| Monday, March 28 – Here we are, back at Colorado Sound for our third all day session. Today the plan is to record the last two songs and overdub some guitar solos. Recording always takes longer than expected, so we’re hoping to at least finish the basic tracks. This means that we want to finish the day with the bass and percussion parts completed so Blake and Christian are done. The next goal is to have the guitar track done, and then the violin. |  |
The two songs we plan on recording today are our latin flavored songs, “Pasion de la Luna” and “Jungle Spirits”. They are two of our most challenging songs. Technically demanding for both the violin and the guitar, they’re also the most complex arrangements for the ensemble.
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We recorded all the songs that will have drum kit in the first sessions so Christian is playing congas today. Blake will lay down an electric bass track on each song, and on “Pasion de la Luna” he will record a second track on his upright bass. We’ll save both tracks and choose the one we prefer. The acoustic bass will give the song a more traditional feel as well as adding a different sonic color compared with the rest of the songs. Tom will play his classical guitar and Josie will record with her acoustic violin. Now that we found the mic that works best for her instrument during the previous sessions our set-up time is much shorter. |
| After tracking both songs, Blake recorded his acoustic bass and Christian added some shakers at the same time. We want lots of percussion for many of the songs we’re recording, especially the latin tunes we’re doing today. In order to save time (in other words, money), Christian will do many of his overdubs at his home studio. This will require Steve to burn the tracks already recorded to a disc that Christian will then load onto his computer. He can then open the file and add several percussion tracks to each song. Then we’ll upload the files he has recorded back at Colorado Sound. |  |
In theory it should work smoothly, but we’re talking computers here! Colorado Sound uses a Mac and Christian is on a PC, but they both have ProTools so hopefully there won’t be any problems. However, if all else fails Christian can do his overdubs in the studio.
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After Blake and Christian finished we went back and worked more on the guitar parts. Tom is playing with a flamenco style that is physically demanding and must be very precise. He punched in some chord “hits” and will add a melodic line later.The plan today was to overdub a couple of guitar solos, but we worked hard on these two songs and didn’t have enough time left. It was definitely worth it. The tracks sound awesome! We also had to leave some time at the end of the session to burn a CD of “Jungle Spirits” for Christian to take home and try to load onto his computer. |
We’ll be back at the end of April for guitar solos and violin overdubs.
Photos by Tom Carleno and Josie Quick
