Next

It's time to move on to the next set of songs.  The first EP is done, but it was meant as a learning tool and a way of proving to ourselves we could do this.  There are a lot more songs to record.

The original plan was to now do more of a full length album with 10 - 12 songs on it.  The plan has been changed to do another EP of 5 - 7 songs.  The reasons are thus...

1. The thought of working on 12 songs makes my head hurt.  We have the songs, but not the bandwidth.
2. We can concentrate.  The final result of 5 songs will be of better quality if we can give them the time they need.
3. It allows a more continuous stream of content to the public.  (by "public" I mean the 8 people that come to see us play)
4. It's still a learning process.  This next EP should be much higher quality, and hopefully it will be a building block to the one after that.  

So which songs are next?  Here's the list of what's in the queue.  The first 5 songs are pretty definite.  We'll have to choose which of the last three fit in.

1. only you
2. i'm sorry
3. desperate
4. a search a love affair
5. it's ok to be afraid
6. the lies
7. these days
8. while you were away

Artwork

Matthew has been busy working on the layout to be printed for the album.  I like it.

We Freaking Won

I've been following Steve Guttenburg's blog on CNET, the Audiophiliac, for about a year. In March, I saw something about a contest he was running for excellence in recorded sound. Apparently he kept hearing that anyone with a microphone and a laptop could make a great recording, and he wanted people to prove it. Funny, that's exactly what we've been doing...

It was pretty good timing to send in something we'd been working on. Indeed, I had taken a few of Mr. Guttenburg's blog comments to heart while doing my mixing. So, on a bit of a whim, I sent in three recordings, listed below in the order in which I expected them to be competitive.

1. Don't Lose Your Head - Alternate
2. All Coming Together
3. Move On

About a week later, I get an email saying Magnet South is one of the winners in the "Audiophillie Music Awards for Excellence in Recorded Sound". We ended up being in the top three "1st place" winners. Just awesome. For which song? Move On.

Steve gave me a call and did a short interview to understand what we were all about. They listened to the songs and talked about the contest on CNET's The 404 podcast. We're played about 13 minutes into the program.

Steve did a write up on his blog about all the winners.

New batch demos

Matthew and I have been putting some finishing touches on the first set of songs. Are they perfect? No. But we've been obsessing over them. There are things I'd do differently if we were starting them over. I guess that's what the next batch of songs is for...

Here are a couple of demos of the songs we'll be working on for the full length album. We did not have access to the wonderful mics from before (though I hope to get them for the actual recording). This was all done with the AKG Perception 200 and a SM57.

"The Lies"




"These Days"

The guitar part and vocals are to a metronome. I decided to I need to push myself a little more on the drums. This represents a desire to add more energy to the songs, if a bit less on tempo.

Novelty

Digital audio workstations come with lots of toys. It's easy to get suckered in by the myriad options. Here's a simple example.

Don't Lose Your Head - Alternate (as it should sound)



Don't Lose Your Head - Alternate (the grunge arena version)



The fuzz version is fun, but it makes me feel like a dirty liar. Maybe it shouldn't. I'm perfectly comfortable using digital effects to enhance a certain sound I want to hear. So where's the line?

The unexpected favorite

Matthew decided a while back that the song "Don't Lose Your Head" would also sound good with a little less pop and a little more jangle. We were planning to record this for the longer set of songs.

However, he was playing it while warming up to record some other songs. He mentioned how nice it will be to eventually record it. Since he was obviously in the mood for the song, I created a new file and told him to just record it now.

It's a little irritating (as the drummer) that this is my favorite thing we've recorded. Simple and beautiful. Probably because the pressure was off and we weren't TRYING to get a great sound.

Orgy. You know, like, and organ. Part 2

Here are the songs for which we recorded organ.

It's All Coming Together

The organ comes in after the first section. It's a short song, but I can't get it out of my head. We wanted the organ be up front, with the guitar mostly serving as rhythm.




Better Version of Me

The organ has strong presence all the way through the song. It starts by itself, with drums and guitar jumping in after a few seconds. The song has imperfections in the syncing of guitar and drums, but that gives it a fairly good live feel, like we're playing in the church. It's one of my favorite songs to play.




Don't Lose Your head

Here the organ serves as a support function. Something to give the background an extra layer. Comes in after about 50 seconds. I'm getting a little lost in reverb and amp simulations on this one, but it's fun.