Yonder Can
"Yessuh, they're a fine bunch a boys. They sang in the yonder can and skeedadled."
"Hey mister! I don't mean to be tellin' tales out of school, but there's a feller in there that'll pay you ten dollars if you sing into his can."
"These boys is not white! These boys is not white! They ain't even old timey!"
-Assorted Characters from O Brother Where Art Thou?Yesterday our little band had the opportunity to record at the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis, MN (Across the street from this place). A friend of a friend is going to school there and needed a guinea pig for his project. Well we were it! It meant four hours of FREE studio time for us to crank out some songs.
They recorded us on this great big 36-channel Digidesign system.
I pretended to know what I was doing, but...
Really it was these guys who were the masterminds.
I had no idea that recording involved so much time sitting around,
waiting for the techs to get the levels right.
Eventually we got to play.
While they were setting up to do the vocal tracks,
I took some photos of the guitars.
Here are some shots of the singers setting up in the isolation booth:
This is a poor-quality video I shot of the singers laying down a vocal track. You cannot hear the instrument playback that they were singing along to.
And when we exited the studio,the Minneapolis skyline greeted us!
Stay tuned for when we get our songs back from production.
6 Comments:
Wow! You've been posting so prolificly, that I missed this. ;-) My experineces in recording studios are limited; but it seems to me that the more experienced the engineer is, the shorter time it takes to get everything set up.
Good for you, man. Keep playing!
Hey thanks for the comment Eric!
Well these were students and we were their project, but the price for the studio time (Free) was definitely right. We were only supposed to get four hours of studio time but we ran over doing the vocals. In the end we were in the studio for nearly 5 hours.
In that time we got in four songs with instruments (only 2 takes each), vocals for those plus a 5th song that was done A cappella. With so few instrument takes I imagine that production might end up being a little dicey - Slicey and dicey, that is.
I had absolutely zero studio experience going in. We are a pretty diverse group age-wise (Me being the patriarch at 40) so there was a lot of nervousness, especially among the younger guys. Ferocious performers who aren't afraid to play in front of a hundred people, I had to keep reminding them that we were all on our own tracks, so if one of us screwed up it didn't mean the whole take was lost and to stop playing.
Recording is a different experience. When the tapes are rolling suddenly you are aware of the permanence of what you are doing - That it's being saved for later review (For future generations at least in my case). The studio can be an a nerve-wracking place if you forget what got you there in the first place and neglect to have fun.
Personally I said the heck with it and let it all hang out - I probably made some mistakes but I don't think my playing will sound pensive or unsure. During the time I was in that studio I was living a dream. Albeit just two days before my 40th birthday, but now I'm a recording artist - Ha! can still hardly imagine that.
Life is good. Really, really good.
Oh yeah - One more 'O Brother' quote:
Holey moley! These boys are a hit!
But Pappy, they's integrated!
Sorry, I didn't spell check my first comment. ;-)
I understand what you're saying about the pressures of creating of a musical document. If you make a mistake playing live, it often gets smoothed over by successive notes; and if the audience even notices it in the first place, it usually gets forgotten by the end of the piece. When you're recording, your mistakes are made permanent.
At our next MUCH delayed session with Rich Mattson (you can google him) in early September, it's my understanding that we'll be recording the tunes live and then going back to add backing vocals and guitar solos. That's all great, but it means that I have to come up with prepared, repeatable leads for EVERY song = more stress.
Oh well, it beats having REAL problems to worry about. You're right - life is good, and Minnesota is a GREAT place to be a working musician. Take care.
I don't know Rich personally but I'm sure he was part of the ensemble when I saw the Glenrustles play on St. Patricks day at the 400 bar in Mpls. a few years back - they opened for Grant Hart. I'm not sure if it was Rich or Graham that was doing this Slash/Jimmy Page thing where he was playing a Les Paul and smoking a cigarette. They were a good, tight band. I haven't seen Ol' Yeller perform.
Yep, we played like we were live with the singers - Only real difference was that the drummer was in the isolation room next door. Afterward the singers went in the isolation room and did the real vocal tracks to the playback. We didn't have any guitar solos in the songs but I imagine that any instrument solo would be recored the same way that the vocals were done.
It was a really cool and fun experience - like I said earlier, a longtime dream of mine that at last came true. Funny that back when I was doing it for 'me' and actually aspired to be a 'working musician' it never happened. Now years later when I am with a group of volunteers playing for God, the doors were opened.
He definitely works in strange, mysterious and wonderful ways.
Rich does have a maroon Les Paul.
As far as playing for Him goes, my once best friend Karl - the guy whose conversion was the source of at least half the angst expressed in my now infamous livejournal anti-organized religion rant - once said that ANY music created for ANY REASON other than worship was a SIN for which the musician would have to answer on the Day of Judgment.
I find that view to be beyond extreme; but I do plan on rejoining the old Joyful Noise Ensemble in the near future. I have a lot to be thankful for, and sharing gifts is always good.
Eric-
I'm at a loss for your friend's legalistic doctrine. That's like saying that any words you speak that are not part of some prayer to God are similarly punishable. I'm not even sure what scripture passage(s)he may have been basing that on, but my guess would be whatever it is, it's a pretty loose interpretation.
My (non-scripturally based) opinion is that music is a gift to us FROM God, not the other way around.
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