[klaatumail] No kk: album #3 mostly online "leaked"

From: Glen Aka Barney Rubble <barneyrubble120@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "klaatumail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <klaatumail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2011 22:40:26 -0400

Hey friends,

As part of the RPM Challenge (Record Production Month, or "record an album
solely in February 2011), I rushed through all the instrumental overdubs for
what I expected would be 10 songs from my 12-song Album #3, "Newsound Same".
(As recording for Album #2, the Brian/Dennis Wilson-like "Pacific Atlantic",
began in January, it would have been cheating.)

Mind you, you can currently hear a rough mix of the leadoff song to "Pacific
Atlantic" ("Graces") as you load up www.glenburg.com .

But you can also go to this link to listen to the ROUGH and COMPRESSED early
mixes of the eight songs I sent today to the RPM Challenge.

http://rpmchallenge.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userprofile&user=10068&Itemid=296

If you feel like it, read on:

Work on the rhythm guitar and bass tracks for all 12 songs was completed the
weekend of February 19th & 20th. All other instruments were mostly laid down
between the 23rd and the 26th, with the odd erased take (mostly to blame was an
odd glitch in a new acquisition, a 16-track Zoom recorder with a strange S&M
affectation for Track #1) and correction taking place during vocal takes and
mixdowns on the 27th and 28th.

Then a surprise realization happened of the last day, well into harmony vocal
takes and mixing: the doubly-downtuned 12-string (a basic track and common
thread through all the songs in the project) lent itself to ringing out of tune
on a particular barre chord in one of my favorite songs with most commercial
potential, 50% of the time. Furthermore, attempts to replace the track were met
with harsh-sounding equalization that did not match the sweet sound of the
original take.

After the guitar track was completely re-recorded, the EQ culprit was found:
the "clean" insert effect was not equal to the neutral bypass effect (prior to
setting the insert effect to "Rock Mic" in order to avoid the bypass's harsh
telephone effect on vocals). Guitar re-recorded again, I went on to record
three pairs of harmonies for each chorus, the bridge and the outro (on a
6.5-minute track). Then mixing the track became a challenge when it was
discovered twin-harmony lead guitars had been bounced at mismatched volume
(most likely due to ear fatigue during recording on a previous day), and the
lead vocal wavered noticeably in volume within the mix (and no satisfactory
single-track compression feature as of yet discovered).

Long story short, it felt like "Live Forever" took forever to mix. But then it
seemed to be done to my satisfaction... And doing a quick track time tally-up,
I realized that with seven tracks out of the RPM's desired ten, I was also less
than four minutes away from the RPM's other benchmark, 35 minutes' total time.

And so I much more swiftly mixed the remaining tracks whose vocals were already
completely recorded: my other favorite, the power-pop-meets-Jason-Mraz "Hit".
(There's a story to that title which lends an ironic twist.)

After waiting about 35 minutes for a CD of all the mixed masters to burn (or at
least it felt that way... Has there ever existed a 1x CD burner?), I had about
two hours to master before bed... And took three, losing sleep in the process.
(Well, mastering was never part of the RPM "Done in February" deal... But I
think I basically made it by midnight.)

Better mixes will appear on my website sometime in March, alongside the

Hopefully you enjoy... Lemme know?
Glen (aka Barney Rubble)

[klaatumail] No kk: album #3 mostly online "leaked"

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