Sat 16 Dec 2017: It's been another long week and I haven't really had the energy to work on music. Today the weather is mild but it's going to heat up, so I decide to record more vocals today while I can sit comfortably without the aircon on (to avoid the noise). I record the vocals for Mirrors and Talking to Myself. I'm reasonably happy with the takes but will have to wait until I get to the editing stage to know for sure. That's enough for today.
Sun 17 Dec 2017: I get stuck in early editing the vocals for Mirrors recorded yesterday. Surprisingly, it takes most of the day to grade, trim and correct them. After that I start arranging the instruments properly and the beats. I end up working until 10:00 but I'm on a roll and I'm on holidays, so no work in the morning.
Mon 18 Dec 2017: I listen to my work from yesterday. There's still a lot of fixing to do, but it's sounding good. I make some changes including redoing the toms in the final chorus. They were too simple and on beat but needed to be more syncopated. After finishing Mirrors I work on editing the vocals for Talking to Myself. That takes me most of the rest of the day. In the evening I'm feeling a bit inspired and make some more edits to Mirrors. The results are a great improvement.
Wed 20 Dec 2017: I work on Talking to Myself. It doesn't take long to get the music from the demo working on the final version. Then I rearrange the vocals. There are quite a few parts so I go through a number of iterations. I play with a vocoder part on the chorus hook. It's OK but doesn't have the impact I imagined. After lunch I work on the beats, adding fills and variations. These beats need to be kept fairly simple and I come up with enough to make them more interesting without overcrowding them. At the end of the day I do the final mixes. I'm still not 100% convinced with the lead vocal processing. On one hand I want it to sound processed, but I'm getting some artefacts that I don't like. And the backing vocals lack presence. I might have to revisit when I do the final mixing at the end of the album. Apart from that though, track number 5 is finished.
Thu 21 Dec 2017: Make a few more tweaks to Talking to Myself first thing in the morning. Mainly taking small things out to add variation and avoid over crowding. Then I work on Whisper. I decide to record the vocals first then work on the music. The beats are quite simple so I make sure I don't overwork them. I'm happy with the results but I do wonder what else I could do. As I'm compiling the vocals I realise a couple of harmony lines at the end would work so I quickly record and edit them. By the end of the day I finish the song and I'm delighted with the mix of melancholy and drama in the music. Track number 6, and the album opening track is finished.