy with the sounds he got out of it, as we weren't going to keep any guitar takes we did today he could use my effects pedal, and we would replace his sounds later on.  Kev had left his drums set up last week so there was very little we had to do to continue from the previous session.  As per the last session, we were only interested in getting the drums down correctly; vocals and guitars will be replaced at subsequent sessions.

Weak To The Beat

This initially is a very laid back, swing style track (imagine a smoky jazz club with scantily clad dancers, a bit like Cabaret), but get's a bit more rocky in the choruses.  On the level check run through, Kev didn't hit any toms, so I was a bit surprised when, on the take, he hit the toms a couple of times.  It's a good job I was recording them!

Red Butterflies

By this track the band seemed to be in their stride and managed it in one take.  Unfortunately, on the listen back we noticed a bar where Kev had stayed on hi-hat rather than going to ride cymbal.  As that was the only problem with the take, we decided to keep it and I'll fix the problem with a bit of editing.

Dirty Disgrace

This track starts with a fairly complex finger picking guitar part and Dave took a couple of goes to get the timing right - not that it matters really as it will be replaced.

Beauty Violation

This one starts with a heavy bass guitar riff that reminds me a little of Peter Gunn.  By the end of this track it seemed Kev wasn't quite as happy with it as others, and although the drums are good, there wasn't as much energy as some of the other tracks.  Perhaps this one needs more work outside the studio.