We're Closing In on a Killer...

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So I have no new pictures to share but I'm trying to keep current with my blogs now that I've seen 'em drive people to my website. Neato. Anyhow, PowerFlower has continued to come in every month or every other month and we're down to probably the last three sessions now. Things are really coming together on the compositions now and the basic tracks are starting to get embellished nicely. I wish I could post some roughs but he's trying to be a bit discreet about all this for now.

That is all. Over and Out.

This is probably giving me cancer...

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Here's a funny device...
Bulk Tape Eraser

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This was actually given to me by another client (Adam from Statue of tragedy) who is a radio producer. These things were used "back in the day" to erase entire reels of tape in one fell swoop. Now there's no tape in the radio stations and apparently a lot of these things are lying around. They really work, too. Not only are the tapes completely wiped but they sound very new afterwards. According to Adam the deal is not just erasure but a completely new randomization of the magnetic field in the oxide particles so things don't sound flat. I think I kind of get that.

Adam's Crazy, Unsubstantiated Idea #8,943...

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So I have this stupid idea about recording vocals and it's probably wrong: I've been told by vocal afficionados that when you're standing up, your diaphragm is in a more "correct" position for proper vocal projection and therefore recording. So why is it that when I'm playing my acoustic guitar or singing along to a record in my car I sound so much better? It MAY be "selective" hearing...i.e. I sound so great because I'm not listening as critically because of the CD playing in the background or my guitar playing or whatever.

That said, The first vocal we cut for PowerFlower was a "live" one where he played his guitar at the same time, and his voice sounded better by far than the othe vocal overdubs we did where he was standing up. So fuck it...I've been recording him sitting down and singing ever since and it seems to work for him (and for me as well I might add). My thinking is that the psychological aspects of sitting down and singing—the fact that you're likely to feel less "under the spotlight" may outweigh any physiological impact the "improper" position might invoke. Comments?

You know I just saw a DVD where Natalie Merchant was recording a vocal sitting down too...hard to argue with that.

Completion of Basic Tracking

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Hey All,

Well, this journal begins several sessions into PowerFlower's new EP, as I' in the process of converting my session pages into the more "living" format that a blog affords!

Powerflower's creator is a great songwriter who's between bands right now and is taking the opportunity to finally lay down some of his work in a style and atmosphere that he' comfortable with. He tends to have a very clear vision as to what he wants his music to sound and "feel" like.

In particular, he was looking for the warm sounds that analog recording proffers, and he was looking for a place where he could kind of spread out and take his time to record this thing bit-by-bit over a longer period of time and create with some degree of spontanaety and experimentation. He likes to use the term "lo-fi" a lot though I don't really think that's what he's getting. That's okay because we both like the same things but I tend to think of analog recording not so much in terms of loss of fidelity as much as kind of "rounding the edges" a little bit...analog is just so much more forgiving of jumps in dynamics in the music and in my opinion tends to "hear" things much more the way the human ear does. It's almost "selective" in terms of what kind of sonics are focused in on or rejected...there's something intuitive about tape. It really has everything to do with the limitations of the medium...and I say that as a complement. I guess it's only naural that an analog recording medium is going to act more like the internal organs of your head than a hard drive can!

Thus far we've kept it really basic...for the most part we've started by determining a tempo for each piece and then laying down a click track to the tape machine. Then "for-real" 6 and 12-string acoustics are added, either as true stereo recordings or as manually performed doubled tracks panned to stereo. Then a little bass guitar and vocals, but mostly just for "scratch" purposes at this point.

The goal for "phase two" will be to bring in some percussion as-necessary. For one track we've already chosen a drum loop created from an actual recording of my 70's Ludwig kit...recorded artfully with a pair of ribbon mics froma few feet away and then smashed up with a Valley People 610 compressor in an equally-artful way. Our hope is from that point forward our sessions will become more creative and be built up song-by-song as opposed to via "assembly line" so that each song will have it's own unique sonic identity!