Back to the studio.

Very few people understand what it takes to record a new CD. Perhaps that is why new ones only come along every few years. Here it is, June, 2007, and Bruce has been playing these songs for eight years. When he gets home from a five hour session with John Towner at the studio, his wife asks, "Did you have fun, honey?"

The answer is always, "No." Not because it isn't fun but because it is a lot of work... hard work... exhausting work. Doing 40 takes to get a perfect track requires the 3 P's... patience, perseverance and perspiration. No... it isn't fun.

These photos and movies will give you an idea of what takes place in a modern recording studio and how your favorite music comes together.

June 8, 2007 A five hour session laying down some lead guitar and bass tracks on The City, Winning and Resurgence of Faith.
Bruce and John Towner, owner of the best pair of ears in fifty states. If it's there, John can hear it. He is also a master of Pro Tools, the recording software of the pro's. John recorded the Two Sides of Bruce Edelson over ten years ago.	John at the console.		"Tune that funky Epiphone, white boy..." While it seems easy, the Epi didn't cooperate for much of the session. It wandered into its own tuning land without regard to the take, the time or the song.	The best place to listen is at the console. The studio speakers are very good. You can hear everything, warts and all.		Back to the little room to retune the Epi. All music is made under the influence of drink. Bruce's choice is Diet Coke.
It is easier to record the guitar in the control room. Looks cool, too.	Ah, the new days. Last time he did this he bought reel to reel tapes. The new age brings hard drives. Each one is for a different project.		Wailin' on take 37.	What it looks like from the big room. There are more keyboards here than at Guitar Center.		John knows what every knob, switch and setting does on every one of these boxes. I can't find the On/Off on any of them.
What a song looks like in Pro Tools. Again, John can tell you... I just think it looks cool.	The board. Last time, we used twenty channels. This time, only two. The rest is in the computer.			You can tune a bass but you can't tuna fish.		The one thing I most remember from the last time is John's phone.

Movies from the session. Takes, out takes, other stuff. Most of these are MOV files for QuickTime. Where possible, I've posted Windows versions, too. These movies require QuickTime. Also, if it doesn't work in your IE program, download Firefox here. (A great program.)
A 2 minute Movie 16 meg download		The end of the previous movie.			A 20 meg download, five minute movie on how hard it is to do a perfect take.
A 4 minute preview of Resurgence of Faith
The Holder The part of the process that Nowell gets the most excitement from is the design of the booklet and holder. The last one was done as a full blown CD with 8 page booklet. We asked Jason Nokes, a well known designer, to develop the project and our friend Maria Gates printed all the pieces. This time, we asked Gardner Hart, a friend of Jason's to do the design but with a new baby, new wife and lots of work at work, G-man could only do the CD disk. So, Nowell finally got to do the project, something he has wanted to do for twenty years. The original design called for stuffing a lot of information into a small space which simply would not work. Since I was playing with Bruce's money I had to meet a budget that could make everything work out using a 6 panel DigiPack design that was eco-friendly and gave us the room to be creative.
The Cover Design Everything starts with a cover. Bruce picked a photo and I had to make it work. There was no concept except to make it dramatic. Here is the evolution: After finding a cover, we had to pick a unifying theme for the rest of the project. Since Bruce is a guitarist and he used six different guitars for the project, I decided that the guitars should be the features.: Finally, I ran out of guitars and use a shot of the Pro Tools screen since John recorded the entire thing using the computer program. It makes a great graphic: Next, we added the type and photos to make the project:


© 2007 - Bruce Edelson