I am delighted to report that the magnificent being that is Leo Abrahams completed mix 11 of 11 today! After some recalls and tweaks next week, the record will be ready for mastering. I’m so happy with how it sounds.
Time To Fly was the last mix. It’s been a real odyssey, that track. I uploaded the initial idea on 24th September 2012, but although the chorus idea was good, the verse melody was terrible and I had no lyrics. Not a great start. We sorted the lyrics during an evening at Maurice’s house, but it just wasn’t working melodically.
I eventually completely rewrote it in the summer of 2013. It turns out that was a bit rubbish, so after some clear guidance from Leo on what was actually wrong with it, I redid it a second time about a month ago. This was good… but I didn’t actually get round to finalising the parts until about a week ago, and with one evening to go until mixing (ie. last night), I just got seriously busy once the kids were in bed.
To my great delight, Steve Macartney sent over some gorgeous rich backing vocals yesterday, to add to those by Juliet Turner. All I had to do were a stack more BVs, lots of keyboards and the lead vocal. Wine. Yes, indeed, it was a late one, but after today it’s sounding amazing. Leo is just so great – it’s been such a pleasure mixing with him.
I have admittedly hit that point in the process where everything just sounds like noise. Leo is reassuring me that it is music, and whatsmore that it is good, but I’m just far too close to it now. Next Wednesday we’ll do some recalls and address our mix notes, then that should be that. Exciting times!
While bouncing vocals through outboard gear etc., Leo does tend to show me some great stuff on the internet. Today’s utterly wonderful stuff comes from Amazon reviews of “AudioQuest Speaker Cables”. They cost $15,000 (I kid you not) – and the reviews are just hilarious. Check them out here.