MBO. Album 2 Recording Diary: v2

We continue with "Hell"...

We quickly worked on the hand claps (editing various performances) to give them more variance. Claps deemed complete.

I finished lyrics so now it's vocal time. I really don't believe in scratch vocals as it kinda sucks to redo stuff, especially vocals. This is what I hated about the recording contract scenerio, the band I was in (The Spent Poets) would record all these cool songs (at least to our ears) and then Geffen would inevitably have us redo them to make them more "professional", thus ruining the vibe we originaly obtained. I say keep what you do originally, no matter the fidelity, the idea of "demos" is crap. So says I.

Craig set up the ADK 8-51 TC mic. Headphones ready. Let's sing.

Did the initial background vocals and harmonies (4 tracks for the root and then 2 more for the harmony) for the intro then Thomas (THE HOG) arrived so we switched to Marimba.

We mic'd the Marimba using the ADK 8-51. We are also experimenting with a new mic, the Karma condenser, which according to Craig is the smallest condenser mic made, which means it's better than the bigger ones because it's smaller. This will give a closer proximity to the source to drown out external noise (band in next room, they made hog feel real upset.)

Thomas recorded the 3 marimba parts for the chorus, verses and b sections.

Marimba performances were deemed keepers

Next we added the Mrs Mills piano from the Abbey Road session Refill. The Mrs Mills is the piano that the Beatles used to track many fine songs. Actually all of the Reason sounds we are using are form the amazingly good Abbey Road Refill Collection. My GOD these are good and I am sooo happy that these even exist because frankly they are are pretty weird, out of tune etc. They contain my dream selection of sounds. I cant tell you how many times we looked for a good Tubular Bells only to come up empty handed.

Link

Next The Hog played the piano part (bravado Rufus chords and then 8th note rhythmic)

Next up was the Abbey Road Harmonium on the verses and the B sections.

Next we then sculpted a part that will work with the vocal melody using the Abby Road Celeste on the verses and pre chorus

Then we mic'd up the Jaymar toy piano for a "sleigh bell" sound on the chorus. I adore my Jaymar and am still kicking myself for not buying the rare full scale one that I saw at the Alameda Antique Flea Market a few years ago. I am still searching ebay for one.

The Electro Mechanical Elka Wurli was then added on the chorus. We are expecting to rhythmically mangle it using a beat destroyer plug-in in Ableton Live. Hopefully this will add a randomized weird element.

Time to go home. It's late.