Two steps forward and one step back for this song, I guess. Listening to the second cut, I realized that I wanted slightly different guitar and bass parts. There’s no way around this kind of thing, and no real way to correct it. You either start over now or have to start over later, so I chucked the bad parts, rolled up my sleeves, and dove in fresh. Otherwise you lose sleep.

This cut is as yet unmixed, with the tracks more or less panned correctly but still utterly raw. I decided to keep the drums and vocals in place, but there is no reverb or processing on the tracks to suggest any kind of atmosphere. This is not supposed to be that reverby of a song anyway, but it helps to have a touch I think. Well, there isn’t any here. What reverb there was on Cut 2 has been erased, since I started over. I’m going to add it all later, and you’ll hear it next post, when the song is complete. Reverb and mixing can make some immense changes to a song.

But all parts of the song are now for the most part present. The guitars and bass are much better now, says I, and I always think it’s worth the extra time to get something that I like. Here’s what I’ve got left to do:
1) Cut another, longer, better solo in the final “fade out” overdub extravaganza part
2) Balance the track volumes
3) Add some reverb here, some EQ there, nudge one track to the left in the stereo field, nudge another track to the right, make it all fit nicely…
4) Mix it down and move on to the next song in the album. And that’s that!

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