Permanent Revolution - Vocal Tracking Reflection
On Wednesday night we set out to record the vocal tracks for all 10 songs for the permanent revolution album. The focus was not on perfect vocal takes but more on capturing an honest representation of how Paul would sound live, while making sure the lyrics are clear and concise and with a focus on passion. The Set Up It was fairly straightforward to set up a close and distant mic with a mic thing for some lead vocals but I did forget to grab a pop filter when I picked up the microphone and Paul asked for a music stand to place his lyrics on. This was one item we could have checked or had listed on our Pre-production Plan. I have noted this for future projects. We were still set up really quickly.
The Tracking Paul was very humble and easy to work with. He does not see himself as a singer and was not wanting us to make him sound like one or get a bigger sound out of his voice. So we listened closely as he sung through each song with the goal of keeping good takes with character and integrity. I believe we achieved this. The first few songs we started recording without really mixing. There was one song that Paul was unhappy with the guitar tone, but I believe this was just because the distant mic's were too loud compared to the close mic's. This illustrates how important it is to do a quick mix before sending it to the artists headphones. The Pack Down It was very straightforward and seamless to pack down. After Thoughts I feel as though this project is coming together according to plan. We will start editing next week and get everything tidied up ready for mixing. We still have to do backup vocals but that will not be until Saturday 1st of July. The Studios being closed on Saturday the 24th actually really messed up our plans, as Saturday is the only day all the band members can make it due to busy work schedules. In the meantime, we will start to mix the tracks throughout the week and on Thursday we are booked in the Neve and can work on finding the sound we want on the desk.
