yesterday's recording session ("The Wait")

It was only yesterday when I said I was going to take a break from recording on the Acid Studio. Yesterday morning, wasn't it?

Alas, I was not able to resist. I decided to try to commit one of my "old standards" to digital audio. "The Wait" is a song that a couple of my friends really like, so part of the reason I want to record it is to let them have a copy. They've wanted one for a long time, and my goal is to put together at least a CDs worth of these songs that they've enjoyed over the years. I guess it's sort of a "legacy" kind of thing.

I thought it might be helpful to me if I did an analysis of what's good with the progress I made yesterday. And what's bad, too, of course, as I don't think I'll be keeping the version I finished with. Instead, I think I'll render yesterday's work into mp3 and wav files, just so I can look back and say "here's the 'Anthology' stuff!" (ha).

First of all, one of my main problems is equipment. The microphone I'm using is the kind that is for Playstation 2 games and communicating online. It's a good little mic for those things, and it's really not all that bad for this kind of amateur recording. But what I need is a studio microphone. Even a cheap model would suffice.

Next, I'm using that mic to record an acoustic guitar that has no electric pick-ups. I'm sure there are many musicians out there who prefer to go straight to mic, but I'm not one of them. I don't like to worry about staying in exactly the same place from the time the "record" button is pushed till the end of the song. It seems so restricting to me. Plus, I think you get a better sound when the signal is run directly into the board.

The only other thing that I really had going against me was the fact that I was doing it alone (though there are definitely benefits to this, as well). I had to reach over, click the mouse to stop, delete the track and click start again to begin recording. This may not sound like such a big deal, but I generally need a lot of takes to get a track "right" (to my own standards), so all that clicking and moving out of the position I've got to be in is a hassle. If only I had someone to do just that. I'd save a good 5 minutes per hour.

The mixing process with the Acid program is a lot of fun. You can fix just about anything that goes wrong, if you have the time. Say, for instance, you bump the microphone while doing a guitar part.You can enlarge the track view so much that you can actually see where the glitch is, then you can go in and erase it, with fades on both sides, to the point where it is completely erased. Of course, there will be a very, very , very tiny drop-out, but you are likely going to record a second guitar part anyway, which will completely mask it. The purpose, to get rid of the intrusive "pop", is accomplished.

You can also adjust the volume level of individual pieces of sound. For example, let's say I've got a vocal track but some of the lines are a little bit louder than the others. Maybe too loud for what you have in mind. Just isolate the problematic line, adjust the volume of that line (it doesn't affect the over-all volume of the track), and VOILA! I only wish I could throw in separate effects on these "lines". Who knows, maybe you can. I have no doubt that there are a lot of things I have yet to learn on this program.

So, yesterday's track overview:

TRACK 1: Original guitar line. Used a pick. No metronome ( the tempo is a bit jerky, though not as bad as I usually am. I don't like metronomes. I can't seem to find the right groove using backing rhythm tracks. This is not a problem when I play bass guitar, but I've always had trouble with rhythm on acoustic guitar. I used minimal EQ, hoping I'd be able to flesh it out with double tracking. Panned mid-left.

TRACK 2: Original guitar line doubled, using different EQ and an effect. I can't even recall, at the moment, what effect it was. I think it might have been a stereo chorus. I don't like to use too much of that particular effect because I think it sounds cheesy if you go overboard. If it makes your guitar sound like a 12-string, that's as much as it needs to do. Panned about 75% left.

TRACK 3: Second guitar part. Used fingers instead of pick, which turns out not to be such a great idea. First off, there's no way I can use this style without my hand hitting the pick-guard several times. Even the lightest tap comes through loud and clear in the recording. I spent a good hour (at least) erasing these annoying "pops". Plus, the sound, as compared to what you get when you use a pick, is extremely muddled. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I had new strings on the guitar (I should have bought new strings a long time ago). It's hard to EQ. This part turned out pretty well, considering the rhythmic eccentricities. I panned it about mid-right.

TRACK 4: Second guitar part doubled with different EQ and effects. I think this one used a reverb. I do this double-tracking in hopes that it will beef up my cheap-ass guitar sound, and it seems to do the trick---at least until you start piling on other stuff. Then it just sounds like too much. When I re-do the song today I will depend entirely upon equalization to achieve a good guitar sound. I will do more than one guitar part, and I'll use different effects on these, but I NOT going to double track. Panned about 75% to the right (do you detect a pattern there? ha!)

TRACK 5: I don't know the exact word for what it is...the closest I can come up with is "guitar adornment". Not a lead line, just some pretty fills. I had the most fun recording this part. It sounded very good within the song itself, but unfortunately, when the vocals were recorded, a lot of it got buried beneath them. I didn't think about this until after I was pretty much through with it. The sections where it can be heard before or after a singing line are quite beautiful. But next time I do it I will be sure and wait until the vocal line is on there. I couldn't tell you. without looking, where this track is panned.

TRACK 6: Vocals. This is one of the reasons I don't want to keep this version. I don't want to go in and record a whole second vocal track then pick and choose what I can use, then mix the two tracks together. I would do that if I weren't so disappointed with tracks 1-4 (and the main problem with those is rhythm, so maybe that's the root cause, in a roundabout way. for all these issues). I don't want to give the impression that the vocals here were no good. In fact, some of them were excellent. But the first two lines, especially, are off key just a hair. Spoils the whole thing for me.

Okay, I suppose I should get to it. Two big changes, and I don't know which is going to be harder for me.

Number 1...I've GOT to use a pick. I have always used my fingers. For me there is a lot more that can be done with fingers. I have developed my own finger picking style over the years (not consciously, I might add), so it's not easy to switch from that to a pick. I'm gonna have to learn, though, if I ever want to see progress with these recordings.

Number 2...METRONOME. Even if it takes me weeks to get comfortable with one of these suckers, I have got to do it. I have absolutely no choice in the matter. One of my friends tells me that me erratic sense of rhythm is an endearing aspect of my performance. So well it may be, but it makes recording so difficult, I don't see how I can continue without some sort of backing track.

Okay. Lessons learned. More to come. Here goes nothin'!