Aaron Priskorn stopped by to lay down a trumpet part to “Lost” which added some tasty spice to the song. Always good to see Aaron… you can find out more about him on his site, link on my link page.
Michael Nold came by today to put down a vocal track for his annual Christmas collection… this time we had some fun with it and created a lounge version of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” When we were just about done, we decided to turn it into an impromptu live recording… ala Frampton Comes Alive (allegedly had parts re-recorded and had crowd noise dubbed in). A pleasant time was had by all.
Tonight I did the final lead vocals for “Destination” and “Resignation.” My voice seemed to be in good form… so far so good. I also did a few takes on “Perfect Blue World” but I’m not sure they will make the cut… by the time I got to that song it was after midnight.
Well, so far so good… I hooked up the Avantone CK-33 to my Great River preamp, and played some acoustic guitar to evaluate how it sounded. I’m liking it, it adds that extra dimension I have been looking for. I also tried it as a single source microphone for singing and playing guitar, which also seemed to work well. I’m sure I will be using it in some of my upcoming projects.
I had the idea of asking Aaron Priskorn, the trumpet player in Entamoeba, if he’d be interested in adding trumpet to “Lost.” He seemed to be enthusiastic about the idea, hopefully I’ll bring him to the studio soon, I think he’ll add some excellent flavor to the song.
Well, not a BIG chance (because it’s relatively cheap), but I took a chance. I’ve never heard of this company before, I have no idea about the quality/sound/etc. BUT, it was cheap enough it’s worth the chance. What am I talking about? I just ordered this. I really want a stereo microphone that I can use for acoustic guitar (and other acoustic string instruments) and hand percussion to get a little more space in the recordings. I will probably get it in a week… and if you’re interested, I will post a review to tell you how it sounds.
I had a great few hours in the studio yesterday working on “Perfect Blue World” and “Lost.” I worked on new drum and percussion parts and quite a bit of new guitar and bass parts. “Perfect Blue World” actually sounds quite a bit different, featuring an acoustic guitar and dobro guitar vibe which really helps it gel more with the rest of the Liquid State material. I played the bass on my Fender fretless, but I may replace it with the upright… TBD.
“Lost” is all nylon string guitar, and I added a second guitar part as well as some leads/fills. Lost is pretty much done, unless I can convince Mike Claire to come in to the studio and lay down some piano tracks. Actually, Mike has already promised to work out some piano parts to two LS songs, I hope to have him in the studio in the next week or so.
Next up? I need to put my final vocals to “Perfect Blue World,” “Destination,” and “Resignation.” I have had a bit of a cold lately, and it appears to be mostly gone so I can get to work on vocals. Jennifer is working on some backing vocals to “Destination” as something of an experiment, otherwise I think she is all done with her recording work. All that is left for her musically is to listen to all my working mixes and let me know if I’m on track as we get closer and closer to the release of the CD.
Jennifer has come up with some preliminary artwork for the CD, which looked nearly finished to my eye. It has some of the same visual elements as the website and seems to match the music well.
All in all, I think we’re on track to have it all finished by the holidays for release in early 2008!
I spent a couple hours today in the studio, banged out some new parts on “Destination” from the upcoming Liquid State CD… mostly a new upright bass part, sounding great. All that is left on that song is to record final lead vocals, and we’re good to go for that one.
So the count is 8 songs done (except final mixdown) and 3 songs that have some work left to do… most of which is minor. I’m determined to get it all done before the end of 2007. Jennifer was going to start on the CD artwork too…
I have a few other things in the hopper, including some new pieces I received from John Rose. I spent a little time the other day listening to them and I definitely have some good ideas.
