Last night we were without Jeff because of his commitment to being called "Dr. Shredder" someday. Can't argue with that.
Wednesday night we finished the scratch guitars and most of the bass, so last night we recorded scratch vocals.
A very scientific microphone-testing experiment conducted by The Doc yielded interesting results: those super-expensive microphones that come in the fancy packages with big logos emblazoned in wood--they aren't necessarily the best ones for recording this singer's voice. We A-B'ed about 7 or 8 mics, and some of the cheaper ones fared quite well.
So the lesson here is to go out and buy the most well-respected microphone available, because you never know when you'll need a nice paperweight.
Next week's plan is to start recording drums, which could pose some problems. First, the Cuckoo's Nest (as I call the padded, whitewalled Northern Rec's office where we've been recording so far) has a concrete warehouse for a performance room. Unfortunately, we're not recording a cover of "Kashmir", so that won't do. Our best option is to record them at the rehearsal studio, where the room sounds good for drums--even on those crappy rehearsal tapes.
The problem there is the other bands--a lot of 'em. The studio is one of about 40 on the same floor of a government office building, and at night it's teeming with the sounds of the next Strokes, the next White Stripes, the next Darkness, and the next Bob Marley. So we're gonna try to get in there during the day and hope that nobody's there.
Our method of "guerilla recording" is this:
Since I live about 3 minutes away from the studio, I will go there in the morning and scout the building. I'm looking for: bands bumping the big bass in close proximity to our studio, big SUVs loading bass rigs of 8X10 cabinets or larger, and any flyer posted on the cluttered message board indicating a need for "professional bass player--serious players only." It would be bad news for our session if the next Billy Sheehan and the next Flea were to compete in a bass-off next door to us.
If everything looks good, and the next 200 Linkin Parks haven't arrived yet, then I'll call The Doc, who will then grab his Emergency Studio Recording kit, slide down the Docpole, and speed up the freeway in the Docmobile. Hopefully we'll be able to get a couple of songs done before the hackeysackers, Julian Casablancas look-alikes, and Reefer Madness All-Stars take over the building.
While not exactly in line with our original idea of making this recording the most pro yet, at least we don't have a leaky roof this time around...