So much has happened in such a short space of time, it scarcely seems like three nights and two days.
Practise on Friday night went really well, the final arrangements for the pieces for the demo seemed to be pretty tight and it seemed that recording would go off without a hitch. After practise, I went back to Hamish's with him and Neil, watched the Star Wars: Clone Wars DVD and went to bed for approximately six hours sleep.
On Saturday morning, we had breakfast and lugged Hamish's kit down the stairs and into the hire van to be taken out to the studio. Once that was taken out, Guss came back and collected the rest of us whilst Hamish set up his kit. The rest of the Saturday session was spent getting Hamish's drums and Guss's bass down, along with basic guitar tracks for myself and Neil to follow later. At this point, the recording process didn't feel much different than a normal jam. After getting the basic tracks down, Hamish and Guss re-recorded a few parts and all seemed well. The first day went really well and I was feeling really positive about the process. Wed planned to do two pieces of music, both approximately 12-14 minutes in length. The first came out fine at 13 minutes. The second however, came in at just under 20 minutes.
To celebrate the first days success, we all went out for a curry and the banter flowed freely. From there Void was, at best, tolerable. Left just after half one, both my sets complete, completely sober and utterly tired. Went back to Hamish's and got some shuteye before day 2 of recording.
Me, Steve, Neil and Hamish headed down to the studio for around half eleven on Sunday morning. The plan was to get me and Neil's guitars done on the same day, but we hit our first major snag. There were a few sections where Hamish's drums dropped out and the guitars went into freetime. We'd never considered how difficult it would be to record the proper guitar parts without a rhythm guide, so we spent half the time re-working those sections with an electronic click and re-working them so that we stayed in time with them. That said, Neil played a blinder and got all his parts done with his frankly monstrous sound. It was around half four by the time I had to start recording, so the chances of me getting all my parts done before six were slim to none. Coupled with this, I had difficulty nailing one of the clean sections in the recording booth, and ended up taking my guitar into the control room on a long lead and doing it there. My sound was pretty good on that track, I'm just annoyed that I'll have to do the other guitar tracks on the third day, along with the keyboard and vocal tracks. This is starting to look cramped and I'm getting slightly worried.
After recording, me and Neil went off to find a bus stop we could intercept the Glasgow bus from, so we could go see Clutch with Vikki.
The gig was pretty good. Local boys Psycho Dalek were fucking minging. Really embarrasing nu-metal-meets-metalcore bollocks, but fuck it, they probably don't care what I think. Five Horse Johnson were pretty groovy however, loads of bluesy riffs, harmonica and the bass player had a Groundhogs shirt on. All in all pretty class. Clutch were off the fucking scale of brilliant. The only downer is that myself and Vikki had to leave after about 40 minutes to catch busses away from weeg, and the set wasn't even half done then. if I find they played Spacegrass and I missed it, I'll be upset, but I was still pretty entertained.
Got back to the flat a little before 1am and went straight to bed. Now I'm awake and I still feel shattered. These weekends are slowly killing me.
Practise on Friday night went really well, the final arrangements for the pieces for the demo seemed to be pretty tight and it seemed that recording would go off without a hitch. After practise, I went back to Hamish's with him and Neil, watched the Star Wars: Clone Wars DVD and went to bed for approximately six hours sleep.
On Saturday morning, we had breakfast and lugged Hamish's kit down the stairs and into the hire van to be taken out to the studio. Once that was taken out, Guss came back and collected the rest of us whilst Hamish set up his kit. The rest of the Saturday session was spent getting Hamish's drums and Guss's bass down, along with basic guitar tracks for myself and Neil to follow later. At this point, the recording process didn't feel much different than a normal jam. After getting the basic tracks down, Hamish and Guss re-recorded a few parts and all seemed well. The first day went really well and I was feeling really positive about the process. Wed planned to do two pieces of music, both approximately 12-14 minutes in length. The first came out fine at 13 minutes. The second however, came in at just under 20 minutes.
To celebrate the first days success, we all went out for a curry and the banter flowed freely. From there Void was, at best, tolerable. Left just after half one, both my sets complete, completely sober and utterly tired. Went back to Hamish's and got some shuteye before day 2 of recording.
Me, Steve, Neil and Hamish headed down to the studio for around half eleven on Sunday morning. The plan was to get me and Neil's guitars done on the same day, but we hit our first major snag. There were a few sections where Hamish's drums dropped out and the guitars went into freetime. We'd never considered how difficult it would be to record the proper guitar parts without a rhythm guide, so we spent half the time re-working those sections with an electronic click and re-working them so that we stayed in time with them. That said, Neil played a blinder and got all his parts done with his frankly monstrous sound. It was around half four by the time I had to start recording, so the chances of me getting all my parts done before six were slim to none. Coupled with this, I had difficulty nailing one of the clean sections in the recording booth, and ended up taking my guitar into the control room on a long lead and doing it there. My sound was pretty good on that track, I'm just annoyed that I'll have to do the other guitar tracks on the third day, along with the keyboard and vocal tracks. This is starting to look cramped and I'm getting slightly worried.
After recording, me and Neil went off to find a bus stop we could intercept the Glasgow bus from, so we could go see Clutch with Vikki.
The gig was pretty good. Local boys Psycho Dalek were fucking minging. Really embarrasing nu-metal-meets-metalcore bollocks, but fuck it, they probably don't care what I think. Five Horse Johnson were pretty groovy however, loads of bluesy riffs, harmonica and the bass player had a Groundhogs shirt on. All in all pretty class. Clutch were off the fucking scale of brilliant. The only downer is that myself and Vikki had to leave after about 40 minutes to catch busses away from weeg, and the set wasn't even half done then. if I find they played Spacegrass and I missed it, I'll be upset, but I was still pretty entertained.
Got back to the flat a little before 1am and went straight to bed. Now I'm awake and I still feel shattered. These weekends are slowly killing me.
Ah the joys of being confined in a recording studio, and trying to beat the clock. I have to say I kinda miss it.
Got to get me a new band!!!!