Week 42, The Game

There have been a few times throughout this project that the song that I recorded doesn’t end up being the song that I thought it would be once it starts coming together. Usually I’ll run with it and make the most of it because I kind of have to due of the time constraint, and it usually works out all right. This week’s song was just too long, and it had a really awkward change in the end part. With a little creative splicing and editing in Reaper, I was able to drop a verse and completely make over the end of the song.  I love how easy it is to seamlessly rearrange and augment a recording of live instruments. I’d love to be able to get every song just right every week, but it’s nice to have a back-up plan because I really don’t have the time to start over.

This is also one of those songs where I would really love to go back and re-record everything in higher fidelity. Not to knock the great sounds that I’ve been able to get out of my iPhone, but some songs lend themselves better to phone-fi than others.

With all of that said, this version of the song was recorded completely on the iPhone using the Alesis ProTrack with the MultiTrack DAW app. The drums were recorded with just the built in condenser mics on the ProTrack, and the guitar was recorded with the CAD E200. The vocals, which I’m dying to re-record, were done with the iPhone’s built-in mic. I spent a good bit of time applying EQ, mixing, and editing in Reaper.

Recording challenges aside, the song itself is solidly in the vein of bands like The New Year and Seam. I hope it doesn’t go as far as being derivative, but rather serves as a bit of homage, since these are a couple of my favorite bands. Seam hasn’t been around for years, but The New Year (formerly known as Bedhead with a different line-up) is still cranking out great records. Do yourself a favor and check them out.

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