We did our first recording session on 12/20/03 and the process went like this:
We all met at Chris’s house in Raleigh to record the scratch track. We had booked 4 hours for this first session and were all nervous and excited about starting something new. I brought some bagels and Chris brought some doughnuts (I wonder if you have to munch on round food while recording a CD) since we would be there across lunch time and there was likely to be some “down” time.
Chris has cleared out a small bedroom for us to use as a recording studio. He had his equipment on one table and we set up in a circle facing each other so we could hear each other well. Since we are going to replace all the tracks with just one of us there at a time, it did not matter if some of the fiddle sound got in the whistle mic or some of the guitar got in the accordion’s mic. However, Chris was going to record each instrument on a separate “track” so he could replace each part later.
We had already decided on what numbers we were going to do and had worked up arrangements of each set of tunes or songs (Note: In Irish music, a song has words, a tune does not). Once everyone was connected to the recording equipment, we started on our first number. It took a couple of takes to get everything roughly right (tempo, transitions between tunes, etc.). Since we can fix any missed notes or flubbed words in the next process, we only had to get the “fabric” of the tune right at this point. Once we finished one number, we would then begin on the next one. Each number might require a slightly different recording setup (ex. If the vocal mic was not used, don’t bother to record it, etc.)
We continued this process till we used all 4 hours of our time and in the process managed to do 8 numbers. We left Chris with the job of doing a rough mix of all those tracks into a stereo mix that we could listen to. When we go in to overdub (replace a track), we will listen to this same mix minus our own part using headphones so that the timing will be the same when Chris mixes this new part in.
It took a couple of weeks with the holidays for Chris to finish this rough mix. He delivered the CDs on 1/6/04 and I’ve been listening to the recording off and on since then trying to figure exactly what to do next.