OverviewMark and Tom got together in the back warehouse at DNA Studios and came up with a song idea at the piano. The song was tentatively called "puano" because of mistyped note on the piano recording on the recording on 101215. During the same session while working on this song they also talked with Rob Gugel on the phone and asked him to replace Scott Beardsley as the bands drummer, who had quit a week earlier to pursue his cover band project The Hometown Sweethearts.
101215 Practice Notes
Mark - piano and Tom - drums and voice. recorded on Tom's iPhone using the free Blue FiRe app AudioAudio - tom mark puano 1Mark played a line on piano and tomsang Audio - tom mark piano 2 tom set up a rack drum on a bass drum that was near by and around 9min into the track laid down an idea. Audio - tom mark piano 3
2:30 into recording we had a cool break down/intro idea after that did another thing that was a kind of back and forth on the same line to vamp a vocal line a little
mark calls out the cords on the recording for this part at around 8 min
took a pic of marks chords
 Videotook video of Mark playing it
ResourcesAudio files for this session on archive.org 101230 Practice NotesInvolved
Working on vocal tracks in the back warehouse at DNA Studios LyricsVerse 1 won't you be there, see you right where you said Oh I Know, you're gone I'm on my own, when I go. well along I may there'll be songs... and thoughts... and times I'll recall and I hope you'll remember them... that way AudioAudio files for this session on archive.org Replace audio with compressed version for the loud vocals. 110302 Practice NotesInvolved
Worked on the song at Tom's house using the free operating system Kubuntu and other free open source audio and recording software like Ardour and Hydrogen Drum machine and other open source or free tools that will be mentioned as we go along. started out using the drum machines on audiotool.com to come up with drum ideas. Wasn't working out quite right cuz we couldn't get it to right for the 3/4 time for the song. We moved on from there. We watched the video of Mark playing the line and rob learned it on the fender rhodes. Rob did more of a syncopated line with the bass keys which are noted in his picture notes below. Kinda liked how it sounded on the rhodes that way. Recorded the A and B parts after we figured them out. Didn't get to the C part tonight. After that went back to figuring out a drum rhythm in Hydrogen.
Recorded a lead line to part 1 that Tom wrote on the piano with Rob playing it an acoustic guitar. Then overdubbed another guitar line that added accents on the beats on another track. Experimented more with the drum line more in Hydrogen. Recoded video and export audio of tom and robs drum examples 110330 Practice NotesInvolved
reworked the drum beat for the first part in Hydrogen with more of an advanced version of the simple original beat I created and removed the beat that Rob had done messing around with it. It seemed too busy for the song even though it was a cool beat in 3/4 that sounded like a 4/4 beat. May use it for something else. Added a vinyl effect in Hydrogen to the drumbeat which might need to be brought down a bit in the future but think it adds a nice texture to the mood. Audiooriginal audio file located at archive.org 110401 Practice NotesInvolved
Recorded Tom's house. worked on the 2nd and 3rd parts of the song Rob figured them out on the rhodes keyboard and then they were recorded to listen to and figure out what to add to them. Tom noticed while Rob was playing the 3rd part that mark wrote it in 4/4 instead of 3/4 like the rest so a different version was recorded in a 3/4 beat. Add audio ardour add video and the 4/4 was recorded too, to decided if they wanted to go with a time signature change or not add audio ardour add video Rob had a bass mandolin and him and Tom worked on a part for the 2nd part. Rob did a few takes after him and Tom talked about a sparse melody to try after going through the part as a loop a few times. Did 2 different takes. One starting high and one starting low. Tom liked the the notes that were explored on the first one add Audio from ardour and liked the rythmn on the second take add audio from ardour Tom wanted to track a 3rd looking to take elements from both and after doing that it sounded like it was trying too hard. add audio from ardour After listening back to the first 2 there were parts that did what sounded like should have happened on the 3rd so Tom will go through those parts and piece them together with what he likes and make tracks for the second part for Rob to listen to so we can record it from that idea instead of trying to recreated the parts from different sections. Tom thought the keyboard for the second part seemed too happy sounding compared to the first part on the rhodes and not like it did on the origianl idea on the piano with mark so it was recorded again with a variation on the bass line on the keys and a slight chord change. Add video from phone 110406 Practice NotesInvolved
at toms house while setting up the guitar to record rob was just playing a line off the top of his head and came up with a new song idea Tried to redo the bass mandolin line, it didn't sound right in the mix thought we could do something better so we did it on the electric guitar trying the distorted set up for the song idea we just mentioned. That didn't work either. Tried it clean and that didn't sound right either. Tom didn't like the way any of this was sounding, handed Rob a lighter and asked him to try it out as a slide guitar. Liked that better but decided to to use a beer bottle for the slide and just to play the first part of the bass mandolin line as the whole part using the slide not the full part that was used before. Video110413 Practice Notes
Rob Re-did the slide guitar part again from the last session using a beer bottle and ran it through the Rakarrack guitar rack with the Lil' Blue setting. There was a weird latency problem when recording. The clean to effect sound wouldn't play at the same time, they we're about a millisecond apart. But it didn't show up on the recording when we listened back so it was OK and we kept it for now. 110630 Practice NotesInvolved Tom Ray Mark Whitcomb Working on lyrics for the chorus of the song, also laid down a scratch of the first verse LyricsChorusDon't you change your mind - Time is on your side Don't you leave behind - Feel it alright Make it brighter - We find All our good times - all good times  AudioOriginal file: http://www.archive.org/details/110630-LorenzoPractice110831 Practice NotesInvolved
Working on coming up with lyrics and a melody for the bridge part of the song. After coming up with a general idea thinking that the bridge only needs to be 8 measures instead of 16 like it was mocked up in the song after listening added a backing vocal of oohs and ahhs that plays off of that lyric phrasing to try out lyricsOh oh oh won't let it go It's been like this before I-'ve never seen, it take more than it seems audiooriginal audio: http://www.archive.org/details/110831LorenzoPuanoWorking Involved
Took Rob's baseline and ran it through a midi vintage keyboard emulator with the KORG keyboard using the lowest octive notes on the emulator. Mark suggested that we add a ride cymbol brush part to kind of wash between the 1-2-3 of the piano line, didn't like it so we nixed it. Changed the sound of the bass on the bridge to something more extreme for a keyboard sound and want to change the guitar slide line to a horn part instead next time. 111102 Practice NotesInvolved
Tom exported the bridge drum line with the vinyl effect to match the other drum parts for the song and Mark added it to the mix. Audiooriginal audio: http://www.archive.org/details/110831LorenzoPuanoWorking |
