Tuned

OK, well I have to say that I'm glad that's over. The recording went well. Actually, it turned out a whole lot better than I anticipated.
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But, as expected, it was a relatively grueling process to get through. No matter how many times I've been in recording sessions, they always are downright exhausting. Not only for me, but also for my poor friend Chris who engineered the whole thing, because he had to sit there and listen to my songs OVER and OVER and OVER. That's an experience I wouldn't wish on most people.

We started out last Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m! That is one seriously tough wake-up call. Chris, by nature, is a rocknroller who tends bar, makes music and lives a more....uh...nocturnal life than me. So, bless him. He was up and ready to go at a far too early time of the day.

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But sheesh, the guy knows what he's doing. We were able to get through 8 songs. Recorded, mixed, and mastered. All done in 12 hours. By the time we finished in the evening we were both done and spent listening to my tunes, but we got them all in the can.

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The great thing about recording is that you can tweak the songs in all matter of ways to make them sound more full, more robust. Chris and I sat there for hours fiddling with reverb, levels, and such. It was worth the effort. The result I now have sounds.......well......it sounds really good. Even the vocals. Singing is the most humbling of activities.

It's interesting that I wouldn't have ever have done this had it not been for this friend of mine. There was no way that I would have hunted down some unknown studio to go and record. First off, it's relatively expensive, and second off, recording with someone you don't know just wouldn't have worked for me and these songs.

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I've known Chris since we were kids in high school. So, that kind of relationship and familiarity made the whole process far more easier, certainly more comfortable, and cut down on the pressure I would've felt in front of some random recording engineer.

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Essentially, it was just two old pals hanging out, but getting stuff done at the same time.

So, when the final knob was tweaked, the last song was mastered, and the microphones were put away, we sat back and listened to the finished tunes while drinking A LOT of beer.

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We sat on his sofa while the music played on his regular stereo. This is the true test of any recording. It's one thing to listen back to a recording through the uber-expensive speakers that are part of an engineering soundboard, it's quite another to listen to it all back through a regular stereo. If it sounds good there, then you've succeeded.

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A few days ago I was driving around with the boys. I had the recording playing on my car stereo. My kids, my wife and my dog, have all heard my songs a bazillion times, so unfortunately for them, these songs are sort of engrained in their memory.

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When the boys first heard the music come through the car stereo, the bewildered looks on their faces were fantastic. That was Dad's voice they heard, but he wasn't singing, there was no guitar to be seen. They were very quiet for a few minutes as the songs played on, and eventually Finn piped up from the back seat and asked: "Daddy's music?"

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I felt really proud at that moment. "Yeah boys, Daddy's music."

In-tune? I hope so.

How do I get myself into these situations?

I mean, I've got a pretty stellar track record of committing myself to certain activities that were decided on purely by bravado, but lacked any sense or reason.

Let's see....hmm....for example, offering to do all of the photography for a friend's wedding, or volunteering to "pitch" at the company's softball tournament, or bungy jumping.

You know, that kind of stuff. Tomfoolery and stupidity at its finest. In my defense, when I committed to most of these things, I'd already had a few beers, so it seemed like a PERFECT idea.

Well, nothing's changed. I'm still an idiot.

Case in point, and Exhibit # 42: I'm going to a studio tomorrow to record all of the "songs" I've made over the past couple of years. Extra cringe points: I sing on all of these songs. Super cringe points: I had no beers when I made this decision.

A while back I posted about how I play guitar (or wrestle with it as the case may be) and have made tunes for the boys, my wife, the dog. Here's a link to that little gem:

http://scotthuegel.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

Well, lo and behold, I've soldiered on and have continued to expand my dubious repetoire of a playlist. I have no delusions that any of the stuff I make is good, I just like doing it. Sure beats watching TV I suppose.

A good friend of mine who I've stayed in touch with since high school runs a studio in the city and has agreed to spend a tortured day with me recording my stuff. I've been in bands before who all did recording, and while I found the experience to be fun on one level, it's absolutely excrutiating on another.

It's one thing to sit there and play your songs out to the air in the living room. It's quite another to have a microphone thrust upon you, and to hear that terrifying phrase of "We're rolling!" ringing in your ears. I get all jittery and goofy. Even if I've played the song a thousand times, once the sounds are being captured, I somehow find a way to mess it up.

Ah well, I'm only doing it for myself and the boys really. I want to have a document of this music. If nothing else, I can hand it to them later in life and say "OK sons, I know you think your old man is completely un-hip, but there was a time when I could still rock out".

Not that my songs "rock", but at least it's something.

So, I'm off tomorrow to go and do this crazy escapade. My only hope is that the end result doesn't make me wince and wonder why I even bothered in the first place. Oh, and if you're wondering, I won't be wearing that rad get-up you see me sporting in the photo, it was simply the only picture I had of me playing the guitar.

Or maybe I will wear it. Anything might help.