Well, dear readers, how can this be the final day of July? Why, that means tomorrow will be August and may I just say that it is my fervent hope and prayer that August will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. In any case, July is winding down like a Swiss watch from 1932 or a Swiss cheese from 2010 or a Swiss army knife from 1998. What are we, Swiss all of a sudden?
Last night we had our first vocal comp session – we didn’t get started until eight so only did four songs, so it’s going to take at least two more nights of comping to be finished. It is painstaking, tedious, time-consuming grueling work but, in the end, very rewarding when the vocal is finally comped and you listen to it straight through and it works in every way – singing, emotion, all of it. Unless my notes have a very specific take circled, I usually just start with take one and listen straight through all the takes, noting which line I like for each line of the song, sometimes splitting one line between two takes if necessary. Once I have a take number assigned to every line of the song, then we assemble it. At that point we listen straight through and as we hear further things that could be better we go hunting to find the replacement because everything must sound of a piece. Sometimes we just replace one word, sometimes even a half a syllable. I am maniacally methodical about this process but it’s why singers like to work with me, because they know I go through this and that the end result is going to make their vocal be the best it can be. Then we listen once again and that’s the thrilling part. Then we move on to the next song.
The engineer only has perfunctory mixes up, but it already sounds good – as I hear them, I do give him little notes about things to adjust in the mix – just general stuff so that when he really prepares his first pass they’ll be close to what we want, with only finessing left to do. Most of the songs have three takes and a scratch vocal. I don’t usually use much of the scratch unless something is really wonderful there, just because the real takes are the ones when it’s just the singer and me working to get the song right vocally and interpretation-wise. Sometimes we do a fourth take, but it’s usually just to cover one or two sections and is not a complete take. I think there was only one song where we only did two takes – that was one of the ones we comped last night and it came out beautifully – but they all did.
Prior to that, the day had been somewhat annoying, at least the afternoon part of it. I got up late, around ten-thirty after nine or so hours of blessed sleep. I printed out some more orders and then Karen Staitman and I went and had an early lunch at some jernt called Crave, which used to be an Eyetalian jernt over in the strip mall behind Du-Par’s. I had a crepe with eggs and cheese and onions and mushrooms – it was okay. Lunch was fun, and then I came home and went to the mail place where I picked up one package and none of the overdue ones – that was the beginning of the irritating afternoon. I did a three-mile jog. Then the drama began when one of our singers called Adryan Russ and said she had a little conflict with a concert she was doing Saturday after our rehearsal. They’d originally told her the concert was at eight and that the rehearsals would be during the week. Yesterday all that changed, the start time for the concert moved up by ninety minutes, with a rehearsal before the show. That of course did indeed conflict with our four-thirty stumble-through – we were starting a bit later due to another conflict. Much sturm und drang followed but I felt that we had the first commitment and our schedule has been in stone for over three weeks, therefore I felt that it wasn’t up to us to do anything, nor would I because the stumble-through is the only chance I have to see how the show plays and how the order and structure works. Sometimes it’s just right and sometimes, like last month, I change things around after the stumble-through. It’s the one rehearsal I will not bend on, and everyone is told up front that that is the case. But we were being asked to figure out a way to make it work and in the end I just replaced the singer with one of our regular gals, Chelsea Emma Franko – she’s actually saved us once before, just as Robert Yacko did recently. But I’m totally comfortable with Chelsea – she’s a total pro and she’ll know her stuff by the Thursday rehearsal and we’re giving her her second rehearsal on Friday and she’ll come early on Saturday. And I know she’ll deliver the goods.
After the comp session I got a foot-long Subway Club because I’d really only eaten about five hundred calories tops at lunch and when you factor in the jog only about three hundred, so the six hundred for the Subway Club was perfect. I do believe I got shortchanged on the meat portion but I made up for it in the veggie portion so it was still very filling. Then I answered e-mails and that was that.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after another good night’s beauty sleep. I’ll do a jog, I’ll write liner notes, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, especially overdue ones, I’ll relax a bit, and then it will be evening two of comping vocals.
Tomorrow is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, and if I’m feeling up to it maybe I’ll do a comp session in the evening, Friday we’ll have a brief second rehearsal for our new cast member, otherwise I’m taking it easy. Saturday is our stumble-through, and then it’s on to sound check and show. Next week will all be finishing comping and then the final mix.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, write, eat, hopefully pick up packages and the comp. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear readers any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall comp away.