Yeah, it's early morning. And I can't sleep.
I was up a lot last night, too.
But the good part about that was that I got to spend a lot of the last few days getting things cleaned up on "Chapel". And there was a LOT of cleanup to do, believe me. First I had to comp the vocals I'd cut the other day, which didn't turn out too bad. Then I had to merge the basic drums with the fills and sparkle that Morey had added a while (probably a couple of months) ago.
And while I was working on the vocals, I was tweaking up the intonation a little bit, both on the lead and the harmony vocals.
I'd been afraid that the horns we'd cut wouldn't work, but after I'd cleaned up all the other stuff, they were just fine. Probably the cleanest tracks of the entire song!
Then I went to bed.
...And I couldn't sleep. So I got back up and started mixing. Now, I've got a really solid blend, but it's all done in the headphones (so my family could sleep), so it's always deceptive. This song required a different approach. Usually, I make my three "anchors" out of the bass guitar, the lead vocal, and the kick drum. But this time, I needed to make the bass more present. In small systems, and in my car, too, if there's not a lot of good upper midrange in the bass, then it just goes away, and since the whole intro is the bass guitar, I need it to be there in the whole song. And the acoustic guitar, since it's also there in the first verse, also plays the role of a fourth "anchor". So, those four elements became core of the mix, and I hung everything else around it. It's pretty sweet, so far. And I still haven't added the reverb.
Now, I have to spin it a while and see just how well it holds up.
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