Briggs texted me late yesterday afternoon, saying she just woke up and will be coming over to place to record. We weren't clear about what exactly we're doing for the album prior to Saturday. So I wasn't sure if I should be scheduling Roland or not for another mixing session. We just decided to do additional recording instead since recent events/feedback kind of caused us to shift gears a little. We now have to revisit some previously recorded parts, like the vocal and bass guitar tracks.
Briggs arrived a few hours later. We bought Tanduay and some Coke in the nearby Ministop. Once we got the supply run out of the way. We listened to some songs in my MP3 archives that were related to the kind of sound we wanted for the vocal track of Burned. The feedback that we've been getting is that Briggs' previous vocal recordings lack grit. So we listened to Soundgarden and Bush, among other artists. I suppose the grunge/rock grit in a female voice is what people were looking for when they gave us that feedback.
Briggs and I weren't able to buy the pop filter/"muff" that we wanted to get to re-record vocals. So we had to improvise. Briggs varied her distance from the mic, so as to avoid clipping while recording and ensure that she can still sing at the top of her lungs. Too close, and it clips. Too far, and the natural echo of my appartment starts being evident in the vocal track recording.
Once we got the right distance from the mic down, we recorded a number of vocal of which we kept ditching. We figured that we should only keep takes that we were comfortable with. One slight doubt about a take, delete it. Briggs only looked to change the non-verse parts. Since the verse parts were meant to be dramatic/low-key.
I suppose using one's 32" LCD TV as a second monitor helps with recording. At least Briggs could see the tracks while she's singing. And to have a visual representation of what her vocal recording looks like. So it helps in both timing and discerning if a take is good or not.
After layering 3 different takes each for every chorus and the last vocal part at the end. Briggs decided to add some back-up vocals to the many that are already in there to begin with. She also re-recorded the first line of the song with a cuss word to emphasize the "inconvenience/hassle" rather than sadness or anger that the song Burned previously suggests with the existing recorded tracks. I wasn't too sure about it. But I played along.
We proceeded to re-recording the vocals of Failing Days. She wanted to add a plethora of vocal tracks that resemble the back-up vocals of Stereophonics. It doesn't sound the same. And you won't even notice it once everything is cleaned up and mixed. She also replaced the vocal tracks of the choruses and the last part of the song like in Burned.
We started around 10:00PM and we finished around 3:00AM. Briggs and I chilled out for a bit just to give ourselves a break before calling it a night. The genuis of glassware with a large chamber (sigh, lol!) is it's effectiveness. When Briggs left, I decided to snap a few more pictures using the crappy camera on my Treo 650 around my appartment. Why? Because I couldn't think of anything better to do while zonked.
I couldn't sleep until around 5:00AM-6:00AM. The last thing I did before I hit the sack was play around with this picture I took in Photoshop. It came out pretty good, in my opinion. The picture is now the picture posted over there on the right in the "Random Glimpse" section.
I queued up Foo Fighters "On The Mend", Incubus "Dig", and Coldplay "Trouble". Queued them up several times. Clicked on Play and hit the sack. Music still makes me sleep easier.
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