Session Two with Plumerai

July 16, 2005.

Part I. The Setup

Martin had wanted to record another track with me for Plumerai. We’d decided to do another session in my basement this past Saturday. I learned a few lessons from our first go-around with recording there, like when Martin’s head looked like it was going to explode due to his allergies (to pet dander). First, I’d clean the house before his arrival such that I’d be able to mitigate the amount of animal fur (good luck — my pets are unable to stop this cycle of shedding). Second, I’d try to tack down the arrangement of the core sample.

I cleaned my house late Friday night. I started in on recreating the sample by 11pm. With a little luck, I was done by 1am and headed to bed. I was supposed to pick up Martin and James at 9am on Saturday.

Part II. The Song

“Spy Song”, as we call it now, is a doozy. The song has got lots of samples and we’d also wanted everything to be exactly in-time, which meant that the samples would need to be re-done. That is, not all of the samples fit a steady tempo when they’d been recorded. In addition we’d wanted to determine a suitable tempo for the song since it kind of dragged at 120 beats per minute. It was a marathon at 140 beats per minute or higher. It didn’t sound quite right at 130 beats per minute. 135? Wing it? No, 135 beats per minute was chosen.

As a guitar effect, Martin uses “tremolo” for this song, along with his mainstay: delay. Delay is pretty easily dialed into a recording, since it’s sweeping and you can get away with a certain amount of being off time with its number of echoes. With “tremolo”, it’s very staccato, so it’s clear if you’re on or off the beat. Since Martin’s effects gear doesn’t lock into a metronome, we were forced to dial in the tremolo beat by ear.

In addition, the sample being recorded exactly to measure required us to track against a metronome. I’ve sworn by tracking with a metronome since 1991 or 1992, but not everybody in the band has wont to do this (the problem with metronomes is that sometimes your playing sounds like you’re in a lock-step with notes, not playing music, just a recitation), and in addition, 135 beats per minute is way faster than any song we’ve got in the band right now.

Part III. The Session

After breakfast, Martin, James, and I returned to my house. Kerry was sitting on the front stoop waiting for us. I had a large coolatta in hand and a small iced coffee for her. They’d also given me a chocolate donut with my purchase, and frankly, it was disgusting.

It was decided that James would setup the drums whilst Martin and I fiddled with the keyboard parts for “Spy Song”. Kerry could chill until whenever. I set her up upstairs with my Powerbook so that she could IM or check email or download naked pictures of Rod Stewart.

By 2pm, we were ready to start recording drums. Takes were going okay, but it was clear that putting a stable guitar line to track was going to be no simple task. Keeping tremolo in-line with a metronome was tricky! After a few punch-ins, drums were completed by 5pm or so. We took a short break and started tracking guitar parts.

Kerry started her vocals around 8pm, which was pretty late. She pounded through 4-5 takes and was done for the night. Her boyfriend, the “Ry-dawg”, appeared at around 10pm and they went to his house for a hot beef injection (steak).

Martin, James, and I hanged out for a bit and I attempted to track a bass part. This was a huge, slobbering mistake. My playing was awful! I couldn’t perform steadily for more than a couple of measures at a time! I muddled my way through creating a scratch bass track (I punched in no less than 50 times to get a single take!) and then I suggested we call it a night. I drove them home, helped them unload gear, and then turned around and returned to NH.

I listened to the day’s effort a few times then read some email and went to bed. I was spent!

On Sunday, I retracked the bass parts and the results were much better. We do have to retrack the guitars, however, and maybe even the vocals — but we’ll see.