I'd Better Put Down That Bag of Fritos and Get to Work!

Welcome to the Anomie Train Studio Blog. What I hope to do here is document the recording of Anomie Train's third CD, It's All Downhill From Here. I actually did this for the first CD on the Losertown website, but it's so much easier to post using Blogger.

The thing is, I haven't actually written any of the songs yet, which kind of makes it difficult to begin recording. I'm really lazy. But I have a bunch of titles. That's a start, isn't it?

I've talked about the idea for the CD on our Losertown Today podcast, but I'll review the matter here in case anyone is interested. I'm assuming if you're reading this, you must be at least kind of interested.

I want the CD to mirror the emotional cycle of the ups and downs of a person's life. I don't want the song list to have a set beginning and a set end, rather, if you put the CD on repeat play, I want it to feel circular: you're really happy, you're happy, you're content, you're feeling kind of down, you're depressed, you're suicidal, you're okay, you're getting better, you're content, you're happy, you're estastic.

Hmm...although as I'm reading this, it makes it seems like the CD is about a manic depressive. Anyway, I plan to write two songs with the same title, It's All Downhill From Here, although one being Part I and the other Part II. Why? Because it could mean two things:

1. You're conquered the hardest part, and from now on it will just get easier because it's all downhill now
2. You've screwed up bad and now everything will only get worse--it's all going downhill.

I wonder from which point of view Mel Gibson is looking at right now?

So, the CD will comprise of songs with the point of view of both, as well as songs taking a transitional point of view--getting better and getting worse.

So, is this a dopey idea? What the hell, that's what I'm doing!

So the first order of business is to write the material. That's always the hardest part. I hate sitting down and writing. I remember George Lucas saying that he hated writing too, and that he chained himself to a table so he would finish writing Star Wars. I'm pretty sure he was exaggerating--how do you chain yourself to a table? If you chained yourself to the legs, all you'd have to do is lift the table and slide it off.

Right now, I've got nothing but titles. Some of which are:

1. My Miserable Life
2. Put Me Down
3. No Sense Taking It Home
4. Nowhere Else to Go
5. It's All Gone Wrong

Now, you might notice that they're all depressing titles. I haven't come up with any happy ones yet, although I really need to since that's the other part of the CD. It just feels so much easier to write depressing songs than it does to write happy songs. I don't know why that is, because, honestly, I feel pretty happy right now! It doesn't take much to make me feel happy. Watching DVDs while eating some KFC pretty much does it!

So, okay, I know I'll have to work on material. It's not necessary to have everything all written out. I can write a few and record a few and then write some more.

The next thing I need to do is to evaluate my equipment needs. Do I need to upgrade anything? It usually doesn't take much for me to find an excuse to buy something. Currently, the recording is done on a DAW (digital audio workstation. It just sounds cooler than "computer."). It's an Athlon 64 3000 running 32bit Windows XP with 2 gigs of memory. The recording software I use is Sonar 2.2XL.

The truth is, this is still a more than capable machine. Yet I keep thinking, maybe I should upgrade to Sonar 5 (jeez, they're on version 5 now?!) or what about those new Core 2 Duo Pentiums!! I'm happy with the pre-amp, a Grace 101. The mixer I use is a junky Behringer Eurorack MX 1604A. The pre's on that suck, but I'm not concerned because I only use that mixer to monitor the tracking on headphones.

I use Hafler M5s for monitoring. Those are near field monitors, and I think they are pretty accurate. Kind of weak for bass, but you'd expect that for the size. I bought them because of a very good review in Recording Magazine. Plus, it's a cool name--M5--just like the name of that rogue computer in Star Trek. Look at how it brought your mighty starships to their knees!

The two main guitars used for recording are the PRS Santana SE and the Fender Stratocaster, and I don't see it changing for this CD. The Santana SE has a real clean tone I like, and the Fender, well, to get that Fender sound--you know, with the 2nd or 4th position on the pickups--you need a Fender. I am playing with the idea of using the Jay Turser semi-hollow body on some songs. It's got a little more "earthier" tone to it.

My approach to recording is still the same. I like an organic sound. I want it to sound like a live band playing. I don't like it sounding too "studio-ized." Is that a word? For instance, I'm a huge Tom Petty fan, but ever since he hooked up with Jeff Lynne...

I would like the sound to be a bit fuller, maybe. Maybe supplementing with other instruments, like keyboards. I have a Roland JV-1010, but I'm not sure if that is what I want to use. I'll have to think about it. Also, I'm still not satisfied with the bass sound. Right now I plug in a Yamaha RBX 260 straight into the Grace 101. I've gotten some good sounds out of that, but because I didn't write down what I did, I can't replicate it. I'm hoping this studio log solves that issue.

Anyway, I hope you come back and check out my progress!