Session XV: THE ALBUM HAS BEEN RELEASED!

That’s right folks.  After all of the excitement, the album got finished, all glitches were repaired and the album has been released.  You can download it FOR FREE at http://www.donontheweb.bandcamp.com.

Thank you all for following the progress of this album!  I learned a lot of really important lessons in this process.  One of the things I am planning to do for the next release is to either downgrade to Adobe Audition 1.0 or to just try another software program.  I feel like Adobe 2.0 was just way too taxing and I’ve had more issues using this program than I cared to have.  Hey, you live and you learn.

Again, thanks so much for following the progress of “Planes, Trains, Crickets and Central Air”.  This will be the place to follow the progress on all upcoming recordings so when I start a new one, we’ll start it all over again!  What a crazy trip this one was.  Thanks again and enjoy the music!

Session XIV: Houston, We Have A Problem!

Ok, so it’s not a terribly HUGE problem but its definitely something thats gonna set me back just a little bit.  It’s a good thing I’ve been giving this thing a lot of attention as far as listening back to it over and over again.  Upon giving it a careful listen last night, I found that one of the songs has a couple of digital pops in the vocal track.  This really sucks.  Luckily, its a song that is easy to do for me so doing the vocal track again shouldn’t be that bad.  This is what I fucking hate about digital recording.  I’ve had this issue a few times in the past and there doesn’t seem to be a great solution for this from what people tell me.  It’s almost like it’s one of those things that is inevitable when doing home recording on a PC I guess.  I guess I can consider myself lucky that of all the songs recorded only one of them has this issue and that its on a vocal track and not on a guitar track.  THAT would’ve made it more of a bitch to fix.

I will be tackling this issue tonight and tomorrow, mix it down and then the album will FINALLY be ready to go.  I’m so pumped to have this thing done.  I am also going to be doing some digital liner notes to go along as a companion to the album and that is something else I’ll be working on over the next few days.

Stay tuned ya’ll…

Session XVIII: Are We There Yet?

Well, it looks like we’re in the final stretches. I had a great mixing session today. Made some more minor tweaks and now it’s time to burn them to disc and test them on the various listening devices. For those that don’t now, this is the crucial secret of mixing. Get a mix that sounds good on your monitors but then test it in different environments. Test it in the car stereo, the home stereo, the PC speakers and the portable listening device (iPod, Zune, Sony Walkman, etc). Get an idea how it sounds in all the different environments and then make your little adjustments from there.

There was one casulty to the album, a song called “Hope”. As I stated in a previous post, it was just one of those songs that when I listened to along with the other songs, it just didn’t seem to measure up and stand with the others. It seemed like a weak link and so I just aborted it. It’s not to say that I will give up on it. Much like songs have done in the past (ie, Sailors Progress), maybe it’ll come back stronger and with a life of it’s own. There were a couple of songs that I REALLY wanted to make this release but I just couldn’t connect with them in a solo setting so much like Hope, maybe they will live on a future album.

So for those that don’t know, the album is called “Planes, Trains, Crickets & Central Air”. Why is it called that? Well, I hate to tell you ALL the info but maybe you can head over to http://www.donontheweb.com, browse around at the new design and read the new bio!  The tracklist for the album is (not in sequential order yet):

Back To When
Rest Stop For The Lonely
Sailors Progress
Crescent City Girl
Prison Story
Green Is The Colour
Ghost Town

Anyways, I’m off for now.  I cannot wait to share this album with all who will listen to it.  We’re almost there!

Session XVII: Finding Frustration

For the most part, the album is in the mixing stage. I say “for the most part” because one of the songs that was intended for the album just isn’t cutting it for me. When I wrote this particular song (titled “Hope”), I wasn’t all that fond of it. I mean, I thought it was a good song but it just didn’t seem to capture me or seem to capture the same mood and feeling as the other songs. I tried layering multiple instruments, I tried changing the vocal phrasing and I even tried playing it in different tempos and in the end, I still squinted my eyes when hearing it wondering “Why???”. I’ve never put more energy into a song that I didn’t love. Maybe it’s something that will see the light of day in the future but for now, I think it’s going to take a long deserved nap.

As for the other songs, they all seem to sound really good and I’m happy with them. I ended up re-cutting the vocals for “Rest Stop For The Lonely” because there was some peeking which caused some distortion. Now it’s just a matter of going back through the other songs and adjusting levels and getting them to sound the way I want them. So now I’m a song short for the album. Do I keep it at seven songs now or do I try and add another one? I think for now I’m just going to work with what I have and go from there. No need to complicate things at this point. Just move forward and when its all done, see where I’m at.

I was reminded by Lady L. that THIS is how she remembers all my previous album’s sessions going. I knew it was feeling too easy!

Session XVI: Stepping Away

I finally managed to get the 1st mix of the album done. I burned it to CD to give it a listen in the car and I was reminded of the world of difference in hearing a mix on different systems. What sounded great on my studio monitors had some things sounding thin on the car stereo. Of the 8 songs, 2 of them need to have the vocal tracks re-recorded and one of the songs need to be totally re-done because there was a few signal peeks in the guitar and vocal tracks that were irreparable. All in all, I’m REALLY happy with how the songs have come out and this is literally the first album I have ever done COMPLETELY solo with no outside guests or help. I’m really proud of this one and it’s definitely a rootsy album. It’s the album I’ve been wanting to make and I think it’s one that I hope everyone that hears it will enjoy it.

I actually have been asked by a few people what the track list and the title of the album is. Well, first off, I have a working title but I’m not ready to release it until I’ve decided upon it. As for the track list, here it is (not in order yet).

Back To When
Rest Stop For The Lonely
Sailors Progress
Crescent City Girl
Hope
Prison Story
Green Is The Colour
Ghost Town

“Green Is The Colour” is indeed the Pink Floyd song from “More”. Most of these songs were written while I was fronting Mystery Road and there are a couple that were never performed live with Mystery Road. “Sailors Progress” was actually on my first ever EP “Songs For The Ride Home” that I recorded almost 10 years ago and was always a favorite of my good friend Matt. I decided to re-record it and dedicate it to him so he better fucking like it!

Anyways, I’m going to step away from the album and give it time to breathe. I’ll go back to it on Tuesday and move forward from there as far as fixing all that needs fixing. I’m almost there…

Sessions XI – XV: Getting Into The Mix

Wow, talk about time flying by.  Since last post, I managed to put in 4 sessions and complete all of the recording.  There were some duds that I needed to go back and fix and I and now I’m on to mixing process.
This part is both rewarding and painful.  The rewarding part is hearing the fruit of my labor and finding any kind of missed mistakes that need fixing or just flat out re-recording.  The painful part is finding those mistakes and also just hearing your own voice back over and over again.  I have to say that I don’t think this one sucks so that’s a good thing.  I’m actually finding these tunes quite listenable so that’s a good thing for me.  I hope others will share my sentiment.

Anyways, so far, I’ve mixed 3 songs and they seem to sound really good.  I’m moving forward as we speak so I will report back on the mixing process!  Thanks for checking in again!

Session X: Vocals

That’s right.  Today was the day that I started cutting vocal tracks.  I managed to lay THREE tracks down today, all keepers so I figured I would quit while I was ahead.  Cutting vocal tracks is a kind of awkward thing.  It’s all about capturing the vibe and the flow of the song but at the same time you have to, at some point, let it go ya know?  I experimented  with doing guitar and vocals at the same time but the only problem is that every time you make a mistake on a vocal or the guitar, you have to start all over because of audio bleed into the mics.  I’ve found it more effective for me to just concentrate on getting a good solid rhythm guitar track first and then everything else will follow.  The upside is you can get that perfect guitar track and that perfect vocal track.  The downside is that it’s hard to capture the same emotion that the songs have in a live setting in a studio setting.  There’s no audience to feed off of, there’s no adreneline rush, nothing.  It’s just you and the song.  Here’s where letting go is the key though.  At some point, you have to know that the songs are NEVER going to sound the way they do “live” because live settings are so spontaneous and “in the moment”.  Get a good vocal track and move along.

Three vocal tracks in one day is a record for me.  I’m really happy with how they came out.  That means I’m nearly 1/2 way done w/ the vocals (there’s 7 songs on the album) and then it will be on to the rest of the instrumentation such as glockenspiel, bass guitar, harmonica and lead guitar overdubs.  This album is really shaping up to be a great and positive experience for me.  I’m getting to know the songs and myself again.  It’s been a while since it was just me and my songs and I’m really digging this time alone I have with them for right now.

Session IX: Progress… Aint It Grand?

I’ve put in about 7 hours over the past two days and I really knocked some shit out.  I managed to solidify the track list for the album and lay down all of the rhythm guitar tracks (8 songs).  I’m REALLY happy with how they came out.  There is a bit of background noise at times because of the fact that the MARTA train runs through my backyard and there is never ending construction and yard work outside of my window.  I actually think it’s pretty cool though.  Kinda reminds me of Led Zeppelin and how you can hear the phone ringing in the background.  Anyways, I was really happy with how the tracks turned out and I’m excited about finally moving forward with it.

The hard part of the recording process will be getting vocals for each track.  This is where I struggle because it’s so hard to capture that element sometimes.  On the last CD, half the album’s vocal tracks were cut while I was whacked out on flu meds and I nailed it.  This time I’m going to try hard and get into the vibe of the songs and nail them.  I know it’ll be challenging but I’m gonna work hard on them.  I’m super happy and proud of the songs that will be on this one and I really hope to capture the mood and feeling of each of them.

So with rhythm guitar tracks done, now it’s on to bass tracks.  I was going to attempt vocals but I’m feeling very motivated to keep moving on the instrumentation.  I will start with rough scratch tracks just to get the sound/mix right and then I will start recording them.  Here we go!

Still Here!

Hey there.  Wow, does anyone read this thing anymore?  Anyways, we FINALLY made the transition to Atlanta and little by little the boxes are getting unpacked and things put in their new living place.  The studio is still all packed away as I am awaiting my new desk/workspace.  The urge to start recording again is definitely hitting me again and since there’s not much I can really do with the actual recording aspect, I’m bouncing around in ideas and concepts of just how I want to release this album.  I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a full on 12 song recording, I’ve thought of doing a double CD release (6 songs on each) and splitting them up conceptually and I’ve also thought of just releasing a 6 song EP.

I’ve been thinking of titles as well and I haven’t really figured it out yet.  I liked how on the last album I took a line from one of my favorite all time Kevn Kinney songs “Let’s Go Dancing”.  I’ve thought of taking a line from another song by another fave band of mine and while I thought of that, I thought it would be fun to go through my own lyrics to see if anything jumps out as a title.  That’s what I’ll be playing with over the next day or so as I await the delivery of my desk (Monday the 20th).  Wow, literally, as I typed this, the UPS truck pulled up and delivered my desk.  How wild is that?  Guess I’ll get getting to work sooner than I thought.  Hell, it’ll probably take me a week to put it together.

Anyways, thanks for dropping in again.  More to come soon!

TIME OUT!

So maybe recording an album in this time frame was a bit over ambitious for me.  I really had hopes for getting this new album done.  As most might already know, we are moving.  We are moving to Atlanta, GA in mid-June/early July.  This is a bittersweet move for me.  I will miss all my friends and our home but I have many great memories and I am looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life with my lovely Lady L.

I just don’t feel I could do this album well under the time constraints and pressures that I am under right now.  I know the music would suffer and I don’t want it to.  I want these songs to breathe and be alive just as much if not more as the ones on my previous albums.  Once I get settled ind Atlanta I will re-visit it.  I’m sure I will have many new inspirations and influences to help make this next effort warm and full of life and emotion.

So stay tuned…