Recording Day 1: Hi, all, Just a quick update before bed. We went into the studio today to begin recording a few songs. We got there roughly 11 in the morning. Fortunately, the mics were still pretty well set up from another session last nite, so with a few minor adjustments we were able to get started. Dave (our engineer) is a really good guy -- easy going and fun to work with, but no bullshit. He seems to appreciate the sound we're trying to get and is willing to try some different mic techniques to help get it. It's great to have an idea and to be able to communicate it to somebody else and have them get it immediately. Anyway, Pat ended up having to work for about half the afternoon so Don recorded the drums to a click while I did a scratch track (a rough guide for Don to follow). Travis was looking at some sort of guitar "encyclopedia." Don was pretty solid, and though there were some moments of frustration, generally it went fairly well and none of the drum tracks took more than a few takes. We ended up doing some minor editing to the drums to fix small flubs. I was cautious about overdoing this, but ultimately it sounded really good. The drums took about 3 1/2 hours I think, plus about an hour setup time. Maybe even a little less, 'cause we took a break three songs in to have a quick lunch. Once the drums were done, Travis did the bass guitar. We used a beat-up looking Fender bass (P bass, I think... Trav probably knows better than I do). We ran the bass to a direct box which split the signal, with one output going direct and the second going to a bass amp, which was mic'd. We spent some time getting a good bass sound, trying two different bass guitars, and three different amps. Initially, I wasn't thrilled with the bass sound, but I wasn't sure because Dave was moving so fast I had a tough time telling which sound I did like. Trav nailed the basslines without much incident, although there was some minor disagreement about "Give Up" and the end of "Sugarteeth" ended up being a bitch. But we got it. So at the end of Day 1, we have the drums and bass done. Tomorrow we're going in for six hours and the goal is to get the guitars done. So far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed. We'll let you know how it goes. sam Day 2: Hello, again, Yesterday we did guitars. We did the acoustic stuff first. It was pretty smooth, and we didn't have to do much fixing. The acoustic sounds great. Remember to listen for it in "Silver Lining" when we're done and we've got the songs posted... it's mirroring the rhythm I play on electric, and together they sound really good. After the acoustic, I laid down electric tracks. I used my Gibson SG on everything but "Country Song," but Dave liked the clean sound on my Rickenbacher 360 so we went back and re-recorded "The Arrest" with that guitar. Dave had to split so his partner Steve took over to record Pat. Steve and Pat were pretty funny. Steve seemed to be less interested in the band. Not to say we're not happy with the sound, but he would get Pat started and then turn the monitors down and we would talk in the control room. But they (Pat and Steve) had a good dynamic -- they were shitting on each other, like for example, when Pat was struggling on "Give Up," I asked what people did before digital recording, he said into the mic so Pat could hear, "They learned their songs." Pat was giving it back to him, though. It was a good vibe between the two of them. Anyway, Pat started with "Give Up," and as I mentioned he had some trouble getting it, but eventually he did. It's just one of those things where you play it 1,000 times but as soon as you record you can't seem to get it right. After that it went pretty smoothly except for a couple small fixes. But it took us right up to the end. Steve burned us a couple CDs, backed the songs up to our hard drive, and told us to beat it, which we did. We go in again Friday. The goal is doing vocals and getting Cyndi from ROM in to do some textures. Saturday (if all goes well) we do percussion overdubs (shakers, tamborines) and mix. We'll let you know how it goes. sam There's a little music rag article in the bathroom at Gradwell about the top things that will take up your time in the studio (in a wasteful manner). One of the responses is that, in the studio, a musician loses 20% of their ability. Yesterday, I must've taken at least an hour to get my guitar on "Give Up" right, much to my own chagrin and frustration. The truth is, I'm still not exactly happy with the way it sounds. The song is a bit slow for my tastes (a subject on which there is much debate within the band), while "The Arrest" is a tad fast. However, those ships have sailed, so there's nothing to be done about that. For the gear nerds, here's a bit about what we've been recording with. Don laid down the drum tracks on a drum kit. That's all I know. Travis played what appears to be a Fender Precision Bass with a humbucker-sized fretless bass pickup in the neck position through a DI box for all of the tracks. Sam played his Alvarez acoustic on "Give Up," "Sugarteeth," and "Silver Lining," which I also used for the rhythm guitar on "Country Song." He played his Rickenbacker on "The Arrest" and his Gibson SG for everything else. I played my Strat on everything but "Country Song," and I played through a Vox AC30 (for a clean sound) and a Boss Blues Driver (for gain). Sam played his new Orange amp, model whatever. Also, things were miked using microphones. That's about it. We have to redo some of my guitar tracks on Friday, mostly notably "The Arrest" and "Silver Lining," on which there is some tonal disparity between my guitar and Sam's guitar, mostly like the fault of Raritan Guitar Bay not bothering to take the fifty bucks I paid them and intonate my guitar, which Steve from Gradwell gracefully did on the spot when we discovered the problem. Suffice to say, Guitar Center and their Raritan Bay guitar monkey can ride a hot horse to hell. On Friday, I have every intention of trying out the Sovtek Mig-60 head they have when I rerecord "Silver Lining" and take another pass at doing a version of "Give Up" that's solid all the way through. I've read the reviews online, and nearly every single one rates the sound of it as a 10, some going so far as to call it "majestic" and "the best amp I've ever played through." It helps that most of these reviews come from people who played Strats through the amp. Also, it's apparently a vintange-Marshall-sounding amp, which just tickles me pinker than peaches. I fully expect vocals to go off without much of a hitch, as long as good health prevails, although I was certainly wrong about my guitar parts going smoothly and without incident. For now, I'm chalking it up to the nerves of being in a new situation musically and hoping I can shake it off when we reenter Gradwell Friday at noon. As you are no doubt catching on, we'll keep you posted. Pat Day 3:After much contention regarding whether or not my guitar was out of tune with Sam's from last Sunday's recording session, we reentered the studio today and were surprised to find that everything sounded pretty good when properly mixed together. I had to go back and record a missing lead for "Give Up" that we somehow missed last week, and once that was finished, we moved on to some leftover instrumentation. Cyndi from Red Orange Morning laid down some glockenspeil (a sort of xylophone) on parts of "The Arrest" and (if memory serves) "Sugarteeth," as well as some Fender Rhodes parts on "Give Up," some synth on "Sugarteeth," and probably something else that I'm forgetting. Sam also recorded a little piano thing for the chorus of "Give Up." All the extra little accents and additions we recorded today, in fact, make the songs sound a lot fuller, especially "The Arrest," which has so much going on in the last chorus now that I was afraid that Sam would start intoning his well-honed "this rocks too hard" mantra. Since Don was still in Philadelphia saving people's lives (rock 'n roll and DJs have also been known to save lives, but not as often as Don Ocava does), we broke for lunch and then proceeded directly to vocals. Sam has come a long was as a vocalist since we started the band nearly two years ago, but he still gets self-conscious singing in a recording environment, so he took his time in the isolation booth, usually saying "I can live with that" and asking me if I thought the takes sounded good, bless his heart. He ended up doing a great job, as I expected, and eventually gave the kind of performance I knew he was capable of on every track. Then I went into the tank and pretty much kicked the microphone's ass on my first takes, although I generally recorded a second take just to be on the safe side and to cover our asses for double-tracking or fixing missed dead parts tomorrow. Vocals are pretty much the only part of the studio process I have no trepidation about, so I was glad to be done with guitar and do something I'm confident about. Travis did a few background vocals, and then I pinch-hit for him on the choruses of "The Arrest." Finally, upon arrival of one Donathan Ocava, we added some tambourine and shakers (courtesty of Don), and some claps (to "Give Up"). Dave, our engineer at Gradwell, did some quick mixes and bumped them onto a CD, which you suckers don't get to hear yet. Suffice to say, we're making out pretty okay so far, and we should be done with the studio by tomorrow afternoon, after our last session mixing with Dave. After that, the only real concern left to cover is whether or not to master the five songs, which I think we all agree we're going to do. Either way, we will have copies of the EP available at our show at the North Star on March 6th. We also have tickets available for that show, so if you're interested in coming (and we kinda sorta beg you to come), there's the added incentive of a free EP to entice you into tracking one of us down and buying a ticket. Love, Pat Day 4: 2pm: So far, we've listened to the final mix of "Country Song," tweaked a few things, and played Gamecube and arcade games. Right now, we're waiting for Chinese food, and I'm going to die of hunger. So hungry. Starving. Anyway, that's pretty much it as of 2pm. What do the next four hours hold? Only the Shadow knows. 8pm: So, today we mainly played arcade games (Travis & I nearly beat some long-forgotten Neo Geo game and Don pwned Madden 2005 on Gamecube), ate Chinese food, and quibbled over where effects should start and begin. It was a sea change from the previous three days in the studio, where we were essentially laying down tracks and waiting for each other to get everything right, which is nerve-racking, to say the least. Sam and Don hit the studio early to do some additional percussion and to rerecord sam's vocals for "Sugarteeth." Dave sat in front of his computer for almost 8 solid hours (he was occassionally spotted wandering around the parking lot with a 2-liter of Mug Root Beer), pretty much only getting up to eat an L24 from No. 1 Chinese Restaurant (I often wonder if Chinese immigrants know that there's a difference between an ad slogan and a business name) and to bring us down from the loft to listen to a mix. Everything sounds, well, legitimate. Whatever it is that makes a recording sound "real" to my ears, this EP has it, which pleases me to no end. Your Action Set had its first ever run-ins with Autotune, as neither Sam nor I are perfect singers, but by and large, we fixed most of the instrumental flubs when we were laying tracks. Travis dropped his usual "I like it both ways! And I like... candy" (candy part of the quote added in post-production) bit and had an opinion more often than not, Don paced around and commanded what things be brought up and down, and Sam and I generally just smiled happily at the playbacks. There's an awful lot of cool things going on in the recording now, little bits and pieces that add up to make the songs fuller and more interesting. My uncle calls 'em "textures," and I like that description as good as any. In fact, he called me within ten minutes of getting the mp3s to glow about the songs, which is pretty much the only litmus test outside of myself and the band's opinions that counts to me. All that's left is for us to take our tracks and have them mastered professionally, and we're officially done. As an added bonus, I contacted our friend Chris from the band Miles From Land to see if he, by some cosmic happenstance, still had the master file from our little session in November of 2005. Essentially, if the file was gone, we'd have to tack on an unmastered track to five mastered songs, which would probably sound weird, although I cannot attest to that fact in a court of law. I'm not sure what kind of court case would require me to prove such a thing, but given my track record, it would somehow come up, and I'd land in jail. As luck would have it, Chris is an audio packrat (we share that quality) and still has the file, meaning we can official master "Hide & Seek" and make it track six on the EP. I could not possibly be happier. Okay, maybe I could be happier if we can Autotune my vocals on H&S to fix that weird one-cent flatness I've heard in my vocals since we recorded it. I had a cold. Your Action Set is excited, recorded, and ready for the next thing. We've got the North Star show on March 6th and a newly-announced show at the newly-renovated (and hopefully operational) Charlie's Den on April 14th. My main goal from here on out is to book as many shows as possible while we continue to work on finishing our growing backlog of songs (is thirty-or-so enough to consider a backlog?). Pat
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