album update

Yesterday I took an hour while Sarah was at the Y to work on the album. Since I'm working on it at the house, I'm either on headphones or monitoring through my stereo, neither of which is ideal for doing a final mix. My hope is to move back to the church to finish the mixes on studio monitors (speakers), which give a clearer picture of what it sounds like than home audio equipment.

I got close to a final mix for "Awake My Heart". My biggest problem is how to get Nathan's congas to sound right. They have a great *smack* on the head, but it's followed by a *whump* from the low end of the drum. It's much more pronounced on my sub than it is in the studio, so I need to fix that. Perhaps Rick Jensen has some advice. Anyways, I think the vocals and instruments are balanced pretty well, so we'll see what it sounds like at the studio.

Then I got to "Faint Were We". I would have to say that song has been one of my best recording experiences to date, mainly because I was allowed to just engineer. Luke and Kristen already knew the song and had rehearsed their harmonies and everything before getting there. We set up in the upper room of Camp David at GLPC, and they recorded their parts separately but only in the span of an hour. I set up mics in the hallway to get the natural echo of the hardwood, which I think I got the right balance in the mix to give this haunting "down the hall" effect. I also recorded it at 48 kHz instead of the typical 44.1 kHz, which in most basic terms means the tracks were recorded at a higher resolution, so there's better detail to the recording. I think I'll try to do that more often, I've been very happy with the results.

So that's your update. Hopefully I'll have more to talk about the album soon!