Other Friends
Sunday, July 13th, 2025 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
81F and cloudy today, going down to 62F tonight.
Just woke up made the coffee.
I'll be going to Aldi for groceries after I wake up a bit.
It was only 86F yesterday, but we'd had rain on Thurdsay and Friday nights, so it was a bit more humid Saturday than it's been so far.
Getting down the vocals for, Other Friends was way more of a workout than I expected!
I was able to sing the song with proper 19 year old spirit, and hit the notes comfortably, but I just didn't have the wind to get through more than a verse without stopping to catch my breath!
But because the lyrics are so rapid-fire, it's impossible to just jump back in, on the same track.
So each full vocal take was done using two tracks.
I'd sing a verse on track 1, then take a breather... cue up on track 2 a measure or two before the next verse, hit record, and then, listening along, jump in on cue for the next verse.
After making my way through a full take, I'd then mix/render the two tracks into a single track... and start over with the next full take.
I was sweating way more than the past couple sessions, when it'd been in the 90sF, simply because the act of singing what is essentially a punk song, had my heart rate up like I was jogging around the block!
Also, I did have to stand for several verses in order to hit the higher notes.
So this meant that the whole session was; sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, stand... such that today, my thigh muscles are sore, like I did leg-day at the gym!
After 8 takes, I was exhausted!
I still had 20 minutes left on the clock, but, confident that the perfect composite was in those 8 takes, I decided to use the remaining time to load up next week's song, Spell I'm Under, just to see what I was in for.
Spell I'm Under, was the old unfinished song idea that I completed last fall, adding a bridge and full lyrics, but it's never been sung out loud!
And I'm glad I took the time to give it a test sing yesterday because I found that it was not only too slow, but too high!
The verses were no problem, but the chorus takes me to a note that's just up at the stratospheric edge of my range!
I was able to hit it just barely, but couldn't possibly hold it for the length necessary, given the plodding pace of the beat!
So the first thing I did after getting home, was load up, Spell I'm Under, in FL Studio to speed it up and transpose it down.
It was set to 125BPM, so I sped it up to 130.
And I found that I only needed to transpose it down one step, to make it singable.
The neighbors were gone, and it was only 5:30PM, so I was able to sing along with the chorus, full throated, to make sure.
So that was a crisis averted!
I then settled in to comp, Our Cold Feet, which is one I recorded in the very first session.
In that first session I did both, Reavis 309, and, Our Cold Feet, because the latter is a fairly quick song with no difficult passages.
There were only four full vocal takes on this one, which made comping go quickly.
But while the result was thoroughly competent... it lacked any life!
I knew for certain, by the end, that it had to be re-recorded, but it struck me that this one might be easier to nail if it were a bit higher!
I loaded it up in FL Studio and transposed the song up one step.
And, singing along for a bit, I concluded that yes, it will be much easier to give the verses the personality they need, this way!
So, the re-sings will be: Reavis, Never Rains, and, Cold Feet... the first three songs I recorded.
Magic Monday needs a quick patch to the first verse, which can be done when I'm in session for the backing vocals.
But the rest of that song is perfect, as, I suspect, will be everything recorded after it, to the present.
So, next Saturday is, Spell I'm Under.
The Saturday after that is, Miss Fortune.
And the first Saturday of August will be, Archeology, itself... the album's opener.
Re-sings will then take the rest of August, with back-up vocals going down after that.
It's not yet clear how long the backing vocals will take.
Not every song has them, and for the ones that do, they're not extensive.
However, they are higher harmonies, and so could pose challenges.
On the other hand, they're also just backing vocals, and so don't require flawless execution.
Eight full takes for each harmony would be overkill.
So it's possible I'll be able to knock out two songs per session.
And if so, then all vocals should be done by the first week of October.
After that, I'll be able to just sit home on the weekends, tweaking and mixing through to New Year!
Just gotta make sure I get the Extended Security Update packages for my Win10 machines before the deadline in October, and I'll be good to go!
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