So I’m inna new band now a cuppla months (still no band name!), playing bass and singing BV’s on another’s guy’s songs, and that’s pretty weird to me.
And after a month (the delay mebbe tells some, eh?) they give me their recent demo, and it’s mebbe not so good.
And so I say, I can do it better, and they take the bait and now we’ve 95% of the tracks done on 11 songs, and I’m 2/3 done mixing the thing, and having a ball.
But what I’m posting about, then?
The loneliness of it!
I mean, we’ve sat down a cuppla times and done the basics together – the toughest part was developing the drum mixes (all essentially the same, as ll tracks recorded at the same place on the same day – a basement, no less), perhaps best illustrated when I note that the drummer’s reference tracks were initially Porcaro with Joni Mitchell. Asked to get a little more real, last week he brought me some Steely Dan. 
But I think we’ve done pretty well with the drum sub-mix, if not quite that good.
If only I had placed the kick mic where I wanted it, and not where the drummer said … 
But stuff like recording a kiddie tom played with hands and then having to figure out that what the intent was was a bongo sound, and then getting it (tons of EQ, some heavy compression and limiting).
Or the keys being played solid thru the whole song and then being told they’re too much, they need to be edited – but I didn’t play ’em that way, the guy who wants ’em edited did! 
Out of sync start-stop parts that I diplomatically don’t mention I had to tighten …
The odd drum fill or word or guitar note I hadda fly in.
Mouth-noises and un-intended fades when the singer moved off the mic.
Out of tune, out of time guitars.
The incremental adjustments of effects and volume levels (guitars are never loud enuff for guitarists, of course) …
The bass I played, of course, was done perfectly – all first takes and needed no EQ, edits, dubs or adjustments at all. Not to mention my stellar BV’s being perfectly in time, key and phrasing on every pass.
I’ve probably got over 80 hours into this project, more than 50 by myself, and I’m just the bassist/BV’s with one co-write.
Did I mention I’m having a ball?
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vlayman; THD; blog; TFP
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