Topping and Tailing Tracks

Day Seven.


Yes indeed, I have organised the tracks for the new album! I hope this will be allowed to pass as de-cluttering! I've been deleting unwanted tracks, and nipping off the beginnings and endings of every single recorded track on every single song. Which means there will be no unwanted throat-clearing, rustling, twitching or space-bar sounds on any of the songs, horray! It's all sounding very lovely now. The sound is clear and pure, apart from the occasional crackle from the fire, the odd tweeting bird outside the window, and the obvious jets roaring around the Mach Loop faster than the speed of sound. No, amazingly, we managed to avoid the latter, as well as the unexpected phone calls and slammed doors somewhere in the depth of the house. A miracle!

It took about two hours to complete this task, as well as composing a list of what each track on each song consisted of. Now it's much easier to see what has yet to be added to each song. I spent a couple of hours recording guitar and violin parts for 'I'll Be There' (working title) and I'm feeling pretty pleased with the results. I'm afraid I can't put them up here, partly because I don't know how to, but also because we want to wait until it's ready before we unveil the finished album. I can share some screen clips though! The one at the top of this post is our version of Woody Guthrie's 'Do Re Mi,' still relevant in these days of economic uncertainty.

And the one below is mine - 'I'll Be There' - the four tracks on the right are fiddle (recorded twice with two microphones each time) and I'm very excited about that addition to the song - even though the violin is an integral part of our sound, somehow it seems to be the last thing you'd expect to hear at the end of this song :)


Side note: Originally I had thought I might need to take an actual photo of my screen, but a quick search on Mac Help revealed 'Grab' to me - a tool which can be used to capture a window, or even your entire screen. Very handy indeed! That reminds me, yesterday Tall Paul came round to use our wi-fi, in orderhook up to Skype and have a logistical conversation with his web designer. He said to me "I wish there was a way I could see his screen! This would be so much quicker!" so I told him about the 'Share My Screen' button on Skype. It wasn't available on his version, but once he'd updated it and downloaded the latest version - there it was. The miracles of technology never cease to surprise and delight :)

Oh, by the way, I'd like to introduce you to John Whipple, bare-footed bluesman and songwriter extraordinaire from Salt Lake City, Utah. Here's his Myspace page and here's his blog. He's just joined The Tangled Yarn crew. I got to hang out with him in SLC this summer, where I recorded a bit of fiddle on the track 'Too Good for Me' on his latest album 'Bible Milk.'

If you'd like to check out my music, you'll find it on Ember's Myspace page, and our website.
(Can't fault a bit of harmless self-promotion!)