Skye Ladder - 11th December 2012

Session times: 8pm-10:30pm

Janie and Paul from Skye Ladder came over tonight to record some vocals.

Skye May Fall

The backing for this track had been done previously, so we just needed the vocals recording.  Because the song is mostly just piano and voice, the vocal had to be spot on and it took quite a while recording  each line a few times to get just the right emphasis or to make sure the words were clear.

Name Of The Game

We recorded most of this track a few weeks ago and just needed to record the main vocal and any backing vocals we could think of.  Unlike the previous track, this song is up-tempo with guitar, bass, drums, piano, strings (and solo cello!), so the main vocal was quite straightforward and only took a couple of takes with the odd replacement of lines here and there.  Then we moved onto some backing vocals.  I recorded Janie riffing over the main vocal and we played it back to decide on any good bits we liked.

The chorus needed a lift so I suggested Janie ahh-ing a 3-part harmony but after we recorded it, it was apparent her voice wasn't quite right for this task.  We tried a few voice patches on Janie's synth, but they all seemed too fake.  Paul suggested some brass instead, so we found a decent trumpet patch on the synth and Janie put down a few stabs which really lifted it.  We will replace it with a proper horn section at a later date, but that gave us a good idea of what it sounded like.

Looking for horn section

If you know anyone who can play trombone or saxophone, who is in the Littleborough area, and might be interested in playing on a few tracks, please drop us a line at: starringstudio@hotmail.com.

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.

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.

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.

Skye Ladder - 19th July 2012

Session times: 8pm-10:30pm

Janie and Paul Britton from Skye Ladder have been to Starring Studio many times before, but haven't been recently due to ill health.  This is the first time they've been since I started blogging.

Skye Ladder currently have 7 tracks recorded, but the vocals on 3 of the tracks weren't complete, so the task for tonight was to get one of them finished off.

As we hadn't met up for a while, we firstly had a chat about things they'd been doing since we last got together.  My wife and I have been out with Janie and Paul socially, so she came up to say hi and have a bit of a chin-wag.  They mentioned a 'secret diners' club in Rawtenstall where they had a fabulous Greek meal and also that they had booked a 3 week! summer holiday on the Isle of Skye. 

Just Before The Dawn

I normally record vocals with a Vocal Booth, which is OK but rather bulky. I can't see the singer to give directions, and they struggle to position the lyric sheet so they can see it.  Tonight we tried without the vocal booth.  Janie hadn't sung properly since she was last here, so it took a few warm up takes to get the vocal juices flowing.  She also spends most of the sessions giggling, and this one was no exception.

I usually record verses on a separate track to the choruses as songs generally need a slightly louder vocal for the chorus and I find it easier to set the level on each track and then leave it alone, rather than constantly altering it between verse and chorus.  The faders are motorised, so any level changes are recorded and played back as part of each track, but I find it easier just to record everything separately, set it once and then leave it along until mix time.

As well as the main vocal line Janie wanted to put on some backing vocals, so we ran through the song a couple of times just jamming and listening back to what she came up with.  One part on the chorus was particularly good, so we put that down, along with a chanting section under the instrumental break.  We decided it sounded like a saxophone solo so Janie played a melody part on the keyboard.  We really need a proper saxophone player to do this solo (and perhaps in another song too), so their task is to find someone.  When laying down the instrument tracks, we left room for a 3rd verse, but there weren't any lyrics, so Janie had just sung the 1st verse again.  Paul (who writes most of the lyrics) quickly had to write another verse, but he'd not done much else this evening so it was good to get him involved more.

We wrapped up the session at about 10:30, I mixed down and MP3'd the track and immediately emailed it to them so it was there when they got home.