Almost done.

Wow!

What I thought would only take an hour or 2 turned into an all day affair.

Ossie Bowe is a perfectionist!

Ever single wire and cable has to be neatly strapped together and then perfectly strapped to the desk frame out of the way. He took a great big jumble of cables , wires and power chords and made them all but disappear.
Of course when we fired the rig back up we had a problem with a couple pieces of gear not passing signal. It was quite late by then so we decided to shut it down and continue this week. I am sure that Mr. Bowe will figure it out.

However this did not hinder me from having a great session with Peter Peters on Sunday afternoon. We did a guide vocal for song #5 and re-did the scratch guitar track for song #6.
Peter also finally let me play him the first mix on the first 3 songs. He was quite impressed with the sound and is looking forward to doing some final editing on them. We both decided that the vocals on song #3 has to be re-done and that we are going to experiment with an array of microphones to try and catch it just right. We are getting together again on Thursday afternoon.

I also spent some time during the week doing some final tweaking and editing on the songs that are going to be Mastered. They sound awesome IMO. However because I cannot use my Lexicon reverb unit until Mr. Bowe is finished I still have not been able to finish the vocal tracks. I refuse to use D-Verb on a finished vocal, the Lexicon is Far superior sounding.Hopefully I will be able to finish them this week and send them off.
Starting to think of an album cover for my EP. I have a couple ideas........................

Control Room Re-Do

Finally all my new cables and extensions have arrived for my Control Room.

I will be able to take the tower of gear on the left side of my desk and move it all into the new Raxxes rack on the right side where the file cabinet used to be. This will make the room much more functional and sonically more accurate.

The great Ossie Bowe is booked to come in tomorrow morning between 9.30 and 10am.

I cant see it taking too long even though lots of gear has to be moved.

So now I can finish all of my mixes properly with the outboard API compressor and Lexicon reverb. I tried to utilise the D-Verb Waves plug in whilst the Lexicon was disconnected, ain't happening! The Lexicon is far superior. Now if I can only get the 224 unit back from New York, I would truly have a great reverb sound.

Soon come hopefully.

Roots Rock & Reggae

Yes I !

Peter Peters session last night and he put the guide vocals on his reggae song. Fantastic!
I cant wait to hear what the bass and drummer are going to do with this song.
Really great lyrics and a nice old school Reggae vibe. Think Peter Tosh, my kinda stuff.

We also re-tracked the funk song to a slightly faster tempo. The session players are going to love this one too.

This album is going to be a very interesting mix of all sorts of music genre. Rock, Blues, Reggae, Funk and Ska so far.

Looking forward to Peters return on Sunday afternoon.

In other news

Its time for my music to make that final step. I have 4 or 5 songs almost ready to go. The thing is, most of them have been almost ready to go for a long time. I think I have been scared to present my work to the general public for obvious reasons. So I am now shopping for a Mastering Engineer and C/D duplicator.
My plan is to put an EP together. 4 or 5 songs mixed by me and Mastered by a pro. This will serve a few purposes.

1. To finally push myself to move on with my music.

2. To finally get a professionals critique not only on my songs but also on my recording and mixing.

3. Good or bad when its done I will have a product that I can show clients.

4. I will have gone through the process so I will be able to offer clients advice when they are ready for Mastering.

So, between now and the end of the weekend, I have lots of mixin and fixin to do.

Fun and exciting........

Tina's Drums

Saturday afternoon Tina Cartwright and Brian came in for a drum session on song #2.

After a quick re-do of the guide Keyboard part to change the tempo Brian got on the drums.
We did 4 takes. The 3rd take was the best but the 4th take has the best outro. So I will be doing a little editing, but other than that it was a great track with an awesome sound.

For this session I used 2 different mics.
For mono O/H mic I used a Rode Classic 2 positioned almost directly over the snare drum and about 8 feet in the air.
For the room mic I used a TnC ACM12oo positioned 9 feet in front of the kit and 6 feet in the air. Both into API mic pres.
The other usuals were used on the rest. RE20 in the bass drum, PR40 on the snare and a Beyerdynamic M130 ribbon on the ride/tom panned hard right. Everything else was panned in the middle.
The drums sound great.

On Sunday I did a few final vocal takes on my "Hopeless" song.
I used the great Lucas CS-1 mic > API > Lucas EQ > Lucas compressor.
The vocals sound OK but I think I can get better. I dont think I had something dialed in propperly. Its a little difficule trying to dial in a mic pre/EQ/compressor when you are out in the live room singing. On my next try I am going to bring the mic into the control room so that I can dial it in propperly before I start tracking.
I also spent some time comping the Rhodes track for Hopeless that a session pro from NewYork did for me last week. Sorry I cant remember his full name, Lou someone I think.
He did an incredible job!
We ran the Rhodes through the Fender Reverb unit > 65/66 Fender Bassman amp > Sonic 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Greenbacks. I used a vintage Electro Voice RE15 dynamic mic > API mic pre. The Rhodes sounds Awesome, its fast becoming one of my favorite sounds. I wish I could find someone to play it on a regular basis. In fact, I wish I could play it. Hmm.

FUN FUN FUN.

Moving on.........

Peter Peters tonight.

We will start tracking the next three songs on his project, really looking forward to hearing what else he has to offer.

Last night I finished comping his final guitar solo on song #1 and comped the Rhodes track on song #2. Both sound great IMO but it will be up to Peter to make the final call.

Saturday is more drums for Tina Cartwright's project.
We will be working on a drum track for song #2 with her Husband Brian on drums.
I will be using a different mono O/H mic for this session. I want to get a slightly different sound for this song than song #1.

What mic for mono O/H? Hmm, WE shall see.

Forward.........

Best Vocals Yet !

Sunday afternoon was finish vocals with Peter Peters with his first three songs.

We were both blown away with the sound that we got on the first two songs. I think by the time we got to the third Peter was getting tired and we had changed mics. So I gotta check that out and see how it sounds.

The signal chain was, Lucas CS-1 Tube LDC mic > Lucas Limiting Amplifier > Lucas Tube EQ > API 3124+ mic pre. AND I am also now converting with my new Apogee Rosetta AD/DA converter.

Truly the cleanest most real in your face vocals I have ever recorded! They seem to just drop into the mix perfectly and I have done zero internal EQ or compression yet. Just beautiful.

I have recorded with this chain before but never with these results. The Apogee is definitely making a huge difference.

So I can now start final comping and mixing these three songs. We will decide later if the vocals need to be re-done on the third song which is a very difficult song, very challenging. Lots of work to do but its really starting to come together nicely.

NEXT...................

Thursday Peter returns to start laying scratch tracks for the next three songs.

Its gonna be fun..............

Les Paul and da Rhodes.

Tracked guitar solo's and Rhodes piano last night with Peter Peters.

It went really nice. For two of the guitar solos we used the 65 Fender Bassman with an SM57 mic running directly into the API micpre. For the third we used the 66 Ampeg Jet for a more clean jazzy sound. Peter used his old Gibson Les Paul.

BTW Mr. Les Paul died yesterday aged 94! . He was a musical genius and was responsible for many of the recording techniques that we use today. And of course the electric guitar. RIP.

WE then tracked the Rhodes piano on two of the songs. Both songs we used the Fender Bassman amp. One clean with a little chorus and the other really dirty with the TS808 Tube Screamer. As usual the Rhodes was lovely For a 30 year old instrument she really sounds lush.

Sunday is final vocals for these three songs. Peter and I are really looking forward to this.
I will be using almost a complete Lucas rig for vocals besides for the micpre that will be API.
The mic is the now world famous Lucas CS-1 LDC Tube microphone into a Lucas Limiting Amplifier (Tube Compressor) into a Lucas Tube EQ.

Its going to be fun.

Hopeless Percussion.

Remember when I went on vacation to Abaco?

I wrote 2 new songs, one called Hopeless and the other Mr.Jones.

Anyhoo, a few days ago I tracked acoustic and electric guitar and guide vocal tracks for the song called "Hopeless".

Whenever I need a musician I hire them and they come to my studio and I record them telling them what I want. This time I did it completely different. I did not want a drum set in the song but I did want percussion. Neil Symonette is the session drummer/percussionist that I call for my stuff. Neil is the absolute best on the island. So this time Neil took my tracks back to his studio and tracked percussion on the song without me even being there. When he called and said it was ready I did not know what to expect.

I was Blown Away!

Neil had created a whole landscape of percussion and sounds that took me on a journey from beginning to end. The sounds seem to blend with the story in the song and created a vivid picture in my mind.

This experience has me re-thinking how I write, create and record my own music.


Last night I was invited to the Oyster Bar by Adrian (Bass Player). He told me that he would be playing with a pro Keyboard player in from New York. So I went for a listen. He was Fantastic!
I spoke with him after the set and asked if he would be interested in doing a couple tracks on my song and he agreed. AND he says he loves Rhodes Piano!

I cant wait.

Conversion Upgrade.

Apogee Rosetta 800

My latest aquistion in my quest for greater sound.

The Apogee Rosetta 800 is top quality Analog>Digital/Digital>Analog conversion.

Until now I have been using the Digidesign 002 and Presonus converters. They are OK but not good enough.

With the Apogee I now have 8 channels of Studio Standard AD/DA conversion that will make everything sound cleaner and more real.

My sound will go to another level!

The Great Mr Oswald Bowe will be stopping by the studio this evening to install the converter and go over some other issues with me.

Edit, Comp, Edit.............

Sunday was editing and comping with Peter Peters.

Great session, long session! 4 hours long!

But, we now have 3 songs comped and ready for final vocals hopefully to be done Sunday coming.
We are also getting together on Thursday to do some work on the Rhodes electric Piano and final guitar solo tracks. Its gonna be lovely.

I don't think most people realize how much time it takes to edit and comp a song and its a very personal thing that requires the artist or producer(or both) to be present to make the final decisions. Comping and editing takes as long or longer than the actual recording and requires lots of patience and concentration.

This is where you can make or break the impact of a song.

Peter did very well, 4 hours and only one break. The 3 songs are coming together really nice and I am looking forward to final vocals and moving on to the next 3 songs.


Fun Fun Fun.

Brian on da drums

Friday night was drum setup and mic check for Tina's drummer (Husband) Brian.

What started out as a mic check turned into a drum session.

After a brief warm up and mic check Brian nailed the first song with 2 great takes.



Drums were miked with 5 mics.
OH was an ACM900 ribbon.
Snare > Heil PR40
Bass drum EV RE20
Ride/toms Beyer M130 ribbon.
For this session I tried an AT 4070 LDC for a room mic.

The snare and bass drum was run through the TnC ACMP73 mic pre's.
The rest was run through API's.

Great drum sound!

One song ready for bass, Wednesday we will work on the second song.

Progress is FUN !

Mo Bass in da Place.

Last nights session was really cool.

Adrian was back to put bass tracks on the third song for Peter Peters.
A few runs and it was done, fantastic lovely bass in no time. This is the way to record if you dont have a really good tight band. Hire a pro and tell them exactly what you want. In the long run you save money and time AND walk away with a far superior product.
This song is all out Rock n Roll, and it really Slams!
However the Bass put the icing on the cake.

I recorded the Bass with the usual culprits, Ampeg B-18 miked with the Heil PR40. This time I ran the signal direct to the API pre with no compresor. Nice big and punchy bass.

After Adrian was done we did Piano tracks for Peters other 2 songs. I must say these 3 songs are really sounding great and I look forward to the rest. AND Peter says a couple of the other songs are Reggae! I love Reggae.

Peter and I have decided that the next session will be dedicated to editing and comping tracks. He wants to be there when I do this and I think he should. His input at this point is very impotant, I told him to bring a pocket full of patience.

After we finish the editing we will be ready for final guitar and vocals, some more percussion here and there and then mixing.

NEXT>>>>>>>>>>>>

Greatest Studio picture Ever!

Check it out!

That's me with Terry Manning(http://www.terrymanning.com/), Dave Schools(Widespread Panic, Stockholm Syndrome), and my wife at the World famous Compass Point Studios. We are standing behind the Wonderful SSL board in Studio B. Go and look at the Discography on Terry Manning's site, incredible!

What a great experience!

Sunday Sessions..........

Today was a great day for music.

Started out early this morning and put down scratch tracks for my new song "Hopeless".
Acoustic guitar and vocals. I used the Gibson J160e with a Beyer M130 ribbon mic into a Grace 101 pre. Really nice tone, the more I use these ribbon mics the more I like them. Very accurate sound and don't add anything. I also used the same mic for the vocal track. The song has started out very nice.

Everyday is a great day for music.















Later that afternoon the real fun started. Peter Peters came for his session with Adrian D'Aguilar for bass tracks. It was great! As usual Adrian was right on, a couple runs and it was done.
The first song has an old time smokey vibe and Peter decided to have acoustic bass.
What an awesome instrument and an awesome player. The acoustic bass was miked with 2 mics, a Heil PR40 on the F-hole and an ACM310 a little further back.

Did I mention that the Double Bass is huge!














The second song was more upbeat and Peter decided on electric bass. Adrian used his 5 string Music Man bass guitar. We ran it directly into the Ampeg B-18 and miked it with the Heil PR40 microphone into the API pre. Wonderful punchy bass that works perfectly with the song. We were all happy with the results.

Here is Adrian with his Music Man bass.













Peter and Adrian at the end of a great session.

Saturday Keyboards and scratch vocals.

Tina Cartwright's first session went very well this afternoon.

2 really nice original songs and many more to come. No problems playing to a click track, hopefully the rest of the musicians will find it as easy.

We ran the keyboard directly into the API mic pre and got a really nice piano. Both songs are now ready for drums.

Tomorrows session is with Peter Peters. We have 3 songs ready for bass tracks. Adrian D'Aguilar is booked to come by( I think). We shall see.

I also spent some time comping the drums that Lucas Manning did for one of my songs. Really didn't need too much work but I definitely have to track another bass line as the original bass was run with the original drums and the bass does not quite work. Hmm, perhaps if Adrian has time tomorrow ?