Billy McBolan - Session 5 - 3rd September 2012

Session times: 7:30pm-10:30pm

Strange Love - Mixing

All the recording had been done for this song on previous sessions, so we were planning to just get the mix right.  Although this song was originally planned to be sung by Dael, after the issues last week, it was decided that it would become a duet.  I'd sorted out the vocal tracks during the week, with Billy singing a couple of lines of the verse and then Dael singing the next couple and all of the choruses.  I had done a mix where both Billy and Dael sang the chorus together, but it didn't really work, so we just left it as Dael.

Since we first started recording this track, Billy had said he wanted an ethereal melody line at the beginning, sort of like the scary wailing sound you got in early horror movies.  I eventually worked out he meant a Theramin, but the virtual instrument I downloaded wasn't really the sound he wanted.  Billy was trying to come up with something for the introduction with piano chords and I suggested he just play the melody line, which I recorded as MIDI.  This meant we could play around with the sound without having to re-record the melody line each time.  He then mentioned again about the Theramin, so I had a fiddle around with a sine wave generator, and after some tweaks for vibrato and filtering, we came up with a sound that matched what was in Billy's head.  It is sort of hidden in the mix, but it's there if you listen carefully.

Billy outlined an idea he had about a video for this song, we had a good think and couldn't come up with any other video we'd seen that was similar.  I can't go into details of the idea (or I'd have to kill you etc), but it sounded quite interesting and fitted the mood of the song very well.

I burned a CD of the mix we had agreed on tonight and also gave him a CD I made last week which contained a take with just Dael singing, and also a proper duet (choruses and all) version.

All in all, recording this track went quite smoothly and Billy is very keen on coming back to the studio to record more songs in the future.

Billy McBolan - Session 4 - 20th August 2012

Session times: 7:45pm-11:00pm

Billy brought his wife (Jacqueline) and daughter (Dael).  I think we've nearly had all of Billy's family at the studio now :-)

Strange Love

Dael was going to lay down the main vocal on this track over the backing we recorded in the previous sessions. I set up the mic and reduced the stand height a little (she's a bit shorter than her dad's 6ft6!) and started playing the track so I could get the levels.   I had heard her voice on a track recorded at another studio, so knew what she sounded like, but I still wasn't ready for the masterpiece she sang.  I could see Billy in the background grinning and nodding his head.

Billy had told me previously that he wrote the song in a key that was good for him to play and sing with, but we had to change the key for  Dael to sing it.  Unfortunately, the key he chose to record it in was just a little too low and the first line of each verse were right at the bottom of her range.  Now I thought she had a really sexy lower register, but  Dael wasn't happy with it.  She sang through the song a few times and we got some really good takes except for the first lines.

Although Dael has a really good voice, she doesn't seem to understand musical terms at all.  She's just one of those talented people who can sing but doesn't know when you say 'sing it an octave up', that that means the notes should be higher.  Billy joked, "she doesn't know a B flat from a flat tire" and I'm inclined to agree, but who cares when you've got a voice that sounds like that !

It is not really feasible to re-record the song in a slightly higher key, so we decided that we would use the guide vocal Billy recorded and turn it into a duet.

After a couple of hours, we agreed that  Dael's parts were as good as we were going to get, so she went home with her mum whilst Billy and I carried on with a few other guitar parts he wanted to put down.  Basically, the parts were a couple of guitar strums in each verse, that you probably wouldn't miss if you didn't hear them, but they really added to the sound of the song.

It was getting late when Billy left, so I didn't have time to make a mix and CD for him to take away.  Billy got in his car and took off.  About 20 minutes later, I got a call from Billy's wife saying he had left his prized guitar on the path outside the studio and could I go and retrieve it.  I rushed out of the studio and looked up and down the roadside but couldn't find the guitar anywhere!  Panic!  As I was outside looking, Billy turned up in a frantic state but I had to tell him his guitar was gone.  He drove off looking very dejected and I wandered back up to the studio and noticed, in the corner, was Billy's guitar.  He hadn't even taken it out of the room!