James and I finished up the demo of “Dead End Road” this weekend. James sang the song, while I busted his ass to sing it in tune. It took a bunch of hours – we’re not pro singers – but we got the part, plus a harmony done. Surprisingly enough, the harmony part was the easiest. We tried a few mics on his voice, from our limited selection, and thought the Shure Beta 87 sounded the best.
We also thought the song needed some electric guitar, so we tried that for a bit, but it turns out that it was overkill. After listening back to the song it didn’t feel right. So we put on some Johnny Cash and knew right away that we wrote an old country tune, not new country. So we threw away the electric guitars. This one needs mixining and to be sold to a country singer now.
On Monday I worked on the Moto Star song, “The One'” for a few hours. I broke out the Octava condenser mics and recorded some tamborine and shaker to add some percussion. These Octava mics are great. They cost $100 each, and we are finding that they are great for recording guitar and percussion and work great as drum set overhead mics.
After Vic had a chance to sit with the unmixed demo I made for her last week she thought that her performance was a bit uneven. She didn’t start her lines as loud as she ended them. After listening again I had to agree. So, I took the song line-by-line and automated volume adjustments, on words or lines, to even out her performance, but didn’t lose the dynamics. I also tweaked the bass sound a bit. It was still a little too boomy. I bought some new strings, so maybe they will brighten things up.