May 28, 2007: Moving Forward

It's been a month since the Mainman/Mainsqueeze reunion in Vegas and we are still feeling the 'rush', so to speak. It's inspiring to reconnect with old friends and to have those moments that remind us of what we can accomplish musically and that the possibilities are endless. This summer's goal is to complete our CD of original material - an ambitious goal, true, but certainly do-able. We have a large backlog of originals that just need to be polished up for recording and we now have the tools and know-how to get it done. So we are off and running once again.

We took advantage of Bassman John being in town for last Sunday's practice and came up with what we think will be the final version of "Rhythm Of The Radio (Favorite Position)". It's a rockin' version with a particularly strong drum performance by Bobby Delicious (he did the dishes at Frisch's). With the addition of a final vocal track, a couple of tweaks and some mastering, it should be a wrap. This song was another of those 'moments' - we got it all in one take, essentially a 'live' recording with no overdubs or do-overs. Funny how these things happen when everyone is 'feeling it' at the same time. Just wish we could figure out a way to capture the process and re-use it on demand.

It looks like our earlier recording of "Bad, Bad Man" is a keeper, so these two songs give us a jump start on our CD project. Mike's "Call Me", Bob's "Hold The Phone and Doug's "Back To Bimini" are next in line. Bassman John is now living in Milwaukee, but we are counting on him to record more bass tracks from time to time when he is back in Columbus. In the meantime, we keep moving forward.

The Korg D888 recorder has been a great addition to the recording toolkit, making it possible to do the bulk of the recording (up to 8 tracks simultaneously) in the Prince George Studio, then transferring everything to the DAW (Adobe Audition) for additional tracks and editing. We still plan to use Alba Studios for the final editing and mastering. The learning never ends, but we've reached a point where we can now create credible recordings independently at our own stress-free pace with only minimal cost. Ain't technology great?