For the sake of comparison...
Move Mountains
Work tape
Demo
This Old House
Work tape
Demo
Monday 6 May 2013
Thursday 2 May 2013
Move Mountains
One of my goals for this trip was to make a professional Nashville studio demo. On past visits, I’d gotten tips from the NSAI gang and a couple other folks around town about Beaird Music so, with about a week and a half left to go, I gave them a call.
Shortly thereafter, I went to an NSAI pitch to publisher night and had a bit of a meltdown, but that’s different story. For now, I’ll just say that I nearly backed out of the recording session. But after a long chat with my buddy Alex back in Toronto on Friday the 19th and more pondering over the weekend, I decided to go ahead. But I switched songs from This Old House to Move Mountains, because I thought it more closely followed ‘the rules’ of what and where the hook should be. A big part of why I wanted to do the demo was for the pure experience of it. But, if I walked out of it with a great recording of a song I wasn’t necessarily confident in, then I just wouldn’t feel good about the money side of it – it’d be more of an expense than an investment.
On the Sunday, my buddy Keefer in Nashville told me about a ‘starving artist’ session that Parlor Productions does about once a month where they’ll do a pro recording for a low rate per song and give you the raw files to mix yourself. So, I pondered that and ended up doing This Old House there. But when I heard what band was doing with it on the floor, I decided there was no way I was going to wreck it by mixing the tune myself! So I did the full meal deal with them and couldn’t be happier. I wrote about that session here.
On Tuesday afternoon, I met with producer Larry Beaird. He gave me a tour and we chatted a bit about what I was up to. He pulled out a note pad and pencil and clicked play on his laptop. My work tape started playing and he wrote out the chords without missing a beat. Part way through verse two, he stopped it and said, “now, that’s different than the first verse,” to which I replied “no, it’s the same.” But he was right, it was different. I was playing a Bm in the spot where a D had been in verse 1. Maybe I played the mistake or I might have edited it, but I still didn’t notice it myself! The melody works over both. Larry said, “either way is fine, I just want to make sure I chart it right.” I asked for a guitar and played it for him. So, verse 2 music stayed the same as verse 1 music. But it was pretty funny that I didn’t even notice the mistake in my own recording!
He finished the chart and asked what I wanted to do for an intro. In my recording, the stong starts with vox and guitar right on the first word. I wanted a little musical intro though, perhaps with a melodic theme that could carry forward into breaks and and outro.
I said “here’s what I usually do when I play it live” and played a 1 5 / 1 1 4 5 progression. He asked me for the guitar and said “yeah, that’s one way, here’s another.” He played the same chords but with different timing. Then he said “or this might be nice” and played something slightly different again while humming part of my hook melody over it. I wish I’d had a video going for this process like I did with the Parlor session that morning (by the way, thanks to my buddy Gabe for grabbing my iPhone and shooting that stuff!).
So we agreed on that for the intro and a variation before verse 2 and another for the outro. He made a few extra scribbles on the pad and I think through the whole process, might’ve use the eraser once. Then he said “alright, let’s play it” and he played guitar while I sang.
The final chart was finished in about 15-20 minutes.
When I went back to the studio Friday morning, all the musicians were set up and ready to go. I’m not sure if they recorded something else before my song or if they keep their gear set up there all the time. Anyway, they all joined Larry, me and Jim the Engineer in the control room and we listened to my work tape twice with a little talk in between about the new intro and a slight tempo increase overall.
Then they scattered into various isolation rooms. Drums and bass were to the left, clearly visible in a big window about 6 feet long by room height. Larry was on acoustic on the other side of a window right in front of the sound board. Keys, electric and steel were in another room to the right, also with a large window. I sang the scratch vocal in the control room with Jim.
We played through once and made a little change to the intro. I asked what they thought about speeding it up a couple more clicks. Larry said “Well, let’s have a listen. Let’s play the chorus boys.” Jim had the click track already set and Greg counted it in. When they stopped, Greg said “well, it didn’t hurt it.” It felt good to me singing at that speed and there was a cool new energy to the song. So that’s the tempo we kept.
They recorded two passes and we kept the second one to work with. Bass and drums were finished. Howard wanted to do his piano part again and then recorded an organ part. Danny wanted to redo the electric track and then add some layers. He and Scotty also worked out the outro riffs together. I think it was all said and done in less than a half hour.
I went back after lunch to meet Matt Dame for the vocal session. Just like he’d done on Tuesday for This Old House at Parlor, he listened to the band with my scratch vocal and made little chicken scratches over each line on the lyric sheet. He had two listens and then went into the booth.
I asked Jim if Larry was going to join in and he said no. I have to admit I got a bit nervous! On Tuesday, Larry Sheridan, the producer at Parlor, had produced the vocal session as well as the band. Today at Beaird, I had to direct Matt on my own. I certainly wasn’t as articulate as any of the Nashville Larries, but I got through it. And Jim was a great help bouncing ideas around. Matt did one loose run through and then two solid passes. Then we talked about a few things I wanted to change, subtle timing on a couple of words and a melody I wanted to repeat in the first two lines of the chorus.
He sang everything just a little bit different than I had and it was great. So much fun to hear him put a nice little southern twist on my lyrics. When we had the lead, he very quickly laid down a harmony part and we were done.
I went to the office and made sure all my paperwork was sorted. It was nearly 4:00 by then, so Tytus the studio manager said they’d email me a mix on Wednesday. I finished packing and hit the highway, northbound for home.
The mix (by Dave Buchanan) was in my email the following Wednesday as promised and I’m 100% happy with it. I just asked for another version with the vocal a touch louder to cover my bases for pitch purposes.
Shortly thereafter, I went to an NSAI pitch to publisher night and had a bit of a meltdown, but that’s different story. For now, I’ll just say that I nearly backed out of the recording session. But after a long chat with my buddy Alex back in Toronto on Friday the 19th and more pondering over the weekend, I decided to go ahead. But I switched songs from This Old House to Move Mountains, because I thought it more closely followed ‘the rules’ of what and where the hook should be. A big part of why I wanted to do the demo was for the pure experience of it. But, if I walked out of it with a great recording of a song I wasn’t necessarily confident in, then I just wouldn’t feel good about the money side of it – it’d be more of an expense than an investment.
On the Sunday, my buddy Keefer in Nashville told me about a ‘starving artist’ session that Parlor Productions does about once a month where they’ll do a pro recording for a low rate per song and give you the raw files to mix yourself. So, I pondered that and ended up doing This Old House there. But when I heard what band was doing with it on the floor, I decided there was no way I was going to wreck it by mixing the tune myself! So I did the full meal deal with them and couldn’t be happier. I wrote about that session here.
On Tuesday afternoon, I met with producer Larry Beaird. He gave me a tour and we chatted a bit about what I was up to. He pulled out a note pad and pencil and clicked play on his laptop. My work tape started playing and he wrote out the chords without missing a beat. Part way through verse two, he stopped it and said, “now, that’s different than the first verse,” to which I replied “no, it’s the same.” But he was right, it was different. I was playing a Bm in the spot where a D had been in verse 1. Maybe I played the mistake or I might have edited it, but I still didn’t notice it myself! The melody works over both. Larry said, “either way is fine, I just want to make sure I chart it right.” I asked for a guitar and played it for him. So, verse 2 music stayed the same as verse 1 music. But it was pretty funny that I didn’t even notice the mistake in my own recording!
He finished the chart and asked what I wanted to do for an intro. In my recording, the stong starts with vox and guitar right on the first word. I wanted a little musical intro though, perhaps with a melodic theme that could carry forward into breaks and and outro.
I said “here’s what I usually do when I play it live” and played a 1 5 / 1 1 4 5 progression. He asked me for the guitar and said “yeah, that’s one way, here’s another.” He played the same chords but with different timing. Then he said “or this might be nice” and played something slightly different again while humming part of my hook melody over it. I wish I’d had a video going for this process like I did with the Parlor session that morning (by the way, thanks to my buddy Gabe for grabbing my iPhone and shooting that stuff!).
So we agreed on that for the intro and a variation before verse 2 and another for the outro. He made a few extra scribbles on the pad and I think through the whole process, might’ve use the eraser once. Then he said “alright, let’s play it” and he played guitar while I sang.
The final chart was finished in about 15-20 minutes.
When I went back to the studio Friday morning, all the musicians were set up and ready to go. I’m not sure if they recorded something else before my song or if they keep their gear set up there all the time. Anyway, they all joined Larry, me and Jim the Engineer in the control room and we listened to my work tape twice with a little talk in between about the new intro and a slight tempo increase overall.
 |
| L-R: Howard Duck (piano), Eli Beaird (bass), me, Larry Beaird (acoustic guitar), Jim DeBlanc (tracking engineer), Danny Parks (electric guitar), Scotty Sanders (steel guitar), Greg Morrow (drums) |
We played through once and made a little change to the intro. I asked what they thought about speeding it up a couple more clicks. Larry said “Well, let’s have a listen. Let’s play the chorus boys.” Jim had the click track already set and Greg counted it in. When they stopped, Greg said “well, it didn’t hurt it.” It felt good to me singing at that speed and there was a cool new energy to the song. So that’s the tempo we kept.
They recorded two passes and we kept the second one to work with. Bass and drums were finished. Howard wanted to do his piano part again and then recorded an organ part. Danny wanted to redo the electric track and then add some layers. He and Scotty also worked out the outro riffs together. I think it was all said and done in less than a half hour.
I went back after lunch to meet Matt Dame for the vocal session. Just like he’d done on Tuesday for This Old House at Parlor, he listened to the band with my scratch vocal and made little chicken scratches over each line on the lyric sheet. He had two listens and then went into the booth.
I asked Jim if Larry was going to join in and he said no. I have to admit I got a bit nervous! On Tuesday, Larry Sheridan, the producer at Parlor, had produced the vocal session as well as the band. Today at Beaird, I had to direct Matt on my own. I certainly wasn’t as articulate as any of the Nashville Larries, but I got through it. And Jim was a great help bouncing ideas around. Matt did one loose run through and then two solid passes. Then we talked about a few things I wanted to change, subtle timing on a couple of words and a melody I wanted to repeat in the first two lines of the chorus.
He sang everything just a little bit different than I had and it was great. So much fun to hear him put a nice little southern twist on my lyrics. When we had the lead, he very quickly laid down a harmony part and we were done.
I went to the office and made sure all my paperwork was sorted. It was nearly 4:00 by then, so Tytus the studio manager said they’d email me a mix on Wednesday. I finished packing and hit the highway, northbound for home.
The mix (by Dave Buchanan) was in my email the following Wednesday as promised and I’m 100% happy with it. I just asked for another version with the vocal a touch louder to cover my bases for pitch purposes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)