Seven 9s and 10s

Reflecting on 40 in 40

It’s hard to believe that nearly one year has passed since I undertook my 40 in 40 project. I’ve been meaning to write a reflections post since the day I finished, so the subsequent Ash Wednesday seems like as good a day as any to finally pull one together.

40 in 40 wasn’t actually a thing until I decided it would be a thing, which I guess was sometime after the third day (all symbolism aside). The first song just happened to come on the night of Ash Wednesday 2011; for some long-forgotten reason I was feeling sad, so I grabbed my guitar and made a recording. At the time it was just an excuse to test out a new piece of gear - I had no idea what I was getting myself into - however, there was no stopping me once I decided I would record 40 covers in 40 days and made a personal commitment to the project.

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Nadine - FMGreen
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Track:
Nadine

Artist:
FMGreen

Album:
Yellow #5

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fmgreen:

FMGreen - Nadine

10 years ago today we recorded this song.

“next we attempted nadine a couple more times to no avail.  finally, on the 11th full take of nadine, we nailed it.  the one break before the solo that had been screwing up every previous take came out perfect and no one made any mistakes that were worth redoing the whole song for.”

-Steve’s Yellow #5 recording log - September 3, 2001

I can’t believe it took us 11 takes to get this simple song done right, but that’s what happens when a young band enters a professional studio for the first time and tracks their songs live to ADAT. Overdubs and punch-ins become a last resort and if any one aspect of the song lacks the necessary feeling, the entire take is scrapped and you try it again.

I can tell you the exact night I first met Nadine: May 15, 2001. I was MCing a party at a local record store to celebrate the release of weezer’s green album that night. It was the first and only time I can say I’ve ever had a “love at first sight” kind of experience. I wrote this song just a few days later after we’d hung out for the first time. I’d probably listened to the green album 25 times over the course of those few days and clearly this song was inspired by the mood of that album.

All the stars seemed to be aligning for me, but unfortunately she never felt the same way. Flash forward exactly 10 years - Nadine’s wedding took place on May 14, 2011. They’re an infinitely better couple than she and I ever would have been and I offer my full congratulations to both of them.

Moral of the story: writing a song for a girl you really like rarely works out in your favor romantically, but at least sometimes you’ll still end up with a pretty good song.

fmgreen:

10 years ago today, FMGreen was at GFI Studios in Rochester where we were in the process of recording our debut album, Yellow #5.

We went in early on August 31, 2001 and left late on September 3rd. We spent a total of about 38 hours in the studio for those tracking sessions. Later we would return to GFI for our mixing sessions which lasted over 80 hours spread across ten days starting January 2nd, 2002.

Both sessions still get referenced today through a long list of inside jokes and rehashed arguments. So much has changed and yet so much remains the same.

41 in 47 or 1 in 6?

So, my astute readers will probably realize that today is, in fact, not Easter Sunday. It is, actually, 6 days before Easter Sunday.

“But” they’d ask, “if Lent is always 40 days long, how did you managed to record 40 days worth of songs, starting on Ash Wednesday, and not end up on Easter Sunday?”

Well, as it turns out, Lent is longer that 40 days. In fact, it’s always 46 days in length.

“But” they’d continue, “how is that possible? Why don’t they just tell us it’s 46 days long?”

Little did I know, the six Sundays that occur between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday are not counted. I guess I repressed that fact along with countless other facets of my catholic upbringing.

“Huh.” they’d quip.

Yup. Huh. Indeed.

“So what does that mean for your 40 in 40 project? Will you be recording 6 more songs and re-branding the project to 46 in 46?”

No. I will not. Sorry. Instead, here’s what I’ll be doing:

I’m going to spend the days between now and Easter Sunday working on one song. I’ll give my full attention to one song to see how much better I can do when I’m more relaxed and not scrambling to finish recording by midnight each night.

“What song?!?!?”

You’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Victory! has spent the past 3 weeks in Ventura, California being mastered by the great John Golden. Mastering is the last step of the audio process and if (when) we approve this reference copy, all that will remain for us is to complete the album artwork and have the CDs duplicated. It’s almost time for the rest of the world to join FMGreen in Victory!(Side note: overnight shipping is just yet another thing that blows my mind.)

Victory! has spent the past 3 weeks in Ventura, California being mastered by the great John Golden.

Mastering is the last step of the audio process and if (when) we approve this reference copy, all that will remain for us is to complete the album artwork and have the CDs duplicated.

It’s almost time for the rest of the world to join FMGreen in Victory!


(Side note: overnight shipping is just yet another thing that blows my mind.)

“

Barresi explains guitarist Adam Jones’ recording setup: “Adam mainly runs three amps: He has a Marshall that he loves, a Diezel and then he was using a Mesa Boogie at one point. I brought in a Bogner Uberschall head and a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb, and several other things. Then we just experimented with combinations of heads and cabinets until it worked for the song. Most of the 4×12s were Mesa Boogie cabinets, which are superior for their low end, except for the Marshall head, which went through a Marshall cabinet, and the Rivera went through a Rivera cabinet. I usually used stock miking. For me, that’s a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser 421 on every cabinet. The third mic could be anything that I felt the sound needed more of.”

The signal chain for tracking guitar was a bit complex. “Adam would play into whatever pedals he needed,” Barresi says. “That signal then went into a Systematic Systems Splitter. Then it would go to between three and five heads. The signal from the heads went to their own individual cabinets. Each cabinet had two or three microphones on it. Then all the microphones came back to the console, and they were blended down as separated for each amp. The Diezel amp went to its own track. The Marshall amp went to its own track. The third track was a blend of the Bogner and the Rivera, or whatever I liked for the song. And that would be one take — three tracks of guitar.”

”

The Making of Tool’s “10,000 Days”

Jack posted Vicarious this morning. The guitar in this song is enormous, but it’s not double-tracked. The huge sound came from 12 mics on 4 amps, all blended down to 3 tracks of a single performance. The result is an exceptionally clean and precise sound, not muddied by multiple guitar takes. Dear god, it’s truly beautiful tone.

steelopus: The Ampex ATR 102 in action. We mixed down to 1/2” tape and will send those reels off for mastering in February. I really want to go back. Something inside of me changes whenever I’m in a studio or while I’m actively involved with making a record. There’s a spark and an inherent sense that I should be spending all of my time there, creating. It’s hard to find the spark once I’m gone.

steelopus:

The Ampex ATR 102 in action.

We mixed down to 1/2” tape and will send those reels off for mastering in February.

I really want to go back.

Something inside of me changes whenever I’m in a studio or while I’m actively involved with making a record. There’s a spark and an inherent sense that I should be spending all of my time there, creating. It’s hard to find the spark once I’m gone.