- I started the week recording the bass for Smooth Talk with Bethany. I had originally been considering a simple, root note approach but whilst working with Bethany I felt that it should follow along the same patterns as they keys did. Whilst doing some loose mixing I kind of began to realise I wanted the bass part to sound like an extension of the keys instead of like a separate instrument so I'm planning to re-record the bass through a distortion pedal in an attempt to replicate the texture of the keys.
- In the run up to this week (and my parents' 25th wedding anniversary) I have been working on a song from a set of lyrics that my Dad gave me (read here). I began to record the song whilst unsure of the direction. I recorded a very warm and 'amateur' sounding guitar track which suited the sentiment of the song - I didn't want it to come across as this huge ballad but more of a celebration of the little, more mundane things. I considered using strings but ultimately ran out of time. In the space of one night I recorded all of the vocals. I wanted to emphasise the harmonic content so chose to only really use the vocal harmony where the 'funny' chords were playing. Inspired by a lot of Bethany's music, I experimented with overdubbing the lead vocal for the entirety of the song for a more etherial effect.
- I initially felt the song needed a lot of tidying up and re-recording but because of time pressures I had to hand it over to Dad as was. However, when I was showing the song in class, it was suggested that the 'messy' nature of the recording added depth to the track and that it might be counterintuitive to tidy it up (to quote Zack, it would be like typing up a hand-written letter). For my peace of mind, I might still tidy it up a little as it still sounds unprofessional to me but I will be careful not to interfere with the song too much.
- I spent a lot of time working on the climax of Reciprocate. It was suggested in my 1 on 1 class that a kind of half time feel might work percussively but I wasn't entirely sure how to go about that. I basically ended up cutting and pasting until I found the phrasings and patterns that I liked (which, incidentally, are half-time in feel). The end of the song is finally beginning to sound cohesive with the rest of the track.
- Recorded some percussion (tambourine specifically) for both Smooth Talk and Reciprocate. I was really trying to go for the Fleetwood Mac feel but I had to find work-arounds (seeing as I don't actually know how to play tambourine) and edit the takes later. It really adds a finishing touch to Smooth Talk and is helping the end section of Reciprocate to drive a bit more.
- I am beginning to take the time to tidy up my sessions with flex-time and flex-pitch to help them sound more professional.