Confessions of a Cover Band: Recording

                                Last night we got to work on new tracks. New material and personnel changes had rendered our old demo obsolete. The process is somewhat different than a recording intended for airplay.  No layers of percussion, hand drums, choirs of backing vocals, piano, synths, organ, or banks of overdubbed guitars. This is the audio equivalent of the "no makeup look."  Stripped and basic.

We weren't making an album but a demo. This recording is for booking agents and other prospective clients who are more interested in what we sound like as a four piece live group than how creative we can get with a studio at our disposal. The people who book acts for clubs, strangely enough, don't really have time to listen to music. They are busy "bottom line" folks. So are demo doesn't contain full length tunes.

Typical demos used to contain 3-4 full length songs. The trend has been towards shorter versions. In keeping with a "get to the point" ethic, our songs were abbreviated to  a verse and a chorus. Two of them will contain brief guitar solos as well. We wanted to sound the way we will when you hire us to play at your club, fundraiser, or BBQ. One small deception is that I play rhythm guitar behind my own solos. Other than that each cut has only one guitar.

Another slight enhancement will be having a copy of that single guitar sent to a seperate track during mix down. It will be delayed a few milliseconds and the EQ (tone) altered a bit from the source track. Effects like chorusing or compression will be applied to one while the other is left unadulterated. Then, when the original guitar track and it's "reflected" image are placed on either side of the stereo field, it will sound like two guitars while in fact it is only one.

By contrast, a major market song from the radio, say a Beach Boys, Queen, Zeppelin, or Sheryl Crow tune will have 64 tracks or more of audio elements to blend. Brian Wilson would do four passes on each of his many vocal parts giving them a dense lushness. Jimmy Page might have a dozen guitar parts on a Zeppelin recording. None of that for us.

We went for as "live" a sound as practical. Slightly rough, the way you would expect a band to sound when you are downing pints in the same room with them. The drummer and I recorded in the same room so we could interact. My amp was set up in the hall.  I could hear it from where I stood, and a floor to ceiling baffle kept most of its roar out of the drum mics. The vocalist mimed her parts through the glass of the control room where the bassist also played. He ran direct to the console. We didn't do a headphone mix but we could see each other. To be able to mix the instruments effectively, they needed to be isolated from each other.

We did 4-5 takes of each tune. The various versions will be mined for the best sections and made into a composite version at mix down.

Recording is hard for me. I don't like to think when I play. When we play live, I "just play" without the slightest thought of what I'm doing. In the studio I have to ask myself what the next chord is! A stumbling excercise that means a lot of do overs. Monday, Donna and I will go in to do the vocal tracks and add the guitar solos. It will be as quick and dirty as we can get away with to preserve the live feel.

Discs will be copied for promo kits that will also contain a photo, a bio, glowing testimonials, and a sample setlist. This same info will also be online so that a simple business card with the web address can let someone audition us.