Recording Weekend

I spent (essentially) the whole weekend in a recording studio. Groove For Thought is working on its new album, so we spent Friday night and all day Saturday recording a new song. We were originally planning on recording this weekend at Bellevue College, but (in typical GFT fashion) things didn't really go according to plan.

Day 1
Even though Kelly specifically requested that the heat be turned off in the recording studios (because they are noisy and not because he is a sadistic jerk... why would you even think those horrible thoughts about him... for shame), the heating was still on when I arrived at 4:30 (a half hour before the session was supposed to start and a half hour after the heating was supposed to be off). After a nice walk, a confusing conversation, and a lengthy wait; we finally got the heating turned off. Crisis avoided right? Well... it seems that the lab tech decided that that day was the day to update the system software on the computer in the recording studio. Of course (boy I sound negative tonight), that fell on its face. The tech had the wrong discs and even after he was done (loading the wrong system software), the computer wouldn't boot. At this point, about half an hour after we were supposed to have started, we decided to drive to our rehearsal/recording space and just do the session there.

Once we got to our rehearsal/recording space (which was called Penguin Studios last I heard) things went pretty smoothly. We got a surprising amount of work done before we were too tired to keep going and despite our late start, it was an enjoyable experience.

Day 2
After a good night's sleep on the couch in the studio, I woke up to Kelly doing some editing on the tracks that we laid down the night before. Because "Penguin Studios" is a home studio, it has been a bit difficult to record there during the weekends because of stray noise (neighbors mowing lawns, dog barking, airplanes flying overhead, etc.). So, Brennan, Kelly, Jeff, and I started to come up with plans for an isolation booth (keep in mind that at this point I've been awake for roughly 10 minutes). Brennan and Jeff ran to a local hardware store with the plans while Amanda and I laid down some (dope) tracks while the morning was still young and the risk of lawn mowing was still pretty slim. Once Brennan and Jeff returned, construction began and the first food run took place.

Again, after an unforeseen (yet completely necessary) setback; things went relatively smoothly. We worked until about 11:00pm. Even though we had a few setbacks, I think we all left the studio happy.

Peter