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September 16, 2005
The Art of Preparation
One of my favorite musicians came to record at SCM studios the other night: songwriter and guitarist Kevin Browne. Kevin and I have been friends for a long time, and he is always a pleasure to work with.
Kevin has already recorded two CDs at SCM, and now he is starting his most ambitious project; actually two projects: He is recording a CD of new songs, and an album of instrumentals.
He came in at 6:30PM, and by the time he left at midnight, he had recorded:
1. Nine instrumental tracks- he laid down the guitar parts for these pieces (some of them approaching 10 minutes in length!) with the plan to add cello, violin, keyboard, and other parts later.
2. 11 guitar tracks for his new songs. He laid down basic acoustic guitar tracks for 11 songs (actually 13 songs since one “song was actually a 12-minute, three-song suite!)
3. He then recorded vocals for the entire CD of new songs, and did a vocal effect track for one of his instrumentals.
He was he able to do all this? He was prepared! He had spent the previous few weeks diligently rehearsing for this session, and so he was able to do most of the guitar tracks in one pass. He also did most of the vocals in this highly efficient one-take fashion.
His next step: when I create a rough mix CD (or CDs!) for him, he will review his work and decide what to keep and what could be improved.
I am always impressed by his dedication to his art, and by the wealth of musical and lyrical ideas that continue to pour forth from him.
Posted by leon at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
Meditations
We haven’t forgotten about those of you who read “Project Studio Guy.” We’ve had a lot going on.
So what have we been working on? It’s funny how often we seem to work on two or three very similar projects at the same time. At one point several years ago, we were working with a number of R&B artists. Then we went through a “folk singer” stage.
Right now we seem to be going through the “Meditation Phase.” We are working on two projects that contain meditations of a spiritual or relaxing nature, with music backgrounds. In one case I am writing the music, in the other, I am arranging music already written by one of our musical family, Renelle West.
I’d like to tell you a bit about Renelle’s project.
What Renelle wanted to do was take two of her existing songs, plus one new one, and arrange them so that they would be performed a few times, and then segue into an instrumental section, over which the voice-over meditation was recorded.
A vibrant woman by the name of Paula Langguth Ryan came with Renelle to speak the meditations. Having recorded a great deal of voice over audio, I knew that the process could be tough, especially for the inexperienced. (Voice-over work is much more difficult than people realize. Just try talking or reading out loud for more than a few minutes without stumbling over your words, going back to clarify something you just said, or without using “uhhh” and “ummm.”)
Now Paula had over 15 minutes of text to record. She did it in one take! It was perfect (except for one place where she bumped into the music stand, but she was able to fix it in only two tries, and match exactly her tone and expression. No small feat!) Not only was she perfect on the first selection, she was perfect on two more extended meditations! Almost an hour of speaking, and no “slips of the tongue.” It was phenomenal.
Her natural abilities as a speaker had something to do with her great productivity, but of course, she was well prepared. As I tell all my clients, preparation is your best ally in saving a lot of valuable studio time.
Renelle West
Paula Langguth Ryan
Posted by leon at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)