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Burning Vanity / Blog

Demo Thoughts

I have had all guitars, drums and vocals done with Brett for a while. A couple weeks ago he burned me a copy of all the tunes and I listened to them. There are maybe 5-6 parts where I want to redo vocals. Other than that, it sounds pretty good for a rougly-recorded home demo. Next step: Scott has to add on bass and I have to add guitar solos.

Day 2 of Recording

Posted on February 29, 2012 Went over to Brett’s again and got the vocals for the six songs from last week done. Then today we did vocals, guitar and drums for four more. That leaves two songs to go, but they are mammoths. It was the best use of our day to just put those songs aside and focus on what we had. What this means is there will be 10 revamped tunes to listen to on the Reverbnation page! If we had continued on, then there would have been only SIX new ones. Now we just need to figure out another day where I can go over for the final two pieces of this 18-song puzzle.

Fat Jack Waters
Fat Jack Waters  (about 12 years ago)

posting the recording process is a good idea....i do the same as things go along

An Afternoon with Brett

I went over to Brett’s house to record guitar and vocals for all six songs from Act One. We recorded the drums last weekend at Scott’s house. What we are doing right now is NOT the final product. (Even when we make the demos that we will give out at shows, it STILL won’t be the “final” product, but more on that later.) The purpose of redoing all 18 songs is pretty much for Scott’s benefit, who said the demos I made with my equipment (which you can hear on the Reverbnation page) were “less than inspiring.” I don’t quite understand what he meant because these are still the same songs, but hey…we’re doing it anyway so he can come up with some bass lines. After this, the plan is to practice as a unit. During this practice time, we will record anywhere from six to nine of the songs to use as a demo to give away at gigs. The plan: record for free using Brett’s software, then give away these demos to build anticipation for the ACTUAL recording of the album. By “actualy recording,” I mean we will go into a studio and do the whole thing: recording, mixing, mastering. This kind of leaves me in the dark as to what to do with the singers I already recruited to this. I asked if they would want to come up and record on Brett’s gear even though this isn’t the bona fide, final studio version, and they will (naturally) still be compensated for their time. I like the handful of vocalists that I have on board a LOT, so I hope they will all still be around by the time we enter an actual studio.

Game Changer

There have been a few new developments in the Burning Vanity project since my last post. I keep forgetting they have a blog option on this site! Good rehearsal/get-together with the guys last night. We wound up recording drums for the first 6 songs. Then I am going over to Brett’s house on Saturday to record guitar lines and scratch vocals. Actually, the purpose of these recordings is just for Scott’s benefit…to get him a better recording to come up with bass lines. Later on, Brett and I will do drums and vocals and guitar…the bona fide recordings, although even that is a bit of a misnomer. Let me explain. Last night the guys talked about wanting to play live. Now their mentality is that whatever we have Brett record and mix should simply be a DEMO version of the album, and then when we build up some popularity for it, we will go to a studio and record the whole thing “officially.” This throws a monkey wrench into the Kickstarter project because the only purpose of it was to get the funds for the mastering part of the album…but if we go into a studio, then we will need money for that too. Then I will need help for the whole shebang: recording, mixing AND mastering. This also throws me off as to what I should tell the singers. They all thought they were coming over for the final version of the album. Should I explain to them that I will need them back in the future to redo it or, when the time comes to enter an actual studio, should I just recruit all new people? Whether I consider the version I record with Brett a demo version or not, I still need the singers. They are still all interested in doing it, and I am still going to compensate them for their time. It just means there will be a future beyond the recording/mixing that Brett does…and I have no idea what that future will hold.

12-25-2011

Merry Christmas, everyone! Things are winding down for me now so I thought I would post here. I got the CDs out to Scott (bassist), but they wouldn't play in his radios even though I burned them as audio discs. I need to get them out to him in some other way so he can start practicing. Brett plans on downloading the 16 songs I have on Reverbnation. Then I will get the other two to him somehow. Erin came over for an audition, and she kicked ass even with a sore throat and not knowing the material. We'll get there.

12-16-2011 Updates

I got all the songs converted from the cassette tapes to mp3s. Now I have to look around my house and find CD-Rs so I can burn them for the musicians. Also I am about one song away from uploading all tunes to Youtube, which is where I plan on sending the vocalists to learn THEIR parts. Why send the vocalists to Youtube instead of burn CDs for them too? Simple: whereas the musicians will be involved in every song, the vocalists will be singing for maybe two to three songs each...so it'd be a waste of CD-Rs to burn one for ALL of them.

Hello to All

Welcome to the future! After nearly a decade, I will finally be entering the studio to bring the first Burning Vanity project to life. Entitled THE AGONY OF ECSTASY, it is about a young man named Samson who becomes a massive rock star with the stage name the Lord of Disease. He uses this character to escape the pain of his childhood, but he learns too late that, when you wear a mask for too long, it gets harder and harder to take it off.