Sunday, February 26, 2006
Lead Vocals
Saturday Feb 26 2006 marked the start of recording the lead vocals to the album. As anticipated this was much slower than previous recording sessions.
Leaving aside the recording for a few moments two problems with the studio became apparent yesterday.
The first: The computer only has USB 1.1 therefore meaning backing up data takes 6-8 weeks rather than about 15 minutes. (The project is rapidly closing in on hitting 25 GB).
The Second: Velcro Adhesive and exterior walls make a bad combination. Over the last few weeks we have been coming into the studio and having to stick up the odd tile here and there. Yesterday, not content with potentially damaging expensive tiles the 4 week old skimming had also been pulled off the wall. :-(
The only benefit I found out of the tile situation was that I could now position them where ever I felt like. Custom Acoustics -> Nice!
I will have to go back to the studio one day this week and find a more permanent method of attaching them to the wall. I am thinking picture hooks, and then if I want to move the odd one about for different situations I can. Anyone reading this with experience of the problem please comment!!
Now back to the recording it was felt that a new style of how to get good takes down was required.
The microphone was positioned slightly above the singer, meaning he had to lift his head and open his throat more. We started the day with a brew to warm the throat, and then sang through one song once for sound check, then straight into another take with the record button pressed. This take was listened back, and then we would do another. We did in the region of 5 takes of this song, knowing that we would have a clean take from editing them together.
Reading about how Keanes Hopes and Fears album was recorded I had in mind the vocalist would be strongest in the 3rd and 4th takes. This is because his voice would be warmed up, without getting in to the routine of being bored of singing the song.
The next song, Charcoal Skies, was somewhat more difficult to record. We did two takes and realised the way the song is written was not allowing for correct breathing on certain lines, and words not being pronounced properly. We therefore split the song into 3 easy sections; Verse, Chorus A and Chorus B. David commented how much easier it was to sing, and he got his pronunciation spot on. A bit of editing involved but it should be fine. There maybe problems with pitch of the voice on different takes, but that should be easily sortable.
A 2 hour break then commenced. When we restarted David's voice needed warming up again. Cue another brew. Although am sure we must have a clean take of the first song after the break (we did like 7 takes) I still have a paranoia inside of me that tells me otherwise. A listen later this week will confirm this. The next song flowed out really nice in a few takes, knowing that we had an editable take.
Home time!
Well not quite, it was going to take 50 minutes to back up the data, so we left the hard drive running whilst we took some "promotional" pictures for blogging purposes and the report I have to produce for Uni at the end of this project.
We also confirmed dates for the rest of the production schedule right up to mastering. It is scary how tight the schedule is for this album, breaking speed records for sure!
Less than 8 weeks to go!
