Ken On Earth - Part II

Sittin in the studio cutting scratch vocals for the new Man On Earth EP. Earlier in the evening we cut scratch guitars and bass. We'll be cutting keeper drum tracks on Thursday and i really want to be able focus on listening to the drums but i need a point of reference around them musically so, hence the scratch tracks. I could cut the scratch tracks as the drums are going down, but its alot extra to worry about and i dont feel like worrying about them this time. Once the drums are recorded, edited and sounding amazing, I'll recut all the music to gel really well with the drums. I'm not trying to make things feel like a drum machine or a metronome. definitely not. When i record live bands, i really try to keep as much of the essence of the performance as i can, only fixing what i have to so the performance sounds really solid, but i do record many takes of each song and I'll search for the sections of each instrument that are performed best, or better yet, that feel best with the song, and compile those pieces of each take into a finished performance. It can be a long process sometimes, often it goes quickly, but it works. well. Sometimes I've had the painful task of piecing together crappy band performances into something listenable, but fortunately i'm really good at editing and have the patience and capability to do it. I will not have to do that with Man On Earth, they are all good players, and these songs are great. All of the songs we're cutting have really transformed over the course their development, its been really interesting and rewarding to hear this come together. Cant wait til full tracking Day 1 on Thursday.

rock.

-Ken Lewis