Sunday, January 31, 2010

Song a Day begins again: 2010

It's time again for Song A Day. I spent the weekend writing up some notes with ideas for songs, but this time around there is a distinct lack of material from which to forge new songs.

As I've done 2 years running, I wrote a kickoff song about Song A Day itself. The song itself is pretty ho-hum, but a few of the lyrics are funny. I recorded everything (piano, acoustic guitar, vocals) in about 70 minutes and spent no more than 10 minutes on the mix. The main vocal was done in a single take, with a single punch-in on one line. Guitar and piano were also recorded quickly, with all mistakes left in the final mix. Song A Day is all about immediacy. There's no room for craft.

Vox and guitar was recorded with the U87 into the Millenia Media HV3B as usual. I fed the vocal signal into an 88RS (hi pass filter @ 240hz + 1-2db of 10k and 5k), and finally into a Fairchild 660 at the fastest release setting. As long as the mic diaphram is pointing down at my nose - about 10" to 14" away - the sound is pretty accurate.