Status update for posterity - since it obviously takes longer and more effort to actually build up a blog then just a few months (I am, however, going to rename this blog when I am finished with this album and continue it as part of my greater studio life).
The album is rapidly being finished... and it sounds pretty sick!
Today I am in the studio tightening things up... going through all eleven "finished" tracks and tight editing/fixing things that need it... sweeping through the tracks with some EQ to clean some stuff up. Changing anything that sounds off.
Basically, how I tend to work is to track in mix mode and then start mixing while I am still tracking. With the ease of Pro Tools HD11, HDX and analogue summing, it's really easy to set such a workflow up... and I am used to it and comfortable in the process.
I am now eleven tracks in! All of which are basically finished aside from some more recording and then final-stage mixing. The cool thing about mixing whilst recording is that... when the recording part is finished, it already sounds totally sick and mixed... which is easier (and also more challenging to a certain extent) to get the tracks to a point that can be considered "finished."
Tomorrow I have a bass session with Dom Fisher. He is probably the best bassist I have ever seen play a bass guitar, aside from the big time pros like wooten and what not. The thing is, though... he can literally play all that shit. But when he is not in crazy-fast mode, he is just a straight up excellent, tasteful bassist... not to mention a super chill dude. Thus, tomorrow night we will record bass on four songs: expansion, brunette, connection and eleven years... and those songs will all be sounding quite "finished." (I keep putting finished in quotes, because nothing is finished until I send it to be mastered).
After this bass session, I need to plan another rhodes/organ session with Zac [Doob], the keyboardist in my band Ions. Then another saxophone session with Steve Daniels... and then an hour recording Jamie Yaman's native american-esque flute and a didgeridoo session with Paul Speight.
The last two sessions will be creating the final song for the album, that which I still do not know what it is or what it will sound like. But I know that it is going to have a really cool and unique melodic/ambient vibe that will help close out this super chill, spaced out album.
