Diary of an album (Part 7) we’re getting there, Electronic Rehearsals

Hey all

Just a quick update

Having got down the lead vocals for No Easy Target the week before, Stee and Shane returned to the studio last Friday to record the vocals for our re-recorded super charged version of Old Street.  They started out the night using the Neumann U87 and Shure SM7 microphones together with Shane’s recently aquired Neve 4081 pre-amp.  Although that same set-up had worked well for the No Easy Target vocals, they couldn’t quite get the right vocal sound to suit Old Street.  Having spent most of the evening auditioning a number of combinations of different microphones and pre-amps, they found that the sound of Stee’s newly acquired Neve Portico pre-amp, with the U87 fitted best in the mix.  With time ticking on, they decided it would be better to come back  another day with with fresh ears and a rested voice.

On Saturday Marc, Sonny and Rob headed to Stee’s place to work on the new tunes we’ve been brewing up recently. As Shane was taking a breather from spending way too much of his time in the studio we decided to use my Korg ER1 drum machine to jam out some rhythms and we’re pretty pleased with the results, so much so that we are definitely thinking about heading out and doing a few gigs with our electronic set-up (more of that later). We have just started jamming with a keyboard player called Rob and some of the ideas he has bought to the table have blown me away, he’s also pretty useful on the guitar so a versatile guy to have in the band. Rob played my Novation synth and Stee’s newly acquired Roland JP8000 synth and the sounds he made with them were mind blowingly brilliant. Sonny has bought lots of new effects pedals and is making some really interesting bass lines that are unlike anything I’ve heard recently in popular music. Anyway if you want to hear these new creations keep a look out for upcoming gigs on our myspace page myspace.com/dearacetate

Sunday morning Stee, Shane, Sonny and myself returned to the studio to nail the lead vocals for Old Street, I think it was good to have the 4 of us in the studio as we could all listen to the different takes and put forward our thoughts which is better than the recent method whereby Shane would call us on the phone and play the track down the phone which is not ideal due to sound quality. After getting a great take and agreeing we had the lead vocal down Sonny and myself headed home and to the pub respectively. Later that evening Shane sent out a new mix of Old Street and I was quite surprised as Stee and Shane  had recorded a plethora of backing vocals which makes Stee sound like a small choir in the chorus. I am now confident re-recording this track due to the hard-drive failure is the best thing that could have happened, yes the album has been delayed but it will definitely be worth it for that shift in quality and how much better the playing is which far usurps the original version we recorded 2 or so years ago.

Have a great week and let us know what you think of the blog

Marc