april 13, 2007 12:20am

Guitars, guitars...

Last Saturday I went down to Big Bang to track (record) guitars with my friend Ronni Santmyer. The whole night went incredibly well. We were getting tones really quickly and I was getting everything down in pretty much one take or one take and a punch. So we got through 6 songs (roughly half the album) double tracking rhythm guitars.

Not so productive tonight. The playing was fine, but we weren't getting the tones we wanted. Ronni had been testing pedals for Dave Barber all day and wasn't feeling at the top of his game in terms of his ears and getting what he wanted to hear to tape. To his credit, Ronni is top notch at what he does, so he'd rather come at it when he feels he can do his best rather than record something he won't be happy with later. So we bagged it after attempting two songs. We'll be back on Saturday to knock out as much as we can.

I'll also be shooting a little video of the sessions and will post it here and/or on MySpace. I'll let you know.

Keep checking back! And let me know how you're enjoying these blogs... or not enjoying them.

See you soon!

Peace,

Doug

april 14, 2007 11:16pm

Big Sesh...

I got the call from Ronni to come into the studio a little earlier than I expected. So I shaved, showered, threw on jeans and a T, and loaded up the Beamer with guitars. I got there sometime shortly before noon. Right away, we started from where we had left off Thursday night, with a song called "Falling". This time we were both fresh and ready to roll.

Tones were coming fast. Again, I was knocking the parts out in one pass. Ronni was doing his thing with the engineering. Then right around 1:30, he had to roll out to Fells Point to get a haircut. It's a hard appointment to get so he had to take it. He's been going to the same stylist for years now. You know how that is.

So while he was gone I changed strings on my blue Suhr custom strat and practiced for a while. I didn't want to wear the strings out, so I decided to read a magazine. I was going to get something to eat, so I called Ronni on his cell to see how things were looking with the haircut; he was already on his way back, so I decided to man up and eat later.

His haircut was good. It was one of those cuts where you can't tell you got it cut. (That's how you know it's good, right?) I miss getting haircuts myself. Actually I miss the shampoo girl's scalp massages. The warm water, her chest casually brushing against your face, her warm breath...uh...

So anyway, we got back to tracking guitars and finished up a little after 9PM. Some fantastic tones today. Some straight ahead rock, some "leslie" tones, some weird effects. All awesome. I just wish I had had time to sit and listen to the songs.

We got A LOT of work done.

So tomorrow, we go for clean guitar tones and get into a few of the solos. I would say we've got maybe two more sessions left.

Keep checking back for more updates.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace,

D

april 15, 2007 08:31pm

Get the funk out...

Today we hit a few clean and "clean-ish" guitar sounds. We also hit a little bump in the road with "Drive It".

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I wrote the song several years ago. This morning I really got a sense of just how long ago it had been when I tried to learn the rhythm guitar part off the original recording.

I had written "Drive It" back when I had my Mac Power PC (remember those?) before moving to the G4. I would write all the MIDI (synthesizer based) parts in Performer (my sequencing/recording program)including programmed drums, synth horns, synth bass, synth everything, and then dump all that onto one track on my cassette multi-track machine. I would then add a guitar part, a lead vocal, one harmony vocal, and a lead guitar part to the tape. That would give me a rough idea of how the song would sound. This is how I demo-ed the entire first CD. I actually chose the songs for "who you are" from a pant load of songs recorded on cassette.

Anyway, I couldn't hear the original guitar part on the cassette because it was just buried too far down in the mix. In other words, it wasn't nearly loud enough. I then attempted to listen to the original source tape on the afore mentioned multi-track recorder. No dice. Something was (and still is) wrong with the transport. (note to Star Trek fans- don't get excited, I don't own a transport suitable for beaming anybody anywhere.)

So I went to the studio essentially unprepared to play the part. Totally uncharacteristic. Ultimately, it wouldn't matter anyway as we ended up going with an entirely different sound from what I had originally envisioned; more of an old school funk- kind of a James Brown or even "Brick House" vibe.

So after some trial and error, we came up with a part that fit nicely and grooved with all the other funky activity in the track.

Tomorrow, I've got two small rhythm parts left on two other songs and then we're into guitar solo territory. It's possible, but not likely, that tomorrow evening will be the last tracking session for "Love & Logic". I predict one more after that. But we'll see.

Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

See you soon!

Peace,

D

april 16, 2007 11:58pm

Quick one...

A quick session deserves a quick blog.

We didn't have much time available tonight so we finished what we could. I put the last rhythm guitar parts on "I Want You To Know" and "Pass You By", both ballads.

And that's it. It went pretty smoothly though we did experiment with a part for "That 80's Love Song" that we didn't ultimately use. That's the way it goes sometimes.

So now we're ready to track all the guitar solos.

OK. Now I really do predict two more sessions.

I did get some video tonight. I just stuck the camera up on the tripod and let it roll for a while. I'll go through it and find anything that might be of interest. I hope watching me play guitar in a studio full of amplifiers while wearing big fat headphones will do something for you.

Next session is Wednesday.

See you soon!

Peace,

D

april 18, 2007 11:12pm

Damned solos...

Oh how I long for the days of yore when I used to spend hours a day shredding and shredding and shredding. There's just so much going on now that it's remarkably difficult to get in the practice for which I so desperately long.

Being, or should I say, staying highly technically proficient on the guitar takes the same kind of time and diligence professional athletes put into their practice. It's a physical process that needs to be hit everyday. Many musicians of different stripes over the years have said something of this nature:

"If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for 2 days, my wife knows it, If I don't practice for 3 days, the whole world knows it."

This is how I feel when we come to tracking all the guitar solos. Most people might not even notice, but to me there's this extra polish and control I have when I am totally on top of my game. It's frustrating to me to not always be where I want to be. The challenge is to make sure that it never shows on the CD.

I often want to just quit everything else I have to do to make a living and stay home and practice. As many of you know, I do make my living in music; teaching, performing, writing. But having to diversify and teach at 3 different campuses, etc, etc, takes its toll.

Anyway, we got three solos down tonight. Ten to go. Back at it tomorrow.

Peace,

D