datamusicata

As most of you  know, I’m doing a duet CD with Cliff Eberhardt (www.cliffeberhardt.net) entitled All Wood and Doors, modeled after the All Wood and Stones duet CD that I did with John Batdorf (www.johnbatdorfmusic.com).   

On All Wood and Stones, John and I did acoustic reinventions of classic Rolling Stones (www.rollingstones.com songs.   This time, Cliff and I have chosen the Doors (www.thedoorsmusic.com) and are doing acoustic reinventions of their tunes, but the difference this time is that John Densmore, (www.johndensmore.com)  the original Doors drummer is coming over tomorrow to play some percussion on this recording.  

He’s picked four of the songs that he’d like to contribute to and, needless to say, I am delighted and thrilled to have him be a part of this project.  

And what I have done is to prepare for the session today and that’s what I want to talk about.   Preparing for a session.  

Many of you have your own project studios and have recorded other musicians, if not as contributing players, perhaps as artists taking advantage of your expertise, equipment and largesse.

In any event, here’s what I did.   I went through the tracks that he will be playing on.   I made certain that they were tight and clean.  No problems with playing to them, like somebody being out of the pocket, out of tune, whatever.

Then I created a half a dozen tracks and set the paths and the effects for playback.

I then went to my microphone  case and picked what I thought would be the best mics to use and set them up so that all we had to do was unmute the mics we wanted and we’re ready to go.  

That way the musician coming in doesn’t have to wait around or lose their enthusiasm while waiting to record.  

Ready from the get go with the mics, the tunes, the effects, the paths, etc. to take full advantage of the talent of the player.  

Make certain that they are comfortable and happy in the environment and don’t’ waste their time.   Be ready.