recording – TrentDavis.net

A few years back I started recording an album with the local band Bright & Shiny. It appears that the album is now on Production Hell and may never see the light of day.

I was given temporary tracks to record along to. This was helpful but frustrating at the same time since the main songwriter likes to play “free-time” with fluctuating tempos. As the drummer, being the one who is in charge of the tempo, I was concerned with this. I have spent my life trying to have a more consistent tempo and now I’m having to fight that. That being said, I tried to get the tempo to be more consistent while allowing the songs to have the varying feel that the songwriter was after.

Since these songs may never see the light of day, I decided to share the video performances here in hopes that it might generate enough interest in this project to get it finished. I was working on videos that show the main drum performance along with little pop-up videos of the backing percussion. Sadly, I only got this far with the first song, but this is why there is a black border around the videos.

I’ll present each song along with some notes on each one. Keep in mind that the tracks I’m playing along to are not the finished performance from the rest of the band.

Soothsayer

This is one of my favorites. As such, it’s the one that I got the furthest with. This song is inspired by the character of Lodz from the HBO show Carnivàle.

I created a tempo map for this song. The first half is played loosely to a click in that the beginning of the chorus speeds up a bit then slows down towards the end so it lines back up on the click as the next section starts. Once the song changes about halfway through, the tempo goes all over the place, speeding up then slowing down, then speeding up again with no rhyme or reason, never getting back on the original click. I had to do my best to keep it sounding smooth and intentional.

The Places We Must Go

I really like this one and I would love to hear how it would have ended up. I had some pretty big plans for this one, percussion-wise.

Crooked Tree

I got a chance to dust off my brushes for this song. I have since done a lot more brushwork so I cringe a little bit when I look back at this video. Still, I think it sounds pretty good.

Christopher and Anna

The backing vocals are missing from this scratch track so there are some awkward pauses here and there.

Fallen Trenchcoat

This song starts out pretty mellow but builds in dynamics towards the end. If memory serves, this song is about three-ways.

Don’t Take My Meds Away

They pulled a fast one with this and added an extra section after I had finished my recording. I had to splice in a previous take of different section at the end when it starts to fade out.

Genesis Story

This was the first song I recorded for Bright & Shiny. I was really fighting the tempo on this one and I chose to keep it tight with the click. As a result, it doesn’t flow very well. What I should have done was what I ended up doing with the rest of the songs which is meet in the middle, acting as a bridge between a tight click and the loose “sloppy” sound of the wavering tempo.

I like the chorus because I get to play a driving Charlie Watts beat like the one he plays in Midnight Rambler in the faster section.

Your Face Is Upside-Down

I tried to take a different approach with the beat for this song. To match the title I turned the beat upside-down by swapping the kick and snare parts during the verses.

The End Holding Your Hand

There are some rather tasty double-bass triplets at the ending buildup in this song.

This Waiting

There are some decent driving beats in this song as well as some subtle hi-hat pedal work.

That’s all..

I would love to finish this project but it seems to have died. If anyone is interested in seeing this get finished, let me know and I’ll pass this along to those involved. Maybe we can generate enough interest to make it happen.

News – January 8th, 2018 – Outfeed surface, Recording, and Cthulhu

News

Trent DavisJanuary 8, 2018January 8, 2018One Comment

Outfeed table

Almost a year ago I decided to try a new work surface for my outfeed/assembly table. I wrote about this here. After using and abusing it for almost a year, my official opinion is that I don’t really care for it much. I found the texture to be problematic in that it retained glue and stain. I also set my chop saw on it and it was bombarded with hot metal shavings which would melt into it and turn it into a big sheet of sandpaper. Let me be clear; this isn’t a fault of the material. All this shows is that it isn’t well suited for something that it wasn’t designed to handle. Makes sense.

In the end, I decided to go back to my old standby: white hardboard.

Recording Woes

It is proving more problematic to get time to record lately. In the meantime, I will be using that opportunity to perform and write-up the Shure SM57 right-angle-mod and also the MXL 603 capacitor mod which makes a $100 condenser mic sound like a $500 condenser mic (your mileage may vary).

My Amazing Wife

My wife doesn’t like to show off her work so I am doing it for her. This is a felted Cthulhu that she made as a Christmas present for her brother. I’d love for her to start a blog because she does some really amazing work. If you’d like to see more, let me know and I’ll pass it along.

Other work…

There are a few other things in the works that I can’t speak of yet but I’ll post an update when they’re secured.

News – November 2nd, 2017 – Wiring, teaching, and recording

News

Trent DavisNovember 2, 2017November 2, 2017

I’ve been lax in posting news updates. I’m going to try to be better about this.

Wiring

I’ve got the studio desk pretty much done, but I’m doing some additional wiring, such as adding a few electrical outlets to the desk itself.

I’m also making all new audio cables. This includes 32 XLR cables for inside the desk, 16 XLR cables for the drum mics, dozens of 14″ TRS cables, and a 16-channel XLR snake. I keep pushing this off since I’m not looking forward to that much soldering. Tedious work while hunched over a workbench gets old really quick. I’m going to do these in batches.

Shure SM57 Right-Angle Mod

I have several Shure SM57 microphones that I am going to perform the right-angle mod to. I plan on documenting this thoroughly so anyone can do this. In the following picture you can see the microphone on the right, which has the right-angle mod applied, is much more out of the way than the one on the left, which does not have the mod applied.

Teaching

On November 29th, I will be teaching a class for The Guild of Oregon Woodworkers on the care and feeding of a SawStop (the class isn’t advertised on their site yet). It’s been a while since I taught a class so I’m really looking forward to this. I’ll try to convert all the info into articles on my blog so if you are unable to make it to the class – due to previous commitments or the fact that you are thousands of miles away from Portland Oregon – you can still make use of the information.

Recording for Bright & Shiny

Recording is still going on for the album by Bright & Shiny. It’s hard for me to get time to record, lately. I only have the drum tracks to a few songs left, then I can proceed with the auxiliary percussion. After that, I will begin posting videos of each song.

The Map of Alice

Sadly, I had to call it quits with The Map of Alice. There were some personality conflicts and the visions for the project were just not lining up. It was mostly fun while it lasted.

News – August 29th, 2017 – Recording and various other projects

Music, News, Percussion, Woodworking

Trent DavisAugust 29, 2017

A lot has happened in the past few weeks that has kept me from updating my blog. I’ll try to summarize the important bits.

Recording for Bright & Shiny

I spent some time working on a few more tracks for Bright & Shiny as well as reworking a few older tracks that I wasn’t happy with. I ended up re-recording a song that I was really struggling with since the timing is all over the map and I am playing along with pre-recorded tracks. After recording the song sixteen times (no exaggeration) I finally came to the conclusion that I simply can’t release something to go along with this song that I would be proud of. I spoke with the engineer and he said that they’re going to re-record the other parts with a click and get that to me so I can put down some decent drum tracks for it.

Slow-Motion video of new ride cymbal

I made a slow-motion video of my Sabian Vault ride cymbal that I featured a few weeks back. This was mainly just a test to see what quality I can get out of my phone when filming at 120 frames-per-second. Here’s the video that I shot:

Recording for The Map of Alice

I will be producing the recording of three tracks for The Map of Alice, the local gigging band that I play with each week. I’ll be posting the progress here on this blog. I will also be making a music video for at least one of the songs, possibly all of them.

Web site creation for The Map of Alice

The time that I haven’t been spending in the studio, playing live, or watching Twin Peaks, I have been spending on the new web site for The Map of Alice. I’ll announce when it has gone live.

Studio desk plans

I’ve once again changed the plans for my studio desk. My problem is that I only want to do this once so I’m being rather picky about how I put this together. I don’t have anything finalized yet but I’m getting close.

Shop issues

Work in the shop has been minimal, at best. I can’t even walk out there right now. My main problem is that I have too much building material. I’ve got piles of scrap lumber, cracked cymbals, metal stock, electrical components, and aquariums. Yeah, that’s right. There’s a big 55-gallon aquarium taking up a big chunk of space in my shop. The kicker is that it isn’t even mine. Now that the busy August month is pretty much over and the weather is (hopefully) going to start cooling off pretty soon, I’ll be able to focus on getting my shop into a usable state again and start cranking out some more build projects.

My daughter turned 18!

This actually took up a good chunk of my time. My daughter, Audrey, turned 18. We had a few get-togethers but mostly we’ve been trying to help her make the transition into adulthood.

That’s it. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things but the point is, I’ve been busy.

News – July 20th, 2017 – Studio Desk Plans

Music, News, Woodworking

Trent DavisJuly 20, 2017

I think I may have settled on a final design for a recording studio desk.

This satisfies all of my requirements.

It’s mobile.
It doesn’t take up much space.
It is self contained.
It has amenities for both the studio engineer and the talent.

The plan is that it will be a desk that has all of the electrical and audio connections built in. If you need to plug in an amp, the desk will have several electrical jacks. Need to charge your phone while you record? There are charging jacks for that as well.

There will be connections for power from the wall and ethernet into the desk, as well as a 5-port hub with ethernet jacks on both the front and back of the desk.

The construction of this might take some time since I haven’t decided if I want to make it out of cheaper plywood and cover it with laminate, or make it out of nicer wood and just stain it and add a few clear-coats.

What do you think? Any suggestions? What am I missing?

News – June 5th, 2017 – Recording Progress

Music, News, Percussion

Trent DavisJune 5, 2017June 5, 2017

Recording Progress – Bright & Shiny

This weekend I managed to get time to record two more songs for Bright & Shiny. The two songs are titled This Waiting and The End Holding Your Hand.

I was particularly happy to get The End Holding Your Hand recorded because of how I go about recording. While I am working on a song, I listen to it repeatedly while I drive to-and-from work each day. I use that time to write out different parts and memorize the structure of the song.

Unfortunately, I don’t get many opportunities to actually record since I need to get the family out of the house. This means that I may sometimes end up listening to a song quite a bit before I get to actually record it. In the case of this song, I listened to it repeatedly for over three weeks. As you can imagine, I was pretty damn sick of it by the time I got around to actually laying down the tracks.

When I record, I also film. I am working on videos of each song to compile into a mini documentary on the recording of the drums and percussion for this album.

I only have two more songs to record then I’ll be focusing on the auxiliary percussion.

Here are rough-cuts of the drum performance videos. The drum tracks need to be mixed properly and the track I’m playing along with is only a temporary scratch track. I’ll update them when I get a final mix of the songs.

This Waiting

The End Holding Your Hand

These drum tracks are a little more sparse than I typically prefer but that is intentional since I needed to leave space for auxiliary percussion.

Here’s an example of a song with finished percussion, although it isn’t a final mix.

Soothsayer

Photo taken after recording the track "Crooked Tree" by Bright & Shiny

News – May 5th, 2017

News

Trent DavisMay 5, 2017

Current Projects

I’ve got several projects in the works and many more planned for the near future. Below is a list and description of what I am currently working on.

Bright & Shiny

I’m about halfway through recording the drum tracks for the upcoming album by Bright & Shiny. The style of music has been described as “dark cabaret”. I have a video of the various percussion tracks I recorded for the song Soothsayer that I may post soon, pending permission from the song copyright holder.

Jongwon Kim

I will soon be recording and performing the drum tracks for the upcoming album by Jongwon Kim. I will also be recording the bass guitar parts that will be performed by Kevin Cameron. I actually already have several of the drum tracks recorded but I put that project on hold as it seemed that the song structure was going to be changing.

Here is one of the tracks that I performed. I made a video of the recorded performance.

The Map of Alice

I have recently joined the project The Map of Alice. This is a live band that performs improv gypsy jazz. The band consists of two guys on acoustic guitar, myself on drums and my daughter Audrey on accordion. We perform somewhat regularly in the Hillsboro area, We are planning on doing some recording and video soon. Their YouTube channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcJrxAe-Ol-VXn_HRz2DtYg

SM57 Right-Angle Mod

The SM57 on the right has had the right-angle mod applied. The one on the left with the cable plugged in) has not.

I have already performed a right-angle mod on one of my SM57 microphones. I have several others that I will be doing this to. I’ll be making a write-up on how to do that once I get a chance to actually do this.

Shop Cabinets

I badly need to make new shop cabinets. I threw these together a few years back without much thought to them other than making them a uniform width and easily swappable due to the cleat system installed in my shop. They’re too shallow. I’m making new ones that are 16″ deep and will have doors.

Studio Desk

I’ve been long planning on making a new studio desk. I’ve designed 9 different versions and I haven’t been 100% happy with any of them. I have a few requirements that are making this challenging.

It needs to be on wheels.
It needs to have one side that is a computer desk for the recording engineer and the back should have a computer monitor that mirrors the engineers display for the musician.
It needs to have rackspace. Specifically, I need one 4u rack for the PC, and one 4u (or two 2u racks) for the musician’s side which will have patchbays and tuners and one 4u (or two 2u racks) for the engineer side with the power strip and the recording interface.
It should be wide enough to house a single computer monitor and two studio speakers.
It needs to be self contained. I want to be able to plug one power cord and one ethernet cable into the back or side of the desk and have everything work.

I’m getting closer to a final design. I’m toying with the idea of designing it like a road case so I can pack it up and throw it in the back of my car and take it out for some remote recording.

Road Case for Live Shows

Speaking of road cases, I’m going to design and build a more portable version for housing a mixer and any live gear. I’ll keep you posted on any progress on this.