Demo Update

Early in November we got the bad news, Ben was moving to NY. Great for folks in NY, terrible for us. All of the sudden the pressure was on, get it done and get it done fast. We began working in earnest, scheduling more time in the studio. For the most part it made things easier, however, there was not much practice time in between. Our plan was for me to get the guitar and my vocals down and then for Julie to come in quickly and finish it off. Of course it didn't work out as planned. Julie tried singing on one track and it felt was too slow. Next day, I had to recorded to rerecord.

The deadline forced us to move fast, however, it became a time vs quality issue. Listening after the leaving a session, I began to dread hearing mistakes. Was it worth the time or not. Anyway we got things done, it may not be perfect, but it’ll do… Our last session, Ben downloaded everything onto a 4 G flash drive. Amazing, two months of work on a small disc.

Now all we have to do is get the CD mixed. It's only been sitting on my desk since mid-December. Hopefully, this month...

Demo - Staying in Tune

Julie join us in the studio to lay down the violin tracks. On listening to her playback, both Ben and her noticed that she was a little flat. They tried again, and again, eventually realizing that she needed to tune her D string slightly sharp. Next time through, it sounded good.

For me I hate to admit that it sounded just fine. Ben and Julie, however, have much better ears and pick up on an instrument or someone's voice being the slightest bit out of tune. We then got into a discussion about how often we hear people playing or recoding out of tune. To trained musician's being out of tune is like fingernails on a blackboard.

Take home lesson - BE IN TUNE with both your instrument and voice! If you don't have a great ear, get someone who does. Think of it as musical proof reading.

Demo - Part ??

It's all becoming a blur. Ben just announced that he's moving to NY and we're now on a deadline. We have to have the demo completed by early December. We spent two hours today and laid down the guitar tracks for three songs. My earlier challenges with the click track are a distant memory. Now I love having it, it helps me feel in the groove.

Tomorrow we have three hours scheduled and Julie comes for the first time. I've laid the foundation and its now time to add her vocals and violin tracks. It will be interesting to see how well my guitar tracks hold up after we add the violin.

Demo - Part 7 - Do I really like this song?

We sat down and knocked out Contradiction Blue in less than an hour. Now that I've got a handle on the click track, I did the guitar in one take. What was surprising was that I began to fall asleep while playing the guitar. With a very simple blue progression, it quickly became old. Even later adding the vocal track, it still wasn't that exciting. Worse was that it came in at 5:20 (way too long).

Ben thought it sounded fine and offered to add a bass and drum track behind the song. I left wondering if I should just scrap it and move on. Still haven't decided and will see what he comes up with. The interesting things was, coming into the studio, I thought this would be one of the more solid tracks.

Demo - Part 6 - Practice pays off

I was back in the studio today. Ben was all excited by his new mike and the fact that I had practiced. In a hour, we laid down two guitar tracks and the lyrics for "Vote for Me." A song done in an hour, pretty cool and more importantly economical!!!!

Today worked so well, because I had practiced with the metronome and a recording of the click track for the past two weeks. For the first time, I walked into the studio confident. Even though I still had the "live on tape" nerves, it was actually fun. I was even able to add a few licks while playing.

To prepare for next week, I had Ben record the click track to the next song, "Contradiction Blues." With practice, hopefully it will go smoothly next week.

Demo - Part five - Editing

In the studio today I was reminded of that old commercial, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later."

The story goes, I heard three spots in the demo that needed help and went to the studio to fix them. I practiced beforehand, tuned up, and expecting to play and go. Instead, I watched for an hour as Ben manipulated the file making me sound like I know what I'm doing. I never picked up the guitar.

Ben made a really interesting point, he said in the old days, musicians would practice for days getting the song perfect. They'd then go into the studio, record the song a few times and select the best cut. With today's technology, you don't need to be perfect (or even competent like some singers I won't mention). You can use editing features to smooth over any mistakes. You can decide at a later time to add accompanying instruments, back-up vocals or add an introduction (like we did yesterday). The sky's the limit. However, this new technology doesn't save time, it just adds time on the back end versus time practicing.

The lesson to me is to find the balance between perfecting the song and using technology. Walking into the studio prepared will save money, however, its nice to know that I don't need to be perfect!

Demo - Part 4 - The learning process

Back in the studio today. The first time, all the way through on time, with the guitar part for the Foundation Stands. I felt in good voice so we laid down the vocal track immediately. What was interesting was that the cut felt slow, and the vocals didn't feel natural. In concentrating on keeping to the click track, the emotion of my guitar was missing.

Ben then suggested that I record just the guitar, without the click track. On playback, I was amazed at how well I kept time and when I added the voice how much more natural it felt. While there are a few places I'd like to correct, I'm pretty excited about what we accomplished in one hour.

There has been enormous learning from the last four sessions. I'm more comfortable with keeping time, but still have a long way to go before it's 100% natural. I also have come to know my songs in a way I hadn't before. I know each pause, mini-break or place where I might skip a beat.

Eventually I'm going to have a demo, but along the way, I'm learning a lot....

Demo - Part 3 - Practice rhythm more than chords

Today was our third demo session. We finished the guitar part on College Years and just started working on the Foundation Stands. I've come to the conclusion that one hour sessions are too short, it's taking me that long to get into the groove.

In working on the Foundation Stands, its interesting that I can nail it in practice, but during recording I tend to speed up. While I hear that this is the most common problem, it's still frustrating. Ben made an interesting comment from his teaching experience that guitar students need to focus as much on rhythm as the chords. The typical student focuses on trying to get the chord shapes and forgets about the rhythm. Playing solo guitar this doesn't become an issue until you play with a band or get into the studio.

While this has been frustrating in the studio, I'm hearing a difference in my playing. Since I can't cheat in working with a click track, I'm being forced to be perfect my rhythm. Give me a few more years and I'll be there...

Preparing a demo - part 2, going into the studio

For the past week I practiced three songs with a metronome. I had it wired and walked into the studio ready to record. Of course, things don't always work out like planned.

After we got the room set up I started to play with the click track. Unfortunately, I really couldn't hear it and realized that in all my practice sessions, I relied on looking at my metronome as much as hearing it. I wasn't comfortable when I couldn't hear it (It's actually a good thing when you don't hear it because it means your on time). Lesson #1, when practicing with a metronome, don't look at it.

Ben then started directing me through the studio window (it must have been pretty funny looking). That worked great until I got to the end of phrases, where I like to do a little guitar ad-lib that put me off one beat. Sounds great to me, but killed my time signature. Lesson #2, little guitar enhancements can sound cool but can wreak havoc with your timing.

At the end of the hour, we actually had a track that was OK, but still not great. Next week, I think we need to start from scratch.

During the course of this process, there was a suggestion for me to just carry on, play my normal way and not worry about keeping to the click track. While this would make life easier, I want to do this right and I think the final product will be better.

My bottom-line lesson from this is how important it is to practice with a metronome from day one (yes, I finally get it) or at least practice (a whole lot more) prior to getting into the studio.

Preparing a demo

Everywhere I turn, I keep hearing about the need to have a high quality demo CD. It finally took a voice from above to push me over the edge. When asking at church, how do I get involved with the music ministry, I was immediately told to submit a demo CD.

Today I started working toward a demo. I chose to work with Ben Senterfit in his studio and our approach will be to:
1) Record the guitar to a click track
2) Record the vocals
3) Add Julie's violin
4) Add other instruments later

In preparation for studio time, we started by getting me ready to work with a click track. A click track is basically a metronome. Today we identified the tempo for each song and my goal over the next week is to get my guitar rock solid with this beat.

If you haven't done it before, it's challenging playing to a click track. So I'm glad I have practice time. A few things that I noticed immediately:
- I tend to add an extra beat at the end of phrases (my guitar embellishment was throwing me off time)
- I tend to speed up going into (or during) the chorus
- The first three songs (my favorites) were at basically the same tempo (need to mix this up on the CD).

This should be an interesting process.