We don’t have a wireless signal in the studio (yet), so I didn’t blog from the studio yesterday and neglected to do so afterward. Tuesday was our second day to track for the Canadian producer, and the players finessed their way through 8 or 9 songs.

Today (Wednesday, 6/3) I’ll be taking pictures and video to document the recording process, so I’ll be able to post some visual aid here.

I’m also very excited to announce that I have officially booked the studio, engineer, and some of the session musicians to play tracks for my own material. I get two 3-hour session (Thursday and Friday night from 6-9) to have some of the best musicians in town play drums and bass (and possibly guitar and piano) on the 7 original songs I’ve chosen. It’s going to sound incredible — I’m ecstatic.

Short entry for now. More to come later.

-RG.

It’s 7:45 AM. In about 15 minutes the lead enginneer for this week’s sessions, Nathan Zwald, will be arriving. We worked from 9 PM last night to 2 AM this morning to get the studio set up and ready, and this morning we’ll put the final touches on everything before the musicians arrive at 9:30. Yes, I’m running on less than 5 hours of sleep. Coffee is a godsend.

We set up mics, cue boxes, music stands, instruments, and a total of 33 tracks for this project. Today through Wednesday, we’re working 10-9 sessions, per industry standards (10-1, lunch, 2-5, dinner, 6-9) to record 20+ songs for a Canadian producer who’s here in town. Thursday and Friday the studio and most of the session players are booked, but as for what we’ll be recording, I can’t yet say.

It’s time for me to finish getting ready, but I’ve got plenty more to share throughout the day.

Stay auto-tuned*,

RG.

*[I thought this was cool or funny at first, but now it strikes me as being pretty lame. Agree or Disagree?]

Disclaimer: I’ve been known to use auto-tune, and enjoy it in tasteful moderation.

This is the tracking setup for the recording project taking place at our home studio this week — 33 tracks in all — to record drums, guitars (electric, acoustic, & bass), keys (piano, wurlitzer, synth, & organ), loops, and scratch vocals.

Today I’ll finish setting up all the mics and patching all the inputs into the proper outboard gear; at 8 AM tomorrow I’ll begin my first official (and paid!) assisting job for a professional session.

Over the next 3 days, I’ll be assisting engineer Nathan Zwald as he records a band of professional studio musicians. Mon-Wed, we’ll be recording from 10 AM to 9 PM, with breaks for lunch and dinner.

It’s going to be a lot of work, and I’m sure I’ll feel frustrated more than once during the process, but I’m incredibly excited to take on this challenge, and to find out just what we’re capable of in this fantastic new studio.

———-

5/31/09. 11:46 AM

This week I’ll be posting updates on this project with Nathan, as well as giving updates on a few other things I’ve been working on. I’ve had some exciting work lately, and it’s been very interesting to learn more about how music is put together — Hopefully it will be almost as interesting to read about!

Welcome to my new blog: Rob the Music.

This is where I’ll be collecting my thoughts on music and my interactions with it. Here’s what you can expect:

• Updates on my own songwriting and recording endeavours.
• Exploration of artists/songs/sounds that influence me.
• Audio posts of what I’m working on or of other music I want to showcase.

This blog isn’t for everyone, which is why I’ve separated it from my regular tumblog. For those of you who’re interested in this aspect of my life and livelihood, I hope you’ll enjoy it and give some occasional feedback

-RG.