Mixing, Mastering

Just stopping in to say that we are now mixing down all vocals. We arranged the band and are now fleshing out the vocals with some EQ, comp, limit, verb, delay,etc.

After we finish all the individual tracks, we'll get an over all db level and sound. From there we'll start to work on the mastering with the L3 maximizer from Waves.

Last Blog, we'll let ya know how it turns out:)

Vox

We are rolling along.

Andy and I have been singing vocals and now we have the pleasure of allowing the amazing Becca, Jasmine, Stephanie and Austin to come in and sweetin up the sound.

We now have alto, soprano, tenor, bass vocals down. We also doubled each to get that stereo feel.

Thanks Girls and Auz, sounds great.

Sorry, we don't have any good pics.

Just all of them in the booth doing group "ohhs"

Instruments

We started recording the guitar and keys.

Keys were easy. Since Andy I both play them we decided to take turns on who gets to play what. We used a midi keyboard on my Roland Fantom G8. The sampled Piano sounds came from Alicia's Keys, an amazing VST with crystal clear recordings.

We recorded over 30 synth sounds from the Roland. We started working on a HipHop breakdown of one of our songs using sounds only from the Fantom. That whole song came straight from the G8. Not only are we learning about cubase and logic, but also the DAW onboard the Fantom.

We also recorded the guitar and put our acoustic panels to use. Our wonderful friend, Josh came in and took over. We mic'd the bass of the guitar about 6inches from the acoustic hole, as well as mic'd the neck of the guitar. We used a Shure KSM27 as well as Spark by Blue. Both very different micrphones. The shure needed phantom power and was much deeper, while the Spark brought in nice higher frequencies.


Check it out:)

Thanks agin Josh

Drums Update

So,

Good and bad.

Good news, drums are done. Jacob was great.

Bad. Sounds like he was playing on cardboard box and pans:) ha

Luckily Andy and I found a nice piece of software called Drumagog. This software analyzes your sample drum tracks and places studio recorded samples where your drummer hit, matching his intensity and velocity. You can also blend your sample with theirs or purchase samples and load them. We found some great brush samples as well as jazz kits.

Drumagog saved the day and much time.

Drums

We started the drums and it definitely was a learning experience. We had difficulty getting a room to record the drums in, so we decided to record in a drum booth and digitally create the atmosphere. (1st mistake) In addition, we could not get our cubase DAW computer to the recording site, so we used a mac pro with Logic to record the drums. We used a m-audio ProFire 2626 as our interface for the 8 drum mic channels.

The profire allowed us to setup a dedicated aux channel for the drummers in ears so he could hear the scratch track and click. Mic placement was crucial, which we learned the hard way. We looked up a few ways to mix drums, but all of them were specifically used for drums in a nice acoustic room. (The purpose was the record the room as well as drums) What we ended up with was a whole lot of bleeding in the mics.

We setup a little studio away from the drums so we could hear the overall recording and mix.

We recorded 3 songs, two up beat songs (I was made, which is getting renamed) (and Wilderness). The third song was a slow jazzy song, "To be Faithful." We were going for a rattle snare, with brushes effect, so we mixed the top of the snare and the bottom. Our result..... ehhhh not that great.

The drummer played very well, our mic placement was pretty bad, as well as the drum cage was a bad idea.


Learning experience:)

Thanks Jacob for playing Drums!!

Sound Panels;)

Another Update:

Andy and I are working on our sound panels. We have 3 of them. Two are 6 feet tall by 3 feet wide and the third is 6X6. These panels are inter changeable so we can use them when recording guitar or vocals or even drums.

The panels are made from 1x3s and finished pressed wood as well as felt to cover the panels. We used a mix of professional acoustic foam panels along with specialized polyfiber insulation. We mixed the two of them inside the wooden frame and covered it with our felt.

The felt gave us a nice surprise once we finished. It allowed our extra foam panels to magnetically stick to them. Now we can customize our panels depending on what we are recording. For Vox we will move them to the upper quadrant of the vertical panels. For guitar we will move mid, bass and electric amps will be lower third.


Here are some pics:

Song list_ outline

Here is another Update!

Song list and outline of each song arrangement:)

Enjoy

CD TRACK LIST

1)   To be Faithful (Nat King Cole Blues, piano) (5 minutes)

2)   Wilderness     (Jam- ac. Guitar) (6-7 minutes)

3)   Romans (Ac. Guitar) (4-5 mins)

4)   Step right in (Intro )  (6 minutes)

5)   Search Me Through (Epic Instrumental Build)  (10 minutes)

6)   I was made (Outro) (Blues, piano bar) (5 mins)

7)   About you and Me (Softer) (5 minutes)

8)   When the Rain falls (Jazz/rhythm) (5 minutes)

9)   Outro- I was Made (1 minute)

List #1

1)   Intro-Step Right In :30-:45 sec

2)   I Was Made

3)   When The Rain Falls

4)   Step Right In

5)   Wilderness

6)   To be Faithful

7)   About You and Me

8)   Romans

9)   Search Me Through

10)                   Outro- I was Made

Intro: Piano, Guitar, String,  Possibly: Vocals

I Was Made: Piano, Vocal, Bass,  VST Drums,

When the Rain Falls: Ac. Guitar, Piano, VST Drums, Synth, Bass,

Step Right In: Ac. Guitar, Electric Guitar, Drums, Organ, Vocals, VST BEAT, Synth effects

Wilderness: Ac Guitar, Live Drums, electric Guitar, Synth, Piano, Vocals,

To Be Faithful: Piano, vocals, Violin, Blues Electric Guitar, Lite Drums, Bass

About You and Me: Piano Guitar, VST Drums, Synth String, Vocals

Romans: Nylon Guitar,  Vocals, Violin, Snare,

Search Me Through: Choir, VST piano, Organ, Electric Guitar, Live Drums, VST Strings, vocals, bass.

Outro: Piano, Vocals,

Live Drums Songs:

I Was Made

Step Right In

Wilderness

To Be Faithful

Search Me Through

Thursday: Scratch Track (Demo)

I Was Made: 82bpm 5:20 secs

Vocal, Keys, 2X – free pre Vrs

2X Instrumental – 82 bpm

2X Vrs 1- Tim

2X Vrs 2- Girl

2X Vrs 2- Harmony

Chorus 4X

2X Instrumental

2X Vrs 1

2X Vrs ½

2X Vrs 2 Harmony

Chorus X4

TagX2

Pre Vrs 1 X1

Step Right In: 95bpm for Pt.A 89 bpm for Pt.B (5:10)

2X instrumental

4X Pre Chorus

2X Vrs 1

4X Pre Chorus

2X Chorus

2X Pre Chorus

4X Vrs 1

2X Chorus

2X Bridge

Breakdown:

2X Tag Men

2 X Tag Women

2X  Full

Wilderness:

2X Instrumental

2X Vrs 1

2X pre-chorus

2X Instrumental

2X Vrs 1

4X pre-Chorus

4X Chorus

2X Instrumental

2X Bridge

2XChorus

2XTag

2XTag 2

1X Pre Chorus

To be Humble

Intro

Vrs 1:

Chords:

 Vrs 2:

Chorus:

Vrs 1:

Chorus X4

Chorus tag: X4

Intrumental X2

Vrs 1