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recording - day 168

Completely forgot to take any photos, so you'll just have to take my word that recording days 168 and 169 took place.

Apart from a few specialist sounds, guitars are done and sounding twinkly, spazzy, chunky, brutal, repulsive, grumpy, sleepy, ragtag, cottontail and bob. We also snook in a cheeky trumpet session, featuring Aaron's brother, and somewhere in amongst the layers of guitar is the sound of my dad bellowing my name down the stairs.

Aaron was due back tomorrow, but at this point I have no idea whether his plane is going to attempt a hellish re-entry through the layers of molten lava currently engulfing our country. We'll play it by ear.

Next steps in the recording include a big fat cello session, to replace the sub-zero disaster recording we made back in november, a day of squalling guitars just to send anyone within earshot into a murderous rage, some kind of violin recording session, garnished with a series of ongoing and sporadic vocal sessions.

Sometimes it looks like a home straight, sometimes not.

Blog/website-wise, I have until 1st May to sort myself out. It's looking increasingly likely that some kind of Wordpress overhaul is in order; I'll keep you posted.

Crabb


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unbelievable tekkers

I guess some sort of update is in order huh? Just checking in.

Recording progress has been hampered by time/noise constraints and my unwillingness to record guitar parts without Ian's guidance. He reckons I'd do an okay job, but the 2k and 4k hissing that litters my guitar tracks say otherwise. An inevitable consequence of close-miking, or a fundamental lack of tekkers? Either way.

Also, this may well be the final blog post. Since Blogger announced that they were withdrawing FTP publishing as of 26 March, I've been exploring alternative avenues with limited success.

Wordpress felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, my self-coded attempt was distinctly amateurish and I'm yet to find a middle-ground or, better still, a like-for-like blogger replacement.

So yeah, March and April are more-or-less written off in terms of useful recording opportunities and blog-death is imminent. And that's us. Tell you what, let's meet back here in May?

Crabb


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recording - day 93

With the help of two duvets and a couple of cats, Ian's front room was transformed into an anechoic chamber; we applauded ourselves, and then marvelled at the lack of early reflections on our claps.



The reason for all this unsightly construction was the recording of acoustic guitar parts. Acoustic guitars are not easy on the fingers, they are difficult to record well, and the brightness in a new set of strings only lasts for 2 or 3 glorious days. With all this in mind, we decided to cane through them.

Here is Ian, living it up in his corner console...



...and here is me, either in deep concentration or daydreaming about how I'd win an argument with Höðr, Norse mythological figure and brother of Baldr, owner of the greatest ship ever built...



"Oh yeah, well at least my name isn't a wannabe Sigur Rós album track", I'd sneer.

Saxo Crabbaticus


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recording - day 84

Well, guitar recording was exactly as uneventful as hoped. Sure, a few hilarious disasters would make for better reading, but no, nothing broke, no complaints from any neighbours, nothing. At one point we thought the cat had stumbled into the amp room, and was brushing against the microphone, but she was nowhere to be seen.

The only minor annoyance was that we used about 1% of all the stuff we scraped together, but if it ain't broke... and all that.

Sigh, soz, anyway, have some pics...

Control Room:



Crabb on the tele:



Amp Room, complete with microphone fort:



We've finished about 1/2 the basic guitars, after they're done we'll start on the wacky ones.



Damn straight, he'll be there for those.

Crabb


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nerd is the word

Because we're smug bastards, and also because we're fairly poor (but mainly because we're smug bastards) me and Ian like to dabble in guitar pedal building. In my case, they normally come out FAR worse than the stock pedal, but this can always be passed-off as boutique, hand-wired "character". Ian usually fairs better.

Anyway, with guitar recording approaching quickly, weather permitting, this next week will be spent hastily assembling anything that might be useful.

Here is an unassembled MXR Distortion+:



If you're thinking, "there's not much in that for an RRP of £79.99", you'd be right.

Hardware is in short supply, so fully working pedals are being frantically sacrificed. One such beneficiary of a maimed donor case and jacks is this Fuzz Face clone, which couldn't be any uglier:



Pride of place though has to go to Ian for this horrific orgy of unboxed pedals:



If I remember rightly, that's a ZVex Super Hard On, a snooty op-amp version of a Big Muff and some kind of vibrato pedal.

So yeah, soz for the geek-out, but it's a means to an end. The end being copious guitar gurning pictures.

In other news, we're working on a track for an album of Mo*ho*bish*o*pi covers. Project details are here.

Crabb


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recording - day 65

Barely stopping even to tune the thing, we've been romping through the bass parts this week.

Here is Ian tackling a particularly serious low G:



Coffee-time is essential, of course, but left hand must always be in position and ready to RIFF.



Later on, we heard high-pitched chuckling from the end of the garden, and, peering into a disused watering-can, were delighted to have discovered a marshmallow party in full flow.



A full-on, sexy weekend of guitar recording has been both PENCILLED-IN and EARMARKED.

Crabb


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