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Mixing

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Since getting my files back from Matthew I find myself back to the solo act of mixing my own music.

This is versus the frustration of trying to communicate to an engineer what I want from a mix, which just proved to be less productive than I thought it was going to be. Everyone has their own version of what they want to achieve musically, and Matthew’s was obviously very different from mine. As I’ve said before, I’m very much a hands-on kind of guy, and now the responsibility comes back on me. This, I have to say, I very much prefer, despite the extra work involved.

The 360 AD experience, despite it’s obvious disappointments (see previous blogs), has taught me a few things: one of which is how to get a better mix, and how to better prepare my music for mastering, which is the part that I was less aware of before beginning this journey 2 years back.

This last weekend I’ve spent some time on getting Wry Smile and Only the Good Ones Go First to a good level where they can be mastered. I’m still thinking about whether to add some backing vocals to the bridge of Wry Smile, and whether to re-do the main vocal on Good Ones, to add the tiny tweaks to the verse that I now sing in the live set. I was so happy with the performance of the Guide vocal on Good Ones that I’m reluctant to bin it just yet. The beauty of digital recording is that it can be cloned, so we may have two versions to contend with eventually.

Anyway, I left this decision until Sunday where I started coming down with cold/flu shivers and a chesty cough (again… thought I’d got rid of that a fortnight ago!), which put paid to the whole session. For the moment, I’ll have to stick with the old vocal.

Progress at Last

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I finally am beginning to make progress with the album, after a long stall.

Basically, and I guess because my contract with 360 Artist Development had come to an end, and he’d lost interest in progressing my tracks, I wasn’t getting anywhere fast with Matthew and was waiting for months to get studio time to mix the tracks that I had.

In the end, I’ve come away with very little: five tracks, none that I’m completely happy with, and none of them ready to master (as was promised) in the contract. 

I arranged one final session in Matthew’s now finished full studio, originally to finalise the five tracks, but instead, I took along an SSD drive and just asked him to give me all of the stems from the Cubase files, and then after this the Cubase files themselves. So the rest of the two-hour session was Matthew exporting tracks for me to take away.

Many of these stems are painfully quiet, so I’m unsure how much of them I can use. I’m left with the decision to get hold of a copy of Cubase to re-export the tracks again. I’m happier though that the tracks are under my control, and I believe that I’ll make better progress with them than under the control of someone who didn’t really have my interests at heart.

As I write this, it’s 2 years since I began seeking help in developing my songs into product. And a frustrating road it has been.

I was due back in the studio yesterday with Andrew, which has been postponed, as his daughter is ill. 

 

Vocals complete (I think)…

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Audacity is finally completed. Had a great session over at Matthew’s last Friday afternoon, and the final double-tracked vocals slotted into place after our usual warm-up beforehand.

We had a bit of time to review a couple of the other songs too, in particular I wanted to add more seriousness and weight to the arrangement on Daytime. I’m concerned that because I’d chopped it and speeded it up slightly (to make it shorter, on Matthew’s advice, and more commercial) that it’s lost it’s impact. My original ‘demo’ version, recorded at Rick’s (Rooster’s) used a droning synth bass (Rick’s Yamaha TX81Z), that I’d like to try and recapture somehow. I have a TX81Z, so I’ve asked Matthew to send me a mix track without acoustic bass to try out the TX with the new arrangement.

Reviewing all the mixed material at home, I’m still wanting to tweak the backing vocals on Nonsense Song. Again I’ve asked Matthew to send over a mix with an isolated track of the backing vocal so I can try some ideas out over here.

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Still recording…

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I was over at Matthew’s yesterday, putting the backing vocals onto Audacity. I had elected to multi-track the backing vocals, a three-part harmony that I’d worked out, but to double-up each vocal to add some fullness to the backing, and to add more potential for a wider stereo spread in the final mix.

We got most of these done in the hour-long session, though my voice was straining a bit towards the end, and I’ve had to defer the last harmony to another session next week, as my throat was getting really raspy by the end of the hour. Seems I’d left the hardest part till last, the middle harmony, which just touches upon that part in my range where it begins to go into falsetto.

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Shocking News…

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Mixing course

A couple of weeks ago I tried logging onto the mixing course website to complete my final module of the course. The site returned a 404 (site not there) error. I texted Matthew to get the reply that that part of the business has closed. Anyway, after messaging back my disappointment that day, Matthew, some 3 days later, did send me the assignment files so I could at least complete the final assessment mix. I’ve not had chance yet, with having to re-arrange my studio-space recently, but I will do this as soon as the audio equipment is re-wired.

Performance

I have also been chasing Andrew all week about getting one more live coaching session before the Batley Taproom night in June. I sent him a text requesting a meeting with both him and Matthew, to find out what was going on. Within a few minutes he rang me to tell me that his partnership with Matthew has dissolved, and that Matthew is now running 360 on his own. This was quite a shock. I had some slight vibe that things weren’t right here, you know, just a few little things that had cropped up in conversation, but the lack of communication was obvious. Andrew now is still working with 360, but as a subcontractor, so all bookings now are handled by Matthew.

This is a relief, as I was thinking for a while that the whole company had ceased.

So – now that my year’s contract has come to it’s end, I was perhaps fearing the worst, that I wasn’t going to have anything to show for the year’s investment.

While the experience gained this last year has been life-changing, until the major part of the contract is fulfilled, i.e. the five tracks, then I have no reason to renew my contract with 360, as their commitment is still incomplete.

I have since spoken with Matthew, and he still seems determined to complete the mixes and mastering as soon as possible. He is building a new studio, and though it’s possibly a month or two away from completion, and it would be a benefit to have final mixes done in it, I would rather be in possession of my five tracks now to market and progress the music further and have something to show for my efforts. We’ve also talked about getting a photographer to do some promo shots.

The story continues…

Studio Session

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Had a longer than usual session in Matthew’s studio today… In particular, I wanted to tackle the horns section in Nonsense Song which, once the instrumentation had been swapped in favour of Matthew’s superb horns set, the dynamics had altered, and I needed to tweak nearly every phrase. Although Matthew had done a stirling job of trying to interpret my crude instructions, it was more efficient to give me hands-on and let me tweak the piano roll, as I just knew the ‘feel’ of the track, and it was something I just couldn’t articulate, much as I tried. Anyway, he took this photo (above) of me getting my hands on Cubase, for the first time in many years.

We also went through this, and the other four tracks, and Matthew made notes as we played them through and commented on overall sound, and corrections to be made to the mix. They are all coming together I feel, and the changes needed now are fairly minor. 

Daytime Studio Session

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Craig - recording Daytime

Another really good session at Matthew’s yesterday. Hampered a little by the traffic getting across, and it was an interesting detour getting there and avoiding the tailbacks on the M62. Anyway, we got two takes of guitar (pictured) and two vocal takes also in the time that remained. There’s nothing like a bit of time pressure to bring out a tight performance!

We’re doing a new version of Daytime, almost 30 years old (for me), but a murder story, quite dark really. I’m looking forward to hearing it come together, with some real drums (360’s guy in Nashville again), and bass.

Keep watching this space…

Acoustic Circus Session

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Me with Purple Hair!
Nice pic from Andrew’s perspective… Me with Purple Hair!

Acoustic Circus Session is the title of the Open Mic event run regularly at the Taproom in Batley. Hosted by guitarist and singer Pete Long, the Taproom is a great little venue with nice acoustics which will hold about 80 when full. I was impressed with the sound quality when listening to the other acts singing and performing, though I had a couple of issues on the last bit of my second set when a dirty volume ‘pot’ on the P.A. started to crackle out. I just soldiered on and kept playing while Pete did his best to sort things out, which was done fairly quickly, but it definitely needs a clean up for next time.

Feedback from Andrew was very good. He was pleased with the way which I coped, even with the technical issues, and he had no complaints with my playing or my confidence on stage. I have a couple of things to work on in terms of the dynamics of one or two of the songs, which we can work on over the next few weeks. But as we’re coming to the end of our contract, I am now mindful of the fact that we still have 5 songs to complete, mix and master by April.

Lots to do. Watch this space…

Recording Session

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Went across to Matthew’s today for the first time since early December, being ill for most of December, and since my recovery he’s been away most of January on holiday.

We played and reviewed all the tracks so far: Watching the Rain, Nonsense Song, Get Out of This and a bit of Audacity.

First was Nonsense Song. In general I thought the vocals were too harsh, and I had to tell Matthew how unhappy I was with my performance of it. I think it was at the beginnings of my throat virus, and it showed in the performance. Hard to put my finger on it, but anyway, we’ve re-recorded the main vocal again, and I think it is sounding a bit ‘sweeter’, and doesn’t detract from the light-heartedness of the song. 

I sat with Matthew while he mixed Watching the Rain. There were certain parts that were clashing for me, and these I’ve just made sure that he was aware of these parts in the production. Not huge changes, but a couple of subtle things that weren’t sitting right. He didn’t go on to complete the mix, but just saved the changes, so I’ve yet to hear the completed mix with those changes in place.

Lastly, we recorded the vocal and backing vocal for Get Out of This. We’ve recorded three ‘takes’ of the main vocal, so that Matthew has three performances he can select to get the best out of the performance. Then we did a couple of overdubs, recording short phrases that allowed me to experiment and vary the phrasing on these, and then the little backing vocal phrase to finish. It’s now up to Matthew to come up with his ‘best cuts’.

Adding ‘live’ drums to your tracks…

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Session at Andrew's

It’s been a while since I last posted. Many things going off in my life at the moment, and the music being just a part of it. Anyway, the story so far…

We’ve recorded Watching the Rain. The mix is progressing, but it’s not quite there yet. There’s a couple of little bits that I’d like to improve, so Matthew’s letting me sit with him in the studio to go through the parts I’m not happy with.

We’ve recorded Nonsense Song. The vocal is too harsh on it, this is because I recorded it at a point in time when I was coming down with a throat virus, that ended up taking me out for 4 weeks or more (and right over Christmas too…). The throaty vocals have made it sound to me like it’s an attempt at a punk record. I’m not sure at this point what we can do with it.

We’ve begun recording Get Out of This, and one of two new songs: Audacity.

For both of these we’ve recorded guitar at Andrew’s place this time, while Matthew was away, and then afterwards Andrew has commissioned a drummer who’s got a drum-studio setup in Nashville. He’s put a number of tracks down now for Get Out of This. We’ve had to go to 3 takes over this one, and that’s more due to my having a 30 year old song. When you’ve had 30 years to think about it, it kind of goes a certain way in your head, and it’s difficult to imagine a different drum pattern. I wanted real drums on the track, but the ‘virtual drums’ I had were pretty much what I wanted to be played; I just wanted the ‘robotic’ element (that all drum machines have) to be removed.

There is no doubt to me that, despite the repeats and the re-work, having a real drummer really adds something to the mix. I can’t wait to hear the track completed. We still have vocals and keyboard instrumentation to do yet.

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