A Major Achievement

I've been going to classes offered at Unity Studio in the lovely Ithaca, NY since senior year started-- classes in Group Voice, Lyric Writing, and Pro Tools-- and they have all been amazing. I absolutely love travelling to I-Town three days a week to hang out at the studio. I mean, who really gets that opportunity? Who has access to free classes at a free recording studio? I love it. And though I am sad that the semester has ended, which means that there won't be any more classes until mid-January, I want to share a piece of awesomeness I worked on this past month.


In the Group Voice class, we decided that our final project would be to cover a song and use our equipment to record it. Because I was also in the Pro Tools class, there was a bit of cross-over, which was cool. I enjoyed mixing separate aspects of music together in this way. And I got to play both the roles of the producer and of the musician.


I decided to cover a Fleet Foxes song (surprise, surprise), my favorite song, titled "Drops in the River." Luckily my favorite song is also in a comfortable range, so I didn't need to do any transposing. Since I am very limited when it comes to playing guitar, we had to find someone more proficient to step in. Thankfully, Dani's (who is the Unity Studio Coordinator) boyfriend Evan stepped in to do the job. For a few of the Group Voice classes, we rehearsed, and then we were ready to record.


In the next Pro Tools class, we first laid down the guitar track. I'll admit there was some trouble-shooting-- this was only the second time we had recorded a musician in class. Some of the M Boxes act up because they're older models. We couldn't figure out how to put a click track on in order for Evan to keep time. And even though we put our "Recording" sign up over the door window, without fail, a group of kids WILL come screaming down the Community Center hallway and pound on the door, looking for Dani. But we got going and made it all go as smoothly as possible.


I didn't really know how long the recording process was going to take, so I was under the illusion that we would have it all complete in our 1.5 hr class-- this was not so. Whenever Evan played an error, we had to cut it out or record over it or create a new track. The guitar recording process took about an hour and fifteen minutes, leaving me only around fifteen minutes to mumble out one shaky take. But it was alright: I just scheduled some time to come into the studio and keep working on it. 


I believe that I worked on the vocals for about 4 or 5 days. First, we had to get the main melody just right. Then we decided to add some harmonies, and this took forever. To get my pitches to line up was pretty difficult at times, especially because there are some tricky rhythms in the song. We also doubled my voice in places. Plus, I was a little over critical of my voice, though I suppose this was expected. Dani was encouraging, but she obviously didn't hear the mistakes I heard, regardless of whether there were actually any mistakes or not. As a result, I sang a lot of takes. A LOT of takes.


But then it was done, finished, completed, and I felt satisfied with all I had done... until the effects drew me in. I spent around an hour and a half just putting reverb and flanger and other effects (that I was forced to experimented with because I didn't even know what they did) on every single track to see how it sounded. This experiment was fruitless. I didn't like what any of the effects did to my voice. The reverb made my voice too quiet and muffled, while the flanger made my voice sound spacey (an effect I didn't want on such a folky tune). The other effects just overwhelmed me, so I decided to scrap the effects altogether. And it actually sounds pretty good for my first recorded piece ever. 


I'm looking forward to creating other recorded works-- maybe some covers, maybe an original or two...


But for now, please enjoy my cover of "Drops in the River" by Fleet Foxes!

Track Five- Trani

Allow me to resume my Kings of Leon fandom, for I have grown away from them in the past few months. Alas, this happens with all bands I become rabidly obsessed with. It's difficult to consistently foam at the mouth over the same group forever: breaks are needed once in awhile. Luckily, these breaks don't detract any of the love I have for the band. After a month or two, I pop the CD back into my car and cruise around with the tunes positively blaring, and I am in love again. So, drumroll *ba-dum-pshhhhhhhhh* ...Trani!


This video is actually one of the more amazing Kings of Leon performances I have witnessed on the great world of YouTube. Have you ever wanted to see the Kings of Leon completely lose their shit? Watch this video-- now!










This song is not only beautiful, but also exhilarating. And this performance holds up the recorded version's atmosphere, and probably even adds to it. Caleb's voice always sounds so smooth and achy, in that low drawl of his, and the opening is pretty loyal to the album version. But the boys grow increasingly excited throughout the entire live performance, and completely freak out at the end, which makes it awesome to watch. I'm not sure whether to laugh at them. applaud them, or stand up and freak out in accordance. I would have to make sure I'm the only one in the house if I feel compelled to act on that last impulse, however.







PS.

My dad played some Randy Newman (of Toy Story fame-- "I will go saillllling... no more") in the car when we went on a road trip over Thanksgiving break. Maybe I was still in my Kings of Leon withdrawal period... but Caleb sounds quite like him, in my opinion. Their tonal qualities are similar. Check it out: I'm not crazy.

And for the fellow kids born in '92 and on, who will only associate Randy Newman with Buzz Lightyear's realization that he is, in fact, a toy: he's got a larger repertoire than what appears in Disney Pixar works. And this repertoire is kind of groovy.