(ã 1998)
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The
Making Of An Album
Page 7
- Adding Final "Sweetening" Instrumentation (MIDI and
Digital Audio) -
by Michael Tyler
Computer Music Products
This was the final step of the recording process. We left this for last because we wanted a better overall perspective of the songs with all the vocals before recording the last instrumental frills. This assured that we wouldn't add anything that might conflict or detract from the attention we wanted listeners to give to the lyrics.
This actually turned out to be one of the most time consuming parts of the project. Jeremy experimented with various instrumental ideas and harmonies before committing them to the actual recording. Once the parts were all worked out, Jeremy did most of the recording (via MIDI) for these "sweetening" parts, while I acted as the recording technician. My main job at this stage was pointing out cues and running the Cakewalk software.
We also recorded some live tambourine parts on several songs and even added a live trumpet part on one of them. Adding this minor bit of live instrumentation (recorded as digital audio) added a nice touch when played along with the MIDI tracks. This made the MIDI tracks sound even more like everything was performed and recorded by "live musicians." (Of course, Jeremy and I qualify as live musicians too! After all, we actually DID perform and record all the parts ourselves!)
Once all these final parts were recorded, I worked to refine each song further by adding crescendos, fades, legatos, and so on, to make the instrumental tracks sound realistic and expressive. I made several cassette tape recordings of slightly different versions of the songs as I went through this "tweaking" process. Jeremy and I gave each other feedback on musical ideas and made minor changes here and there, until we finally settled on the versions we liked best.
Next Page (pg. 8) Adding Effects and Processing the Digital Audio
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