Up at 6.18 in error, for some reason Jukebox clock said 7:18 – probably still on France time...
After they’ve been lying in a bag for the last two and half weeks, I finally get out the Crispycat Mobile Facility and the recordings from the second set of OOTBCD4 sessions...
I set the studio back up and start transferring the recordings to the hard drive...
Target this weekend is to get all 14 tracks on to a CD to allow the OOTB committee, when they meet on Monday night, to hear a rough version what it’s like – I already have the first seven songs ready...
A highlight of this early morning session is having to run downstairs to separate Meg the Black Cat and The Black and White Cat With the Bell as they hiss and snarl at each other through the catflap...
By 9:30 I have transferred five of the seven sessions from the second night, recorded back on 22 March...
And so it's out for breakfast - to Patisserie Florentin of course – just coffee and a croissant for Anne, a latte and a pain au raisin for me...
A stroll down into Stockbridge and, while Anne goes off to buy some lovely rolls, I browse the Oxfam Music Shop and pick up Joachim Witt’s 1981 album “Silberblick” which features Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with both Can and Michael Rother. It's very much an "of-its-time" album...
Also, a disc of Rautavaara’s “Works for Piano” which includes two piano sonatas, a series of Etudes, a series of Preludes, a Partita and a set of pieces called “Icons”...
Finally, adding to the creaking overload of CDs chez Crispycat is a two disc set of Messiaen’s “Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jesus” which I’ve been after for a while and which Anne later pronounces to be “not very tuneful”...
I decide I want a big jersey – probably influenced by the coldness today and the fact that I’ve come out with just a T-shirt and Jacket on...( ok, and trousers, pants, socks, boots etc – come on...)...
So we go to a great big Woolen Mill outlet and I end up getting two for just £20 in their “buy one get one free” offer...
A nice big blue one and a “bracken” one. Both fit my “large” frame very nicely...
As we are leaving, Anne spots a V-Neck version of the Bracken one and remembers Trinny and Susannah’s advice on “What Not To Wear” that, ahem, “larger” men ought to wear V-Neck jerseys with T-Shirts underneath. I try it on, she is suitably impressed and we do a swap...
Back home, Dr Prog calls wanting me to accompany him to a Barclay James Harvest concert in November – that’s ages away. I agree (Anne sniggers at mention of BJH)...
I also agree to a trip to Glasgow next month to see the reformed Syn with Chris Squire of Yes and which now also includes Yes’ Alan White on drums. They’re playing a tiny club gig, so it should be good to see the Yesmen we normally only see from afar at huge gigs up close and personal...
Then to the computer to continue the OOTB work. I check my e-mails only to find one from childhood chum Lindsay who quite rightly chides me for not visiting her when we were in Avignon....
Checking the map for her now home town I realise it’s only a stone’s throw away – I thought she lived out in the wilds somewhere between Nimes and Arles but am very wrong indeed...
I feel like an idiot....
I ought to have e-mailed her before we left to check where she was. Aargghh!
We will definitely visit next time we get to Provence...
We do however enjoy a good exchange of e-mails today and I suggest to Lindsay that that’s almost like a visit? OK maybe not...
Another 90 minutes and I think I’ve finished the OOTB transfer to the hard drive but no – I’ve recorded one of the acts in mono so I need to do that one again. But it gives me another chance to judge the best song to include on the CD...
Another 30 minutes and I’m ready to start editing the chosen songs out of the overall session wav files...
Before I know it it’s 2 pm and Anne’s off to Tynecastle for the game. I was meant to go to the gym while she’s away but the OOTB thing’s taking longer than expected...
By five pm I have the first draft of a 14 track CD lasting just under an hour (while Hearts have thrashed Dr Prog's home team, Dunfermline, and Queen of the South have drawn with Airdrie away, a creditable result which keeps them just ahead of Stranraer with three games to go)...
I listen all the way through the mock up CD and realise a couple of the song choices need to be amended due to recording/performance glitches – this was always going to be the case when you record seven different acts in one night and only have thirty minutes for each to get the sound right and a good performance down and hope that somehow those two requirements will happen simultaneously...
In a couple of cases, I’m having to edit together parts from different takes of the same song to get a better overall product – sometimes due to the performances, sometimes due to my mixing on the night, sometimes due to the background noises from The Waverley Bar and the traffic on the street outside...
So it’s back to the computer for more listening and editing and, by seven, I have another draft disc to listen to for another hour whilst “Casualty” plays on the TV and we dine on a chinese takeaway...
By 8:30, I realise the running order needs a slight tweak and I need a third choice song for one of the acts – so I head back to the computer again...
At 9 Anne calls me down for “CSI :NY” which is followed by “Law & Order : Criminal Intent” but I eschew “Match of the Day” to get this beast done tonight....
I finish off editing the last track out of the artist in question’s full session and burn a third mock up...
Of course, I still need to get all the varying volumes adjusted so the CD doesn’t sound like it’s all over the shop but I've already spent 13 hours today on this...
And so I finish off the day by updating the diary for the last three days, ending just as the last track on OOTBCD4 mock up also ends....
The songs are correct and the running order is correct...
Now for some surfing whilst listening to my new Rautavaara disc...
Highlight of the Day : Two New Jerseys
No comments:
Post a Comment