Slightly cramped... |
Sara layin' it down |
Last night my good friend Ed and my new friend Sara came over to record a demo- in the bedroom studio! This was actually the first time I'd recorded other people at home, and I think it went really well. The musicianship was at a very high level, which is of course the most important part of the whole process.
Ed played guitar and keys (my own Nord Electro 2, far enough away from the fishing gear that there's no danger of accidentally playing a chord and getting stuck in the hand with a treble hook); Sara sang. Somehow we managed to get all three of us in the tiny room at the same time. Ed plugged direct into the computer, but then I sent his signal to the bathroom a few feet down the hall, where I had my Fender Champ Amp (tube amp) miked with an SM57 and my favorite Røde NT1-A. The bathroom has a great sound! I haven't miked a lot of amps, but I spent some time positioning the two mics and am very happy with the sound. I put the 57 on the edge of the speaker, and it has a lot of thick and delicious low end; the NT1 was about a foot away, and provides some high end sparkle and some of the nice reflective sounds of the bathroom. Combined with the direct signal, I think it will turn out pretty swell.
Didn't sound poopy at all! |
Ed and his many guitar chops |
Due to the lack of space, Ed sat at the computer so he could reach the Nord keyboard, and I sat on my cajón at my wood carving station. Since I couldn't reach the computer without leaning over Ed, I set up my laptop with screen-sharing, so I could control the main computer from a foot away. It looked pretty fancy, all those glowing screens in the tiny room.
We recorded almost two and half hours of music, which once I whittle it down will be 4 songs for their demo. I've been given explicit permission to "to do my thing," so it's very likely there will be some remixes (I'm thinking a cumbia and a dub remix at least).
It was great to get some real musicians in the "studio" (remember, it's actually the second bedroom), and it was a great time tracking them. I've got a lot of Christmas-related stuff to do today, so I may not get down to mixing until after Christmas... But I can't wait to dive in and get to work on this fantastic demo.
It was really great to be the engineer/producer; it's really a different thing than recording my own stuff. I really enjoyed tracking, and can't wait to fully produce their stuff. I'd like to do more of recording other people's stuff, although I might need to figure out a better way to fit more people in the "studio..."
Even Walter got in on the action |
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