Don’t worry, you haven’t missed 21 recording diary entries, it’s just that occasionally you have to put the rock star lifestyle on hold; sometimes for up to 21 days.

Anyway, day 23 saw another stab at drum recording – serious faces on for the miking.

The room was cold – so much so that every 10 minutes either me or Ian would proclaim, ‘it’s cold’. The purpose of this remains unclear. Aaron staved off the cold by drumming, which was handy, if nothing else.

Deciding that 10.30pm was late enough to stop drumming, but still early enough for repulsive shouting, Aaron did some repulsive shouting.

Finally, with all the gear loaded and the room cleared, we took the opportunity for a quick photo shoot. Out of roughly 100 takes, this was the only shot where Ian’s head wasn’t blurred.

Yes, I realise it is mostly obscured by his hand, but enough was enough. Photography isn’t our strong suit. Next up, cello recordings…

Crabb

My feet are cold, and i suppose winter is setting in.

This week we’ve been going through our drum takes. At first it seemed like a boring, thankless task, but then i remembered that i could use Excel and duly became ‘excel-ited’ (excited). I’ll spare you a comedy pie-chart.

Other than that, me and Aaron are writing some cello parts. Serious cello parts! I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been moved to tears by Aaron’s rampant vibrato on more than one occasion.

That’s about it. Photos of my manly tears next time. And a comedy line graph.

Crabb

Recording is underway! Battling against rain, tiredness and flutter echoes, today we tracked the drums.

For Ian and myself, today’s session was a chance to exorcise several years’ worth of demons, as drums have always been the weakest point of our home-recordings so far. To start the day off right, we decided to get up stupidly early, walk around in the rain (a bit) and then head for a McBreakfast with Aaron.

Initially keen to try a minimal miking approach (4 mics) we eventually opted for the taking-no-chances approach (8 mics). Here is Aaron admiring the mic positioning from afar.

We had the odd panic, and a crisis of confidence, but these were nothing compared to the might of the kick drum. Admittedly, drum recording isn’t very exciting, but you’re in for several months of flashy guitar recording pictures, complete with gurning, so i guess we’re easing you in.

Crabb