Vamika - 6th March 2013

Session times: 8pm-10pm

You've heard the old joke:
Explorer: Why are there always drums in the jungle?
Guide: When drums are playing, it's very good.  When drums stop, it's very bad.
Explorer: Why is it bad when drums stop?
Guide: Bass Solo !!


Dave and Damien from Vamika came to the studio tonight, to record solos for their song: Weak To The Beat.  We had recorded the other parts on previous sessions, leaving the gaps where the piano, bass and guitar solos would go.

Damien went first with the bass solo, which starts off as a simple walking bass line, and gradually works up to a frenzy of finger action over the course of 4 bars.

Dave's guitar solo was a similar, simple start and a more complicated flourish at the end.

Neither the band, nor myself are piano players, so I've got a friend lined up to play the piano solo which should be before Vamika's next session, in a few weeks time.

North - Session 4 - 3rd January 2013

Session times: 8pm-10:30pm

North wanted to record 3 non-drum based songs for their new album, so this session was used to record Wayne's acoustic guitar and a guide vocal by Rebecca.

We started with a couple of run throughs to get the click tempo correct, and then recorded a 'guide-take' of guitar and vocal together.  During this time I set up 3 microphones around Wayne's acoustic guitar (2xCS02 and a sE2200) and also took a line out from the acoustic pickup.  I can blend together these 4 tracks in the final mix to make the best sound.  I then deleted the guitar track, and, listening on head-phones, Wayne could play along with the vocal track playing in his ears.

Hmm..what is the first chord?

Repeating this technique, we recorded the 3 songs: A Short Story About Love, Smile and In Denial.

Vamika - 12th December 2012

Session times: 8pm-10pm

Damien (bass guitar) and Dave (lead guitar) from Vamika  came along tonight.

Weak To The Beat

We had recorded the drums at the second session back in July and this was the first time we were laying any tracks on top of them.  Damien set up his bass and amp and tuned up while I placed the sE2200a on one of the speakers in the bass cab.  I also took a line out from the amp as this can sometimes give a clearer 'toppy' sound when mixed with the signal from the speaker.  Of course both signals are recorded on seperate tracks so I can decide on the particular mix at later sessions.

There was some talk last time about playing fret-less bass on this song, but in the end Damien brought his usual (fretted) bass guitar along.

Damien played along to the backing tracks whilst I got the levels set correctly, then we started recording.

When the drum track was originally recorded, due to the fact I could only record 8 tracks at once, the guitar and bass shared a track.  This meant that after the intro, Damien could only hear the drums and vocal in his headphones.

At around 9:50, we had just finished recording a snippet, when all of a sudden, Damien's amp turned off.  We checked a few connections and couldn't find anything wrong, until I remembered my Christmas lights!!

My outdoor Christmas decorations (of which there are many) are on a timer and Damien had plugged his amp into the same extension power socket that was also powering the lights.  I had set the lights to turn off around 10pm. Doh!

At this point, we could tell Damien was beginning to tire from all the concentration.  He tried to get a good take on the final chorus, but it wasn't to be, so we decided to call it a night.  Of course this meant we had to commit a recording cardinal sin, move the gear before completing the whole track.  I copied down the amp settings and drew pictures of where the mic was positioned so we could make sure they were identical on the next session.

Face It - 22nd November 2012

Chris, Mike & Jack from Face It finished recording their album "Now Tell Me" a few months ago, but I've only just finished mixing the tracks.  In the mean time, they have also been working on the artwork for the CD, so tonight we were discussing where to go next.

The boys had a photo session a couple of months ago and Jack had created the artwork.   The band decided they wanted to print all the lyrics on the booklet, so were going for an 8 page booklet (6 sides, plus back & front).  Jack had created PDFs for all the pages, so I printed a copy out so we could look at a complete mock up.  It was then I realised the pages were in the wrong order!

When printing multiple pages front and back on a single page, the front first page contains pages 8 & 1 and the back contains 2 & 7.

This is how Jack created it:

And this is how is should be:

  This web site explains things better than I can.