With drums, bass and guitar in the can, it’s time to start doing my final vocals on the songs. Kevin just picked up a really good vocal mike, one that can be dialed up to match some vintage and very expensive microphones, and, of itself, has a very clean and flat sound. Kevin was quite pleased with the maiden voyage of this equipment and I was glad to be the guinea pig.
The plan was to do three takes of each song and be able to cobble a good version out of them. It also gave me the chance to warm up to each song and crank up my performance values as well. It worked. There were muffs and errors along the way, forgetting a verse, etc., but the studio process deals with that sort of thing quite well. I know and Kevin knows so we work well together punching in the corrections.
We worked on Don’t Call Me Early, False From True, Giant, Louise and Rosie is a Friend of Mine. It was about a three hour session but it moves quickly when I’m in the zone. It is more work than usual since I’m now dealing with an upper denture that affects my diction. I have to be very careful with my ‘sss’ and other minor distractions, but, thanks to my theater and other recording work, I’m used to annunciating clearly. It’s on my mind, though, and I try to focus on the performance. It’s quite intense.
It turned out well, and we will get some very good stuff out of it. I also realize that my pitch is less than perfect, but having the headphones on helps a good bit. I’m afraid that my live performances suffer from some of this rag-ear, and contribute to a certain vocal inconsistency that my good performance skills have to make up for. So it goes.