New recording in the works

"All that Surrounds Me" was written in 2005 after coming home from a week spent in London in July of that year. Our stay was sandwiched between two bombings: the first took place a week before our arrival, the second, a week after we had left.

We spent the week basking in glorious weather, seeing sites, eating delicious Indian, Portuguese and Thai food (as well as great pub fare!) and generally walking from 7:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night.

The song was the first to be arranged for the Crucible Electric Chamber Ensemble but was never recorded by this group. So, before loosing sight of it, I have decided to commit it to tape.

This evening, I recorded a rough vocal and rhythm guitar track onto track 1; track 2 received a double mix of miked acoustic guitar with the pickup being fed through the Hi-Z channel to give a brighter sound. After this had been done (one take for each run through was sufficient), my son came down to the studio and decided to have some fun, patching his voice through the various sound effects I have on the console.

A new piece is also taking shape, using the Schillinger techniques of Expansion and Contraction using r9÷8 as rhythmic template. The piece might become an orchestrated version of "Hyparxis" or might stand on its own. We shall see.

Aftershock: Mix & Closure

After trying to re-record the vocal track for the Nth time, I finally chose original take 6 as master. At 9:38 PM Sunday May 2nd, I mixed down the song to stereo and exported the results as an mp3.

And here it is, for your listening pleasure:

|

"The Waves of Aftershock" © 2010 Christopher Cousineau

The mix itself is not final by a long shot. However, it does signify that work on this present song's recording is done for the moment. A new project now awaits!

Good evening, All.

Overdub experiment

Since I use a basic stereo soundcard to generate the orchestral sounds on my recordings, I have to guess the final volume relationship between the various instruments used before committing them to tape. Sometimes a great sounding balance loses its greatness when new tracks are recorded and start cluttering up sonic space. Inevitably, some of the original instruments get buried while others seem to pierce the soundscape with magical clarity. In the case of "Aftershock", part of the drums have become buried.

To remedy this, I tried to overdub the bass drum and snare track from the midi file without midi sync. I pressed record and let it fly. The tracks came out slightly out of sync (approximately 20 frames) at the start and a little more toward the 4/5ths of the song. When mixed however, the drums sound a little fatter. At the end, when the sync is quite off, it sounds like a drummer flamming lazily behind the beat.

More experiments to come.

Four new vocal tracks

Set up the studio to record a new lead vocal track for "Aftershock". Used a second mike stand to support a towel folded in two placed directly behind the vocal mike to act as a makeshift isolation / anechoic chamber (of sorts). It definitely helped to cut some of the room reverberation from bleeding into the mike, which seems to have made the vocal track a bit tighter to my ears.

The first take was a good one, with the mike pre-amp a bit too hot. The track distorts a bit in places, but might be a keeper. The next take used a limiter on the mike. The resulting track was an okay performance, but the recording was dead sounding. Takes three and four were recorded clean (no limiter), with the gain a little lower than on take one. At present, it seems to be a toss up between takes one and four. Will leave the choice to another time.

The guitar solo seems fine after all. The performance is good, so it maybe just a question of finding its correct place in the mix.

Electric Guitar completed

Recording began around 7:09 this morning, with the help of the following co-conspirators:
The first takes started by using the neck pick-up which yielded a beautiful tone, which was not used simply because it disappeared when played with the other tracks. I used both pick-ups in combination and the sound stood out without being aggressive.

The part was subtly modified also. Most of the original part is still present, but some chords have been dropped to avoid clutter. In the chorus I double the bass part, which sounds much better to my ears. The flat wound strings of the guitar and bass give another identity to this part of the piece.

The next step is to try once more to get the vocals down and maybe add a harmony line in places. We'll see.

An early morning of Electric Guitar

Rose at 6:30 and after feeding the cat, set up the studio to record the electric guitar part for "Aftershock". Ran through many takes, keeping four. In the end the question remains, does it add anything? Obviously, it adds a new sound to the picture but is it needed? The more I listen, the less I feel like keeping it. Even the instrumental outro is less than satisfying. I might just add flourishes here and there and leave out any rhythm work from the electric.

The equipment used for this session is as follows: Ibanez semi-acoustic Artist A-200, Vox AC-30 amplifier and Sennheiser e906 dynamic microphone. It is my first experience with this microphone. The tone seems to be good and it withstands pressure without distortion. I need to try it in combination with the CAD E-200, blending their respective sonic properties.

I am now off to fetch breakfast, then we are off for the Autism walk Fund-raiser.

After Victoria, Sing!

Friday evening usually means to relax and watch a movie after the evening meal. This evening's offering was "Young Victoria". Since we started to watch it early, by 9:30 it was over. This permitted me to slip downstairs and experiment with a new microphone placement for vocals.

The victim was obviously "Aftershock", which I ran through a total of 4 times, each time with a slightly different setting. I find that if the microphone is too sensitive, I tend to hold back, to avoid overloading the pre-amp. On the other hand, if my voice is placed too low in the mix, my voice starts to strain. I still have not found the perfect balance that is needed for optimal results.

Another experiment was to place the microphone in a corner and use a figure 8 polar pattern to get some of the room but to cancel out some of it also. To my surprise, the voice sounds more present, although I would have expected some boxiness, there seem to be none. This said, I am still not sure I have committed a final take to tape.