Tag Archives: bass

Class is in session

It looks like I’ve got a few good drum tracks now.  We’ve not finished tracking drums – in fact, we’re a little less than halfway finished, but I’m at a point where I can start adding in more instruments.

Bass is the next step in the process.  I haven’t really thought much about the bass because it’s kind of second nature to me at this point.  I’ve had to adjust some things slightly to key off things Kevin is playing, but for the most part, I’ve been able to record bass tracks in a single take.  In the couple of cases where I haven’t just sat down and played the bass parts, I cheat for the sake of speed.  I’ll record two tracks of bass and alternate between the two.  I’ll play the verses on one track, then the choruses on the other.  They edit together seamlessly, and its way faster to do it that way when you need to re-record parts.  I don’t like doing major editing to the tracks to accomodate a punch in, so this way works pretty well.  I’ve only done it on two songs so far, because I kept messing up one part, and I didn’t feel like redoing the entire track.

Now, it’s time for guitars.  My primary rhythm guitarist is a fellow by the name of Grant Henry.  There’s a very good chance that anyone reading this already knows who he is, and has wound up here by way of his Metroid Metal project.  I’ve managed a small amount of internet fame as a direct result of riding his coattails as the bass player on many of those songs, and I also get to play in his full live band for MM.  Anyone who has heard his solo stuff as Stemage knows that he doesn’t actually *need* me, so I feel fortunate to be included.  Grant and I have known or at least known of each other for over a decade now, as we were both part of the same music scene.  We’ve done quite a bit of over-the-internet collaboration, and he’s asked me to send him stuff to play on, so he was way high on the list when I was putting together this project.  He’s a fantastic musician, and one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet.  That’s lucky for me, because I’m hanging a lot of the weight of this album on him.

He’s always given me a lot of leeway in what I can do with the tracks he’s asked me to play on, so I’m giving him the same freedom – but, I also want him to work in my original guitar ideas since many of these songs started as a guitar part, and I want to preserve the kernal that sparked the whole thing.  I can’t wait to see what he’s able to do, because I’ve had to deal with listening to my guitar playing on these songs for years.  So, to get him up to speed on what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, I’ve made some instructional videos for him.  When we were learning the parts for Metroid Metal Live, he made videos for me as well as the other guitarists.   These were incredibly helpful, so I’m returning the favor.  I’ll upload the videos to YouTube and he can refer to them at his leisure.  Sorry, but they’re shared privately at the moment.  Maybe they’ll be included on the “making of” DVD*.

I’m thinking of calling the album “Holy Crap, I Love the Internet.”

*no, I’m not actually making a DVD