Zach Barnes senior project

Tuesday, May 21st 2 hours (total = 100 hours) Today I recorded vocals for "let go" and "fractals". I did this from home on my own microphone and did my own mixing for it. it took me a while to get a solid understanding of the software and to get the proper form of the song down but after i did i recorded my vocals. It feels Good to be done.

Monday, May 20th 4 hours (total= 98) Today was spent almost entirely taking down all of our recording equipment. we packed up all the mics, interfaces, the computer, and our personal instruments. it feels weird that this is coming to an end. we have been looking forward to this for so long, it feels really sad to be done with the album, and that we are all going to college soon.

Weekly reflection #3 Sat=3 hours Sun=5hours (total=94 hours) This week was very productive recording-wise. we recorded the majority of our songs this week and we were able to finalize pretty much everything. The tracks we have done are Paradox, Candles Sex, Dark Woods, Slunt, Fractals, and Lost in Space. Drake and I were thinking of remastering another song from one of our old albums but we will see if we have time, we also recorded the instrumental for a song “let go” that Dylan and Drake wrote this past summer. Its kind of a breakup song performed on two acoustics. Hopefully, we will be able to get the vocals done also before next week. We have 6 finished tracks right now so we nearly made our goal of 8, id say that we learned a lot about recording and time management over these last 3 weeks, and it has been an extremely productive and educational experience for us. We plan on adding some lofi/instrumental interludes to really fill out the album and give the album a nice feel

Friday, May 17th 6 hours (total=86 hours) Today was mostly spent going through our current tracks and recording little parts here and there, like a little guitar solo or redoing a few seconds of vocals in a couple spots. We have the song later almost done, we have renamed it “fractals”. Dylan recorded the vocals on it, and it sounds awesome. The rest of the day was spent with reed going through different tones and effects on all of our tracks and agreeing as a band what kind of sound we want. Although the only actual recording that we did today was Dylan's vocals, it was a very productive day.

Thursday, May 16th 5 hours (total 80) Today Kai came over to help us jam and record. It was really good to see him since its been a while. We mostly spent our time going over the stuff we already had to show kai. We then did a bunch of unnamed jams. There was one progression that joe came up with that we were really enjoying, so we decided to record it and put it on the album. the song is titled “later” It has a low-fi feel, and we plan on having kai feature on keys, reed on drums, drake on bass, and joe on guitar. We spent some time making an intro to the video we plan on making for this song.

Wednesday, May 15th 5 hours (total 75) Today was pretty slow. We had stayed up late recording last night so everyone was pretty tired, Drake had baseball and Dylan had play rehearsal. So reed mixed all of the songs we had so far while abe and I gave suggestions and critiques on how the songs could be mixed. We also worked on the video for another un named song.

Tuesday, May 14th 5 hours (70 total) Today we recorded most of dark woods. We did the guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. We are happy with the current recording that we have. We might add another guitar track. We hope to have kai record a saxophone or piano solo on dark woods, but it depends on if we can get him to the studio. We also are going to get Joe to have a solo on this track the next time he is not working. We made a lot of progress today.

Monday, May 13th 5 hours (65 total) Today we worked a lot on candles sex and cigarettes. We recorded guitar, Drums, and vocals. We recorded the guitar solo for drake wich took a lot of takes to get it the way we wanted it because we are really striving for a good sound. Once Dylan got back from play rehearsal we recorded his drum solo. After the full track was built up I wanted to redo my vocals so they'd fit the song better. We recorded my final vocals, with the full track and I was able to put a lot more emotion and power into the vocals to bring up the energy of the song as a whole. Tomorrow we plan on recording dark woods.

Weekly reflection #2 Sat= 2.5 hours Sun=2.5 hours (60 hours total) This week we focused on writing our music. Our goal is to have a final recording of at least eight songs on the album. Some of the songs we have worked on so far are “Dark Woods,” “Paradox,” “Fractals,” “Let Go,” and “Candles, Sex, and Cigarettes.” We also have some untitled pieces. Exactly which songs will go on the album, and how many there will be total is still undecided. A lot of our material comes from improvisation, so it was challenging to write at times. Our songs each have a unique sound, with different influences. Many genres and styles have contributed to this album. Each of us has an independent technique, so balancing all that together has been really interesting. Overall, I think our band has a very special and fresh sound. The process of writing, practicing, recording, and editing music has been so satisfying. Writing lyrics really allows me to reflect on myself. When I write lyrics, they largel

Friday, May 10th 5 hours (total= 55 hours) Today was really productive. Drake was sick so he stayed home from baseball. Abe and Joe came over so that we could play together as a band. We then played all of the songs that we have been writing and practicing. Reed recorded all of them so that we have them all digitally for reference when doing the final recording. When we do our final recordings each instrument will have an individual track so that we can change the effects of each instrument and get the best possible recordings.

Thursday, May 9th 5 hours (total = 50 hours) Today was spent getting a working session of dark woods recorded. We started by getting the guitars and bass to the desired sound, and then we jammed for a few minutes to get into the groove before recording. We then recorded a live instrumental with Drake and Joe on guitar, Abe on bass, and Dylan on drums. We did a few takes and then settled on one we were happy with. Reed then made another track where I layered my vocals over the instrumental track. The rest of the night was spent matching riffs to lyrics we had written, to make a couple new song ideas. We spent a lot of time figuring out the part of each instrument, as well as the form of the songs.

Wednesday, May 8th 2.5 hours (total=45 hours) Today was a rest day where we looked at what we had so far. We did some editing to paradox as well as jamming on some new song ideas. Ceilidh is gone so we will have to get her back over here to finish that track. We also devised a plan on how we can most effectively use the week and a half that we have left to create and produce an 8 track album that we are happy with that is up to our grey space standards. All in all, things are going pretty well. Hopefully, we can get abe and joe over here a little more often even though abe is coming whenever he is free. It's nice to have an extra set of hands fully committed to this project. We hope to get Alex McCarter over here this weekend to record vocals for us.

Tuesday, May 7th 5 hours (total=42.5 Hours) Today we made a lo-fi mix for paradox and recorded drakes clean picking guitar over it. Celidih then came over to record her vocals. It took a little while for her to learn the form of the song and to hit the notes the way that we wanted it to be. After a few takes she was in the swing of things and we got a good recording for the first couple of verses. After that, we had her record the vocals for the chorus. I then put some of my vocals under hers for backup. We ended up with a good recording that will need some touchups but that we are happy with. I have also been mis-logging my hours somehow, so I am fixing it in this blog.

Friday May 4th 5 hours (total= 20 Hours) Today is drakes birthday. We woke up and did some jamming and reworking of a couple of songs that we are going to start recording by early next week. Drake had a baseball game a little after noon so we got in as much playing as we could before then. When he got back i took him and the rest of the band to a surprise party that i helped put together for drake. We Then ended up preforming a few of our songs with just vocals, two acoustic guitars, and a harmonica. It sounded good and we performed in front of a decent number of people and recieved good feedback. We are excited for the upcoming week when we really get recording final tracks.

Thursday May 3rd 5 Hours (total = 15 hours) After getting the new equipment we have been doing sound checks setting levels of each instrument and trying to get everything sounding good on the overall live mix. We have been messing around with the tones and levels of each individual instrument as well as my vocals. We now have a few live recordings of song ideas to progress within the next few weeks. Joe and drake are playing guitar, while Dylan plays drums. Abe is playing the bass on this album and is quickly picking it up. Reed is our main producer, but he is teaching Dylan to use the equipment. I have been working on my vocals so that they are the best they can be for the album.

Wednesday, May 2nd 5 hours (total= 10 Hours) Today Dylan's parents bought us a brand new mixing board, interfaces, and Microphones. We had the full band assembled Drake Reed, Dylan, Abe, Joe and I. we all have different schedules, so it's hard to find a time where everyone can come over at the same time.  We spent most of the day just jamming and teaching abe The basslines to a few of our songs, we recorded a lot of our jam sessions at a professional quality that we haven't had before. We are excited to continue recording on this new equipment and really get into our grove of recording.

Monday, May 6th Today I picked up abe and drove to drakes house. we got the band together minus joe and got the microphone set up so that I could sing while we played. We then worked on the music and form of our song dark woods. Abe is picking up bass fast with drake helping him learn. We also worked more on the form for our second track and practiced that. I worked on progressing the lyrics in both of these songs. Drake and Dylan had to go to sports so reed abe and I worked on some editing of live recordings.

This week started out by getting reed and Dylan moved out of campus and into drakes house with all of their necessities. We then set up the studio with The drum kits, guitar amps, Bass amp  and guitar racks. We did some minor soundproofing on the walls, and then hung up cloth tapestries around the room to dampen the sound further. We got all ot the wiring and our two microphones set up. And started jamming as a band with Dylan on drums reed producing and drake and i on guitar. After a little while of that we discovered that we were going to need more equipment, so Dylans Parents generously bought us a brand new mixing board, interfaces, and multiple different kinds of microphones for recording amps, vocals, and drums. We had two of our close friends who don't go to proctor hop on board to help us record this album. The first being Joe derby, an outstanding guitarist, And the second being my friend Abe Belcourt who is our bass player. We jammed a lot with this new equipment and star