Thursday, May 16, 2013

Upcoming Album

*Note* Apparently Slamby doesn't know how to hit "Publish" so Wuldor has to help him...a month later...

For those who have yet to be informed, we are in the process of recording our full-length album. I, Slamby, am at the helm of all production, as I am the Head Producer. The grunt labor of recording, mixing, and all post-production has and shall be done by Ben Whittaker at dB Sound Studios in Morgan Hill, for a Head Producer has many more things to worry his pretty little head about...such as posing for Instagram photos (all of which are either on my Facebook page or the Valensorow page).

Before I discuss the journey, struggles, and momentary insanity known as recording, I need to fill the pint. Wuldor and the Woodtroll have very...interesting...tastes in beverages. One day there is a micro-brew variety 6 pack, the next...Budweiser. Makes me shiver to imagine why these hooligans entertain the notion that quantity over quality is a valid argument.

Anywho, my whistle is wet and the story long, no time like the present. Good ole Conner Bruce started the adventure with a solid, packed 8 hours, and in that time he recorded all the drum tracks. 11 full songs, with so many blast beats and fills to make me need some air (plus he was a quite sweaty, it was nice to smell nature and not a room full of men). We managed to get most of the session on a small flipcam (Sony Bloggie, has 1080p recording), that way we can have proof that yes, we did a full album of tracking drums in one day.

I assisted Ben with the initial drum mixing (well, he did most of it, I just added my stamp of approval afterwards) then we started on guitars. Wuldor and Marcel ended up double tracking most of the guitar work, and that chunk of recording was a little lengthy. It all sounded thin, I had my doubts that even the Axe-FX couldn't tune out, but with the bass tracks set down...let's just say those little brown spheres in my pants aren't Cocoa Puffs. Noah had to use a fretted bass, we couldn't find a tone from his fretless Warwick that was mixing well, but luckily for us our friend the Woodtroll lended us an Ibanez.

The album will have 12 songs, one of them is an acoustic song that reminds me of the early days of folk. We are adding some sweet war drums in and making it huge, and considering we have an acoustic guitar, mandolin, double-tracked octave-mandolin, conga, and other random percussion instruments, this song is going to bring the sweet, sleazy deers out of the forests and into my arms.

The last step is vocals and minor additions, so while our most noble of singers Tommy Noble is recovering from his birthweek festivities, he will go back tomorrow while Dr. Bruce and Wuldor add some wunderlust to the tracks. Last scheduled day is Sunday...then we shall rejoice, no more endless days of telling the boys "do it again", "you can do it better", and the most brutal of all Head Producer sayings, "no".

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