December 21^st, 2005

So it's been a long time since I've talked about Ken's and my recording. The songs have all been worked on since my last discussion of them. For the new batch of songs:

• All bass lines have been recorded, including two songs that I restored from backup and am re-producing (including new bass and vocals).
• I have added keyboard parts to most of the new songs, second or third guitars to some others
• All new songs and two "old" ones await vocals now; I just have to recover from this cold so that my voice is returned to its beautiful and "pristine" condition ... then I will start recording vocals.

There is a total of eleven songs in this last batch, which means that, realistically, it should take me about ten weeks to finish the vocals. Therefore, I predict that I will complete the last tracks for these songs by the middle or end of March ... and then begins the laborious process of post-production:

1. Digitally transfer songs to computer. Not just the new songs, all the old ones as well—I plan on mastering or remastering all of them.
2. Perform mastering on each song individually. Usually each song takes about a day. That would mean something like a month for all songs if I did one every day.
3. Burn onto CDs in two formats:
   • Raw source files—this is so I can remaster in the future without first having to transfer from digital recorder again
   • Sound (WAV) renditions of the files—so that I can have a couple of CDs of music handy to listen to.
4. Encode as MP3 so that I can easily port lower quality versions (e.g., for website or to email to my mother)

But, even with small breaks, all this work should be done within two months. Which, when added to the time to record the vocal tracks, ensures a Songs Complete time approximately in April.

* * *

So this all calls into question what Ken and I are going to eventually call the collection. We have settled on the "band" name of GYZ (pronounced "guys" ... or maybe "guise" ... get it? Huh?) But we don't know what to call the "album" yet. At one point I suggested to Ken "Justa Coupla", as in, "just a couple of guys". But he made no comment at all back about that. I don't think he liked it in particular, though his silence indicates he obviously didn't actively dislike it either.

But the other day I was thinking of an alternative title: "I'll be your SkyTrain Pervert". That probably won't fly for several reasons, not the least of which being that I doubt "SkyTrain" would like their name on anyone's CD cover ... especially when sharing it with the word "pervert". Hmm ... so I'll have to think some more about this ...

Sign my guestbook - Email me - Back to the Rant-o-Rama index

---