Well, dear readers, I am very pleased to announce that it is Tuesday. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you get such up-to-the-minute news as that? Nowhere, that’s where. I’m especially glad it’s Tuesday, because I was quite ready for Monday to be over with. Monday was an extremely frustrating day for me. I hate when that happens. The morning was fine – I did all manner of things that needed doing, then showered and shaved and got ready for my session. Prior to going to the session, I was happy to receive three count them three packages. So far, so good. I got to the studio about 1:30, ninety minutes before downbeat. My engineer was already setting things up and was very on top of things. Vinnie had recommended an assistant we’ve worked with a lot, because Vinnie was on a movie date. Only the movie date got pushed, so as it turned out, he could have done the session. That was frustrating thing number one. The musician’s arrived, we go sound levels on everyone very quickly, and it all sounded fine. So far, so good. Then we did a rehearsal. The engineer had a terrible blend up, and I wasn’t quite sure why. Everything was completely out of balance, and rather than just stopping and fixing it, he kept saying let’s just get it recorded and deal with it in the mix. So far, not so good. I should have stopped right there, but the clock was ticking. The orchestrator was also frustrated and kept complaining that it didn’t sound like a band, just a bunch of disparate instruments blaring away. I tried to get it more in blend, but the engineer just wasn’t getting it. But, I knew everything was being recorded well, so I figured we’d just deal with it in the mix, which we were doing directly after the session. We wrapped the band in forty-five minutes, and then I gave the engineer a half-hour to get a rough mix together. Forty-five minutes later, he still didn’t have it, and I had to go in and tell him to just get anything up so we could finesse it. This he did, but it just sounded awful. You’d think after 140 albums that I’d be able to tell him what to do, but when an engineer just gets off on the wrong foot, I have found it’s almost impossible to get him back on track. Doing what we were doing yesterday is a piece of cake – he should have just put up the faders, found a good blend, and then I could have finessed it. But, he just couldn’t get with it. The orchestrator finally left because he could take no more. So, I sat with the conductor and got it as good as we could get it. The saving grace was that ultimately what we were doing was going to have a scratch loop put over it, and it was going to end up sounding like an old 78. And with all that put on the track, it sounded fine. But, I was not happy. I called Vinnie and discussed it with him (the whole session AND mix would have been finished in ninety minutes with Vinnie, rather than the four hours it took). He felt bad, and graciously offered to remix it for free today, which I immediately took him up on. So, we got him the Pro Tools session, and today we will redo everything we did yesterday. The sound man has what we did yesterday for tonight’s run-through, but he’ll have the new mix by four in the afternoon, should he choose to want to hurry and use that. It’s not that it will sound all that different, it will just be smoother, with better blends and sound. Vinnie will work on it this morning while I’m having a production meeting with my set designer, and then I’ll go over Vinnie’s, finesse what he’s done, and then the conductor and the orchestrator will come over to hear it, give comments, and then take the files with them.
After the session, I had to hurry to a reading of my pal Adryan Russ’ new musical, a sequel to A Christmas Carol. It was just a reading, so I won’t say anything, but my darling Alet Taylor was in it, and it’s always grand to both hear and see her. She’s quite pregnant (girl) and looks swell. And I knew lots of the attendees, including my booklet designer, Doug Haverty, the divoon Sharon McNight, ASCAP’s Michael Kerker, Alet’s hubby Andy (with two cute gals from the tour of The Producer’s), and several others. Happily, the reading was literally two blocks from my home environment.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I must finish writing these here notes, get some sleep, and get ready for another very long day. So far, so good.
And how do I feel about this new section? So far, so good. How do I feel about today? So far, so good. Let’s hope it continues that way.
Today, as I mentioned, I’ll be having a production meeting with my set designer, and finalizing his design so he can build me a model asap. After that, I hie myself to the Oaks of Sherman to hear the mix and print the new files, and then I hie myself back to the home environment and then I shall be on my way to the Dena of Pasa for a three-hour casting session for my play. I’m sure I’ll eat a nice dinner after that.
Tomorrow, I’ll be dealing with sheet music stuff for the first part of the day. I have to go to Hollywood Sheet Music to pick up a whole slew of stuff waiting for me. I also have to make copies of my songs, as later in the day, we have our first rehearsal, and I’ll be teaching said songs to the kids in those two numbers.
And tomorrow you will not want to arrive late at haineshisway.com, as we have a mighty important day around these here parts. Stay tuned.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, meet, mix, cast, eat, and then hie myself back to the home environment where I shall sit on my couch like so much fish. Today’s topic of discussion: If you were suddenly put in charge of a movie studio, what would you do differently than they do today? What kind of movies would you greenlight? And if you were in the position to produce Broadway plays and musicals, what would you do differently than they do today, and what types of shows would you produce? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and as you post, just remember – so far, so good.