To be included on the Second Story release - our tribute version of Queensrÿche's "One and Only" that we recorded back in 2000 or so; the album it was to be on was never released, and we were quite proud of how it came out. If we do a full CD release, it will probably be on "Thin Twisting Line" as a "hidden" track, but we'll get the licensing from Harry Fox so it's legit.
Cool, the album isn't even mixed yet and there's already a BONUS TRACK! ;-)
11.22.2008
Second Story - 'The Silent Giants'
"The Silent Giants" is possibly Second Story's most ambitiously "proggy" song. It's one of the longest tunes we had in our set, and it features full instrumental solos from John, Tom and Scott. It has distorted chordal figures on the bass, about 12 different guitar tracks, contrapuntal vocals (think "Gentle Giant"), lyrics steeped in metaphor, Mellotron keyboards, and much much more. We loved playing it live, as it also rocked pretty hard.
As you can imagine, it was with trepidation that I began work on it. When we originally tracked in Indre Studios, we had a total of about 34 tracks available per song - I'm pretty sure that this tune used ALL of them.
What I found most curious, despite my worries - the song actually mixed quite easily! I was able to get a really good drum sound for the vibe of the tune, Danielle's vocals sound really good, and with a little bit of judicious volume envelope swells, the vocal parts should also be great. I did a bit more fun stuff with the effects, particularly on some of the vocals. But again, you'll just have to wait and see (hear, actually.) ;-)
As you can imagine, it was with trepidation that I began work on it. When we originally tracked in Indre Studios, we had a total of about 34 tracks available per song - I'm pretty sure that this tune used ALL of them.
What I found most curious, despite my worries - the song actually mixed quite easily! I was able to get a really good drum sound for the vibe of the tune, Danielle's vocals sound really good, and with a little bit of judicious volume envelope swells, the vocal parts should also be great. I did a bit more fun stuff with the effects, particularly on some of the vocals. But again, you'll just have to wait and see (hear, actually.) ;-)
11.20.2008
Second Story - ''Dancing on the Hill"
This was a tune I was very worried about, based on how the other mixes of it had come out. It's a complicated tune, even though it may not sound like it. The drum beat is somewhat disjunct, the bass line (distorted and played with Funk Fingers) is a bit "blurry" and some of the other parts of the song (keys, guitar) have some unusual rhythmic things going on. When it worked, the song had an undeniable groove and a very original sound. Unfortunately, the previous mixes we've had of this song sounded sloppy, uninspired and just plain bad.
I've long had the feeling that the success or failure of mixing this song might be the "make or break" moment of whether or not I took this project to completion. Meaning, if I couldn't make this track sound good, there was probably no point in bothering with the rest of the album - it'd be too demoralizing.
Luckily, I think (and Scott agrees) that the song is sounding AMAZING. I was able to tweak the drum sound and really phatten it up. The bass tone, which the other engineers could NEVER seem to get right, is punchy and "gooey" - all at the same time. Some judicious audio track "nudging" helped fix some timing errors that I blame on the varied equipment used to dump the songs to digital, which may have caused some of that disjunctedness that we couldn't seem to shake in the other studios. Danielle's vocals just jump out at you and beg for attention. I've done some cool things with panning and effects - there's a really cool bounceback delay that I used in several places that really adds to the tune. And I even added a sound effect sample (Extra points if you can guess what and where it is.)
So the project will go on. "Dancing" sounds really good, so I think there's a good chance that everything can be mixed to our satisfaction. More to come!
I've long had the feeling that the success or failure of mixing this song might be the "make or break" moment of whether or not I took this project to completion. Meaning, if I couldn't make this track sound good, there was probably no point in bothering with the rest of the album - it'd be too demoralizing.
Luckily, I think (and Scott agrees) that the song is sounding AMAZING. I was able to tweak the drum sound and really phatten it up. The bass tone, which the other engineers could NEVER seem to get right, is punchy and "gooey" - all at the same time. Some judicious audio track "nudging" helped fix some timing errors that I blame on the varied equipment used to dump the songs to digital, which may have caused some of that disjunctedness that we couldn't seem to shake in the other studios. Danielle's vocals just jump out at you and beg for attention. I've done some cool things with panning and effects - there's a really cool bounceback delay that I used in several places that really adds to the tune. And I even added a sound effect sample (Extra points if you can guess what and where it is.)
So the project will go on. "Dancing" sounds really good, so I think there's a good chance that everything can be mixed to our satisfaction. More to come!
11.18.2008
Second Story - 'Abducted'
So, once I was able to start mixing with the REAL drum tracks, the first song I started working on was the first one in the queue (they're alphabetical). So, Abducted it is!
Abducted was one of Second Story's simpler songs; a basic A-B-A-B sort of affair, it has some very cool unique things going on. For one, John's repeating hypnotic keyboard bass line in the choruses are hooky as hell. Also, I played the verses using the Funk Fingers (see an earlier blog post if you don't know what those are.) Tom played the hell out of the verse groove, particularly. And Scott had a nice recurring melodic line. Also curious is the lack of any vocals in the "chorus" - the intent (with John's bass line and Tom playing "four on the floor") was to simulate a dance floor. After all, the song is about being Abducted by the groove. So the groove says it all in this one.
So I did a bit of work on the tune, and Scott came over and listened to my early "alpha mix." He had a couple of interesting suggestions, and we did a little bit of fun experimentation, particularly on some vocal effects. There are also some interesting "surprises" that will reveal themselves when the song is finally released - but I'm not giving out any spoilers, so you'll just have to wait.
(evil grin.)
Abducted was one of Second Story's simpler songs; a basic A-B-A-B sort of affair, it has some very cool unique things going on. For one, John's repeating hypnotic keyboard bass line in the choruses are hooky as hell. Also, I played the verses using the Funk Fingers (see an earlier blog post if you don't know what those are.) Tom played the hell out of the verse groove, particularly. And Scott had a nice recurring melodic line. Also curious is the lack of any vocals in the "chorus" - the intent (with John's bass line and Tom playing "four on the floor") was to simulate a dance floor. After all, the song is about being Abducted by the groove. So the groove says it all in this one.
So I did a bit of work on the tune, and Scott came over and listened to my early "alpha mix." He had a couple of interesting suggestions, and we did a little bit of fun experimentation, particularly on some vocal effects. There are also some interesting "surprises" that will reveal themselves when the song is finally released - but I'm not giving out any spoilers, so you'll just have to wait.
(evil grin.)
11.17.2008
The Second Story Project
So, I have to say that it's interesting to resurrect a project that once was - for all intents and purposes - dead. Here's the back story:
My previous project, Second Story®, was a female fronted neo-prog group that played in the Philly region from 1996-2004. We recorded our original, self-titled album at Eyeball Studios early on; it comprised mostly material that Scott and I had written before John or Danielle had joined the band. (In fact, 5 of the songs had been previously recorded with our original singer, Zaughn.)
We gigged a bunch behind that album, all the while writing new material. We began recording our second full-length album - to be called "Thin Twisting Line," from a song lyric on it - in January 2001. To steal a phrase: What a long, strange trip it was to become.
We booked an entire week at Indre Studios in Philly, a large-scale, well-known (and expensive) studio in the area. All of us took a week off from work to allow us to all be there the whole time. Based on our familiarity with the material, our previous studio experiences, and the expected professionalism of the studio, we figured we'd probably have time left over at the end.
Boy, were we naive.
The first of many things that went wrong? Less than a week before the starting date, the studio manager called: "Patti LaBelle wants to come in to do rehearsals the week you're booked. Can you bump?" So, I called the rest of the band, and we were able to accommodate her. For a price, of course - the liner notes of the album, if we complete it, will contain the line "Thanks to Patti LaBelle for providing the tape reels for our recording session." Yeah, we don't move for anybody for free - not even Patti LaBelle. And three brand new 2" tape reels cost well over $600.
So, as you can imagine by my tone, we didn't finish the project in the 7 days we allotted. We didn't even get half of the tracking done, never mind mixing. AND, to make matters worse, John and myself, who both worked for an music software firm at the time, came back to the next work week to find out that we both were getting laid off. So, in the middle of this fabulously expensive studio foray, John and I lost all of our expendable income (and our living income, too!)
To make a very long story a little shorter, we were able to manage sporadic trips back to the studio over the next several months, but it took a couple of long, agonizing years to actually complete the tracking. Then we moved to mixing. That ended up being even more disappointing; after the vast amount of time that had passed - after the great deal of time, energy, and money that had been spent - the mixing of the album went quite badly. The resulting album sounded disjunct, loose, and just weak. We left the studio completely spent and totally demoralized.
After some time passed, we decided to take those tapes to a new studio to re-mix with a new engineer and fresh ears. After some aggravation getting the tapes transferred to a format that worked, we let Vic at Giant Steps have a go at it. His mixes were considerably better, but they still didn't capture what we had hoped for, and we knew we couldn't release the CD and be proud of it.
Not long after that disappointment, the band quit being active in performance or songwriting, and the album has been essentially shelved since our "disbandment" in 2004. But we've always wanted to complete the album, if only to have something to show for all the time and money.
So over the last year, I've been collecting the things I need - and the time and experience - to do the mixes myself. The original studio tapes were in multiple formats; the drums were recorded on 2-inch 24-track reel-to-reel, while the rest of the tracks were sync'd on a trio of 8-track digital tape machines (DA-x8 machines by Tascam).
I picked up a DA-38 for a few hundred bux on eBay; however, a 2" 24-track machine is about the size of a large refrigerator, and about twice the weight. And, they usually run for between $10-20k. So, unless one fell from the sky, I couldn't reasonably obtain one of those, especially not for a one-off project. And a lot of studios don't have them anymore, since the advent of ProTools and other DAW systems.
So, considering that I'd have a hard time converting the 2", I was planning on doing the mixing based on the tracks on the digital tapes only - the recording engineer had put rough drum mixes (kick/snare/kit L/kit R) on the tapes to save wear and tear on the 2" machine. Unfortunately, I quickly found that it wouldn't be a good solution - the 4-track drums on the digital tapes were totally inadequate.
Luckily, I found a guy who runs a studio in Millville, and he has a 2" machine. He dumped the tracks down to individual tracks on a DVD for me, so now I've got everything! I've dumped all the 8-track digital stuff down to SONAR, and now with the addition of the original 2" drum tracks, I can really get at these mixes.
Okay, so it begs the question: "Why will it be different?" I mean, we had two professional engineers at two different studios attempt (and fail) to mix our album.
Here's why:
;-)
My previous project, Second Story®, was a female fronted neo-prog group that played in the Philly region from 1996-2004. We recorded our original, self-titled album at Eyeball Studios early on; it comprised mostly material that Scott and I had written before John or Danielle had joined the band. (In fact, 5 of the songs had been previously recorded with our original singer, Zaughn.)
We gigged a bunch behind that album, all the while writing new material. We began recording our second full-length album - to be called "Thin Twisting Line," from a song lyric on it - in January 2001. To steal a phrase: What a long, strange trip it was to become.
We booked an entire week at Indre Studios in Philly, a large-scale, well-known (and expensive) studio in the area. All of us took a week off from work to allow us to all be there the whole time. Based on our familiarity with the material, our previous studio experiences, and the expected professionalism of the studio, we figured we'd probably have time left over at the end.
Boy, were we naive.
The first of many things that went wrong? Less than a week before the starting date, the studio manager called: "Patti LaBelle wants to come in to do rehearsals the week you're booked. Can you bump?" So, I called the rest of the band, and we were able to accommodate her. For a price, of course - the liner notes of the album, if we complete it, will contain the line "Thanks to Patti LaBelle for providing the tape reels for our recording session." Yeah, we don't move for anybody for free - not even Patti LaBelle. And three brand new 2" tape reels cost well over $600.
So, as you can imagine by my tone, we didn't finish the project in the 7 days we allotted. We didn't even get half of the tracking done, never mind mixing. AND, to make matters worse, John and myself, who both worked for an music software firm at the time, came back to the next work week to find out that we both were getting laid off. So, in the middle of this fabulously expensive studio foray, John and I lost all of our expendable income (and our living income, too!)
To make a very long story a little shorter, we were able to manage sporadic trips back to the studio over the next several months, but it took a couple of long, agonizing years to actually complete the tracking. Then we moved to mixing. That ended up being even more disappointing; after the vast amount of time that had passed - after the great deal of time, energy, and money that had been spent - the mixing of the album went quite badly. The resulting album sounded disjunct, loose, and just weak. We left the studio completely spent and totally demoralized.
After some time passed, we decided to take those tapes to a new studio to re-mix with a new engineer and fresh ears. After some aggravation getting the tapes transferred to a format that worked, we let Vic at Giant Steps have a go at it. His mixes were considerably better, but they still didn't capture what we had hoped for, and we knew we couldn't release the CD and be proud of it.
Not long after that disappointment, the band quit being active in performance or songwriting, and the album has been essentially shelved since our "disbandment" in 2004. But we've always wanted to complete the album, if only to have something to show for all the time and money.
So over the last year, I've been collecting the things I need - and the time and experience - to do the mixes myself. The original studio tapes were in multiple formats; the drums were recorded on 2-inch 24-track reel-to-reel, while the rest of the tracks were sync'd on a trio of 8-track digital tape machines (DA-x8 machines by Tascam).
I picked up a DA-38 for a few hundred bux on eBay; however, a 2" 24-track machine is about the size of a large refrigerator, and about twice the weight. And, they usually run for between $10-20k. So, unless one fell from the sky, I couldn't reasonably obtain one of those, especially not for a one-off project. And a lot of studios don't have them anymore, since the advent of ProTools and other DAW systems.
So, considering that I'd have a hard time converting the 2", I was planning on doing the mixing based on the tracks on the digital tapes only - the recording engineer had put rough drum mixes (kick/snare/kit L/kit R) on the tapes to save wear and tear on the 2" machine. Unfortunately, I quickly found that it wouldn't be a good solution - the 4-track drums on the digital tapes were totally inadequate.
Luckily, I found a guy who runs a studio in Millville, and he has a 2" machine. He dumped the tracks down to individual tracks on a DVD for me, so now I've got everything! I've dumped all the 8-track digital stuff down to SONAR, and now with the addition of the original 2" drum tracks, I can really get at these mixes.
Okay, so it begs the question: "Why will it be different?" I mean, we had two professional engineers at two different studios attempt (and fail) to mix our album.
Here's why:
- I'm not on a timetable due to budget constraints - I can take my time
- I fully understand the "vision" - meaning, I KNOW what it's supposed to sound like
- I really want it to sound good this time. It means a lot to me (and my bandmates)
;-)
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