Recording the second CD

Ian’s reflections on the CD recording session.

I suppose back when I was a teenager I must have harboured ambitions to play and record music like my rock idols, but you park those things for study, work and family. Sometimes for a long time, for some it’s forever. For me it was about 30 years, but in 2001 a rather amazing lady encouraged me to pursue my dreams of playing music – this recording is result of that – thanks Lesley.

In fact this was our second recording as Mu Theory and for me a very rewarding experience. Given the limited time that our work and family commitments allow us to devote to Mu Theory we really work hard to maximise the time we have together, even more so in the studio where we pay for the privilege. From the beginning of 2012 we wrote, rehearsed and gigged the tracks for this album and by December it was time to book the studio. We’d played the entire album live by then and felt pretty confident of nailing it in the studio.

Returning to Oaklands Productions after about 22 months was just fantastic. To put the quality of this studio in perspective, we were recording a day after Anthony Callea and the 7’ Yamaha studio grand piano had been tuned the day before for “Mr Collea’s pianist”.  Well, Mr Brewin’s pianist was also a beneficiaryJ.  To play a great piano in an amazing room makes you feel a million dollars and just brings out something extra. Hearing that replayed in the studio control room is also pretty cool.

We were also lucky to have some mates with video cameras come along and help record the day – Tony’s mate Thom and my mate GT. We’ll thank them properly and on the CD cover.

The title track of this album is “Labyrinth”, written by Tony and inspired by my love of 70s progressive rock. Thanks Tony it’s a ripper tune and quite an ego trip for us to be able to play such a complex piece. Once we’d finally plucked up the courage to play it live we knew the studio session would be easy, mind you hours of practise helped too! The intro section of Labyrinth uses classical guitar and flute and we wanted a real flute player for the recording. Through as series contacts we were lucky enough to get Ron Anderson to play for us. We’d only communicated with Ron by email and phone and just sent him an MP3 and some hand written notes – it was amazing to watch/hear him just walk in and nail the part! Thanks Ron.

I think the truly great thing about the sessions was just how relaxed and pleasant the whole time was, we make music for fun and the opportunity to record it properly is one to seize and enjoy as much as you can – we did that! Recording the first album was fun too, but the experience that gave us came through as additional planning and confidence this time and we were well rewarded with a very smooth session – not in the least due to Prasheen Naran, a rather amazing young audio engineer.

So aside from the time it takes to write the songs and do our individual practise here’s an estimate of what it took to produce the album:
-          About 50 hours of face to face rehearsal time
-          About the same again in travel and setup/pack up time
-          Close to 6 whole days for gigs
-          Maybe 50-60 hours mixing our gig and rehearsal recordings
-          20 hours in the studio
Wow, that adds up to nearly a month over the year – but very pleasurable and rewarding month!
Perhaps we’ll head off to a chateau in France or Switzerland for the next one J

Ian

The Next CD

It's been quite a year, we've added Pat on the bass and he's learned the old album, a bunch of covers and re-learned a few from Tony's CD. So far we've played live 5 times - a new record and during the year 8 songs have been written and rehearsed. At our last gig we played 6 of them and the last rehearsal firmed up the remaining 2.

Looking forward to rehearsal this Sunday, Tony and I did a run through tonight on the intro to song 8 (a mighty prog inspired epic) and we can't wait to take this bunch of songs into the studio.

Cheers,
Ian

Song Contest

A local CD pressing company Replicat has been running a song contest with recording related prizes for the last few years - this is our first attempt.

We've taken New Place from our CD and used a live performance from Gertrude's Brown Couch as the submission. Attempts to synch the CD audio to the live video we're 100% successful, so we went with the less pristine audio version from the live show, it's a nice performance though and initial comments from other musicians suggest the song is likely to be well received.

I had a sobering experience at work this week when 7 out to 7 people I asked to vote (via Facebook) said they didn't use it!

Here's the link

http://www.catapultsongcontest.com.au/artists/mu-theory/new-place.html

You need to log into Facebook, vote and share.

Wish us luck, the 2nd CD is getting closer and it would be great to win a prize like "free replication".

Anyway, having fun.

Ian

Photo from The Fox

Trying out the new Panorama mode on the iPhone. I don't recall my mate Bruce (left) having 3 eyeballs before:)

The Fox Hotel

We were all pretty happy with the recent gig at The Fox Hotel in Collingwood on Sunday. It's a great little pub with really cool atmosphere. Not to mention an amazing PA - Turbosounds - think Roll Royce of Pas. Very nice sound.

Clearly none of Pat's mates like rugby - I reckon they all turned up and filled the pub. For me this was the best gig we've done yet. A good crowd in a nice pub, already full of local drinkers. Tony got them going and even had a few people waving their lighters "countdown" style.

Hoping for an invite back - we deserve it, they must have done heaps over the bar.

Here's the YouTube playlist version of the DVD we gave out FREE on the day.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1-Lvg03Pb8&list=PLZGRlNRQvw-C5foNbnBDfT67QG7hNBpVz


A great afternoon/evening.

Ian

Gertrude's Brown Couch - August 2012

I just remembered a funny thing from our last Gertrude's gig. We were all set up to go when Tony takes a wander past me (keys) to the back of the stage. Just as I was momentarily distracted, thinking he's heading my way, Stu hits the sticks together for the first song. 1, 2, 1,2,3,4 and what!!!! We're playing. I caught up, but it was kind of terrifying for a few milliseconds.

Ah, the joys and challenges of playing live - I love it! Really!

Ian

Blogging again

It's been a hectic few months involving a change of job for me and some health issues for Mrs R, so blogging has been neglected.

We had a great gig back in August with Bruce Pumpa & the Flying Sourcerers plus Jeremy P Martin at Gertrude's Brown Couch.  Some mix ups with the times and the bands sat around for a while waiting for the place to open. No matter, big crowd and lots of fun.

It was the first time we played all the rehearsed tracks (6) from the up coming next CD, pretty pleasing really. Nailing that "breakdown" in March Right in was very satisfying. We also played a song by Birchy and Tony - Carry me home - nice tune boys and a first for Chris.

The DVD from the prior gig is back, thanks to Thom and the boys. We will give these some YouTube AirPlay soon.

Ian