Mungus in the Studio, Day 4 (Saturday? August 16, 2008)
I finished tracking the bass line for Mystery Song X at the beginning of the day, and we moved on to guitar. It's now 11:30, and before I say anything else I just have to say HOLY GOD. Stephen's recording Mystery Song X, and the moment he hit the first note the rest of us all looked up and at one another. The sound is HUGE. The tone is really amazing: he's playing through a vintage Marshall and the walls of the studio are bowing out. This is absolutely amazing.
Ok, now that I have that out of my system, let me run through the songs we submitted to Duane for his listening consideration (the ones in bold have been recorded, and the two in italics were part of the original list of 10):
Beam
Digging in the Dirt (Peter Gabriel cover)
The Fire Inside
Flame On
Frailty, Thy Name
Get Some
Gods of Rock
Jade
Longshot
Medusa
Move
The Ponderous Groove
Remora
Sex Kills
Swing
Wind in the Willows
Mystery Song X is neither bold nor italicized. I think we've decided to record "Remora" for the album because the drums are more polished by far than "Medusa", though we're going to try to get a really good recording of that song to take with us, sans overdubs and a spit shine. (There's another little ditty, an improv, really, we're going to try to record just as a one-and-a-half or two minute extra. I hope we get to it because it's fun and shows what happens when goofing off in rehearsal goes really well.)
---
1:22 and we're layering guitars a bit on Mystery Song X. Instead of an echo or stereo effect Duane is having Stephen play his guitar solo (and some other parts) on a different guitar through an Orange amp rather than the Marshall. It's a really cool effect. Duane's position is to get our sound as mammoth as he possibly can. Breaking for lunch at 1:27.
---
Back from lunch at 2:47. We're tracking "Ponderous Groove" right now, and it sounds like God's own guitar is roaring out of that Marshall. It just doesn't make sense to me how immense this sound is. Duane set up a room mic to capture the enormity of the live experience. He stopped playing during the quieter middle section (we're recording the distorted guitar first) and we listened to my bass line, but then, when he came back in, it was huge and low and gigantic again. I really hope it translates onto the album.
4PM and still tracking "PG", adding layers and fleshing out the guitars. Stephen just moved over to the Orange amp. My face is melting off.
---
4:20 and we're tracking the guitars for "Sex Kills". We played the original compositional track I made when I wrote it and the difference is huge. It's really wonderful to hear something I wrote one afternoon because I wanted an easier bass part to play turn into such a beast of a song. To quote Duane (after recording Stephen doubling the drums in one part), "It sounds like the fucking army's coming."
---
5:40 and "Longshot" just peeled the paint off the walls of the building a few blocks down.
---
On the ride home we were so tired we were making wookie noises and laughing about... pretty much everything. Gotta love being slaphappy. Tomorrow should be interesting.
~Benjamin
I finished tracking the bass line for Mystery Song X at the beginning of the day, and we moved on to guitar. It's now 11:30, and before I say anything else I just have to say HOLY GOD. Stephen's recording Mystery Song X, and the moment he hit the first note the rest of us all looked up and at one another. The sound is HUGE. The tone is really amazing: he's playing through a vintage Marshall and the walls of the studio are bowing out. This is absolutely amazing.
Ok, now that I have that out of my system, let me run through the songs we submitted to Duane for his listening consideration (the ones in bold have been recorded, and the two in italics were part of the original list of 10):
Beam
Digging in the Dirt (Peter Gabriel cover)
The Fire Inside
Flame On
Frailty, Thy Name
Get Some
Gods of Rock
Jade
Longshot
Medusa
Move
The Ponderous Groove
Remora
Sex Kills
Swing
Wind in the Willows
Mystery Song X is neither bold nor italicized. I think we've decided to record "Remora" for the album because the drums are more polished by far than "Medusa", though we're going to try to get a really good recording of that song to take with us, sans overdubs and a spit shine. (There's another little ditty, an improv, really, we're going to try to record just as a one-and-a-half or two minute extra. I hope we get to it because it's fun and shows what happens when goofing off in rehearsal goes really well.)
---
1:22 and we're layering guitars a bit on Mystery Song X. Instead of an echo or stereo effect Duane is having Stephen play his guitar solo (and some other parts) on a different guitar through an Orange amp rather than the Marshall. It's a really cool effect. Duane's position is to get our sound as mammoth as he possibly can. Breaking for lunch at 1:27.
---
Back from lunch at 2:47. We're tracking "Ponderous Groove" right now, and it sounds like God's own guitar is roaring out of that Marshall. It just doesn't make sense to me how immense this sound is. Duane set up a room mic to capture the enormity of the live experience. He stopped playing during the quieter middle section (we're recording the distorted guitar first) and we listened to my bass line, but then, when he came back in, it was huge and low and gigantic again. I really hope it translates onto the album.
4PM and still tracking "PG", adding layers and fleshing out the guitars. Stephen just moved over to the Orange amp. My face is melting off.
---
4:20 and we're tracking the guitars for "Sex Kills". We played the original compositional track I made when I wrote it and the difference is huge. It's really wonderful to hear something I wrote one afternoon because I wanted an easier bass part to play turn into such a beast of a song. To quote Duane (after recording Stephen doubling the drums in one part), "It sounds like the fucking army's coming."
---
5:40 and "Longshot" just peeled the paint off the walls of the building a few blocks down.
---
On the ride home we were so tired we were making wookie noises and laughing about... pretty much everything. Gotta love being slaphappy. Tomorrow should be interesting.
~Benjamin
davehidden:
Sounds like it is going well. I have been keeping up with your entries, just haven't had the time to comment yet. So are you guys recording on your own, to release on your own, or do you have someone putting the record out for you? Your detailed descriptions of working in the studo make me really miss being in a real studio. I have spent so many years away from that and recording at home. What studio are you at and where is it at, if I may ask? Since I have lived in KY (6 years), I have never seen a studio that I am really happy with. Ok, enough with all the questions. Good luck, and I look forward to you guys being done so I can bother you for info on picking up a copy of what you have done.