Spring-time for Hinterland

This has been the mildest November I can imagine. Instead of longing for spring or other similar sunny times, I am basking in the warmth of these mild, grey days. Oddly enough, I remember the spring break sessions we did as being a lot colder.

This was our second kick at the can and we had decided as a band to record the next few tracks at my house when my family was away on vacation. As my studio is in the attic anyway, it made sense to track downstairs and then transfer the files to my mac, for overdubbing and mixing. That's just what we did.

It began with renting some mics and pre-amps a monitor board and setting everyone up in my dining room and living room. We recorded on some ADATS I bought used ($200 for two, a sight less expensive than the old blackface I had bought for close to $5,000.00 back in 1994). The idea was to put drums on on machine (tracks 1-8) and then ghost tracks of sax, guitar and vocals on the other.

On Day 1 that system worked pretty well and we were able to track Evil Clocks 1, Klak, and D3. We had guest bassist Keegan Melville on board for a rousing version of D3 (for a lot of reasons, some technical, some stylistic, it never made the cut for the final CD, but we have a great version of it and will post it soon).

The next day was very productive too and also lots of fun. Aaron brought his girl-friend and baby out, Ange stayed over with her husband Rick Barkhouse (keyboardist extraordinaire) and we all had a supper prepared by aaron and myslef. Very hippy-ish communal type thing if perhaps more staid and sober. No matter; it was a blast and we were able to track D1, D2 and parts of Hags (all of these being working titles for the sections contained in The Discovery of Witchcraft).

Unfortunately the next day (day 3 ie) the second ADAT died when I sent a surge of static electricity through it. I blame it on the workboots I was wearing (that and the dry air) and it actually happened later in my studio although not with such drastic results. That meant that the next tracking we did would be limited to one machine (ie 8 tracks). We decided to use a ghost gtr track and 7 tracks of drums. In that manner we limped though Scales and parts of D4.

In the end we only kept Evil Clocks 1, parts of Hags (ie subsections of Discovery of Witchcraft) and Scales. The rest we pitched out (well I actually don't pitch anything out, but we decided not to use it nevertheless).

So...on to the next session, these being with our then new member, Claude Prince and done at Ange's house, where we always rehearsed. More later.

Wah-Wah Face

Ok. So listing the recording sessions in the order that they were done brings us to the earliest (in January 2009) at Shattered Wings Studio. The session was to start at 12 pm. I got there a little earlier and no-one was there yet. Around 12.20 Gary showed up, around 12;30 Aaron got there and around 12;45 Ange called in to say she wouldn't be there for another few hours; NOT an auspicious start.



We set the kit up and, as I had brought along a video recorder (the old type with a mini cassette) I set it up to record the action (right!). We put Gary and Aaron in Matthew's excellent drum room and I set up in the control room. I was using an Adrenalinn amp modeler just to lay down ghost tracks (which I would later re-do at home with one of my many tube amps), and I also brought my laptop-based keyboard rig. The plan was to put Ange in the booth so we could record her saxes and solos as the mood hit.








We started tracking D1 which was a hard tune and not to everyone's satisfaction, but I figured without Ange being there it made more sense to track the songs that she played a less than major role on. We ran the tune down a few times and made some revisions (making Aaron play a modified groove instead of a drum solo for example). By the time we had a few decent takes, Ange arrived so we promptly went on to Wordplay.




The reason for booking Shattered Wings was so that we could do this tune as it had an entirely improvised middle section and we would need to keep all the sax and drum parts pretty well as is. Like I mentioned, I was using an Adrenalinn (which I had actually bought used from Matthew several years earlier, indeed, it was in answering his ad, that I became of aware of his excellent studio in the first place) and although we wouldn't keep the tracks, I would need to duplicate what I had played so I would need to use them as a reference.



So we started recording and it became clear in a few minutes that Gary really wasn't into the song and even let some disparaging remarks slip past his talkback mic. I actually missed what he said, but I knew that Ange was pissed about something as she and Gary became snippy with each other. There was a long-standing issue regarding the song as Gary didn't care for Ange's vocals and felt the song itself was not really a proggy piece and belonged elsewhere. I understood his reservation about the tune itself (although not the quality of Ange's singing which was excellent), but I know when I originally wrote the music I was pretty happy with it. I loved Ange's lyrics and vocal delivery, as well as the arrangement the band had come up with so I wanted to try it. As such the job was to track as good a version as we could, produce it up and then decide if it was worth including.

As I mentioned, Gary's comments angered Ange, but all that did was put the fire under her ass and she played a killer solo. The band actually did a great take, although none of us felt Gary's heart was in it.

That was pretty well the pattern for the rest of the day; Gary played well at times, but mostly dragged his ass on the tunes he wasn't happy with. Ange was kicked ass on the songs she was featured in and Aaron, bless his soul, was and infusing an otherwise dull session with fire. As you can see from the following picture, that was mostly an uphill battle. Seated from left to right: Gary Lauzon (bass), Rick Barkhouse (friend and sometime keyboard-player), Ange MacIvor (sax, vocals and keys), Matthew (owner of Shattered Wings and engineer extrordinaire) , Aaron Clarke (sighs and drums).



We filmed a lot of the stuff but I wisely left the camera on Aaron, especially as I used a wah on a few songs and didn't want to get caught making the ubquitous wah-wah face that ALL guitarists make when using that particular pedal. It is almost impossible not to mouth the words wah-wah along the foot movements. We tracked D1, D2, and Wordplay that day, and each tune had a wah-wah face moment. So wisely, no footage of me exists, BUT we do have some of Aaron doing D2. (this version is live off the floor and has Gary on bass, me on keyboards and Adrenalinned guitar, Ange on keyboards and effected alto sax).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=ZLlGSHCl3g4



Due to the mopey session, we never ended keeping anything but Wordplay, and even at that I replaced all the bass parts. It was shortly thereafter Gary left the band, but as we all could see he just wasn't into anymore, that was expected. As I am also a bassist, it really wasn't a big deal as far as recording went, but I didn't want to end up with another album like Diagramma, where I ended up playing all the parts on several of the songs. Although I think I did a good job, it also takes a lot of the energy from a band when the album they are promoting doesn't even feature them. To clarify; Aaron wasn't in the band when I recorded the bulk of Diagramma, and Ange, Gary, Alain Bergeron and Paul Joannis and myself, weren't really a band until the first five songs were already in the can. We recorded two songs as a band but the others were just me. NOT a thing I wanted to do this time out, in fact, I was looking for the total opposite, where we would track as a band live off the floor.



Anyway, in regards to Wordplay, I wanted to salvage something from the session, so I took the piece home, added acoustic guitars, keys and bass and re-did the electric guitar. I kept Ange's vocal track, sax solo and Aaron's drums (all take 1) and used my ghost guitar part here and there. That was that and I then made a concrete decision to get a new bassist and have the band do all the other tracks AS A BAND. Here is a picture of me pretending to be a band again.


So while the session was mostly unusable, it served to make the decisions and subsequent directions easy and essentially paved the route for how we were (weren't) going to do the rest of the album.

Are we there yet?

No. Not quite, so shut up back there.
Sheesh, this CD is taking its sweet time. I figure by the time we are finished, the CD format itself will have passed and the idea that anyone might actually BUY music won't even be a joke anymore. No matter, we are slogging along and the end of the tunnel is well within sight.

So here is what has been happening since I last posted: we finished most of the tracking around June or July. Then I started the mixing process. That was going well and we had most of the rough mixes done around August. Then I started doing the fine tweaking according to feedback from the members as I fired off round after round of rough mixes and re-mixes.

All that went swimmingly until September. At that point the CD was basically done and most of the fine mixes were finished. That was also about the time that I started experiencing equipment failures. Up in the boonies where I live, electricity is pretty stable mostly, but during the summer we get some pretty wicked storms and it isn't unusual for the power to go out for awhile. All my stuff is surge protected and the computers are on UPS units so that this kind of thing doesn't pose too much of a problem. Usually. This summer however the storms were far more frequent and far more powerful.

I am not entirely sure how, but during the stormy season, I lost 4 drives (each at roughly 600 gigs), my TC Electronics' Finalizer (sob), and one old Panasonic dat machine. I also fried an ADAT (we used some for remote recording...the venerable format still sounds pretty good) when I sent a spike through the system (my work boots are the culprit as it turns out; every time I wear them I get shocks when I touch any equipment!).

We were still able to procede regardless mainly because I have a LOT of gear and I am a stickler for backing things up. All along my G5 kept reminding me of an update to 10.5.7. I never update during a project so I put it off until I was finished. So I updated, BUT as it turns out I wasn't finished. I decided to remix two songs. Unfortunately for me my computer began showing signs of age (or so I thought). It began to grind to a halt loading up programs until finally it shut down entirely. I tried to re-boot but unfortunately my computer was effectively dead.

All of October I tried various methods of resuscitating it, but finally I had to cave in and buy a new computer (an 8-core mac Pro...yeehaw!). I really couldn't afford to keep my studio inactive for so long. I was able to retrieve all my files and, as I stated earlier, I am adamant in backing files up (to a spare terrabyte drive that spends most of its time shut off and alone, and to a thousand dvds I archive to constantly) so I did a disk transfer via firewire (Target Disk Mode; a neat feature that) and pulled up the files for remixing.

That was when the problems started. I went from a PPC based to an Intel based mac and a lot of the Audio Unit plugs I used needed to be updated and in some cases (digital fish plugs, KLC-1, and elemental audio plugs for example) were impossible to get recent versions. For the last two weeks I have been updating, re-authorizing, e-mailing developers, installing and re-installing over 300 plug-ins. Sheesh.

In some cases I had to re-install the plug-ins on my old mac (which I got running again after a fresh install of 10.5). Use all the old codes (which I meticulously filed away thankfully; or at least had done up until around May 2009) and then DE-AUTHORIZE them from one computer and re-authorize them on the new. I am a fan of intellectual copyright (being a composer for TV I earn most of my money from the exercising of such copyrights) but the sheer amount of time it takes, as well as becoming conversant with the myriad schemes that exist, is a real time consumer.

Anyway. I JUST got back to the project tonight and did the remixes. The art work is done and the CD is ready to be mastered and printed. Finally.

Now all we have to do is wait for our official release date (sometime in January). So, until then I'll post some of the details of the process of this incredibly arduous journey. The point of this blog was to do that actually, but I have spent so much time mixing and maintaining that I haven't posted anything for months. Now I'll share.

The Grinding You Hear Is Not My Teeth

It is my clock, grinding to a halt. Nah, not really, but this is taking a lot longer to finish than I had anticpated. Last week we were able to get the first part of the Epic tracked (re-tracked is more like it) with a set-up we are using in our rehearsal spot. The reults are fantastic. Aaron and Claude have a great rapport. We play as a band but tend to keep just the bass and drums as the sax and guitar bleed into the drum mics. We tend to track guitar through an amp modeller instead (the mighty Adrenalinn) to replace later, and the sax is eschewed altogether. Ange does get to play her keyboard parts though. So.

The last version we did has 6 takes which the rest of the band are sorting through now (in terms of approval; I already know which one I like best !). I took my favorite version and transferred it to my Logic software and tempo mapped it. We don't use a click track or record to sequences, so we are very concious of time. The song has is eight minutes long, has 21 time signature changes and two tempo changes, so there is a certain amount of drift to be expected.

We start out at 150 for tempo I and stay there all the way through the first 12 time signature changes (the song is in 9/4 but leaps about to 10/4, 11/4, 12/8, 7/8, 11/8, 13/8, 14/8). When it goes to the 12/8 groove we slow down to 146 (tempo II) then ramp it back up to 150 when we go back to a 1/4 note pulse. Through-out the whole piece tempo I drifts from 150 to 149 to 151, and tempo II from 146 to 148 (a set-up for a fill). That's pretty fucking amazing for an 8 minute complicated outing ! YayAaron. Yay Claude.

if you rebuild it, they will forget

So. The new bassist Claude Prince is working out very well. He is a fast study and is learning song after song. He is a very welcome addition to the band, so much so that we have re-evaluated some of the tunes we tracked before he joined and have decided to re-track them with him on bass. Originally we were either going to use David's bass parts on some tunes, and replace the existing bass parts Gary and David had done on other tunes. Now we figure we'll re-record the whole epic song again, and replace the bass on the songs we feel are sitting well as is.

That obviously puts a serious dent in our schedule and we look like we aren't going to make our June release anymore. Pity. The amount of work David has put into the songs since they were tracked is HUGE, but even still, we all feel it is a better idea just to re-do the majority of them and miss our deadline.

On the plus side, at least half of the Cd is VERY close to being done. We have divided it up with the songy songs on the first half and the epic tune for the last. The first half is almost finished. All we have to do is re-track a bass-line, redo a vocal and track vocals for one other tunes. Oh, and add a keyboard solo from Guy Leblanc. And a fretless solo from Guy Dagenais. And...well, judging from the current addendums and add-ons: who knows? Still the album has a definitive shape and the last batch of mixes are very close to being final.

We hope to be done tracking and mixing by August and have the mastering done by September. This is taking a whole lot of time (more than any thing I have ever done before, and I typically grind out at least a 1/2 hour of finished, broadcast ready music a month).

No matter, the band is gearing up and the music is tighter and cleaner than before and that is very exciting!

A new wheel

In January charter member Gary Lauzon left the band and we have been auditioning bassists since. Last week we had out last audition and we are excited to announce bassist Claude Prince will be the newest wheel. Claude has immaculate prog credentials having been a member for Nathan Mahl for their arguably most popular albums "Clever Use of Shadows" and "Heretic". As well he was the bassist for their now famous live gig at Nearfest, back in 2002, when they blew away many prog fans.

We had auditioned quite a few players, both formally and informally and were getting a little worried that we mightn't find the right fit. Quite a few had expressed interest but most of them balked when they realized both the work involved playing the tunes, and the distances needed to travel to rehearsals, (while we are basically an Ottawa-based band, we rehearse outside of the city). No matter, as it turns out, Claude came along and blew us all away with his chops and his personality. Not only had he learned the requiste tunes (pretty tricky ones at that), but he had also taken a trial drive by our rehearsal spot just so that he would know the way on the day of the actual audition.

Given his lineage, all of us felt that his audition was more a matter of finding whether the personalities were a fit. Nevertheless he played the pieces with such aplomb that even if they weren't, we would still have been eager to have him join. As it turns out though Claude fit right in regardless, so the band is now poised to enter what all of us feel as being our strongest phase yet.

In other news, we are still tracking parts for our new CD, as well as another tune for a 10T complilation of twisted cover tunes called Undercover. The idea here is for every band on 10T to submit a re-worked version of an influential tune. We have chosen Cross-Eyed Mary and have almost finished it. Quite fun that.

So here are some pictures of various recording sessions we have done lately. We have used Shattered Wings, my studio and our rehearsal spot for the various tracking sessions. The mix is to be done in my studio (as before) and the mastering is tentatively set to be done at Raven.

If You Build It They Will Leave

We have been taking a wee break these last few weeks. Well a break from rehearsals anyway as I have been slogging away mixing the tracks we have already recorded, as well as recording beds for some of the other tunes. I am just about to begin writing up the score for the epic The Discovery Of Witchcraft. Right now some parts are fully scored, but mostly it exists as several dozen pieces of paper with very quick jottings on it (those pages at the top are the kind of thing I mean).

The search is still on for a bassist. We have several people coming out to audition still and we excited about the calibre of player we are attracting. Of course, there are always those people who get in touch acting like playing the tunes will be a cakewalk only to show up barely able to play their instrument let alone some of the pretty convoluted tunes we do. It makes you wonder if some people actually take the time to read the ads they respond to (or check out the rather lengthy list of links we provide). No matter, we are pretty impressed with most of the people who have come out and those who we have scheduled.

Our next in-depth recording session will be in two weeks, where
we will be recording in my studio. It will be a week-long session so I am hoping we can pretty well finish all the band tracking and just tidy up some solo and vocal parts afterwards. We'll see.

upward and onward

So we are proceeding quite well with the CD and have five songs pre-mixed and awaiting a few final details before they are in the can. Given that these songs are very long (even the short ones) we have gotten quite a lot done so far. The art-work is finished and only needs the final details regarding song length and order to get the templates all finished for the CD replicators.

Gary, our bassist has informed us he will be leaving in the next few weeks as the band is consuming too much of his time and effort. We are all sad he is leaving but look forward to the aspect of some fresh blood as well. As far as the album goes, the tracks he is already on (three) will stay as is but David will probably step in to finish the others. As David is a bassist anyway that poses no real problem. We still have plans to co-write Arachnophobia 2 and include it on the album, so Gary's presence will certainly still be felt on the CD. We of course wish him all the best and thank him for the six years of hard-work and effort he has brought to the fold. Adios amigo.

So we are now on the look-out for a new bassist. Ideally we get someone before we finish tracking so that they might be on the CD. As Aaron's knee is still on the mend we do have a bit of breathing room, but there is still a lot of work we need to do regardless. This coming week we will start auditioning and hope to find a replacement. A band is a delicate thing and we are going to take our time to get the right mix of personality and of course chops. We have a pretty bass-heavy sound so it will be tricky getting the right player, but Ottawa has lots of really good musicians and we are confidant we will find one without too much stress.

Here is a glimpse of a new track we are working on. There are no lead vocals yet, but there are bgs. This song was premiered at the Nuance Art-rock Fest with great success. This particular version has a lot more texture (live was just two vocals and gtr) and is been fun producing. It also is the first song David has played bass on for the CD (but not the last!)

This of course is a rough mix, but close enough to get a feel of. The song is called The Settling of Bones and is on our Facebook player:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rebel-Wheel/41568152308

Studio Hijinks

Well we have been hard at work in the studio getting the CD ready. We tried to get as much done before Aaron had knee surgery so we booked a 12 hour session at http://www.shatteredwings.com/ and tracked four songs. Considering each song is around 6-8 minutes long and we did quite a few takes of each that was quite a job.

We are trying to get a fairly live sound on the CD, which is not to say we won't be doing overdubs and punch-ins, or even some editing, but we want the thrust of the project to be live-off-the-floor (does anyone actually use that term anymore?). We were able to get good takes of all the songs and we were also able to video tape parts thereof. I just finished a video of Aaron playing drums on MadNight take 1 (a take we didn't use). This is all live in the studio except I processed the sax solo with an amp simulator and re-amped my di'd guitar into my Mesa. We are missing some keyboard parts and the mix is obviously a rough one, but all in all it is a fairly accurate representation of what we sound like. Listen to it here http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLlGSHCl3g4

Now we are finalizing the art-work and looking at a myriad of mock-ups. Francis has done a superlative job and once we decide on our final choices I'll post some of the stuff he has come up with. It seems that most bands these days are eschewing CD releases in favour of downloads, but we decided to not only release a CD, but to make it an elaborate and full-blown one at that. Our label 10T records, has a new download site they'll have up and running soon, so that those who want to just dl tracks can do so, but being an old-fashioned guy, I still want to have the complete package done up for those who prefer that kind of thing (me mostly it seems). No matter.

WE also have a new Reverbnation account AND a Facebook account (finally) so here are the links: http://www.reverbnation.com/therebelwheel and our facebook account is http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rebel-Wheel/41568152308

They are both new accounts so stop by and share the love.

Ok, that's it for now. We are continuing our recording (or will be once Aaron is on his feet again...or as is more appropriate given the fact he is a drummer, on his butt) and are working on the group keyboard parts for the interludes that string our massive 35 minute epic "The Discovery of Witchcraft" together (how corny is that?).