Sponsored by the letter Z.

Finished off editing all vocals in CE4. Still not 100%  sure of the lyrical structure, but I’ll let the track stew for the time being.

Now I’ve got nothing to do on the album for the next week. What is a boy to do?

BTW, looks like we’ll be moved into the new house (at least partly) around the end of this month. Just hope my back doesn’t give me any more gyp when I try to set up my gear (oh, and when I move the rest of the furniture, too)…

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letters X and Y.

I did my back a bit of a mischief over the weekend, so my ability to lug kit around the gaff was severely limited today. Instead of tracking more vocals today, I did audio cleanup on the vocal tracks for Oh Mammy Look in Cool Edit Pro, and started editing the bridge vocals.

Lots more work to do over the coming days. I won’t be idle…:-)

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter U.

Busy on non-musical affairs today, so all I did was transfer 14 tracks of backing vocals from the Tascam and import them into CE4.

Housekeeping, basically…

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter T.

Tackled the backing vocals today on the Tascam. That’s 12 tracks of backing vocals PLUS 4 tracks of vocals covering two bridges.

The bridge vocals are a bit ropey – touch of the backing vocals in “It’s Getting Better” by The Beatles. I may keep them all OR I may edit together the best bits OR I may just re-record them at a later stage. But for now, the track is done until I can get my kit together…

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter S.

I was busy this morning with non-musical matters, so I wasn’t able to start my session until the afternoon. Managed to get down 6 main vocal tracks on the Tascam, and was starting on the backing vocals when the voice started breaking down. That, plus the fact that one of the neighbours started mowing their lawn (I’d forgotten part of the unwritten code of suburbia – no mowing until after lunch), meant that I had to abandon the session after about 90 minutes.

Still, I got my 6 tracks down, so that was something. I also discovered that I’d either written too many or too few words. I’ll have to sort this out in the editing process. Part of the problem here was that I haven’t yet had a chance to track guitars, therefore there is no solo in situ at present and I’m not exactly sure where it will go at the end. So that confuses the issue of the number of verses and choruses required in the song.

Still, we love a challenge, don’t we?

And, as a bonus, I managed to achieve something I’d been thinking of doing for a long while. There’s a fantastic natural spring-type reverb sound in my landing. I wanted to capture that sound before I move house, so I spent a few minutes in my hallway recording the reverb from a series of handclaps. I hope to be able to use the reverb sound as a convolution reverb effect in the future. If you don’t know what a “convolution reverb” effect is, AA 3 describes it as an effect which  ”reproduces rooms ranging from coat closets to concert halls. Convolution-based reverbs use impulse files to simulate acoustic spaces. The results are incredibly realistic and life-like.”

We’ll see about that in the sweet by-and-by.

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter O.

ME AND MY CYBERLORD

Did audio cleanup on the three vocal tracks in Cool Edit Pro. As these are short tracks that are repeated a number of times through the piece, I imported them into CE4 and “repeated” them 100 times, going back over the piece a number of times until I found the “repeats” that sat best with the piece overall.

Job done, methinks…

MECHANICAL IMPERFECT

Did audio cleanup on the six audio tracks in Cool Edit Pro. Not much editing required, other than clearing out all those horrible “mouth” noises.

Job done, methinks (part deux).

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter L.

Sorted the backing vocals – much happier with them timing-wise. Also tidied up a few breath and saliva sounds (eeewww) on the comp’d main vocal track.

Time to move on for the mo-mo…

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter K.

Comp’d together (after a bit of dithering – boy, doth I dither…) a fairly decent main vocal track in CE4. A little bit of tweaking required, perhaps, but not too much. I don’t think I’m going to bother incorporating elements from the original vocal takes.

Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the backing vocals again. Should be pretty much finished then…

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter J.

Did audio cleanup on all the vocal tracks in Cool Edit Pro. Edited the backing vocals in CE4, but might have another cut at them. Started work editing the main vocals, but didn’t get very far with them.

Plenty more work to do…

Regards,

djp

Sponsored by the letter G.

ME AND MY CYBERLORD

Recorded 3 tracks of whispered vocals on the Tascam and transferred them on to CE4. These can be flown in to taste when editing the track.

MECHANICAL IMPERFECT

Recorded 6 takes of vocals – three low-pitched/spoken/monotonous and three “sung”. All rather pitchy, but I don’t mind, as that rather fits into the overall concept of the song – “mechanical” but “imperfect” performances.

Busy day, then, and in the middle of it all, I had to dash off to deal with an issue in the new house. Only three weeks away from a move now – I’ve been saying that for almost a year though…:-)

Regards,

djp