From the Studio - Take 2

Doesn't look like much, does it?

This picture is a song - specifically, it is our version of Hillsong's "One Way," right after we finshed laying drums, electric guitar and bass. The program is a nifty little do-hickey called ProTools. The screen on the right is a virtual mixing board, and the screen on the left shows a graphic representation of each of the tracks. I use a couple of programs similar to this at home to edit the GLCC podcast and our live recordings, but this program is a Lamborghini Mercielago compared to the old minivan I'm using. (You can click on the picture to biggify it - it won't hurt you.)

First thing we did last night was to re-track the acoustic and piano parts for "Tell the World." Our recording engineer/producer Gabi had massaged the basic track, doubletracking it and "quantitizing" it to the grid, meaning he evened out the minor timing inconsistancies. It is amazing how tight the song sounds now, even at this early stage.

Once we had finished up with "Tell the World" we moved on to "One Way," a song with a similar groove and feel to it. We did a couple of takes, and in the end wound up competely re-tracking after the bridge, and then re-tracking the drums on the last chorus and tag. I am, however, really happy with the way it sounds so far. We got the whole thing done, including the piano and acoustic parts.

Moving forward, we're going to try and have Justin sing on a dummy track next week as we record. One of the problems we're having is transitions from one part of the song to the next. With three isolated musicians and no vocals, if someone loses count it messes the whole deal up. None of us are "studio" musicians, so we're not used to working off charts, so this has been a challenge - although this time we did much better. But the thought is by having him sing, we can stary together easier. Worth a shot, anyway.

Next week we'll be recording "He Reigns" and hopefully one other song. Then we need to tackle "Mighty to Save," which might be the most technically challenging of all the tracks.