Jeff has "Road to Damascus" moment

Controlling sibilance and over-emphasised consonants is an important part of our vocal sound - especially with close mic'd, compressed and bright vocals. I tend to do a lot of work with Automation, (inspired by Steve Fitzmaurice's work on "Exciter", I have to say) which gives me a great deal of control and helps me make a big warm bright pop vocal sound that is friendly and not viciously attacking on certain consonants. Jeff has the same aim of course and has done a lot of work with sophisticated de-essing plugins, but today he dived in deep and really started working that Pro Tools Automation. It was a pleasure to behold (and to hear).

A note from Mission Control

So here we all are in the Control Room, Daniel Jeff James and I - on the final straight.





We are also in constant eMail communication with Vince. Andy was expected today but hasn't shown up yet :-) Daniel is here with his notes (very focused on anything interfering with the vocal) and we are zipping through tthe tracks. Everyone is in great spirits and excited about the album.



This is definitely coming together now (I am pleased to report).

Nearly finished

I have completed all my mix tweaks except for one final track which we are doing today - in fact I have Jeff in one room doing a mix and I am in another room doing a mix of the same track. We are having a "mix off" as James, our assistant, described it. Just for fun. If they both turn out good I will upload both mixes later today and let Andy and Vince choose a favorite. Our A&R man, Daniel, is back tomorrow from holiday and we will spend 2 or 3 days with him listening through and doing final adjustments before the next (last?) mastering session next Monday.

James made some great dinners

Our asssistant James has been making us some great suppers, as well as his many other duties. We invested in a little hob and a couple of pans, and Daniel lent us his rice cooker so we have been continuing with healthy pasta and brown rice dinners. Tonight James put some onions and broccoli in the rice, which we enjoyed with Sardines and Mackerel, and very delicious it was too. Thanks James. Only trouble is that he doesn't like garlic as much as I do (and I dont think his girlfriend does either). In fact that's probably why he took over cooking duties - too much garlic in my food!

Best Wishes

And another thing - I would like to wish everyone a healthy and happy peaceful year. Actually I would like to wish everyone a healthy, happy and peaceful life. Best Wishes to all.

Mastering sounds good

The work that Ted sent us back from Sterling Sound is getting a good reception - pretty much everything sounds better, which is great. We really made sure that we left room for the Mastering Engineer to work on this project - i.e. we did not overly Squash or Limit the mixes in any way, (just a little light buss compression from my Liquid Mix SSL buss compressor) and so the results coming back are very pleasing to the ear. Of course there are a couple of small adjustments I would like to make, but generally I am very pleased too.

Andy sings one final song for this project

Over the holidays Vince worked on another tune that we started in Falmouth, and it arrived a couple of days ago. Andy came down to sing it today. After a couple of warm ups he did the vocal in one take (with one drop in - he is so new to this arrangement of the song that he hadn't quite learned the structure) So it is a very fresh interpretation.



Also we are doing ongoing tweaks of the mixes - a few minor things and a few major things. Vince was unhappy with a couple of changes that were made with Daniel in in London, and he has asked to hear mixes based more on the Falmouth material. So far this has been a very productive exchange of ideas and feelings.