Having the second of two unexpected days off, and having got most of the ‘stuff’ out of the way on the first day, I resolved to put the time to good use and start some recording, the first I’ve done since the final touches to Roadblock, whenever that was.
I made two small but significant technical steps forward – setting up the new mic I bought last year but couldn’t get to work, and setting up a stereo guitar signal to the PC from my guitar effects. Both, to my astonishment, quite easily done. Then into the familiar world of Cubase.
I’d decided to re-record a song called Empty, which I’d recorded back in the 90s with Hungry Ghosts, but which I’ve always felt needed a male vocal for the lyric. In the space of a couple of hours I had two acoustic rhythm tracks, two different lead vocal takes, an abortive harmony track, quite acceptable bass and Groove Agent drums, several tracks of ambient guitar loops and a small but perfectly formed solo. In short, I now have all the raw material and can start editing, chopping, multiplying and discarding.
It’s good to be back.
Hi Norm – do you programme Groove Agent or use the patterns loaded?
What I do is record a guide track – gtr/voc – to a click track then run Agent and ‘play’ it as it goes, using the Accent and Fill buttons and sometimes moving the Complexity slider.
In the course of a few months I’ll often completely redo it a few times.
When I’ve settled on one, i convert it to audio and put some FX on it.
Aha – thanks – just what I did for my LP “Ersatzreal”. Have now abandoned Groove Agent for the time being though