Production Update

The new album Snapshots of the Shattered Soul is coming along! On Sunday, August 15th, I tracked acoustic guitar for two songs with Matt Meyer at 10x12 Productions. We still have to record acoustic guitar for five more songs, and plan to do so mid September. I’ve also been very busy with editing recently. A couple weeks ago, I picked up DigiDesign’s Music Production Toolkit 2 that now allows me to use multi-track Beat Detective and run up to 64 audio tracks in Pro Tools (instead of 48 tracks, which I was limited to before the upgrade). In summary, multi-track Beat Detective is an incredibly useful tool that streamlines editing of drums and other instruments that span over multiple tracks (drums for example have multiple audio channels for kick, snare, high hat, etc.). So far, I’ve used Beat Detective on six of the thirteen songs on the new album.

I hope to have the majority of the editing (for the instruments I’ve recorded so far) finished by the end of September. I also hope to have all of the MIDI instruments exported from Logic by the end of September. Basically, each instrument that was birthed in Logic (synthesizers, organs, electronic drums & effects, etc.) needs to be exported as an individual stereo audio file, and then imported into Pro Tools, as the album will be mixed in Pro Tools.

Yesterday afternoon, I met with composer Robert Nugent to finalize one of the string arrangements. Robert has arranged the strings for two of the songs on the new album, and Rich Barrett has arranged the strings for one of the songs.

October will be spent recording new background vocals and supplementing some of the background vocals I recorded earlier this year for the demos (in other words, I may add some additional layers/parts to the already recorded background vocals.)

During my next trip to Nashville, I will be recording (1) live strings with the David Davidson string group, (2) guitar lead/texture overdubs with studio guitarist Mike Payne, and (3) real piano (which I will be playing). This trip is still not scheduled, but I’m hoping to take this trip sometime in November (depending on how quickly I can save the money). Upon returning from Nashville, I will repeat the clean-up/editing process for all newly recorded instruments (the strings, guitar overdubs, and piano), and will hopefully begin recording the final lead vocals early in the New Year.

I hope to release the new album by the first or second quarter of 2011.

Production Update

I’m really excited about how the songs for the new album are sounding! Over the last month and half or so, I’ve been focusing on two things: (1) editing the audio from the June 18th recording session at Dark Horse Recording in Nashville (drums, bass, rhythm guitar) and (2) tweaking and cleaning up the arrangements for any MIDI/programmed instruments. These programmed instruments fall into two categories: (1) electronic sounds which will be part of the final mix (synthesizer pads and leads, organ, drum loops, orchestral percussion, and various effects) and (2) sampled instruments that have yet to be replaced with real instruments (this includes strings, guitar leads, and piano).

Back to Nashville
I’m hoping to make a second trip to Nashville in the fall to record live strings, live guitar leads/textures, and live piano. At this point, there is no set date for this next session. It all depends how quickly I can raise the money as I’m paying for this project as I go.

In Other News
Composer Robert Nugent is currently working on the string arrangement sheet music for two songs on the new album, and composer Rich Barrett is finishing the string arrangement sheet music for one song. I’m also arranging the strings for several songs, and am finalizing these arrangements (which includes preparing the sheet music).

Next Sunday, August 15th, I will be recording acoustic guitar with Matt Meyer at 10x12 Productions (for seven of the thirteen songs on the album).

The new Marc Andre rock album “Snapshots of the Shattered Soul” is set to release early 2011.