My band and I got a recording engineer over a few days ago to record some demos. He set up his equipment in our rehearsal room, which is a former studio, and we recorded the scratch tracks for 23 songs in just over 6 hours, including setup. Actual playing was 4 hours or just about 10 minutes on average per song.
The engineer and drummer began setting up just before 6, after work. The rest of the band turned up at 8 and we played until midnight with hardly any breaks. No stopping to listen or anything. I still haven't heard the results.
20 of the songs are new (last 3 years, since our last CD), and 3 are covers.
Luckily we are in fine form these days, but even so, the fingers on my left hand and my lower back were killing me when it was all over.
The guitars were overdubbed the next day and I replayed the bass in one song that had somehow gotten lost in the mix.
Lead vocals were done a couple of days later. One of our backing singers is a little ill, so we'll be doing the backing vocals after Christmas.
We are going to listen to the rough mixes for a while and ponder whether any changes need to be done. Later, we mean to take the demos around to try and raise a little cash to record a CD. We anticipate only using about half the songs in the end, but we liked to have a little leeway.
I was very pleased with our perfomance. Over half the songs we nailed on the first take. Ironically, the one we started with ended up being done about 15 times and was the last song to be finished. It started badly and was plagued by mistakes throughout. It was as if it was jinxed. Fairly difficult song though.
The fingertips and joints of my left hand were burning at the end. I kept them in a mug of cold water for half an hour afterwards.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
I can't even fathom playing for that long. I've never played continuously for more than a half hour without a break. That is great you hung in there and rocked out. Maybe it's better you didn't listed to what you recorded and just put the stuff down and critique later.
Is your hand doing better today now that it's had some time to rest?
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
Actually all of that happened more than a week ago.
My hand has not quite recovered no. I have a dull ache inside it, like I pulled a muscle in there or something.
Very annoying.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
It's fun playing like that though. There's nothing like doing a Marathon session. Once you get use to it everything will just work out. We use to party and play for days, pretty much non-stop. (still do once in awhile..lol). just a few months ago I put down right around 60 hours of tape for the boys up north, their still going through everything I sent them..lol
I'm not in anyway recommending this type of behaver. Use at your own risk.
Joe
Come on Helgi - don't tease us like that - when can WE get to listen.
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Well, I haven't heard it myself, so you'll have to wait a bit.
We decided to wait until January to finish up. Everyone's kind of busy over the holidays and its difficult to get the whole band together.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
Well, we put in a 5 hour session yesterday and made rough mixes of all the tracks for listening to at home.
Around the middle of the month we recorded all the vocals and incidental guitars.
The recording engineer is bringing a CD over for copying tomorrow and then we finally get to listen.
The plan is to cut 5-10 songs from the set, then submit a demo of 13-18 songs to a record company.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
That'll be interesting to see if the record company picks up your cd. Are you guys into if for making money or getting exposure? Or both? Has anyone done the cost/benefit analysis of having a record company make and distribute or your band doing it all? Either way, just make sure to tell the guys about my 1% goodwill fee payable in guitar gear.
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
It's just a hobby for us.
It's an expensive hobby, so we try to get some money back from CD sales and concerts so that we don't have to pay too much out of pocket to do what we love doing.
I'm getting my copy after work today. I'm looking forward to it.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
Update
OK, so now we have a recording contract of a sorts with a small independent record company, so we have been installed in a real, honest-to god studio and are shopping around for an engineer/producer.
We've been listening to and discussing and mixing and re-mixing our demos and arguing a lot and now we have some sort of consensus.
Have cut down the songlist to 19 that make the first cut.
Have changed a few songs, dropped or added bars here or there, changed backing vocals here and there, decided on decoration for some.
We have started rehearsing the changed songs and have had 3 rehearsals in the studio. Off the clock, thankfully. It's a pretty cushy deal in that respect, although it's nothing like the recording contracts the big international companies offer. We're not going to get rich, I assure my fellow members. And we're not quitting any day jobs, that's for sure.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
Congratulations!
It's nice to get rewarded for your hard work.
Can you put some samples on here?
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
