The Album Is King Pt. 2

6.6.12

The vast majority of this recording process has been me working solo. My main songwriting partner Tim Johnson was on a sojourn to London during this period so I decided to do all the instruments and writing myself. I can handle a variety of guitar styles and sounds as well as program light drum machine tracks and I've been able to fill out most of these songs well with these elements plus vocals. I called in my friend Andrew Parsons to do the bass tracks, however, as he and I have collaborated on several demos dating back to this past Winter and I enjoy his sense of melody and movement.

Today Andrew and I got together to record bass tracks for two songs, "Kiss Me Again" and "I Feel Old". Both of these tracks had been recorded and mixed to near-completion already and so I was able to send him the recordings ahead of time which he learned at his convenience.

Our process generally includes going over the mixes from the previous session, discussing the new songs, talking about ideas for the bass parts and what the overall vision or feel of the track might be. One of the reasons I continue to enjoy working with Andrew is that he operates without a musicians ego. That is, he's continually open to ideas and suggestions and doesn't take it the wrong way if I dislike a part he's playing or ask him to try something a differently. Too often I've worked with people who will take criticism as a slight on them and become defensive.

In addition to that, he's a wonderfully melodic player. Andrew's bass playing moves all over the neck, creating beautiful runs and adding a great deal of character to what might otherwise be a bland section or flavor-less structure. I hear a lot of McCartney and Mike Gordon in his technique and his interest in improvisation ensures that nothing gets stale or predictable.

The basic recording setup I use for Andrew's bass tracks is similar to what I do for my own tracking, there are only a few pieces of equipment required:



I use a 2006 white MacBook with GarageBand software for everything I do. ProTools is the industry standard software as of now and it can obviously do many things that GarageBand cannot. This being said, however, no one should get down on GarageBand. I feel there is a perception that having the most current and advanced recording software is the main determining factor in how your work will turn out, I strongly disagree. I've found that GarageBand gives you the ability to do a huge number of things and it really just comes down to what you bring to the table as a producer. If you put in the time and think creatively on how to achieve certain sounds and ideas you can get a good, clean sound out of GarageBand.

This is the foundation of whatever else you want to do. The brilliance of Apple products is how simple it is to use other devices in tandem. It's cost-effective and allows for quite a bit of flexibility.

One of my most valuable pieces of equipment (as far as versatility is concerned, it retails for less than $150) is my Audiobox USB-Interface. From here I can plug in instrument cables, microphones, headphones for playback and also outputs for mixing speakers. With Andrew I plug his bass cable directly into the Audiobox and he can simply play right into the software. No amplifiers. No microphones. Within the software I can customize his bass sound however I want. There are a wide variety of bass pre-sets accompanied by hundreds of effects to modify them.

With the Audiobox Interface plugged into my MacBook's USB port and Andrew's bass plugged into the Audiobox, we're good to go. After getting a bass sound we are comfortable with we are able to simply hit "record" and have a go at it.

I find that it's best to record and save multiple takes and then I can cut them up to get an ideal final track later on during the mixing process. I feel this works best for Andrew and I because we can playback the previous take, talk about it, agree on adjustments and then simply record another without deleting the prior one. Every take, good or bad, contains elements that work and it's a shame to lose these. Another benefit is that we can use one take to get a little weird, try some things that we may or may not use. Regardless of wether it ends up getting cut, it's best to keep your options open and give improvised parts a chance to compete for a roster spot.

Once we have around three takes we feel good about I let the project sit until later in the day and come back to it with a fresh set of ears. I find that the best mindset to enter into a mixing session with is one of no expectation. No matter how much you try and conceptualize a song it ends up with it's own identity. You can only control so much and, especially when collaborating, your work will almost always take on an unforeseen life of it's own. Just let it happen.

More on the mixing process in the next update.