Jim and his client Alisha were in the control room when I arrived. Fernando, the guitar player, was recording in the vocal room with an acoustic guitar. When he played, the jagged lines appeared on the computer screens, just like when previous clients sang into a microphone and the lines appeared on the screens. The first song that they were working on sounded slow and like a folk song. I noticed that if the guitar player messed up by accident that Jim could fix that one little section without interfering with the other parts. He could do this by simply highlighting and deleting the segment on the computer. If you fix a part in the middle of a section recorded, Jim said you must match the volume and resonance. If it’s not the same volume, you will hear a clicking noise. The client and Jim decided to have Fernando record a second track, which would ultimately be played at the same time as the first one. Jim offered his opinion on how to play the guitar parts at different points in the song. For example, he determined whether Fernando should “finger pick” or use the guitar pick. Also, Jim clarified to me that the guitar player could do a variety of things on the guitar. He is not just really good at one thing, which is beneficial in case that one thing isn’t what the client wants. He is sort of a blank slate because he hasn’t heard much of the song. I believe that he is very talented because he is doing a great job while working with Jim and Alisha to achieve the sound they want. I recognize that if I were to make this my career, I would have to listen to both the client and the other musicians helping on the song.
Next, I began to focus a little more on the software on the computer that Jim was using because I was not very familiar with it. By software, I mean the program he uses to record the tracks and edit them on the computer. It has a multiple number of rows. Each row is used for a separate part of the entire song. For example, there is a row for bass, drums, vocals, guitar, and piano. In addition, there is even a place for multiple tracks in one category, which is called duplicating. To the left of each row, there is a box with multiple editing tools on it. Jim can press record, control the volume, and do many more things. But I am not positive what the others are. There is a vertical line on the screen that moves horizontally over the “jagged lines” of the song. It shows the person where the exact place is in the song that they are listening to.
After listening to the second song before the editing process, I realized her voice is very distinctive and strong. At this point, Jim and Alisha picked what instruments they wanted on the song. Alisha stated that she didn’t want too much guitar on this song. So she played on the piano and tried out different parts to see what she wanted to add. Jim used different effects on the piano so that it didn’t sound like a piano was being played, but perhaps a violin. Jim said he wanted to add strings and vibes on the song. Later he explained that when he said “vibes” he meant vibraphone, which would add a dream-like sound. They decided to add a guitar verse to make the song have a blues sound. Jim commented on how the volume difference completely changes the character of the song. It now sounds very U2, or at least the guitar part does and he wanted it to sound “dreamier”. Overall, I completely enjoyed my experience at the studio and realized that I could see myself very happy in the future if I did choose to work in this industry.
