After way too many years since an official release, I decided to finally record my debut solo disc! It seems like I've been recording in my little home studio for years with nothing to show for it. I finally sat down with the wife and figured out a financial plan to get some outside help and get this thing done.
I booked my first 8 hour block for October 28th and I'll be as prepared as I possibly can in an attempt to keep costs down. I found my drummer and and bass player, I've sent out all my demos and will start rehearsals in about two weeks. My initial plan is to record bass/drums and scratch vocal and scratch acoustic. It would be really sweet if we were solid enough to actually nail bass/drum tracks without a ton of recording time. These guys are as solid as they come so hopefully...
I plan on doing 5 tunes that will include a shitload of musicians. Although I'll play acoustic on everything I'm not sure if I'll bring in an electric player or do all the solos myself. We'll see. I do know that I'll bring in a piano player and a mandolin player to compliment a few tunes.
Stay tuned...
Originally Posted by Potts
Originally Posted by SLScott86
I changed the solo section of that tune and will now solo over the chords that make up the bridge instead of the the verse chords- it should be fun!
Everything about yesterday's studio session should have been horrible. My nephew informed me Friday that he couldn't attend the session Saturday because someone quit on him and he didn't have enough coverage at his work. I couldn't cancel because I don't like taking money out of someone's pocket so I decided I would play bass on as many tunes as I could. I figured I could go home and rehearse bass parts after my Friday night gig that went until 10PM. I knew it was going to be a long night because I didn't get home until 11 and had to be up to coach my kid's 6am game before the session at 11:00
I plugged in and the bass was DOA. I tried everything and it just kept humming- I was at a loss. I learned the parts on the acoustic for one song and decided I would just lay bass down lines for that tune and move forward with acoustic guitar tracks and revisit the bass later. I'd have to get up and find a bass after hockey. I got home from hockey and found a bass from a friend on Facebook and was getting ready to leave when my nephew called to tell me he saw my post on Facebook and that I simply needed to replace the batteries for the active pickups. Done! It's a nice 5 string Fender too!
I got to the studio and things went awesome! I got there by 11:00, set up, and actually had a really cool bass line done by 11:30. We moved right to acoustics. I was a little nervous because I wasn't really prepared to jump right in this early in the sessions. I'd have to say I nailed mostly everything in a couple of takes without punches on any of it. It was great. I would imagine, that just like any other players, it's hard to impress yourself. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't psyched at nailing 3 tunes with multiple acoustic parts in under an hour. I demo'd these songs at home but it was over a year ago. Apparently it all sunk in because it went so well.
The fourth tune took about an hour though and I didn't finish. I actually had to "call" it. I'm not whining but it was a long December gig wise. I did somewhere around 18 by the 22nd and my fingers were toast. I had 13's on the acoustic and I could almost not fret anymore. I was trying to play so quietly and perfectly for the other tracks that it was just too much. It was OK though because after about 30 minutes on the last song I knew I was ready to be done for the day. It felt good to know that there was no reason to keep spending money and getting diminishing returns. I ended up getting about 4 hours in.
I'm happy that I played bass on at least one tune. It's a good solid bass line. I'll gladly leave the bass parts,and any other things I'm not completely proficient with, to the people that actually play those instruments though. I go back in a couple of weeks to finish up the bass parts.
(2) 451's in XY, Sterling ST77 over the top, (2) CAD M-179's room Left and Right. Mic pres are the A&H mixer in the next pic
This is the first time recording with the Taylor 410. I have Elixer 13's on it and it sounded great!
So I have another session on Saturday. I've now enlisted the help of one of the better bass players in Western NY. We're Facebook friends but I barely know him so I wasn't sure about asking him to play--especially for free. I simply went out of my way and asked him if he'd consider doing it and asked me to send him the tunes. I did and he's on board. This guy is very talented and I'm hoping that this time will be the time I get these bass tracks done. I'm going to show some gratitude by getting him a $25 gift card for guitar center.It's the thought right? unfortunatly that's all I can afford right now.
I've also been working like crazy on the guitar parts. It's fun though. I haven't had to rehearse parts in years. I'm thinking I should be able to get the bass tracks done within a about 90 minutes and then work on guitars and solos for the remainder of the day. Hopefully the next session will be vocals 
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