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As hinted at in Ed’s latest Tales From the Lab strip, we’ve tracked some cello parts for the new record. Big thanks to out to the lovely and talented Kathryn Barlow, who came in and contributed some tasteful-yet-aggressive lines. We were blown away with how smoothly the session went. Special thanks to Kathryn’s friend Matt Redman who came along for moral support, and being a recording engineer and producer himself, also offered some valuable insight for getting the best tone from the bowed instrument.

The song Kathryn’s parts will appear on is currently titled “Here Comes the Radiation”. I only say “currently titled” because as Steve finishes up the lyrics and records vocals, song titles can change at any time. Several have already, and i’m sure we haven’t seen the end of the switcheroos.

The demo track of this song employed some really beautiful and haunting string samples that Steve had cut and processed. They were relatively simple and repetitive, and prior to the cello tracks being laid down, i wrote some parts which i transcribed into my own notation, then recorded about seven layered tracks of Ebowed guitars. I gave these parts to Kathryn to listen to, but being a classically-trained musician, she really needed a proper score to work from for the actual notes, and the phrasing and timing she’d learn by ear. (Having a classically-trained musician in our midst is somewhat new for Organical.)

So i did some research into how i’d go about scoring the parts. Since the original string parts were based on samples, there was no MIDI information to start from. I ended up sitting down at my computer, guitar and notation for my original parts in hand, and i set about transcribing these parts into cello-friendly bass clef using the free demo version of Finale Notepad. As a kid, i never spent much time learning bass clef in any of my music lessons, so it took a bit of re-orienting. After three or four tries, i got the phrasing to sound how i wanted so it would complement all the other parts and carry the melody we wanted. (Finale was able to output a beautiful clean score which i sent to Kathryn in PDF form, and also a MIDI file for reference. Great application!)

I believe this session marked several firsts… The first time i had transcribed anything into basic music notation, Organical’s first guest musician, the first time we’ve recorded real strings, and the first time anyone has worked from sheet music on an Organical record!

We’re nearing completion of the recording of tracks for the record, and will soon be moving on to mixing! We should all be hearing completed tracks hopefully within the next couple of months…

Is that even a word?

Well, it is now.

As a new song unfolds and becomes a living, breathing entity of sorts, it sometimes whispers in a musician’s ear about what it wants – what it needs – to survive and flourish. Sometimes it’s a tweak to the arrangement, a suspended chord here or there, a change in key or time signature, and sometimes a song just cries out… just begs for a particular sound.

For months now, a song that was being developed under the title “Black Hole” (now called “Atari U.S.A.”) was whispering in my ear that it could really use a dose of rotary speaker from the vintage Cordovox that’s been sitting quietly in the corner of Badvision Studios for some time now. At first i wasn’t sure… i’m usually more of a “chorus” effect kinda guy when it comes to giving a spatial or modulation effect. But something in my instincts told me this might work.

Tonight was my long-awaited opportunity to lay down my tracks for this song. We’re actually recording two versions of it… a normal version and a “quiet” version. I initially thought i might use the rotary speaker on the normal version, but i felt there was maybe too much already going on sonically, and it might make the track too busy.

So i plugged my Agile T-7 Texan (a seven-string Telecaster copy) into my Mesa F-30 which we mic’d up in the Badvision kitchen (Badkitchen?). I plugged straight into the amp… no boost, no effects, nothing. Didn’t even use the amp’s reverb. Just the sound of the amp pumping through a Mesa Thiele 1×12 cab and reverberating off the hardwood floor, the walls, and various large and small appliances. I pushed the gain of the clean channel pretty hard until it was giving a nice thick “purr” with a bit of breakup when i really leaned into the strings. Then i backed off the volume a bit on the guitar. Amazing dynamics from this amp. The tone was just spectacular, and it sits really nicely in the mix against Steve’s guitars.

When it came time to record the quiet version of the song, Ed and i hauled the Cordovox up the stairs into the kitchen and hooked it up to my F-30. We then set about mic’ing it up with a pair of Shures (one on either side) and his trusty Zoom H4 in the middle of the room as a stereo room mic to fill in the middle of the mix.

Now, i’ve played digital Univibe modelers that simulate the sound of a rotary speaker, and it’s an interesting sound that definitely has its uses, but the sound of a pushed tube amp driving the real thing and picked up with stereo microphones is nothing short of jaw-dropping. And the Tele was the perfect guitar for it, too. It has a clarity and punch in the low end, a sweet midrange and bell-like chiming highs that cut through with just a hint of twang. Combine those attributes with the swirling, pulsating rotary speaker, and it’s, well… a tonegasm.

Another song is whispering to me about Ed’s accordion… but that’s another story.

I guess, because we’ve slowed down a bit.   We did finish all the bass tracks except some upright bass which is still to come, and I believe we just need to finish the rhythm guitar tracks for “Urawaza” and then we can move on to vocals.   I still need to do a lot lyric re-writes(and in a couple of cases) first writes, so I gots to get moving but as usual I start to second guess even stuff I thought was good to go.  I’ve been reworking some of the vocal melody lines and timing, cadence etc.   Everything else on this record is sounding great that I want to make sure that vocally I give it all that I can.   I believe we are going to rent some mics and preamps again for the vocals which we can also use to do some of the acoustic guitar work and maybe some of the other natural instruments.   For example I plan on laying down some violin tracks for “Here Comes the Radiation” and we’ll see what else we can dream up.

There seems to be a brief respite in Ed’s furious comic “stripping” so I thought this might be a prime opportunity to update y’all on the progress of our [...] Continue Reading…