My band heads into the studio on Friday to begin work on our first full-length album. I figure that I should start with some of the prologue to set you up for how this has all come to be.

I joined 3 Pill Morning in October, after they had parted ways with their bass player of about 3 years. They'd lost the bass player along with a guitar player over the summer, and had been working with a temp bass player for a couple months. Since joining, we've probably played somewhere in the vicinity of 50 shows, including some openers for some National acts (Nonpoint, Dropping Daylight), and a slot at SXSW. After our SXSW experience, we lost the OTHER guitar player/singer (we still have one singer...who just sings), which was a blow to all of us...but, we regrouped as a 4-piece and have been kicking ass since March writing new songs, and are NOW at the point where we can go into the studio with a good strong 14 tracks and start cutting.

Now that you're up to speed...the RECORDING part of the prologue. We've booked out 5 days at a little studio called Sound Gallery. Don't bother looking it up. They don't have a website. And it's really not "little." Their tracking room is pretty massive. Which is our main impetus for going there. That and he's got a PTHD rig, which, through some creative borrowing on his part, is a 24 channel rig, which is really what we needed, as we're going to cut basics live. The other sticking point I had was that he had 6 channels of SCA preamps, which I've heard good things about...but after that it's a TAC Scorpion II board, which I'm nto SUPER crazy about. So...after a week of racking my brains trying to come up with a better plan...I finally called Rolff at Blackbird Rentals and am renting 12 API 212's for a week. Does it nearly double our budget? YEP. Does that really matter, as we're still in WAY cheaper than just about everywhere else in town? NOPE! I'm going to bring along a few of my preamps, namely my TAB's...and we MIGHT bring along the M80 just in case we need a couple extra channels for something...but from the looks of things, we're going to be in pretty good shape. It's really too bad I don't have my Quad Eight all racked up and working...mabe next time.

Once we're done with all our rhythm tracking and instrument OD's at Sound Gallery, we're coming back to my place to cut vocals, so we can take some time to really focus on getting great takes without worrying about the clock. We've already go a schedule roughly sorted out, so it's not like we're going to have a lot of time to screw around, but we'll be able to work in shorter spurts on vocals...4 hour sessions max...I want to keep Jeff (the singer) fresh and able to really bring it for every take, and not worry about having to get everything done in a day or two. After that, the obligatoory mixing and mastering...and then...? Hopefully enough touring to sell a few thousand copies. Lucky for us, if we can stay close to our budget, our break even on the project is something like 600 CD's, which should be pretty easy to move. So...stay tuned...it's gonna get ugly 'round here!

awesome dude! take some pictures! i really liked a tac magnum i worked on but i dont know much about the scorpion. yeah take lots of pictures...inquiring minds want to know

Chris

I've used a TAC Scorpion before...don't blame ya for not being super crazy about it...if only they sounded as good as they looked...

Good luck on the project, man! Sounds like a good time!

UPDATE: Day 1
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Things went a little slow-esque yesterday. At a little before 10:30 in the morning, a FedEx guy showed up at my front door with a big black Pelican flight case. It's contents? An API 200 series rack frame with 12 channels of 212 preamp! SCORE!!!! Big BIG thanks to Rolff and the guys at Blackbird for getting me set up with this. I brought that, my TAB/Funk V78's, Peluso 2247, ADK CE, and a bunch of assorted other mics to complement what is already at the studio. One of the cool suprises has been the Hamptone mics. I don't know TONS about them, other than they're a pair of 3-pattern tube condensers that look like C12's, but have some Klaus Heyne-tweaked K67's in them. They are sounding KILLER as room mics. Because Nick (engineer @ Sund Gallery) is working on his TAC...he put a Midas Venice console in for us to monitor off of.

After all was said and done, we probably laid down our first take around 10 PM. Tracking live is WAY more fun and WAY more challenging than doing it in a series of overdubs, but it's sounding WAY more energetic and WAY more like us live. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some pictures today or tomorrow and let you guys see what we're up to!

***END TRANSMISSION***

Well...day 2 is officially in the books. We got a hell of a lot done today...I believe we're up to 5 total rhythm tracks in the can (including fix punches and guitar doubles). It was an incredibly long day. The thing that has to be the most exhausting is the constant heat. The studio we're in is on the fourth floor of a warehouse...and...you guessed it...no AC. So it's hot. And on top of all that, they're buildin the new Minnesota Twins ballpark right behind this building...and have to do sewer work...which basically means that to open the only outside door in the tracking room also allows the wonderful odor of raw sewage to permeate our tracking area. So we sweat.

So far, the tracks are sounding frickin' great...All I can say about the API's is this: THAT'S what that sound is! NOW I get it! The snare drum (A chrome over brass olive-badged Ludwig Super-Sensitive 5x14) sounds like a friggin' sample...the punch is UNREAL. I need these preamps by the hundred. It sounds like we're going to do some quick mixdowns tomorrow ...and if I can sneak a quick mp3 up, I will. Also...I have to give mad love to sugar free Monster energy drink...3 or 4 cans of that kept me from taking an "I'm tired of being hot" nap.

Dear. Fucking. Lord.

Sorry I haven't been day-to-day...it's been a hellish grind. 95 degrees. No AC. A couple fans...but we can't open that back door because of the afforementioned shit smell. Overdubs are long and arduouos...I've been playing some guitar...and today it's just NOT coming easy. I find myself fighting to get my takes up to the level of basic decency, let alone try to get anything spectacular...I may find myself re-doing these overdubs in the more comfortable confines of my studio. I find I'm having to work REALLY hard to overcome the limitations of this studio, i.e., not want to nap every 20 minutes because I've been in 95 degree stale heat for the past 5 days. Next time...we'll spend the extra money to work in a place with AC. And an assistant. Engineering, producing, and playing isn't bad when I'm in a project studio setting...but this is intolerable. We've gotten good tracks...but we're thinking that next time we do this, we'll spring for a slightly more comfortable environment. Normally, I'm the kind of guy who says, "just get out there and get it done...don't bitch that there are no flowers on the credenza..." but I'm finally in a position where location and setting mean a lot.

Sorry if I'm bitching...it's been a rough few days, and I think we're all getting a little burnt out on this place...we're going to be really really happy to get back to our digs where we know what's what.

And we have AC.

Yep, there's no place like home ... keep it coming, good stuff!

mud

I'm sure that most of you are aware of the I-35 bridge collapse that happened about 7 hours ago. This unnerved me terribly, not just because I live 20 minutes north of Minneapolis (on 35), but because I traveled that bridge twice a day for the last 5 days. What's more is that my bud Jimmy was in the school bus as he helps with that kids program. He's alright, but probably very shaken up, and his boss was apparently pretty banged up.

It's really kinda gotten me shaken up. I've driven that bridge countless times...it's the carotid artery into downtown Minneapolis. I'm just completely blown away...I don't even know what to think. It's so random and so faultless...I mean...at the end of the day...no one's to BLAME for this...I feel so horrible for the families who've lost loved ones and the people who are currently in the hospitals around Minneapolis.

What an utter tragedy.

Yikes! That sucks, Ian ... y'know, I see these things on TV, and forget that I may know someone involved when it's so far away. Hope your friends come out O.K.

Ed

Alright...I've been a slacker on this lately, but I've been up to my eyebrows in all of my projects.

The album is plugging along. Jeff is cutting vocals more or less on his own at the moment, as he lives right down the street from our rehearsal space...so it's comvenient for him to jump in there and cut vocals on the ADK CE I set up up there. That and the TAB preamp are doing him pretty well. We're into a good 4 or 5 songs worth of vocals...and I'm going to start cutting mine next week.

When I get a chance, I'll put up a couple pictures I took.

Wow...um...well...where to begin...

It's been a bit crazy...I'm at the end of my 3rd consecutive 12 hour editing day...it's starting to turn into something...it's a lot of freakin' work getting all these songs to come together...recut a guitar track here or there...recut bass...re-sing a line that just isn't working...edit and stack doubles...touching up tuning...ugh.

Thank god that Dave (drummer) is a whiz at editing...he's probably better at slicing and dicing doubles than I am...but...alas...I'm the "vocal tuning" guy...so I've been at that for a lot of the day...when we've got stacks that are up to 10 voices deep in places...it's amazing how a little out-of-tune-ness can just suck.

At this point, I'm SOO glad we tracked rhythm stuff live...the energy that comes off those tracks really helps set this stuff apart from a lot of the other bands I'd guess we'd get clumped with. It seems to have some swagger where so much hard rock these days sounds so...beat detective...I have some other commentary set aside for Auto-Tune, but right now it's become a very useful tool for me...making sure all my harmonies are clean and my doubles are tight. Though...set-it-and-forget-it autotune is crap. I'm basically using it like a manual pitch shifter...phrase or word at a time. I think I did something like 200 some vocal edits on one track...between aligning doubles and tuning...I think that was across something like 6 or 8 tracks of vocals...but still...geezus...

Anyway...I booked mastering...we've gotta be in stone before 10 AM on September 19th. Our artwork is getting finished up and we should have that together for the duplication run by the end of this week. We've actually got to have a set of mixes together by Wednesday for a promotions guy whose going to take some of our tracks with him on a trip to try and find us some TV or film placements...and then we've got to get rehearsing because we've got something like 9 shows in the next couple weeks and a new guitar player to train in...I've gotta get around to finishing the wiring in my new bass rack...ugh...it's getting down to it...

Here's what the cover looks like...I'll be sure to do a little more updating as we get closer and closer to putting this to bed.

***UPDATE***

We got it done. We got it mastered. We've been busting ass on it since.

We've gotten spins on 3 or 4 radio stations over the last 2 weeks...done interviews on 2 of those stations...sold 100 copies in our first 4 shows...played a sold out opener for Days of the New on sunday in Sioux Falls, SD. It was cool as hell...and I'm now totally exhausted.

I haven't slept in months. I'm absolutely fried. And we've got 12 more shows this month. I don't think I've got a free weekend between now and the end of the year. I'll keep the updates on the sales going...and if any of you care to, go to www.myspace.com/3pillmorningband and you can listen to a couple tracks in glorious myspace-fi.

NICE! I'm digging the first track. What strings did you use in there?

FYI there is a way to bypass "glorious myspace-fi", you can use an external player & host the mp3 files on your webspace.

Sounds good and congratz, Ian!

FWIW...mypace bumped up their mp3 bit rate to 128kbps from that shittier 96kbps vbr

Hey guys...sorry it took me so long to get back to this post...I've been working my ass off and it plain slipped my mind.

NBarts...I think the strings are just a Reason patch...I stayed away from the programming aspects of the album, as I played bass and guitar and sang and edited and tuned and mixed...I needed to not do some things to keep myself sane.

In other news...we're up to almost 250 units sold...which puts us almost halfway to breaking even...so far so good! We've got a bunch of CD's out to labels and have even heard back from a couple real people from those labels who said they'd at least give it a spin. It sure beats the shit out of getting the form letter rejection! 23 shows booked between now and February. YA-HOOOOOO!!!