June 18th, 2006 (Sunday)
(Paul) Breakfast, a quick stop at the local Music Go Round to pick up strings and drum heads, and we arrive back to finish tracking the drums. The overall energy level was a bit lower on day 2, as SOME people we're out until 3 AM getting their drink on. Things quickly began, and Joe knocked off 'Dominate the Human Strain,' 'Leaving This' and 'The Voice of Failure.' After reviewing all the tracks, it was decided the tracking of the drums were finished. The sound is amazing, and solid. The foundation has been laid, and this week the drum editing takes place. This is done in ProTools. It's a process were fine details can be looked at and fixed. If a kick drum is off the beat slightly, it can be moved. If a cymbal wavers or doesn't ring out correctly, it can be fixed. It's an amazing process that wasn't commonly available to bands until recently. This is same process as we recorded 'The Pale Haunt Departure' only now in HD. This process is such a huge time saver, and allows the musician to focus on performance and feel, and not stop playing if a kick is off time a fraction of a second. Basically, you no longer have to be "perfect" from start to finish.
So, the day comes to an end, we break down the drums, pack up the gear, lay down the 'Eighteen' Magazine, and head out the door on the 2 hour trek home.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
[Voted in by Paul]
Larry - "Who writes this shit? Like any of these broads use the word cunny"
{LARRY}
First of all, let me address that quote up above from me...Vito went to the store next door to pick up some ridiculous porn mag, as Paul previously mentioned. A couple of decent lookers in the mag notwithstanding, I couldn't get over how ludicrous the writing was. Every pictorial was augmented with an article that was supposedly written by the model herself. It didn't take long to figure out that as usual, it was probably written by some smut-monger 57 year old male. That's all to be expected really (does anyone actually READ a porn mag, anyhow?) but what killed me was the use of certain words. What the fuck is "cunny"? I mean I know what it stands for but what a ridiculous word. And the idea of trying to say that some 19 year old girl is referring to her own privates as such just cracked me up. There were plenty of other ludicrous words and quotes in there too, as you can imagine, I won't even get into it. The mag was purchased as a means of having something to crack on and laugh about anyhow....no really, I swear!! LOL
Anyways, we made a quick trip to the music store for more strings and drum heads and then got to work tracking the final three songs. "Leaving This" flowed very easily from us and we got a couple of outstanding takes done quickly for that song, which surprised me. The other two songs turned out to be a bit more difficult. Add to it that we were all feeling a bit tired didn't help. Sometimes we have a tendency to want to keep changing and refining our songs up to the very moment the engineer hits the "record" button, and sometimes it's to our detriment. Finally we just got on with it and played the songs the way they should be played, and the job was done. After going in at the end of the day and sitting down and listening to the completed tracks, we felt alot better about what we'd done, as we were able to really sit back and listen to it clearly.
Oh man, one thing about recording that I cannot stand....the fucking click track. We record our songs with a click track metronome, so as to insure that we keep steady and the beat doesn't fluctuate too much. Most bands, of all kinds, record this way usually. Honestly I don't mind it at all because I like things to be steady and precise. The part I hate though, is that the fucking click track is a very loud abrasive cowbell. LOL This sound is chosen because it cuts through the volume and low end of the guitars and drums, and makes it easier to hear when tracking. But man, that loud cowbell just rings in your head for hours even after you're done. Imagine the skit from SNL with Blue Oyster Cult doing "Dont Fear the Reaper". The part where Will Ferrel is playing that obnoxious cowbell right up against the guitarist's ear? Imagine dealing with that for hours and hours every day for a couple of weeks, haha.
As Paul said, now Chris has to spend time cleaning up the tracks, taking out unwanted background noise or making sure things are precise, etc. Some might balk at the thought of this, but trust me, this is common procedure even for some of the most "brutal" and "underground" bands out there. It's not a big deal really, just makes sure we get clean, precise tracks to mix later on. Plus they put so many damn mics on the drums, I'm sure it's quite a herculean task trying to go through each track to make sure it recorded cleanly and properly. Fucking perfectionists!!
Now we await Chris' work to be done, so I can go in and start laying down all my guitar tracks. Heavy rhythms, clean rhythms, acoustics, guitar solos, other layers and textures......goddamn, I have alot of work ahead of me. Wish me luck.
