Tamarah’s Song “And You Heal Me,” verse 1 March 16, 2009
Posted by bernie87fl in Song.Tags: audio, tamarah
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Here is the raw audio from Tamarah’s first session in my studio. This is with no engineering, comping, or anything. It will be great!
Just click the little triangle
Session One with Tammy March 3, 2009
Posted by bernie87fl in Song.Tags: acoustics, tamarah
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Tamarah Long brought her song “And You Heal Me” to my studio this past Saturday, and we logged about eight hours on it. But it seemed like two—what a blast!
First, we worked on chords to go with her lyrics, and I began recording a basic piano track that she would be able to sing along with later. Meanwhile, she reconstructed a long-lost third verse (the song was originally written quite a while ago!). With the piano track in place and the lyrics ready, I showed her how to fit into the incredibly makeshift vocal booth without knocking anything over.
Tammy did great in front of the mic! We got about five takes of each verse before it got dark and she had to head back up to Boulder. Next time, we’ll sift through it all, touch up any tricky spots, and decide what other instruments to add. There was talk of an acoustic guitar track early on, though Tammy wants it otherwise pretty sparse. It’s one of those romantic, “unplugged” numbers, very dramatic!
Working in the studio this time was much smoother and more effective than ever before, thanks to the improvements I made throughout February. As soon as I’d gotten my first verse of Symbolic Dog Blues mixed (Feb. 4), I tore everything apart, rearranged all the furniture, put speakers in acoustically better locations, unpacked more of my boxed-up gear, swapped out one used amp for another used amp, even upgraded all the light bulbs.
Okay, so I got a little carried away, and I’d probably still be optimizing and tweaking in there if it weren’t for Tammy, but … that’s what friends are for, right? I got back in there this morning and wrote more dialog for Symbolic Dog Blues. What fun! Thanks, Tammy!
Tamarah tomorrow February 28, 2009
Posted by bernie87fl in Music.Tags: tamarah
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My friend Tamarah from high school is coming over tomorrow (technically today) to record a song or two of hers. Since I had torn apart the studio to improve acoustics and to set up more of my long-boxed-up gear, I spent a lot of this week getting it back into shape for her visit.
This date, Feb. 28, is the six-month mark after my mother’s death, which occurred the very week that I began working in earnest on this new direction. That makes it the sort of day when it is nice to play music with an old friend. It is actually our second time at this—back in high school, Tammy had a song, and I helped her record it, in 1987! If only we’d had a 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro …
Don’t worry, I will not inflict the kazoo on Tammy! While we’re doing her songs, she’s the boss. Although, I did encourage her to bring something that makes an interesting sound, like her favorite salad bowl.
After her session, I want to post the demo clip of my first song, “Symbolic Dog Blues.” It has a wonderful solo, played on my signature Kazooka (you watch, I’ll be selling autographed plastic copies). I finished mixing the demo a few weeks ago, so I just need to learn how to upload it here.
Following that, I’m sure I’ll be working on mixdowns from Tammy’s session, so some of those will show up here, too.
And finally, I’ll be continuing to record the rest of “Symbolic Dog Blues,” after which I’ll return to the song “Banemana,” which my son Jake and I started about a year ago while he was playing with GarageBand on our iMac.
My work is cut out for me, and that’s how I like it!
The Key of B 