Been focused the last few days on redesigning and developing a few new merch items. Just got the first sample of a line of bathing suits that I’ll be introducing for the summer; looks pretty cool!
Also starting to go through Steve’s string arrangements in
earnest; it takes a few hours to sit down with each set of demo stems and mix
them into the rest of the recording so that I can really get a sense of what modifications
and minor adjustments I’d like to address.
Any industrial engineers out there will be familiar with the “critical
path” concept, where one task needs to be completed before any of the others
can commence. That concept comes into
play when developing the overall arrangements sequentially, as we’re doing here.
The process of building each individual track is relatively
straightforward at the outset. You start
with the rhythm section… record the drums, then the bassline that needs to work
in conjunction with the drums (and in particular, the kick), then the foundational
(e.g., rhythm/supporting) guitar. This
constitutes your basic track.
From that point is where things start to get interesting. For most band/rock projects, adding guitar
leads and supporting keys might be fairly straightforward – you’ve got some
space, you pretty much know what’s going to fill it. In our case, it’s a bit more complex. The space available needs to be allocated
among strings, lead guitar and keys. In
sticking to the ELO blueprint, the strings and keys are not just background
instruments; rather, they are intended to have leading roles.
The string arrangements are by far the most complex, as they
consist of multiple voices and lots of interesting runs and the like. So, we generally want Steve to have enough
space/freedom to develop those parts with little restriction. We do, however, also have to consider where guitar
and keyboard leads will be assigned – and develop sections where the strings
will be responding to and/or supporting parts that haven’t yet been recorded. And, we really can’t record those
guitar/keyboard leads until the string parts have been finalized.
Due to Steve’s intensive schedule (and the fact that we’re not only not in the same room or even city; we’re not even on the same continent), we have a situation where Steve is running the first pass on each track without my involvement/feedback; we will convene at a later date to finalize the arrangements for all of the tracks at the same time. That might not be for a few months – and we’ll need to defer on recording not only lead guitar and keys, but also backing vocals, until that later date…
