More vox
Jan 29, 2010 Know the Band
I was out at the studio on Tuesday night to do more work on the backing vocals, now that Drew has finished lead vocals. B and I were able to get through five songs, to add to the two I’ve already done. Four to go, then we’ll all take a listen to what we have so far, decide what else needs to be recorded and push to get it all done.
One thing that was really interesting was to listen to the work that B had done on Drew’s vocals. It is no secret that everyone corrects pitch on pro recordings these days, and we’re no different. Usually you can’t hear the results, but what I heard on Tuesday sounded a bit… odd. After talking it through for a while, it turned out that the cause of the unusual nature of the edited vocals was in fact some extra heavy compression. Things sounded fine with either the compression or the pitch correction, but both together made for an unnatural effect. They are after all doing the same thing, smoothing out the track. Compression smooths the dynamics (volume) whilst auto-tune smooths the pitch. When it sounds too smooth, it sounds unnatural. The solution was to dial back the compression, and now it sounded terrific.
It was really enjoyable to work with B on the problem-solving process – I always learn such a huge amount whenever I’m working with him, and we’re incredibly lucky to have him at the helm of this project.
Listen (or download) songs from The Whitehalls debut CD!
Jan 29, 2010 Know the Band
Here’s few songs from our debut CD, “Say It Like You Mean It”
(we’re in the studio recording the follow up CD right now!)
Click the big arrow on the left to play the song – click the download button on the tracks if you like them!
Drew gets a new toy
Jan 16, 2010 Know the Band
Drew and I spent an afternoon last week playing with his new Christmas present, a Line6 audio interface. After years of recording his song ideas on a Walkman with a built-in mic, it was time to move into the 21st century, and the Line6 allows him to connect a mic, guitar or other electronic music device to his shiny new HP laptop.
I’d bought one last month and found it to be awesome, so I knew Drew would benefit from it. He’ll now be able to develop his songs much more than just having a rough vocal and acoustic guitar part recorded on a crappy Walkman.
Here’s a pic of how my dining room table looked whilst he was getting his training on digital audio recording. My wife was momentarily stunned to see four laptops there at one point…
Happy New Year & The Whitehalls video
Hi everyone -- The Whitehalls hope you are having a great New Year so far!
There is a lot going on:
- We’re busy recording our next CD
- Planning some shows
- Writing new songs
- Some special surprises coming soon including a new band Podcast
We will also soon have some awesome hi-res video from our recent Great American Music Hall show.
But in the meantime -- here’s an oldie but goodie called “Stars” from one of our Hotel Utah shows.
Enjoy!
