Happy first day of Spring! Gosh, it's about time, ain't it?

When I was building my studio last year, I looked forward to the days that were like today--tracking in an acoustically neutral room without the pressure of figuring out how to pay for it.

I only got 5 hours of work logged in, but it was a productive 5 hours.

Before my trip to Florida, I took an evening to open up all of the session files for the album. I made a chart (pictured above) to notate the progress I have made on the album, as well as what still needs to be done.

The song I focused on today was "Out of My Mind." I had debated having Dale retrack a part on a full, traditional drum kit. After tweaking a few things and listening to some reference tracks that use percussion, I've decided to develop the original idea. The song I have been listening to for inspiration and reference is Peter Gabriel's "Blood of Eden" from Us.

The first thing I noticed about the Gabriel track was that it uses pads and percussion to set a backdrop for the very present vocal. I'd like to see how far I can get with a similar approach. I tracked three "pad" tracks with the Xpand plug-in first. A "pad" is a soft, background part, often played on a synthesizer or played by a mass of string instruments. Now-a-days, synths often have "pad" settings that achieve this. I like the pads I chose; two non-moving parts and one arp pad. (Arp is short for arpeggio; or, rhythmically and individually plucked components of a single chord).

Next, I tracked the acoustic guitar. This song has some acrobatic, 16th note harmonics, so I tracked those separately. I employed a basic di/mic for the verse parts and a classic x/y system for the choruses and bridge. This allows for some movement between the sections.

Finally, I had time to track the lead vocal, recording six takes in all. Pro Tools allows for as many takes as you'd like. For me, I'm only capable of keeping track of 10 takes at a time. Between five and six is where I like to start. If something isn't right in the editing, it's always easy to set up the mic's again and punch a word or two.

The next step will be editing the performances from today, as well as looking at what has already been recorded.