Monday 1st October 2007

A productive day after a weekend of marathon running, eating and visiting parents. Adrian visited and found time to track four bass parts for the My Attorney material. As I’ve said before, it’s a real treat to work with a musician who’s so intuitive and has such a distinctive style. At this early stage of the songs’ gestation, it’s hard for me to give much direction, so I’m content to let him do his thing and then we’ll see how it all fits together further on down the line. Not a recommended production technique, but it’s worked in the past! We were DI-ing a Fender Mexican Jazz. This comes after repeated problems micing up my tiny Advantage bass amp, which gives more hiss and rattle than it should. Ideally it’s always better to use amplifiers and microphones to record instruments, because the ear responds more readily to the movement of air rather than a direct line signal. In this case though, I though it better to keep things as clean as possible. Interestingly, Adrian opted to play some of the takes with a drop D tuning, something which wasn’t necessary but that added a deeper reach to some of the parts.