Skye Ladder - 19th November 2012

Session times: 8pm-9pm

Sky May Fall

During the first session for this song, way back in August, the band and I had discussed using a Flugel Horn for the solo on this track.  

At Remembrance Sunday last week, I spoke to Danny Hirst from Littleborough Brass Band (which I used to play Euphonium in many moons ago) who were leading the parade, and he agreed to come along and put down the solo part.

Janie had written the solo on the keyboard during the first session, so I transcribed it into the key required for Flugel horn (which is written in treble clef, one full tone higher than concert pitch) and emailed Danny a mix of the solo section and the score for him to practice against.

Tonight Janie and Paul chauffeured Danny to the studio with his Flugel Horn and Cornet.  I used the sE2200a as we wanted a clean mellow sound rather than the more bright and brash CS02  (although I had a CS02 set up ready, we never used it).  After a few run throughs and a bit of tuning up we got a take.

I also wanted Danny to try out the same part but with a Cornet, which has a slightly harsher sound (but not as harsh as a Trumpet). In the end we only used the Flugel Horn track.

We were all impressed with Danny's playing and wondered if we could fit another part in at the end of the song during the fade.  Although the music was the same, there was a vocal line which didn't quite sit right with the solo, so we had to quickly write a new part which I then wrote out for Danny to play.

A couple of takes (and a missed accidental) later and we had the take for the ending.

There a a few more songs Skye Ladder have recorded that require some sort of brass section and hopefully Danny will join us for them too.



More photos on Flickr.

Vamika - Session 6 - 30th October 2012

Session times: 8pm-10pm

Amy (Vocal) and Dave (Guitar) came to the session.

Long Way To Venus

We had recorded the drums, bass and guitar on previous sessions, so we were just going to record vocals on this session.  After setting a good microphone level, we started out with Amy laying down a vocal for the whole song and then went back to re-record the sections where necessary.

1,2,3...It's a..

The chorus lyric starts "It's a long way to Venus", and for some reason on the 2nd Chorus, Amy couldn't get the "It's A" in the right place.  We tried and tried and tried, but Amy had a brain blockage.  The 1st and 3rd choruses were fine, but the 2nd she just couldn't get right.  We tried various techniques including just singing the "It's A" on one take and the "Long Way..." on another.  Anyway, eventually we got the take required, so we moved on to backing vocals.  The song doesn't really lend itself to harmonies, so we went with some echo vocals (we the main line is re-sung sort of sounding like an echo, but not really).

We had a couple of listen throughs to see if we could think of any more vocals, and Dave thought it would be good if we could put some growling guitars on at the beginning. Rather than trying to remember that for next time, he got Amy to sing the part, which sounded so good, we decided to leave it in.

We wrapped up the session with a quick mix and the guys left with a CD of tonights efforts plus everything else we have up to now.

North - Session 2 - 30th September 2012

Session times: 12:30pm - 5:00pm

After listening to the takes we did at the last session during the week, it became clear that the tempos drifted too much and, as Wayne thought they were a bit slow to start with, we decided to re-record three of the four songs from last time.

The band had rehearsed them at the new tempos and were able to get them recorded quickly.  In fact it took about an hour to record all three compared to the 4 hours last week.  That left us enough time to record 5 more tracks, Mr Big Man, The Promise (video here), All A Lie, Runaway, and I Need You.

Runaway

This was my favourite track from the demos I was sent before we started the first session.  During a listen back George noticed an odd sound on the snare drum track.  It seemed to phase in and out during the take.  Initially I thought it was a dodgy cable or a failing channel on the desk, but it turned out the mic casing had come loose.  It must have unscrewed itself slowly from being in close proximity to different drummers.  Unfortunately, the take was really good except for the snare, so George replayed the few bars where the drop outs occurred and I'll line them up before the next session.

I Need You

George played this track with soft beaters, which gave an entirely different sound and feeling to the other tracks.  We tried a couple of run throughs, but it became apparent that the subtleties of this track meant we would have to try different micing than the other songs. It was decided to re-visit this track on another session.


We left the drums set up again so we could continue quickly on the next session.

North - Session #3 - 14th October 2012

Session times: 12:00pm-5:30pm

This was supposed to be the final drum session for North's album.  It remains to be seen if we need another one.  This was the first full session with my new desk, the Behringer X32 and it performed very well, even though there were a few times where I couldn't quite remember which buttons to press.

There were a couple of songs that needed a few bits to add to the previous sessions recordings and one which required a completely new take (Mr Big Man) due to a microphone malfunction which wasn't noticed until after we had finished last time, and one we just weren't happy with last time (Your Hand).  In addition, we also recorded  I Won't Listen, Footprints in the Snow (A christmas song !), Slide Away and The One.

Your Hand

This was the third attempt at this song.  Jack had to leave early, so Wayne, Rebecca and George played this song without bass to a click.  The drums are played with soft beaters and to try and get the levels right, George had to play the snare (without snare on), and toms on one take, then we added the cymbals on another take and then the bass drum on another.  In places the drums aren't quite in time, but I'll try and sort them out before the next session.  The third chorus is the climax of this song and George tried to follow the click track while playing with proper sticks, but we couldn't get the take required, so after trying for about an 90 minutes, we decided it was getting too late, we were getting tired and we'd have to revisit this track on another occasion.

Wayne mentioned they had a couple of acoustic numbers they also wanted to record on subsequent sessions, and in total should be about an hours worth of music.  After the band had gone, I added up all the track times and it came to ....41 minutes.  Unless the last 2 tunes are about 10 minutes each, I think we're a bit short of the our target.

Vamika - Session 6 - 17th October 2012

Session times: 8pm-10pm

The plan was for Amy, Damien and Dave (Guitar) to come on this session, but in the end only Dave came down.

Hmm, it's a bit dark in 'ere

Long Way To Venus

Last time we recorded the guitar parts for the choruses, so tonight we needed to do the verse guitar and the solo. It took about 15 minutes for Dave to find a sound he was happy with for the verses, which was really just a chuggy filler in the background to keep things moving.  Although Dave sort of knew what he wanted to do in the solo, he wasn't able to play it all in one go, so after about 5 takes, we split it up into 4 and 8 bar sections to take the pressure off (slightly).  In the end we got a seamless solo that fits together very well.

Billy McBolan - Session #8 - 5th November 2012

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

This was the final session for recording Billy's Christmas song "Love Was Born On Christmas Day" and we had lots to do.

Part of the song includes a children's choir, so I had recruited some children my wife knows, taught them the song and recorded them the day before.  After 12 takes, we had enough to make a good sounding choir.

Tonight, we were going to add Billy's 12 year old niece on top of the choir, his daughter and nephew and brother on some other parts he had worked out.   I set up the se2200a with the vocal booth and we started with a vocal harmony from Billy.  Every session we'd done on this song, Billy had tweaked the lyrics, and this was no exception, he finally went for a mention of John Lennon.

Then Billy's niece did her vocal over the choir parts and added a few atmospheric whispers to the beginning and the end.  She really got the hang of it and I think was a bit disappointed she wasn't going to sing more than she did.

Next we sang an ensemble part on one of the choruses with everyone on one mic, and then an applause section with everyone clapping and cheering as if they were parents applauding their children's singing.  After that, we had recorded everything we needed, so after they had all left, Billy and I got down to editing and mixing the song properly.

How did we get on?  Well you can find out yourself.  The single is out now on iTunes (click here to listen).

Billy McBolan - Session #7 - 15th October 2012

Session times: 8:15pm-10:15pm

Love Was Born (On Xmas Day)

The plan was to record all the parts we didn't record on the previous session with a mix for the vocalists to practice against.  The piano, strings and acoustic guitar were all OK, so we were left with Church bells and Pixie bells (as Billy christened them), Theramin (Billy's favourite) and vocals.

Most of the parts he wanted to record, were already worked out, so it was just a matter of getting his ideas down.  Billy had decided to record a proper vocal of himself singing.  It was originally going to be his daughter singing the main vocal and his niece singing an accompaniment, but it's now a duet between Billy and his daughter (with the niece still doing the accompaniment).

We need to get this song finished and on iTunes by around the middle of November, so Billy booked a couple more dates for the vocal parts in a few weeks time.  Hopefully we should be able to get it finished by then.