Last night, Sieron and I clicked through to get Coquette to play and see what more recording we needed to do with it. We listened and though most of the drum parts were recorded... myself and all my silliness did not record the drums to the click, essentially rendering them useless.
(Silliness indeed, my mind is warped and worthless right now, this aught to be an interesting blog post.)
This allowed me to return to my drums to play to a 140bpm click, nailing the drums as hard as I could. Sieron had the idea to "film" ('phone'?) some of the session to post to whatever video service we'd be using (maybe Facebook, I don't know). I laid into the toms to project well enough into the microphones that have been set up and on duty for a month. I'm sure that the mylar diaphragms have to be beaten into submission at this point. It's really exciting that they'll have earned so much mileage.
Train-of-thought derailment... Does a microphone age well? I mean, maybe the electronics corrode if it's in a damp environment, but maybe the diaphragm is less sensitive to the highest high frequencies, and loosens them up giving a little bit of a mellower tone to the recording...
I don't know... this is what happens when I'm not focused. Anyhow, Sieron was able to get me in a few shots with different "film"-like filters. One in blue, another in grey, another in the "black and white" as seen in the old "talkies".
After blasting away, I start to work on the cover tune Sieron wanted to play in the same way that we've done all the other songs... part by part, piece by piece and match it up to fit later. In this process, we're able to select whatever part we want, and make that the piece that is used DIRECTLY at the moment...
...ok, this isn't going to work. Let me get some sleep first, then I'll describe this...
...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Moving Boxes
You know, building a house takes lots of work.
You have to start with a well-thought-out plan.
You have to build up from a solid foundation. Usually, I'm use to working on quicksand, gravel, and other types of non-bedrock (insert proper geology details here).
You have to keep in mind that the structure must not only support itself, but that it'll be able to support other forces (of nature or otherwise).
You have to...
Ok, you get the point. However, now that we're done with tracking our original ideas, we're sitting around listening back to what we've tracked, and starting to cut up all kinds of different ideas so that we can hear if the takes are done correctly. If not, then we try another idea until we come up with the plans.
So now, the musical tracks looks something like the ending to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and we're just moving the boxes around.
...the really exciting part is going to be discovering where the lost ark is.
You have to start with a well-thought-out plan.
You have to build up from a solid foundation. Usually, I'm use to working on quicksand, gravel, and other types of non-bedrock (insert proper geology details here).
You have to keep in mind that the structure must not only support itself, but that it'll be able to support other forces (of nature or otherwise).
You have to...
Ok, you get the point. However, now that we're done with tracking our original ideas, we're sitting around listening back to what we've tracked, and starting to cut up all kinds of different ideas so that we can hear if the takes are done correctly. If not, then we try another idea until we come up with the plans.
So now, the musical tracks looks something like the ending to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and we're just moving the boxes around.
...the really exciting part is going to be discovering where the lost ark is.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Random notes
I bought these earbuds a while back, and because I have weird ears, they have to go in upside down and reversed in order to fit. This means I have to wear my right earbud in my left ear, and vice versa. I didn't think my ears were so idiosyncratic. Poop.
I wonder if this is going to make me lose directional sense? Will I reach for my eating utensils on my right side while shaking someone's left hand with my own left? Will I start driving on the wrong side of the road insisting that it's the correct side (when it's not)?
So, I've got this cymbal that I've cracked. I swear, if Sabian stops making the AAXplosion line of cymbals (which is a stupid name for as great of a product as it is), I think I may cry. I have about 3 of these things that I've mangled over the years, but was smart about it because this one I purchased a warranty in case it cracked. Well, crack it did!
I've got this fissure-laden brass alloy cymbal in my car ready for exchange. Except... I have to visit a website first in order for them to give me an exchange/repair order. My happy-ass was ready to go back to Banjo Mart and hurl their cymbal at them in exchange for a newsie. "No, no, no!" You've got to go through the proper channels, son!
Harumph. Now I wait, meanwhile everytime I sit at the drum kit (including the last two times we've recorded drum parts), the main cymbal in my arrangement is missing. Poop.
I also want to get another cymbal rather than the Zildjian Rock Crash that I've been blasting on for the last year. That thing is a BEAST! It's like hitting another ride cymbal, but I only want to use it for effect at this point because it's SO LOUD!!! I think I'm going to get another AAXplosion (maybe a Zildjian K cymbal)? I like the AAXplosion line because they have so much character to them. There's this "bwwwaaaaaahhhh" sound that it makes when you hit it, vs. just a "psssshhhh!" sound. Eff that. I want a different assortment of consonants in my brass set up, rather than just "psssh" "psssh" "pssh" "PSSH"(that was the Rock Crash). It'd be great to have "pssh", "bwaah", "spsh", "klang", "ding"...
Awesome! I need more $$$ to get all that stuff. Wah.
Ooooh! I also am tired (I think I said this before) of having all of my drums on the right side. That sucks! it's like I have to turn my entire body around just to get to the cool heavy drum tones. I mean, either that or I'm weaksauce.
Whatevs, welcome to my two cups of coffee this morning. Get the hell outta here. >=|
I wonder if this is going to make me lose directional sense? Will I reach for my eating utensils on my right side while shaking someone's left hand with my own left? Will I start driving on the wrong side of the road insisting that it's the correct side (when it's not)?
So, I've got this cymbal that I've cracked. I swear, if Sabian stops making the AAXplosion line of cymbals (which is a stupid name for as great of a product as it is), I think I may cry. I have about 3 of these things that I've mangled over the years, but was smart about it because this one I purchased a warranty in case it cracked. Well, crack it did!
I've got this fissure-laden brass alloy cymbal in my car ready for exchange. Except... I have to visit a website first in order for them to give me an exchange/repair order. My happy-ass was ready to go back to Banjo Mart and hurl their cymbal at them in exchange for a newsie. "No, no, no!" You've got to go through the proper channels, son!
Harumph. Now I wait, meanwhile everytime I sit at the drum kit (including the last two times we've recorded drum parts), the main cymbal in my arrangement is missing. Poop.
I also want to get another cymbal rather than the Zildjian Rock Crash that I've been blasting on for the last year. That thing is a BEAST! It's like hitting another ride cymbal, but I only want to use it for effect at this point because it's SO LOUD!!! I think I'm going to get another AAXplosion (maybe a Zildjian K cymbal)? I like the AAXplosion line because they have so much character to them. There's this "bwwwaaaaaahhhh" sound that it makes when you hit it, vs. just a "psssshhhh!" sound. Eff that. I want a different assortment of consonants in my brass set up, rather than just "psssh" "psssh" "pssh" "PSSH"(that was the Rock Crash). It'd be great to have "pssh", "bwaah", "spsh", "klang", "ding"...
Awesome! I need more $$$ to get all that stuff. Wah.
Ooooh! I also am tired (I think I said this before) of having all of my drums on the right side. That sucks! it's like I have to turn my entire body around just to get to the cool heavy drum tones. I mean, either that or I'm weaksauce.
Whatevs, welcome to my two cups of coffee this morning. Get the hell outta here. >=|
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
If You Make Me I'll...
11/20 - Sieron was glowing when I open the door to the room. I heard him through the walls, the soundwaves of the guitar amplifier pulsing against the drywall, studs, and insulation that divided the outside world from his den of creation. I posted up next to the door so he could finish his session unobstructed, and as the amplifier quieted, I turned the key.
Earbuds white and black, fashioned in the shape of a cartoon skull/crossbones dressed Sieron's ear canals, white cables trailing from the plastic casing camouflaged by the design, a barrage of excited words comes flying at me over the hum of the tube amplifier. I recognize the track he was recording, it wasn't one of our own. I find that we're on a new task: interpreting this song in the way of the Trunk. Sieron, adorned in earbuds and a hooded sweater, programs the recording software to record vocals to a separate track and proceeds to show this stylized, Sieronized performance to the Sennheiser while he gestures to me to help myself to the 32oz belgian-style lager sitting in the ice bucket.
We spend the next 30-40 minutes orienting me to the drum parts of the track, from section to section, phrase to phrase. We discuss the explosive results we expect, then we blast through several takes before my performance mirrors that of Sieron's guitar and vocal foundation. Through head nods, hand signals, listening and reading guitar strumming positions, the walls of Greenhouse sway and tilt with each pulse of the tempo. After annihilating the air molecules of Room D, a cigarette break is well deserved.
S: "So what have we got?"
C: "Well, we did Coquette and To Remind You, and...."
S: "That was it, right?"
C: "Yeah, I think so"
S: "Ok, so we've got 4 more to do. I told Mark we'd probably stay until midnight... is that cool with you"
C: "Yeah, I think we can get these done in that time"
We both stare at the hanging desk calendar Sieron brought in at the beginning of the month. Slashes and symbols in red Sharpie marker indicate different stages of progress from day to day. We point out the songs that still need to track drum ideas.
S: "Ok, so 'm gonna get a smoke. I set up the click so you can warm up while I...
(Snare-hat-kick-kick-snare)
S: "yeah, uh... well, here just...
(snare-snare-tom-tom-tom-tom)
S: "...you go on, I'll be back"
So then the process begins anew... I start blasting away at drum parts... from one part to the next. I continue to re-familiarize myself with the set up I'd played for years but pulled away from to have more stage visibility. Now that we're not focused on a live show, I can set my drums up to be as visually obstructive as possible. Through the headphones I hear the kick drum that has a microphone next to it and it sounds mighty. I love that sound, it makes me want to kick the drum with more ferocity, so I do. By the time Sieron walks back in, I'm wailing with eardrum splitting intensity on the backbeat of Destroy You.
S: "Did you track it?"
C: "Yeah, just kinda messing with what was there."
S: "Cool, well let's go through the process we've been using for the other tracks"
C: "Sweet, for the intro, I do..."
We work through the parts and try to figure out new combinations to use. One track after another gets done as the night moves on and the bands in adjacent rooms come and go. We finally look back at a red-marked calendar and discover we're done with all of the songs we needed to finish this preliminary process for.
Standing outside and feeling accomplished, Sieron and I recap the night over a cigarette and fresh air. The clear night provides a view of the lights in the harbor and the smoke dissipates into the darkness and we plan to meet the next night to finalize this stage of preproduction
Earbuds white and black, fashioned in the shape of a cartoon skull/crossbones dressed Sieron's ear canals, white cables trailing from the plastic casing camouflaged by the design, a barrage of excited words comes flying at me over the hum of the tube amplifier. I recognize the track he was recording, it wasn't one of our own. I find that we're on a new task: interpreting this song in the way of the Trunk. Sieron, adorned in earbuds and a hooded sweater, programs the recording software to record vocals to a separate track and proceeds to show this stylized, Sieronized performance to the Sennheiser while he gestures to me to help myself to the 32oz belgian-style lager sitting in the ice bucket.
We spend the next 30-40 minutes orienting me to the drum parts of the track, from section to section, phrase to phrase. We discuss the explosive results we expect, then we blast through several takes before my performance mirrors that of Sieron's guitar and vocal foundation. Through head nods, hand signals, listening and reading guitar strumming positions, the walls of Greenhouse sway and tilt with each pulse of the tempo. After annihilating the air molecules of Room D, a cigarette break is well deserved.
S: "So what have we got?"
C: "Well, we did Coquette and To Remind You, and...."
S: "That was it, right?"
C: "Yeah, I think so"
S: "Ok, so we've got 4 more to do. I told Mark we'd probably stay until midnight... is that cool with you"
C: "Yeah, I think we can get these done in that time"
We both stare at the hanging desk calendar Sieron brought in at the beginning of the month. Slashes and symbols in red Sharpie marker indicate different stages of progress from day to day. We point out the songs that still need to track drum ideas.
S: "Ok, so 'm gonna get a smoke. I set up the click so you can warm up while I...
(Snare-hat-kick-kick-snare)
S: "yeah, uh... well, here just...
(snare-snare-tom-tom-tom-tom)
S: "...you go on, I'll be back"
So then the process begins anew... I start blasting away at drum parts... from one part to the next. I continue to re-familiarize myself with the set up I'd played for years but pulled away from to have more stage visibility. Now that we're not focused on a live show, I can set my drums up to be as visually obstructive as possible. Through the headphones I hear the kick drum that has a microphone next to it and it sounds mighty. I love that sound, it makes me want to kick the drum with more ferocity, so I do. By the time Sieron walks back in, I'm wailing with eardrum splitting intensity on the backbeat of Destroy You.
S: "Did you track it?"
C: "Yeah, just kinda messing with what was there."
S: "Cool, well let's go through the process we've been using for the other tracks"
C: "Sweet, for the intro, I do..."
We work through the parts and try to figure out new combinations to use. One track after another gets done as the night moves on and the bands in adjacent rooms come and go. We finally look back at a red-marked calendar and discover we're done with all of the songs we needed to finish this preliminary process for.
Standing outside and feeling accomplished, Sieron and I recap the night over a cigarette and fresh air. The clear night provides a view of the lights in the harbor and the smoke dissipates into the darkness and we plan to meet the next night to finalize this stage of preproduction
Monday, November 19, 2012
Sunday Sesh - Nov 18th
11/18...I pull off the freeway just as Dorset Perception was getting underway. Heading over Signal Hill down Orange, I pay my daily homage to those lying in their final resting place to my right. Today is meeting day, but there is ample parking as I pull to the side next to the auto body shop. Vehicle stationed, I unlock the passenger doors and pull my tom cases out and set them on the ground to make sure that I have all of my belongings on my person and head to the rehearsal room to meet Sieron.
Sieron and I meet up to discuss the day's goals: work on the bones of the song skeleton until they're calcified, not worrying about a full song performance and only focused on one part until that part has been played to perfection. We've ironed this strategy over our smoke breaks on countless occasions, so now it's time to employ it. Inside I begin to reassign my drum shells to their original arrangement as we discuss the finer points of rock music production. When I'm about ready to warm up, he grabs his personalized folding chair, and I grab my discount/bargain drum throne and sticks set behind the kit, plugging my earbuds into the headphone extender that protrudes from the recording unit.
However, like the knucklehead I am, I warm up to playing to the workstation metronome to the point where I'm going from one part to the next part to the next without really indicating whether a part was achieved or not. about 20-25 minutes into the recording session, I've exhausted myself for the time being, and feel that I've earned myself a beer. Sieron looks up from his project and starts to inquire into the status of the material that was just collected. As we listen back, I start to save markers to the time where interesting things in the drum recording session happened. As Sieron and I go over the concepts, we find that some of the beats that were tracked missed a few notes that go with the guitar parts he's written.
"Hey, uh, do you think you could try something else. Watch, check this out: "Du, du-cah, du-cah-du-du-cah-du-du-cah-du-du-cah-cah" What do you think?
What do I think? I think that that's exactly what I play every other time. I have that wry look on my face as I try to convince myself to just go along with it, because it'd be just as good as anything that I would come up with. Also, I've been on that side of the fence, the one of the songwriter conveying the idea to the percussionist about the way the song was written in my head.
Through this method, Sieron got me playing some things that I've got to force myself to work through. Pretty good! Though grueling as all hell and really trying on my patience! Regardless, we're both happy with how the music will turn out and I'm even happy with how it'll make me play at some point.
Sieron and I meet up to discuss the day's goals: work on the bones of the song skeleton until they're calcified, not worrying about a full song performance and only focused on one part until that part has been played to perfection. We've ironed this strategy over our smoke breaks on countless occasions, so now it's time to employ it. Inside I begin to reassign my drum shells to their original arrangement as we discuss the finer points of rock music production. When I'm about ready to warm up, he grabs his personalized folding chair, and I grab my discount/bargain drum throne and sticks set behind the kit, plugging my earbuds into the headphone extender that protrudes from the recording unit.
However, like the knucklehead I am, I warm up to playing to the workstation metronome to the point where I'm going from one part to the next part to the next without really indicating whether a part was achieved or not. about 20-25 minutes into the recording session, I've exhausted myself for the time being, and feel that I've earned myself a beer. Sieron looks up from his project and starts to inquire into the status of the material that was just collected. As we listen back, I start to save markers to the time where interesting things in the drum recording session happened. As Sieron and I go over the concepts, we find that some of the beats that were tracked missed a few notes that go with the guitar parts he's written.
"Hey, uh, do you think you could try something else. Watch, check this out: "Du, du-cah, du-cah-du-du-cah-du-du-cah-du-du-cah-cah" What do you think?
What do I think? I think that that's exactly what I play every other time. I have that wry look on my face as I try to convince myself to just go along with it, because it'd be just as good as anything that I would come up with. Also, I've been on that side of the fence, the one of the songwriter conveying the idea to the percussionist about the way the song was written in my head.
Through this method, Sieron got me playing some things that I've got to force myself to work through. Pretty good! Though grueling as all hell and really trying on my patience! Regardless, we're both happy with how the music will turn out and I'm even happy with how it'll make me play at some point.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Singin' Songs
For whatever reason (probably because it's a cool track), I've been singing the song Cyprian by some old friends ASL. Vocalist of my group from... shit 10 years ago, really?! Anyways, Guinevere sings on the ASL EP version of that track, and it's stuck in my head.
Anyways, I'm still stoked on the newest Trunk tunes, and looking forward to moving on distributing the EP (FINALLY!). It'll allow us permission to work on newer music (and some of the old, unrecorded tunes). Finding a bass player would be nice, but we're in no hurry, as we've got no upcoming shows.
I've been sitting on trying to get ourselves into Pasadena. I should work on that. Think I will. Talk at ya later!
www.facebook.com/trunk.la
Anyways, I'm still stoked on the newest Trunk tunes, and looking forward to moving on distributing the EP (FINALLY!). It'll allow us permission to work on newer music (and some of the old, unrecorded tunes). Finding a bass player would be nice, but we're in no hurry, as we've got no upcoming shows.
I've been sitting on trying to get ourselves into Pasadena. I should work on that. Think I will. Talk at ya later!
www.facebook.com/trunk.la
 |
| Snoozin' during 13-15 hr recording sessions. |
Monday, June 25, 2012
New Beginnings...
Whoohooo!!!
In my endless need to type letters, string them into words/sentences, organize them into paragraphs, and make myself feel important...
Here's yet another blog... but this one is about...
TRUNK!!!
Yesterday, Sieron and I got together, he was eager to show me a new song he'd been working out at home. All week I'd been hearing tales of how Presley had been responding to the new tune, about how much she's rocking out to it (and for a baby who can recognize the greatness of Tool and Radiohead at just a few weeks old, I'd say she's an excellent judge of content).
...and she was right! Sieron was playing the riff as I was paying my half of the hourly rent, and I could hear the "it" factor of a tune I like to hear. I asked what it was when I got back into the room, and he said it was the track he'd been working on. We briefly discussed some of the percussion ideas he had for it, and started working right away. By the end of practice, it was nice to have that idea solidified.
In my endless need to type letters, string them into words/sentences, organize them into paragraphs, and make myself feel important...
Here's yet another blog... but this one is about...
TRUNK!!!
Yesterday, Sieron and I got together, he was eager to show me a new song he'd been working out at home. All week I'd been hearing tales of how Presley had been responding to the new tune, about how much she's rocking out to it (and for a baby who can recognize the greatness of Tool and Radiohead at just a few weeks old, I'd say she's an excellent judge of content).
...and she was right! Sieron was playing the riff as I was paying my half of the hourly rent, and I could hear the "it" factor of a tune I like to hear. I asked what it was when I got back into the room, and he said it was the track he'd been working on. We briefly discussed some of the percussion ideas he had for it, and started working right away. By the end of practice, it was nice to have that idea solidified.
(from Trunk's Chain Reaction show Feb 2011 Photo credit: www.randybabajtis.com)
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