Well, dear readers, another week is zipping and zooming by, not necessarily in that order. Here it is, Thursday already. Yesterday, for example, it was Wednesday already. Speaking of Wednesday, what a fascinating day was Wednesday. I had to deal with a few things in the morning, then I headed over to Vinnie’s to hear his rough remixes of the first eleven songs from Stages. Well, you could have blown me over with a pogo stick – I could not believe what I was hearing. Gone was the ugly piano sound, gone was the sibilance, gone was the hiss, gone were the balance problems, gone were the ragged band entrances and late bass notes and early sax entrances. Instead I heard clarity and a nice piano sound, and vocals where I could understand every word. What a pleasure. It was like a miracle, really. And you know, like Kathryn Kuhlman, I believe-uh in miraclessss. I did some nitpicking as we listened down to each song. One reason I have never taken the LP out to listen to or to transfer to a homemade CD heretofore was because I couldn’t stand listening to it – I couldn’t stand the awful sound of it, and all the mix problems. I’ll be writing about all this extensively in the booklet, but suffice it to say that the show was recorded AND mixed in one day and evening. Suffice it to say that I was not a record producer, and, even though there were two record producers credited, neither of them had anything to do with the recording session. Suffice it to say that our engineer would not be considered one of the greats, near-greats, or near-goods. But, with today’s technology, we were able to move things around, put things where they belong, nuke things that didn’t sound good, and the difference is astonishing. I added percussion (bells and xylophone) to three tracks, and we’ll be adding guitar to another, and banjo to another. Of course, we do have five songs that had to be taken from the album master, but we have done radical EQ work and worked on shaping the dynamics of those tracks – we did a test run on one of them, and while it obviously doesn’t sound as good as the remixed tracks, it sounds a hell of a lot better than the LP. We were able to match levels, to make the voices pop, to take the edge off the harsh cymbal sound, and a whole plethora of other tricks. So, I consider that yesterday, Vinnie and I were The Miracle Workers. I wish I could say that we are going to be able to perform miracles on Together Again, but that recording is just about the worst-sounding piece of gazelle doo-doo that I’ve ever heard. I don’t know what we were thinking back then, but, whatever it was, we shouldn’t have been thinking it. Again, it was recorded in one day, and mixed in about four hours. But, we don’t have the multi-track tapes (if we did, we could be The Miracle Workers once again), we only have the album master. And what’s on there is so ugly, so dry, so awful-sounding, it’s practically unlistenable, at least for me. For example, the group numbers were all recorded in a tiny room with one mic, which means if solo lines were sung by people on the sides, you just don’t hear them very well. However, we put up a test track, did some rather large EQ work, put some reverb over the whole track (which automatically makes it sound 100% better than the LP), made the voices pop as much as possible, and were able to brighten the vocals (the LP sounds like there’s a blanket over them). So, the bottom line is, it won’t be great-sounding, but it will be better than the LP. And, of course, it’s there as a bonus. All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased. Today I’ll be teaching the song Opposites, the song we never recorded from Stages, to Miss Jessica Rush, and her duet partner, Caitlin Airy, will be learning it either today or tomorrow. Then, we’ll record it mid-next week. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
After the mix, I drove to my mail place and picked up some packages, which included two Fox noir DVDs not released here in the US (these were done in France) – Kiss of Death, and Cry of the City, both of which I’m looking forward to. I also scored the new Gary Cooper box from Universal. I’m watching the delightful Design for Living right now, and then I’ll watch Beau Geste. Where was I? Oh, yes, I then had a lovelier than lovely dinner with Scarlet Street’s Richard Valley and his ever-lovin’ Tom, and we were joined by Mr. Walter Willison, who’s a fan of their magazine. Lots of dish was dished, including some rather priceless stories of Danny Kaye’s shenanigans with Mr. Willison on Two by Two. The food was excellent, and we were there for almost three hours.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because shortly I must hie myself to Los Angeles City College for a meeting, and then I must get back to work with Miss Jessica Rush, and my shipping person must ship out more CDs.
Tonight we’ll be doing a read-through of my play, which I’m looking forward to. Then our big rehearsals will be on Saturday and Sunday, with the reading on Monday evening. After the read-through I may be supping with the Pasadena Playhouse’s Mr. Jayson Raitt, who is leaving that venue and moving to New York, New York.
Tomorrow, Vinnie and I (The Miracle Workers) will be finishing working on both Stages and Together Again, and all that will be left to do is add the guitar and banjo to two numbers, and then record Opposites. I’m hoping that the CD (with one other release) will be out in eight weeks, and available for preorder in four.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go to LACC, I must come back, I must teach a song, I must pick up a package or three, I must have a read-through, and then I must sup. Today’s topic of discussion: We all know that at one time or another, most of us have had pets like a cat or a dog. But, what are the most exotic pets you’ve ever had – things like snakes, or hamsters, or rats, or gerbils, or parakeets, or weird what is it, fish. Let’s hear all about those exotic pets – including their names. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, too, shall we?