Day four: the album opener

Posted on August 18, 2010 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

Although every conceivable distraction arose this morning and afternoon, I am happy to report that I found enough time to record the core tracks for “No Lights, No Sound,” the scheduled album opener for The 2010 Project.

I wrote this track years ago, setting the opening lines in reality, writing them as I walked around the dark hallways at home.  Then, a year and a half ago, I rewrote some of the lyrics during a difficult breakup.  Finally, a few months ago, I rearranged the lyrics one final time to make one complete song that I felt had urgency for me in the present day.  I even took a few lines from an old song that never made it past the lyric phase to finish off the song’s fourth verse (“You took a piece out of me, a piece of the puzzle…”).

Needless to say, this song has survived many years in many forms and I’m excited to say that it still fits my vision for the opening track.  So many aspects of this album have changed — i.e. the songs formerly in the second and third slots have slid down or been eliminated, etc. — but “No Lights, No Sound” has remained steady in the number one slot.

And there’s a lot of pressure for it to live up to my expectations, as well as be a strong album starter.

This recording session found me again facing a difficult tempo change, so, after some frustrating setbacks, I had to get creative, again calling on an outside metronome for the first segment of the song.  Later, upon playback, the acoustic guitar tracks were buzzing and sounded generally sloppy.  So, I redoubled my efforts and took the time to re-record them.

The results are far from finished, and among other features, I’m hoping to convince Mike Fusco to help me out with the acoustic intro to the song.  For now, though, have a listen to the early, incomplete mix and imagine what it will be like when it is complete.

“No Lights, No Sound” (Rough)

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Day three: time for a love song

Posted on August 17, 2010 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

I let Saturday go by without posting, but I spent several hours working on a new track: “The Best Reason I Wake Up,” a rare love song.  This song has a difficult time signature for me to strum naturally while also maintaining steady rhythm, so it provided an interesting challenge.  The metronome was profoundly unhelpful, so I ended up playing to a drum track that helped me keep time.  The drums were wildly incongruous to the song, though, so I deleted the track after I landed a solid acoustic lead.

The second acoustic guitar and the lead vocal tracks were recorded fairly easily, yet I didn’t feel at the top of my game, and I may very well re-record both at a later date.

The final component I recorded on the “musical typing” feature of GarageBand.  Once this is clicked on (via the “Windows” menu), the keyboard of your laptop is essentially transformed into whatever instrument you choose.  For this song, I experimented for the first time with the drum set sounds, and I managed to piece together a drum beat that I think works well with the song.

After two days of listening to the rough cut in my car, I plan to revisit “The Best Reason I Wake Up,” and I will probably re-record not only the second acoustic guitar and lead vocal, but also the drum track.  Now that I’ve experimented with the musical typing feature, I know I can make it even tighter with a few more tries.

But, in the spirit of transparency via blogging, I’m attaching the first rough cut below.  With any luck, the final cut will sound much better than this version, but it’s a start…

“The Best Reason I Wake Up” (Rough)

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Day two of “The 2010 Project” sessions

Posted on August 13, 2010 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

After a day off yesterday, spent watching Jerry Manuel lead the Mets to a defeat, I returned today for the second day of recording sessions for my first album in four years, The 2010 Project.

As I still haven’t established a direct link between my guitar pedal and my laptop, I chose another track with a strong acoustic leaning.  This song, “Vows and Changes,” is from the perspective of someone who feels rejected, having just ended a longstanding relationship after his significant other stopped loving him.  This is based loosely on the experiences of one of my friends, and I think it taps into a powerful set of emotions that I can sympathize — and, to a certain extent, empathize — with.

Going into the session, I thought that the “studio recording” of “Vows and Changes” would be very stripped down and acoustic, not so different from the demo I recorded a few months ago.  Here: have a listen to the demo:

“Vows and Changes” (Demo)

Then, as I started running through the song today, I felt differently about it than I ever had before.  This is a song that I have played many, many times since I wrote it a year or so ago, so it was interesting to feel it shift before me.  The result is a track with drums (and, eventually, electric guitar) that is a lot more beat-driven, which I think conveys the emotion of the song very well.

So, here’s the rough version of “Vows and Changes” for you to hear in contrast with the demo version above.  Please keep in mind that it is a rough version, and that there are still additions to be made, levels to be adjusted, and backing vocal tracks to be re-recorded in places.

“Vows and Changes” (Rough)

As a final “behind-the-scenes” feature, check out this photo of my recording setup.  It’s obviously state of the art, so try not to be too jealous!  Not pictured is my girlfriend Nicole’s Macbook, which I used for a metronome when I recorded the final section of this song.  (Since the tempo speeds up and I can only change the tempo for the entire track, I was initially concerned that I would have to go by my natural rhythm — an alarming proposition, as anyone who knows my sense of timing will understand!)  Thank God for girlfriends with Macbooks and headphones that have long cables!

CMM Studio

Recording "The 2010 Project" at CMM Studio

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Breaking ground with the Zoom H2 “Handy Recorder”

Posted on August 11, 2010 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

It’s official; the first day of principal recording for The 2010 Project is in the can.  Or, perhaps more accurately, it’s in the hard drive.

Either way, I spent a few hours this afternoon experimenting with my new Zoom H2 USB condenser microphone.  I was familiar with this device before I purchased it, as I had borrowed it from Fusco-Moore Studios for many of my Laptop Sessions up until I moved last summer.  I had never paid much attention to the settings on the Zoom H2, as they were pre-set.  It was a plug-and-go affair, which was very convenient at the time.

Now, I’m much more interested in learning the features of this versatile little recorder and tweaking it to get the best recordings possible.  Today was a step in the right direction.  I started by toying around with the gain and recording level.  Mid-gain and a level of 120 seemed to work quite well.  I had been concerned about the USB microphone being loud enough, but if anything, the volume level is too high.

Once I set up the microphone on my Macbook, I wanted to record a song that only needed minimal instrumentation so I could play around with the USB microphone and the settings on GarageBand.  (I’ve used GarageBand for years, but never to record more than an individual track here or there, and certainly never to produce an entire album.)

I chose the song set to be the final track on my album, “The Old Home Departure Song.”  This is one of the first songs I wrote after moving out, and I played it quite a bit in those first months living in my new apartment.  Then, a few months ago, I recorded this song along with twelve others so that I would have a full set of 2010 Project demos.

Finally breaking ground today with “The Old Home Departure Song” was exciting and has filled me with a sense of purpose.  My next step, if at all possible, will be to connect my guitar pedal to the computer and finish off this first recording by adding electric guitar and bass.

As a final note, today marked my first time recording with a metronome.  One of my goals for this album is to work on my timing.  For the tracks without drums, like “The Old Home Departure Song,” the metronome is just what the doctor ordered.  It helped me to time the basic acoustic guitar track, then I went into GarageBand settings to turn off the metronome and continued to build another acoustic guitar and vocals on top of that.

I won’t be posting many recordings from these sessions — I need to preserve the anticipation, after all! — but I think it’s appropriate to share my rough mix of this partially recorded track, the first in the 2010 Project recording sessions.  I hope you enjoy it, and I’ll be back with another post before the week is done.

“The Old Home Departure Song” (Rough)

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