Recording Overdub Sessions

So today, I went back to the studio to continue working on yesterday's project. Since all of the full band basic tracks were cut yesterday, all that was left was guitar overdubs and vocals. So at 10:00 this morning I got to the studio and started prepping for the session. Then the guitarist came in and we started talking. He was a really nice guy by the name of Gary Talley. Fett, my boss, had told me before that Gary had been in a band in the 60's called the Box Tops and they had a hit record. I had never heard of it, but when I asked my dad this evening if he had ever heard of the Box Tops, he immediately started singing "The Letter," the Box Tops biggest hit. So that really made it sink in that I got to record overdubs with someone who has had a moderate deal of success in the biz.

Today, Fett let me engineer all of the guitar overdubs which was a little intimidating. Typically a musician will not get an entire song right in one take because they are only human and they make mistakes. So then it is the engineer's job to play the song back and put the tape machine into and out of record mode at just the right time so that the musician can fix the few incorrect notes. The trouble with it is that it can be very hard to hit those "punch-ins" at just the right time so there is risk of starting too early or late and erasing something that you don't want to. Of course engineers make mistakes too and I made one this morning, but that is not too bad considering it was only one bad punch in four hours. Plus when Fett tried to make the same punch, he screwed it up as well! So it was a tough one.

All in all it was a good experience this weekend and hopefully I will get to enjoy many more. I mean look how happy I am in the picture. And by the way, don't let the size of the console fool you. The Yamaha O2R96 does just as much as this console and this one, it's just all digital and pretty efficiently organized. Leave it to the Japanese to put so much power in such a small device.

The Engineer (3rd Time's The Charm!)