Recording Vocals #2

On saturday I went back to the studio to work on more vocals. The plan, as always, was to finish all of them in one sitting. But as usual, this did not happen but in a good way.

I'm glad the vocals are coming together slowly because this is one aspect of the album that has not been put into any perspective. Even with me, I have not put a whole lot of thought into the performance of some of these things, mostly because for the first time ever I have the opportunity to do WHATEVER when it comes to singing. Daniel Rice has pretty much told that whatever I want to do, we can find a way to do it. How cool is that? The feeling of endless possibilities is nice, and time consuming.

Saturday I did all the lead and back-up for Groomed To Lead. The lead vocals were done rather quickly. I did three full takes, and then 2 full takes singing the song piece by piece. After some cut and paste, we moved into the back-ups. The "bops" didn't take long. We did one track with the root note and the other with a high octave. So the fused low and high sounds pretty smooth up against the lead vocal. We also did some nice three part harmony. This was a task that required some thought but once we figured out a way to have a guide while I sing, the takes we done fast and easy. The "ah's" inbetween the chours are smooth! I didn't know I could sing like that!

We then moved back to Gold Rush. The only real serious problem with doing the high three part harmonies on the chorus is the last note is too high for me to reach. But its ironic that without the backing trakc splaying, I can do it every time. The more relaxed and chilled I become, the easier I can do it, but the song itself is so intense, its hard to relax! Being that it was towards the end of an already 5 hour day, we decided to stop and call it a day. Next time, I think I can finish out Gold Rush with no problem. All this stuff is just practice as well. The performance is set in stone, I just need to get it down.

All is coming along very nicely. The mixing has begun and will continue throughout this week. Tha D is planning on using the two practices and the show this weekend as lubricant to go and finish all his guitar. I think after next week, everyhting under the sun will done. Not bad I should say. Not bad at all.