Halfway Home - new recording posted

Well, I've been busy recording. This week, I decided to record my favorite personal tune, "Halfway Home", a song I wrote about my oldest daughter Mackenzie. When she was 1 year old, I wrote this introspective tune about reaching middle-age. My perspective was that before Mackenzie, I had always viewed myself as the indestructible-perpetual-youngster. After Mackenzie was born, suddenly I was concerned about the rest of my life and whether or not I'd always be there for her. I also noticed that time seemed to just be speeding by the older I got, but even moreso after Mackey was born.

So I crystallized that notion and basically wrote the lyrics to "Halfway Home" in under an hour. The music, however, has been a work-in-progress pretty much since it's birth in late 2001. When I gave up the band life and became a solo artist, I reworked the music into what I feel it's best incarnation.

I recorded it this week, and I am very proud of it. George Martin I'm not, but for a guy who's just learning to use a home-recorder, I feel I'm doing ok, especially with the version of "Halfway Home".

I mixed it three separate times. When recording it I wanted to have a track that featured Mackenzie and her little brother Adam. When I first wrote "Halfway Home", I recorded a crude demo on a boom-box, and when I finished, little Mackenzie was climbing up my leg going "Daddy, Daddy". It made it onto the recording, and it sounded so cool, as if she knew it was about her; it just seemed so perfect. When CenterAisle (the band I was in at the time) played at the Del Mar Fair in 2003, my family attended. We played "Halfway Home", and as I was finishing the last verse, Mackenzie came up to the stage, looked at me and started saying "Daddy, Daddy", just like that first crude demo. I finished the song in tears.

Anyway, I wanted to attempt to recreate it even though I know it would really be spontaneous, I felt it needed to be part of the recording. So, when I finished laying down the vocal and guitar tracks, I brought Mackey and Adam into the room and had them record "Daddy, Daddy" over and over at the end of track 7. It sounded good, and I proceeded to mixdown. I didn't realize it at the time, but I forgot to disconnect the mic, so it picked up what I like to call "Beautiful Noise".

When I listened to the mixdown, at the end there's a little ruckus going on: Adam walks in with a toy hammer, banging on the wall. He proceeds to try to climb the mic stand, I tell him that it will hurt him, and he says "I'm not" as in "I'm not going to get hurt". Then Mackenzie says "Hey Adam, let's go build it, let's go build a house". It's all caught, and it's like magic. Mackenzie and this song will always be tied to the hip.

The "Beautiful Noise" version, however, was crudely mixed. The vocal was buried and there was too much reverb. I kept it anyway and posted it on my ezFolk site, it's called "Halfway Home - Beautiful Noise version" and you can listen to that version here. Make sure you listen closely at the end. Because all of that "Beautiful Noise" was recorded on the mixdown and not on any individual track, I can't incorporate it into any new mixdowns. So, this "Beautiful Noise" version is a one-off I'm afraid, but it's definitely a keeper for that magic moment at the end.

The official version can be accessed here. The "Daddy, Daddy" portions are featured prominently at the end. Someday, if I can extracate the "come on Adam, let's go build a house" portion out of the first mix, I will definitely use it. I'm sure someday I'll have a tool that will be able to do that. But for now, I'll just enjoy the "Beautiful Noise" version.

I hope you like it. Both versions.

New Recording Posted

I finally bought the 8-track recorder I was looking to buy, the Tascam DP-01FX. Good little unit, has a 40GB hard drive and a USB port so song transport is easy. Over this past weekend I toyed with it and came up with my first home-recording, "Hawks and Doves". You can listen to it here.

I ended up getting a Baggs Element acoustic pickup installed in my Gibson Hummingbird. While I still feel it will be a somewhat useful tool (especially for live performances) I am a bit disappointed in it for recording. The tone was not quite what I was looking for, it almost was electric sounding. If I want to use it as a primary tone for recording, I think I will need some kind of EQ box for it.

I tracked four guitar tracks onto the recording. Three of the tracks were recording direct from the 'Bird using the Baggs. The fourth track I mic'd the 'Bird with my Shure SM-57 mic, and that was the sound I was looking for. The mic'd track is the primary guitar track, and the other three tracks are mixed low - they provide some good backing tracks and give the song some "beef".

Listening to "Hawks and Doves" in my car, the guitar sounds really, really sweet in tone. There's a residual tone that almost sounds like an accordian behind the strumming. I love that Hummingbird, definitely the best instrument I own.

I will post more here as I record new songs. I am hoping my skill improve in recording as I move forward. But for now, I'm doing what I hoped I would do, record my original tunes. Hopefully I can mix in some live dates too.