I’ve been messing around with some digital audio workstations lately in preparation for doing some Onward Voyageur recordings (and mixing, although it looks like we’re moving ahead with that sooner than I thought). I have in the past played around with N-tracks, Cubase, Nuendo, and Sonar on my pc, but since buying a mac I’ve just been making my demos in garage band. I imagine I could record the whole band in it too, but I wanted to see what else was out there.

I tried out the free daw Ardour first, but in spite of following their instructions as closely as possible, the program did crash fairly regularly, and you wouldn’t believe how long it took me to figure out how to load tracks (and I consider myself pretty good at using software). I played with it up until the point where I discovered that all of our backups were short little tracks that I had to manually line up, got frustrated trying to figure out how to add markers, and then when it crashed again I thought it was time to look at something else.

I downloaded a 30 day trial of a program called Reaper, and I have to admit the interface sure is pretty (I like a pretty interface!) and I got the hang of it a little quicker than Ardour. Lining up the backing vocals was easier because I could easily add markers! So I have to learn as much as I can before the trial expires!

And hey, if you’re reading this and have a favorite program that you like to record with, can you tell me what it is? And is there an easier way to import a protools recording when some of the tracks aren’t as long as the whole song?

Last weekend Onward Voyageur was in the studio, and I tried blogging and recording at the same time:

Today is our last day in the studio, where we are trying hard to record 8 songs in 3 days. We are going to finish up all the backups (we have 4 people singing on all the songs, so after getting good beds this is probably the biggest part) plus overdub some keyboards, banjo and trumpet.

One of our biggest wishes would be to have free time to experiment (or affordable time? or our own studio?) but there are always budget, time and babysitting constraints. So, I’ve been mucking around a bit because I want to learn to record us, and the great thing about digital is I can actually take these studio tracks and play around with them on my own computer. After this stint we’re going to try and record one song on our own in the jam space.

11:45 We’ve just finished all the vocals for Myth of Broken Wrist, and Leslie is singing backups for Fall in the Spring. This is the first time in the studio for Leslie, and we’re all getting turns holding Baby Iris, the amazing studio baby.

11:54 Finished Fall in the Spring – pretty quick,eh? We’d actually only had Leslie’s parts to finish up from yesterday. Next up, Landmine. We’ve appointed Joyita supreme dictator of backups, she has final say on all parts, if they’re up to scratch or not. This is what you get for being such a great backup vocalist. Christine always nails her too although she would probably argue that with me.

12:47 Finished Landmine and we’re almost done Eye to the Ground. Joyita always goes last as her voice is “the blender”. This is the song I’d really like to make a video for so we have to get this one right!

12:51 Joyita the one take wonder.

12:54 Christine’s up for Dead & Buried. Sometimes when we really examine our harmonies closely we realize someone is singing the same part as someone else, so its always up to Joyita to come up with the new harmony on the spot.

1:22 Good thing I only have to sing one line (although quite a number of times) cause I got Leisurely Collapse in one take!

1:28 Joyita is jumping up and down.

2:19 What’s up with Starbucks? Their coffee sucks.

2:25 A lot of bands say they will fix it in the mix, with us it’s, we just won’t have it in the mix at all.

3:15 Eve on the clave, Carrie on banjo and JP on trumpet!

Ok, I got a little tired of trying to do two things at the same time so that last line pretty much sums up the rest of the day. Last night we had a listening party and I am SO SO happy with the rough mixes! Can’t wait to mix it.

warning: only other gearheads will be even remotely interested in this post

I experienced a bit of relief the other day when Matt told me that after 13 years together he’d accepted the fact that I’m a gearhead – (with the exception of his amp, all of his guitars (2) have been stolen from his big brother, and he’s never wanted anything else). In my time I have owned:

a westone bass (my first purchase ever, traded in for my second purchase, which came shortly after),
a fender mustang bass (still playing it),
a 1960s hagstrom II bass (stolen from the back of the band van at the east broadway safeway),
a 70s hagstrom HIIBN bass (my favorite ever – had a nice badass bridge and was stolen from our jam space – if you ever see one like it let me know!),
a 1965 Hagstrom III electric (a gift, if you can believe it!),
Fender Mustang electric reissue,
Danelectro DC2 (stolen from our jam space),
Gretsch Synchromatic (what I play now)
Gretsch Americana Acoustic (way out west!!)
a fender champ
an ampeg jet
peavey classic

and I have own half of a Stella parlour guitar which Matt has taken over since buying my Americana, and a 12 string Danelectro that I bought for Matt that also was stolen. Various bass amps, although I have not owned a working bass amp in about 10 years, and have managed to borrow one even when touring.

So, in spite of all my many guitars (over consumption?) I’ve been thinking about some new gear again. I’ve been a bit less than enthusiastic about the peavey that I use to play live, its a great amp but lately I want some of that nice breakup that happens when you crank it, and the peavey is just too clean. The champ is great for practicing and recording but not live, the ampeg is great live but I get shocks from it and the tremolo no longer works (after spending $265 to get it repaired from those thieving bastards at Backline who essentially charged me that amount to fix the handle and the light that comes on when you turn it on, and it took them about 4 months to do it after berating us for buying vintage in the first place). I might use the ampeg without the tremolo (if I can find an honest company to fix the ground), but I sure would like one of these:

and I really want a nice archtop/semi-acoustic. I contemplated this guitar for about 10 seconds:

but seriously, the idea of a guitar made specifically for girls kind of turns me off. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s because there are lots of guitars out there that have necks that my girl hands can wrap around. And can you imagine telling some other guitar player that you really admire that you play a daisy rock (although no offense to the guitar itself, it is kind of pretty) ? Much better to say, I’ve got an Epiphone Casino, or a Harmony Rocket or Meteor, or best of all, a walnut Gretsch with a bigsby:

One of the great things about playing in a band with a school teacher is that she comes to practice with some preprinted charts and sharpened pencils, so you can dutifully take notes for your upcoming recording session, and see all the things that you better get working on. We’re finally going to finish the Onward Voyageur cd that we started almost a year ago, and I have about a week to fix all the lyrics and guitar parts that aren’t quite up to scratch.

Its quite a challenge mind you, as I’ve had a few Duplex! rehearsals for tonight’s show in Veda’s backyard, as well as picking up the drums for my son’s best friend’s band, Youthful Exuberance. Its fun to be the old lady on the drums behind a 12 and 8 year old songwriting team and we worked pretty hard on convincing their Dad to play bass, in spite of his conviction that one should not be playing a gig after one day playing bass – he isn’t taking into account his inherent musicality. Playing drums is fun fun thing. Anyone out there need a drummer whose meter isn’t too bad but never does any fills? (but I don’t own my own drum kit).

And Duplex! sure is fun, because after being a bass player for many many years, I suddenly find I rarely play it anymore. Since Duplex! averages about a gig a year I find I’m losing a lot of flexibility in my hands…is it time to start playing with a pick? And I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun, and difficult, singing harmonies and playing bass is.

Oh, and just for fun, I was messing about with a band photo. What do you think? This is just a first draft.

At last, the new record from the laziest band in show business. More rock songs for small people and their minders! Topics covered: noble gases, sandwich making, photosynthesis, same-sex divorce, dogs in sweaters.

Its taken us 4 years but we’ve finally managed to get it together to put out our second album, Worser. I’m pretty darn happy with it, and not only because I got to do the silkscreened art. Great song contributions by everyone in the band, too. Here’s a song – Orange Popsicle, by Duplex!:

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(I’m going to post my little demo version of it later, so keep an eye out for it!)

One really, really great thing about playing music for kids is you get to do early shows, at say, noon. This works perfectly with my schedule. Oh, and if you’re trawling around on myspace or reverbnation, add us as your friend!

buy the album