Penultimate
Sunday, July 28th, 2024 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
80F and cloudy this afternoon.
I woke to a call from Mr. Taylor, who says he wants to pay for an attorney to represent me at closing, who's gonna make sure everything I'm signing is on the level.
He said he also may fly out to be here for the signing tomorrow!
So I guess tomorrow's a bigger deal than I thought!
This means today's the last chance to get anything out of the house.
He's calling me back around 5PM with the attorney on the line so I'll find out more then.
I worked on vocals last night, and it was the first time I actually stood to sing them.
You always have more control over your voice when standing.
Listening to the final result today, aloud in speakers, I'd say... my voice is blending i perfectly with the music now, but I'm still not landing every note.
In other words, the method I'm developing for processing the vocals is spot on!.. but I need more practice actually singing the song.
As for the method... I record however many takes on their individual tracks, and then mash them into a single track when I'm done.
Then I tweak the volume of different parts to get it all a consistent volume.
Then, to the track as a whole, I turn down the bass, and turn up the treble a bit.
After that I duplicate the vocal track, and the duplicate vocals start a split second later than the main vocals... and the two tracks are panned 40 degrees left and right, with the volume on the duplicate a bit lower than the main.
I create a third duplicate of the vocals that I saturate with reverb... leave that in the center... but turn the volume of it down to the point where you almost can't hear it.
The final result is a vocal with just a hint of delay and reverb... that's spread over the field of sound like butter on bread, and it sounds pretty present and natural, but blends in with the music nicely.
So... when I'm to the point where I can actually sing decently... these will be some great recordings!
Went out to get beer at Randall Liquors, then swung over to the house.
Ran hot water, left food for Prowly, and threw some last things in the car.
What I ended up saving was; the cat carrier, a box of halloween decorations, another box with some last pictures, a copper teapot from Mom's side of the family, the big fan I bought for the porch, and the bamboo wind chimes from the front stoop.
Other stuff already in the car include; the blinds for the back room windows, my acoustic bass, it's stand, the little amp, my bottle jack and two jack stands, litterbox, round table stand, and my dolly.
I wish I could've saved a few kitchen chairs, but there just wasn't room, either in the car, or the storage unit.
While I was grabbing the bamboo wind chimes, Max from next door was mowing his front lawn and stopped to talk to me.
He already knew I was being foreclosed on, so I brought him up to speed with how I sold it to a flipper, and soon they'll be renovating it... but that I'd like to try and buy it back in mid-October.
He really encouraged me to try and buy it back. He knew Dad, and he knows it's been in the family for five generations.
But before we could talk too long it suddenly started pouring down rain on us.
So I jumped in the car and came back here.
Just got done shaving my head.
Always a pain in the ass, that I procrastinate about doing.
Last time I shaved my head was in May, just before the job interview for Potawatomi.
But if my signing tomorrow's gonna be this big deal with lawyers, and Mr. Taylor there in person... better try to look half decent.
Also it just seems fitting to shave my head on the eve of what could be a momentous week, where not only does the house finally close, but we may be going on strike!
It'd be nice to have a little free time to focus on the album, without even the distraction of going to the house to run hot water.
So Mr. Taylor called back with the attorney he's hired to make sure everything tomorrow is above board at the signing.
These lawyers on Lake Street, who took over the title work after the original title company screwed up so badly... are associated with Taylor's local partner in this sale, so they're not a neutral third party, and they've refused to show Taylor the final papers I'll be signing tomorrow... saying he's not their client so they can't.
So instead of making a stink about it, Taylor's bringing in this attorney who's meeting me there tomorrow... who's just gonna make sure that everything's the way it's supposed to be.
Hopefully it's all fine.
And if so, then the sale should be final tomorrow!
Also, I'm still getting $5000.00 out of it.
In other news, I decided that, Archeology was too slow, so I sped it up from 122BPM to 126, and created a new WAV to work off... and did some quick new vocals for the faster version.
It's an improvement.
But then I got curious if Audacity can do auto-tune, and found that there's a free plugin for Audacity that'll do it, so I'm downloading that right now.
Having the ability to pitch correct my vocals should make the whole process a lot easier.
Because I'm rusty, and also can't properly monitor my voice and the music together while recording, I'm tending to go a little flat here and there... usually at the end of lines.
All clean and shiny, with my laundry in the dryer downstairs.
I signed the retainer agreement for tomorrow's attorney, and sent it back to him.
And since then I've spent my evening still doing test vocals... now, for, Magic Monday.
Couldn't figure out the autotune plugin, so I'll have to watch a tutorial, but it's not needed at this stage of things.
It's quite a thing to be hearing three of these old songs, not just re-recorded, but now with vocals on them!
For most of the songs on this album, there only existed a single sketchy cassette recording from 30 years ago.
It's amazing, after that much time, to be hearing these fully produced versions.
My voice still sounds good, at 55.
It takes until more like 70 for a singer's voice to start getting that old man's pluff, rasp, sinus change, and frailty.
But what you can hear now is... my experience.
My younger self from the 90s sounds soo innocent!
It's smoother, with a softer edge, and just this air of foolish optomism from a guy who's got his whole life ahead of him.
My takes of the same songs today just hit different... you can tell I've been through some shit and am no longer that carefree pretty-boy.
But I think it's a good match-up... to have me at this age, unironically performing these songs from a more innocent time in my life, and a simpler day for the world.
It kinda broke my heart, reviewing the original, Magic Monday recording tonight... to see what the back up singer's part was... and hearing in the background of that recording... my MOM, talking out in the hallway, on the other side of my bedroom door!
She was undoubtedly talking on the phone!
And now she's long gone, and that house has been vacant and empty for a month!
All the songs on the album were written in either that studio bedroom, or the back room... and I really wanted to be working on them in those rooms, here in the modern day.
But if I could't be there, then here in Allerton Tower is the next best place.
I did a lot of recording here too, back in the 1990s.
As I've said before, this building is an old flame.
And the song, Archeology is about an old flame, looking back with nostalgia... which is weird, because I was only 20 when I wrote it!
But now, it's the very fitting opener for the album, Archeology, which is all about revisiting this more romantic time in the past... with modern eyes & ears.
Okay, laundry is put away and I'm in for the night.
Gonna get my lunch and coffee ready to go tonight, because I'm gonna be running out of here at 10:45AM, and won't be back until 10PM.
I won't be writing a blog entry until 10PM either.
So... wish me luck!
°¦}
