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!