Day 9 of Dream World recording.  Today was a pretty short day of recording… just able to get the rhythm track down for the last song on the first album.  The song is called Three Willows.  The story behind the song (inside the overarching story,) vaguely references an old Japanese folk tale that I read prior to writing this song.  Here’s a shorter retelling or, (if you have a lot of time,) a longer version online if you’d like to read the story.

Decided to re-record the rhythm guitar track for the first song (Dream) in the Dream World series, today.  I just didn’t want to deal with the noise issue from when the earlier version was recorded… and wanted to do a better job with how the rhythm track sounds anyway.

Other than that, I just went back through the previously-recorded rhythm tracks and added the chosen amp simulator, today.

Finally found the amp simulator I want to use for the clean electric parts of this project.  For now, I’m going with Guitar Rig 4 by Native Instruments.  I picked up a few different simulators over the past couple of years… but only just recently have been trying to pin down some settings I will actually use.  Aside from the clean sound of Guitar Rig, I’m liking the effect possibilities, as well.  Native Instruments included some of their Traktor effects in the latest version of Komplete… which is pretty cool.  It’s like having a whole new box of crayons from which to pick.

So, knowing what I know now, I recorded rhythm guitar for another song (Winds of Change) today.  I also went back and re-recorded the rhythm guitar for Willow Green.

Think I got a couple more rhythm tracks done today.  Still have to review them later… but the songs were Morning Sun and Photographs.  Not really sure how the guitar on this first album is going to turn out.  It’s all kind of experimental in some ways.

One thing I know for sure, at least, is that I’m getting a lot of arpeggio practice with electric guitar through this project.  That counts for something, right?

Recording can be like life–full of both good and bad news.

The bad news:  this week I realized that some of the earlier work had some weird electrical ground background noise… so I’ll probably end up re-recording some of the earlier days’ worth of material.  If it isn’t obvious by now… this is my first electric guitar-based endeavor;  I didn’t realize how different the dynamics of recording would be compared with acoustic recording.

The good news: I was able to more-cleanly record two more songs today for Dream World (named Little Secrets and Black Lake.)

Still thinking about how this project could ever be helpful for the Kingdom.  I wish I was able to better relate the project’s story through music.

Tried to get the rhythm track for the fourth song in the Dream World series done today.  I think the final take will probably work… but, we’ll see.  The Fourth song is Picnic Day.  I wonder what it’s about…?

Took some time to straighten out the rhythm tracks from the first and second songs, as well.  Pro Tools has a nice feature called “elastic audio” where you can stretch out audio tracks to match the beat you want.  As long as I have the right notes… I don’t have to worry so much about staying perfectly on beat during recording.

Had the opportunity to get the rhythm part of the third song (in the Dream World series,) recorded today.  The song itself is called Willow Green.  There are still some sound artifacts and extra notes in the final take(s)… but, I don’t really want to waste more time on trying to record this one again.  While the song (with lyrics,) is pretty boring… I am still keeping it in the Dream World project because it introduces a character in the story.

Still working on a lighter touch for the various syncopation patterns on electric guitar… someday it will be easier!

Ended up having to just re-record the rhythm guitar from Day 1 for Dream.  It’s still not perfect… but, the takes from today turned out a little better.  In the end, I’m realizing how much more I have to pay attention to the groove of the song when recording electric.  Otherwise, it just turns out sloppy and causes nausea.

Also, using a lighter touch is still hard for me to get used to on electric recording.  I guess I just have heavy hands.  It gets to the point where I end up tuning my strings slightly flat so that the notes will be in tune when I hold a note down.  But that’s like only treating the symptoms instead of the disease.

Had the chance to get the rhythm guitar part done (hopefully) for Purpose People, as well.  It’s the next song in the Dream World series…

Finally getting the chance to record guitar tracks for the Dream World project.  Been working on outlines for the songs over the past month or two to make things easier.  I like outlines because they give me a chance to map out a song before it’s recorded.

The first song is called Dream.  Like the other songs in this project, Dream was originally an acoustic guitar-based song.  Now when I go to record it using an electric guitar… it just doesn’t have the same punch.  That’s where the drums come in, though, so it should be okay.  But I still have my doubts about electric… haha.

Acoustic guitar is pretty nice for getting ideas down… just like the piano.  They both allow you to play rhythm, bass, and percussion parts all at once.  When the song is arranged later–by using rhythm guitar, bass, and drums–all I am doing is separating (or abstracting,) out the original song into different pieces.