Neil Young Talking About Being Creative

"You know because you’re writing. You’re not editing. Editing is no good. If you’re really writing, you just write—write it down and let it come out."  Neil Young, 2005.  

In an article about Neil Young's 66th Birthday, An interview with Neil by Russell Hall for Performing Songwriter was republished.   You can find the article on the Performing Songwriter web page at the following link.

http://performingsongwriter.com/happy-birthday-neil-young/

We need to listen to people like Neil Young.  They know how to write songs. 

Recording Process



Example of ProTools Recording Software



The process of recording a CD has been quite an experience and quite an eye opener for me. 

The process, in as short of an explanation as possible, involves recording a 'scratch track' with a "click track", then recording each instrument and vocal on individual tracks using the scratch track as the base.  Once all tracks are done, the scratch track is dropped out.   Then the process of editing and mixing begins. 

With the digital technology available, we are seeing how the recorded music can be 'edited' to make the produced record as flawless as possible. 

For example, a vocal track can be enhance by using 'autotune' software and with other tricks like compression to smooth the vocals out and bring off-key parts into key.  You can use auto tune in live performances too if you got the cash to buy that kind of stuff.  What is more interesting to me is adjusting multiple vocal tracks to line up properly so they are in perfect sinc.  In the studio, we had 3 vocal tracks - a lead track, and two backing vocals that weren't quite in sinc. one backing track came in to early and the other too late. With a bit of software magic, the two backing vocals got lined up with the lead vocal track.  Then with two different vocalists, word pronunciations became an issue.  In our case, on the word "night", Brian pronounces it sharply, while I tend to drag it "Ni - ight".  So with another bit of magic, my night was sliced in the middle so that it now sounded like Brian's night.  Very cool indeed. 

Another example we witnessed is what happens when an instrument note is misplayed.  The first few times we listened to the track, we didn't notice a note that didn't sound right. To tell the truth, I never did hear it, but Rick did, then Brian did.  Turned out there was one bass note in the whole track that was off.  The fix?  isolate the note and change it to what you want it to be.  All of 2 seconds to change it. 

These are just a couple of examples of what can be done.  There's other tricks that we've experience, like just playing over a missed ending on an instrument track rather than replaying the whole track.  Or, copying a perfect part of an instrument track and pasting it into a repeated section of the song that had a flaw in it.  I'm sure there are numerous more tricks in the recording engineers bag that we haven't seen yet. 

I do want to say that you don't want to rely on these tricks all the time.  It is better to get a flawless recorded track, than just use technology to fix everything.  And of course it feels better when you get it right.  But when you need the tricks, you need the tricks. 

Bottom line is, now that I've seen how things work in a studio, it has completely changed my perception of what I'm listening to on the radio or a new CD. 

What's In a Name

Another happening:  We've been debating our group name for three years now.  We've been calling ourselves the Magpies since our first appearance at the Heart of the City Festival.  Came about because we hadn't picked a name, and they needed on. Don was watching a Magpie on his lawn and blurted it out when he was asked what our group name was.   The debate started immediately after that. 

Part of the issue, is the name has been used before. Part of the issue is a few people told us we need to add something in front of Magpies or after Magpies.  I think the real issue is that none of us really wanted to be a "Magpie".  Have you ever listened to a magpie?

Since we were now in a studio working on putting together a CD, we figured we better settle this name issue once and for all.  So time to get serious. 

We've thrown out so many names, but it seemed at least one of us 'veto'd'.  Finally, Don tossed out a name on Saturday.   Suggestion:  Big Sky Gliders".   I liked it. Brian liked it.  We got agreement for the first time in 3 years.   Maybe on Monday, we'll shake on it.

Who would have thought picking a name would be so difficult and take so long?

Back In the Studio

Don in the booth

On Monday, we went back to the studio to finish the song. Or so we thought.   This time, I just got to sit back and relax and let Brian and Don do the work.  Brian laid down the bass track.  Don, after several tries, got the keyboard track done.  Then he went into the isolation booth to lay down the mandolin and bouzouki tracks.  After 3 hours, we were done. 

So now we have the tracks done.  Next step:  do the mix.  We decided though we'd work on a couple of more songs before we do the mixing.  Apparently it is better to mix all songs at the same time so that the mix is more consistent. 

So, next Monday is another night of recording.  Song this time is Earnest and Lucy.  Dominant instrument is piano and Brian on vocals.  So it might be another night off for me.   I play the acousticguitar underneath the keyboard and do backing vocals when we play the song, so if all goes well with Don's piano and Brian's vocals, I might be called on. 

What I'm learning is that recording is a long process. 

IN THE STUDIO - LAYIN' IT DOWN

Don & Jim @ Backyard Studio

For some time now, we've (Magpies) been talking about recording our songs in a studio and perhaps producing our own CD.   The process started last night.  We are recording at the Backyard Studio owned by Rick Garvin.  We met Rick last week to look at his studio and talk about the process.  It sounded straight forward and with advice from Rick we decided we'd start with one song.  After that we can decide what we want to do next.  Good plan!  We could then focus on one song and not get too far ahead of ourselves. 

We decided, well, actually Don and Brian, decided to record "Sitting Here".  You can find an early version recorded on a Zoom H2 in an earlier posting. 

So we got to the studio with all our stuff and were ready for the evening, or so we thought.  Brian had an idea about what was coming because he's done some recording before.  Me. Not a clue. 

First, we laid down a 'scratch track'  All playing to a metronome, or 'click track".  sounded easy, but the first run through, it didn't work. This was for a song we've done a hundred times.  So, we did it again.  This time reasonably good success and probably as good as we were going to get it that night.  Great,  Step one was done. 



In Isolation



Next.  Lets get Jim in the isolation booth to do the rhythm guitar track.  Sounds good, but the booth is a little room with no windows.  Claustrophobic actually.  So I do a track. Wasn't great.  Did a second one - that was going well until. I messed up a chord and flubbed the ending.   Not to worry.  We'll just play over those two spots and fix the track.  Good, Done, Now I get to get out of the little box

No, now I got to go back in and do the lead vocals.  Just when I thought I'd get a break.  Did two vocal tracks.  Second one was good.  Now I'm done. 

Now it was Brian's turn for backing vocals.  Again, he lays down two tracks.  Second one was good, except I changed the words in my version from the written word.  So Brian had to do another take for that line.  Finally, we had a guitar track, lead vocal track, and the backing vocal track.  3 1/2 hours passed by. 

But we're not done.  We still have to do the mandolin track, bass track, and keyboard track.  That's coming Thursday, but good news is I'm done so I can sit back and relax.  I think.  Maybe I'll take my guitar just in case. 

Also, check out Brian's Blog, In the Clouds - link is on the right

Layin it down.  Good times.