Summer So Far

It's been quite a while since my last post. I've moved back home out of my dorm now that school's out, and I've been enjoying the summer break. I've had a lot going, but it's been good, and I've gotten in some good relaxation and fun too.

The first and biggest thing that I started work on was recording a band called This Is Luke. They're great guys that I met through my friends in The Following, especially DJ Lipscomb. DJ and I have started working together in my home studio (myspace in the works at myspace.com/beechcreekstudios) and we're able to produce some really good-sounding music.

Anyway, T.I.L. came for a few days right after school was out and did the first recording session, and then this past week they came for 3 more days to finish off the tracking. DJ and I are really excited about this album- it'll be the first full record either of us has produced, and the level at which we're working is the highest it's ever been. Besides that, the guys in T.I.L. (Kory, Luke, and Jay) have written some intelligent, fun, inspirational, and powerful songs that we can't wait to showcase.

During recording, we tracked drums, bass, guitars, and finally vocals in a whirlwind blaze of planning, set-up, tracking, re-tracking, and fine-tuning. We found ourselves returning to Moe's Southwest Grill for dinner (so amazingly good...) and making ridiculous jokes to pass the time and alleviate the stress that sometimes rears its head during the recording process. Everything went smoothly, though, and we had a great time together. The most amazing story from recording was earlier this week when we went to Bread & Company for lunch and Jay was cut in line by a guy who we learned was none other than power balladeer/Beavis & Butthead punchline Kip Winger! We spoke to him at one point, but he vigorously denied his identity. We looked up Kip's picture on google, though, and it was definitely him... Jerk.

We're now in the mixing stage of things, so it's not as much of a hard-line in terms of scheduling. I've started by working on vocal compositing (or "comping"). This is a process in which I sort through the multiple vocal takes we recorded on each song and find the best performances, assembling them into one great vocal track. Next we'll work on getting the overall levels of each instrument sorted out, and I'll pan sound elements to the side to add interest and space to the sound. Finally, DJ and I will make sure the songs sound the way they should. Tools like compression, EQ, and effects (reverb, delay, etc) will be used to polish the instrument tracks, and then we'l move on to mastering. When you master a record, you make sure that all the songs rest around the same volume level (so that you don't have one song a lot louder than another and burst your eardrums when you unexpectedly hear an unusually loud song all of a sudden) and make sure that the overall sound of each song fits with the album as a whole. This process develops the collection of songs into an artful, polished, unified work.

...And that's how you make an album.

Anyway, I've also enjoyed hanging out with my good friends from CPA, who are some of the closest I think I'll ever know. We've watched ridiculously bad movies and jaw-dropping season finales, engaged in ludicrous and philosophical conversations, hung out at each others houses and far too many parking lots, and generally had a fantastic summer so far. I'm excited what the rest will bring.

I know that I'll be spending the next few days working on some of my own music as well as mixing This Is Luke's record, and I'm pretty sure some more summer memories will be made. So far, the summer of 2007 has been a great success. I'm glad it's only begun!

-Robert