Recording Diary: Part the Almost Done

Well, it’s been eight years in the making, but my album is *this* close to being done. We have one more day of mixing, I need to get it mastered and then it’s just a simply matter of getting the CDs made and *gulp* selling them. I need to sell a lot of CDs. Would you like to buy a CD? You should all buy some CDs. If you buy into the hype, Christmas is just around the corner. They’d make great stocking stuffers! Or Secret Santa gifts… Or Hanukkah gifts… Or Kwanzaa gifts…

Anyways, shameless self-promoting aside, the mixing is going really well. We have eight songs out of twelve done, which is most excellent. Especially since we allocated three days for mixing and we are now on day three. If my basic math skills serve me properly, that puts us right on track.

(No pun intended. Heh. Heh.)

There’s not a whole lot to say about mixing. Pete works his studio magic with headphones on and I do things like write rambling blog entries. Then, we listen to the various song components and do a bit of pruning. My high school film teacher used to quote Willa Cather, talking about the creative process, that sometimes you have to “kill your darlings,” meaning that as much as you like something, if it’s not just right, sometimes you need to cut it. 

It’s been a regular darling massacre up in here.

Well, that might be a bit of hyperbole (Me? Over-exaggerate? NEVER!). But we have had to listen to all of the songs with a critical ear and the knowledge that some things will have to go.

If recording is an additive process (ok, we have guitars, vocals, drums and bass, now let’s add in some keyboards and maybe throw in some pedal steel for shits and giggles), mixing is a reductive process. We take the songs with all of the various bells and whistles that we’ve thrown into them and then peel things back until the songs sound just right.

Well, Pete is also adjusting levels, tweaking the tonality and cleaning things up a bit, but my main contribution is towards deciding if various guitar licks should stay or if they should go. I think that we’ve struck up a good balance with all of the various contributions. Not much has ended up on the cutting room floor, but the songs sound much tighter and the best parts really shine through. Sometimes the best addition is a subtraction or something like that.

It really is a humbling process to listen to the various elements of each song and to appreciate just how insanely talented everyone who contributed really is. I think that my jaw has dropped on more than one occasion. From perfect bass lines to kick-ass drum fills to guitar solos that are out of this world, it makes me want to give every single person who contributed a giant hug and my humble thanks for what they did.

In some ways, this whole process has been about trusting to people’s talents and having confidence that they would do something amazing with my songs. It was a complete leap of faith, but it really paid off. By letting people tap into their total creativity, we got something that is so much better than if I had attempted to micro-manage the whole thing. Pete was definitely the cruise director, pointing people in the right direction and making sure that things stayed on track. And he definitely never steered us wrong. That was another big part of the process… handing my songs to him and basically saying, “here, have at it.” 

For a person like me, who may or may not be a bit of a control freak, it was surprisingly easy to let go of the wheel. Shockingly easy, actually. I guess where all that stuff that I said about faith and trust comes in. If you work with people who are into the project and are insanely talented, it makes it that much easier to sit back and let them do their thang. 

So, yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing. Sitting back and appreciating just how talented all of these guys really are. Occasionally exercising my veto power, but not that often. 

Check back here for a sneak peek of what the album is going to sound like. 🙂