02010-02-14
Now that we have arranged the music, I can get down to practicing my parts. I also have to start naming the tunes…
02010-02-16
Today we worked on drum-miking at Jon’s studio. Michael set up his white Ludwig kit and Jon set up the microphones he wants to use. We want to go for an organic Sixties-kind-of-sound with as few microphones as possible. Michael Chavez:
Jon Gagan measures the distance between the overhead microphones and the drumkit – after a test a week before the recording sessions started.
02010-02-17
In this rehearsal recording the verses were longer and I tried out different things.
The title of the track is a nod to Al Green, whose drummer Al Jackson would sometimes emphasize the beat by hitting tom and snare at the same time, as did Michael Chavez in the chorus of Future Green.
02010-02-24
Here is last week’s rehearsal of a, still untitled, tune. We performed this in Saratoga last fall, in Japan in November and in Florida in February. And still no title! On those setlists it was identified as Nu Bm Rumba, but it seems more like a funk-pop thing… I realized last week that I have no idea where this music we are rehearsing and recording came from!
I just came back from our first recording session. It went well and we laid down several versions of four different songs. We’ll continue tomorrow and Friday and finish up Monday and Tuesday. Normally I would be listening to the music right now, but since my DigiDesign 192 (analog-to-digital converter for Pro Tools) is at Jon’s studio for these sessions, that will have to wait until next Tuesday. Hopefully we will have good takes of each piece by then.
Today we started out with the guitar mike about 13″ away from the soundhole, but moved it further back because I was clipping at the 35db setting – maybe another 4″ back. The Martech MSS-10 changes mic gain in increments of 5db, so it’s better to move the mic a little than to lose 5db. I am usually aware of how hard I strike the strings and can stay within a given dynamic range. It is easier when I record rhythm and melody parts separately than when I record everything at once, as we are doing now, but it’s turning out really nice sounding.
PS: That song was recorded as Dancing Alone and is track #3 on the album.
02010-02-26
Played around with fonts on my laptop last night. Maybe I will look for a traditional calligrapher in Santa Fe. It would be nice to have this written/designed by hand. In my mind that would fit with the music, which eschews many of the modern recording techniques.
02010-02-26
Yesterday: breakfast at CC, followed by HD Recording session #2. We started the session with a ballad, tentatively entitled The Long Goodbye or The Long Farewell. While we were playing the song I had this image of a person not being able to tear themselves away from another person, and then I remembered how the Japanese often wave goodbye until the leaving party is completely out of sight… and should they drive or walk around a hill and become visible again on the other side of that hill, their hosts will still be waving at them. Jon reminded me that the staff from the Blue Note in Tokyo waved until the small bus we were traveling in had completely disappeared around a corner.
PS: The ballad I described is called Garden at Dusk, is seven and a half minutes long, and is the 11th and last track on the album.
