“And the story goes…” - Part 1

After years and years of procrastinating, I have finally decided to tackle the one thing that I have told myself for years that I would do, but never did. I got off my ass, got some decent equipment, and started getting all the songs that have lingered in the back of my head onto tape.

I am one of those guys who will listen to an artist that has a record deal, tons of money, and all the admiration from adoring fans, and rip it to death. The whole time while listening I tell myself that I could do it better. I can now live the rest of my life knowing that I might not ever do that again. I don’t care if it’s a fucking polka band on acid, they have my admiration. Whoever said that this was easy can kiss my ass right now. As I look on the floor, I see all of the hair that has dropped out of my head, from pure frustration. Why does it sound so different in my head? Did I buy more cheap equipment? Is it because the manual I receive with Pro Tools was as thin as a postage stamp? Or is it the fact that “plug and play” is just another way of telling you that you will have to sign up for the six week online course, costing you another 500 bucks?

All hair pulling aside, I have had the Digidesign M-Box for only about five days now. The first three were just me playing around, seeing how easy I can mess things up, and how hard it was just to find the “back” or “undo” buttons. All the great plug-ins that were so nicely packaged with it have been of no use, at least not yet. Please don’t get me wrong, it is a dream of mine to have this, and it’s one of the best tools I have ever had, but I never expected to have so many road-blocks in front of me.

Well, onto how the demo was made.

I started with just a simple acoustic riff, one that I have had stuck in my head for years. I wanted a haunting, depressing sound, but one that was very mellow, if that makes sense.

This track was the worst, because it seems that I still can’t get the damn metronome to work. I had to play the entire track off the cuff, no timer, no nothing. Just get it done. Eight hours later, I still could only hear it on one side. I then found out how to copy the track, sending over to the right side. Yeah, instant stereo, but my five minute song just turned into a three minute one because I have seemed to have left out half of the chorus. Two words come into mind; FUCK IT!!!! If I can ever get used to this system, I know that the mistakes that are ever present in the song will be easily fixed, but right now I want to hear something.

The bass lines was fairly easy, just a nice easy rhythm, like a bass should sound. After messing with three tracks now, I felt pretty confident that the mistakes that are all over it would be covered by either the vocals or I could magically find a way to cut them out of the mix. Thank God this is a demo made in a smoke filled bedroom, because if in my 9 to 5 I worked like this, I wouldn’t have a job long.

Onto the last 2 things; vocals and then mix to disc. The vocals came out really easy, less than an hour. I found that great little tool called the “punch in”!!! That button alone has saved me hours of time. The vocals came out all right, but when recording in a room that you have no business to record in, it sounded dead as it possibly can be. I added reverb, but the choice now is to sound dead, or to sound like you laid down the vocal in Moby Dick’s ass. I will take the ass any day. I mixed it down, thinking that it would sound as haunting and sweet as it does through my monitors. Wrong again. I can now understand why engineers and producers get paid massive amounts of cash to make these bands sound like gold. 5 mixes later, I just let it die. It will not get any better, only worse. All I wanted to do is change a couple of things on the vocals, bend a note here or there, punch in here or there, but not this time. The more I touch it, the more I will take away from it, and it’s JUST A DEMO!

Part two of this story will bring you the finished product; glossy, shiny, not a note missing, not a chord missing, not a vocal flaw, full on massive drums, and it will be a full version. I hope you enjoy, I can’t say that I am happy with the quality, but I am happy that I now have a template to work with.

Dave

by

Gunny Hartman