OHM Blog - Tom's Take - Laying tracks

Laying tracks...

We are currently laying down tracks for a new four song EP which hopefully will be released this fall for digital downloads. Tentatively the songs are entitled "Path", "Never Wanted", "Good To See You Again", and "Au Pair with Flair". These new tunes stay fairly close, musically, to the songs on our first album, Edge of the Canvas, but are noticeably different in various ways. They still are in our wheelhouse of what we call, "Modern/Vintage Rock."

For those of you are interested, we record one instrument at a time. The first step is recording a "dummy" guitar track to the metronome (using a metronome is essential). Next Jerrid, our drummer, will lay down all of his drum tracks with the dummy guitar track as his guide. Jerrid is very efficient in the studio, and will end up laying down several tracks so he can later decide which is the best take. Next I will replace the dummy tracks with the real guitar tracks. I usually breeze through when I record the rhythm tracks, but things slow down when I record solos and lead riffs (meaning I may do several takes and re-takes). I'll use both my Tele and Strat guitars in the process and play through my Fender 410 Deville amp. As of today, I have one of the four songs finished and I will head back into the studio this weekend with Jerrid as the producer and hopefully knock out two more songs.

Eric is currently writing the bass lines and he will most likely start recording his parts in a week or two. Jerrid tells me that Eric is also very efficient in the studio and will probably be able to record all the bass in a couple of hours. Then we will be ready for Mike's lead vocals followed by the harmony vocals. In future blog posts, Jerrid will write about all the decisions he makes in the final mixdown.

To hear songs/videos from our first album, check out: http://www.reverbnation.com/onehundredmondays

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TB