Back from the studio

Hi Everyone,

So i am back from Doug Young’s studio down in California. I had a pretty productive weekend. I managed to record eight tunes, with Doug engineering and Steve producing. Very fun stuff, though kind of tiring at times. Listening back i think everything sounds pretty good so far.
I arrived at Doug’s on Thursday night, and we experimented with mic placement for a few hours. We settled on a spaced pair of Schoeps, and a pair of Nuemanns setup in XY. They both sounded pretty good on their own, and we figured we could just record them all, and then later figure out what we wanted to use.

Steve got there on Friday and we started in on recording. I sat in the recording chair, Doug was at the controls, and Steve sat behind me in a recliner taking notes on a pad of paper. He didnt want me seeing him writing and getting distracted. I would do a bunch of takes, and he would listen and write comments on each one. Then we would go back and find the best take to be our master, and then fix any mistakes we needed using edits from the other takes. I think this arrangement worked out pretty well. I only had to worry about playing, Doug only had to worry about editing and the computer, and Steve could just listen and notate things.

We managed to get three tunes done the first day, three the second, and then two on Sunday. Some took a few hours and others came quicker. I seem to recall doing 15 takes at one point. I would play, Steve would say “lets hear that again”, and i would play it again over and over. It was really good to have someone else there to tell me when things were good enough, or when it could be improved. If i had done this on my own it probably would have taken me forever.
I was amazed at Doug’s editing ability. Since we recorded with two sets of mics Doug had to keep all those seperate sound files lined up and grouped correctly when we edited. He did a fantastic job, and i am really appreciative.

A big thanks to Doug’s wife Teri who kept us fed with wonderful food, as well as tasty beverages and a never ending supply of coffee for me.  Its going to take another trip to get the rest of the tunes, then i have to get it mixed, mastered, artwork done, and duplication. Not a cheap endeavor. I hope to have it done by the end of the year.  I am really looking forward to it.  A big thanks to Doug and Steve, i couldn’t do it without you guys.

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