Post by Charlie on Feb 3, 2002 3:26:00 GMT -5
We were all very worried about recording this EP and prepared ourselves for every possible thing to go wrong. However, things are currently going very smoothly and we're ahead of schedule. After spending 20 minutes trying to find the studio which is "not sign posted from the outside because we don't want to attract the wrong people" we then had to wait a further 30 minutes for the drums and amps to be set up. Lizzie ended up having to play with one tom which was balanced on a snare drum stand but she did really well.
There are three sound guys at Lumen Studio, Mark, Paul and Tristen. Mark didn't work with us, just delivered the drums. Paul and Tristen are both "super nice" and they've been really kind about all our songs. We caught Paul whistling Ebony and he said "it has a good hook". It's great when we listen back to the material we've recorded because there's four tiny little girls and two grown men just bopping away and tapping their feet.
We even got a backing "GO!" from Tristen, although he says "I was standing sheepishly in the corner and I was more girly then any of you."
After we'd all sound checked it was time to lay down the guide tracks. This is basically when everyone plays together just so that we know what's going on later. The guitars don't have to be right, and the singing doesn't need to be full blown, but the drums have to be perfect. It took 3 takes for Asphyxiate, 1 (YES 1) for Ebony, a couple for Demon Of Her Own, and only 1 for The Wordless Ones (or The Wind And The Willows Osolate, as Paul has named it). We're all really proud of Lizzie, and afterwards she told me that she didn't want to stop playing. So, 4 hours into our studio time and Lizzie is done.
Next we do the bass. Or we should, but the guide bass Stef put down is next to perfect, and she only needs to re-touch a couple of parts. So, hmmm, 10 minutes later, we're ready for my guitar.
Each guitar track was recorded twice, one distorted and one clean, which I'm assured "gives a nice full sound". And I'm happy to say that no guitar strings were broken (and anyone who knows me really well knows that this is a rarity)! It didn't take that long to get the guitar to be done, but once it was we were all ready for a break.
Paul and Tristen went into their cosy staff room for a fag and some pie, while we sat in the band room eating crisps and lots of them. Paul saw our flap jack and exclaimed "That's not Bobby's flapjack is it? The greatest snack food known to man!" but he didn't want any because he had pie. The same went for Tristen. We were offered tea, but Katie tells us that it's bad for the vocal chords so we all declined. Paul still doesn't believe that we don't drink tea. We're labelled 'The easiest band in the world to make tea for".
Then we went back down to do vocals. Kate sound checked the strength of her voice, which Paul was really impressed with and which made all the little lights flash to red, he he he. Tristen said "she has a pair of lungs on her". When she got to the loud bits Paul seemed pretty worried that some speakers might go pop, and had to do some stuff with the wires while saying "i didn't know you were gonna go all shouty". After the levels were sorted and Kate was happily singing away Paul and Tristen had a little play with her vocals, turning her from Darth Vader into those ants from that sweetner advert. It was so funny and all Katie could see were me, Liz and Peff rolling about in the other room. "i know what you're doing and it's not funny." Katie did really well and again two versions of each song were recorded. Then I did my backing vocals. And that was the end of day one. All we have left to do is Peff's vocals and the mixing. It's been really great fun so far!
There are three sound guys at Lumen Studio, Mark, Paul and Tristen. Mark didn't work with us, just delivered the drums. Paul and Tristen are both "super nice" and they've been really kind about all our songs. We caught Paul whistling Ebony and he said "it has a good hook". It's great when we listen back to the material we've recorded because there's four tiny little girls and two grown men just bopping away and tapping their feet.
We even got a backing "GO!" from Tristen, although he says "I was standing sheepishly in the corner and I was more girly then any of you."After we'd all sound checked it was time to lay down the guide tracks. This is basically when everyone plays together just so that we know what's going on later. The guitars don't have to be right, and the singing doesn't need to be full blown, but the drums have to be perfect. It took 3 takes for Asphyxiate, 1 (YES 1) for Ebony, a couple for Demon Of Her Own, and only 1 for The Wordless Ones (or The Wind And The Willows Osolate, as Paul has named it). We're all really proud of Lizzie, and afterwards she told me that she didn't want to stop playing. So, 4 hours into our studio time and Lizzie is done.
Next we do the bass. Or we should, but the guide bass Stef put down is next to perfect, and she only needs to re-touch a couple of parts. So, hmmm, 10 minutes later, we're ready for my guitar.
Each guitar track was recorded twice, one distorted and one clean, which I'm assured "gives a nice full sound". And I'm happy to say that no guitar strings were broken (and anyone who knows me really well knows that this is a rarity)! It didn't take that long to get the guitar to be done, but once it was we were all ready for a break.
Paul and Tristen went into their cosy staff room for a fag and some pie, while we sat in the band room eating crisps and lots of them. Paul saw our flap jack and exclaimed "That's not Bobby's flapjack is it? The greatest snack food known to man!" but he didn't want any because he had pie. The same went for Tristen. We were offered tea, but Katie tells us that it's bad for the vocal chords so we all declined. Paul still doesn't believe that we don't drink tea. We're labelled 'The easiest band in the world to make tea for".
Then we went back down to do vocals. Kate sound checked the strength of her voice, which Paul was really impressed with and which made all the little lights flash to red, he he he. Tristen said "she has a pair of lungs on her". When she got to the loud bits Paul seemed pretty worried that some speakers might go pop, and had to do some stuff with the wires while saying "i didn't know you were gonna go all shouty". After the levels were sorted and Kate was happily singing away Paul and Tristen had a little play with her vocals, turning her from Darth Vader into those ants from that sweetner advert. It was so funny and all Katie could see were me, Liz and Peff rolling about in the other room. "i know what you're doing and it's not funny." Katie did really well and again two versions of each song were recorded. Then I did my backing vocals. And that was the end of day one. All we have left to do is Peff's vocals and the mixing. It's been really great fun so far!
Hell yeah! So I had to re-record coming out of the Middle 8 of Asphyxiate because my thumb caught the string in the guide tracks and went POP!. I wanted to re-record the second verse of Ebony (thed bass solo) because I slightly messed up on the third line. You couldn't really notice, I suppose, but I wanted to do it again. What else? No, I think that was it. Kate + Charlie's vocals went down well, and now it's just me to go. We'll need to do a load of backing vocals together (ie The Wordless Ones backing woahs) because the "GO!" worked really well. That was fuuuuuuuuuuuuuun! 