What a difference comes from having the right equipment and taking one's time!

Last night we recorded The Comical Dreamer and Gaudeamus Igitur, both of which appeared on our first CD, but we weren't happy with them. (For example, Comical Dreamer was a ponderous dirge the first time around, so we re-did it with a nice upbeat tempo that better suited its playfully bawdy nature).

We started recording the first song somewhere around 7:30, and finished the second at about 10 PM. After putting away the equipment and wolfing down some Chinese take-out, we mixed Comical Dreamer (deciding to put off mixing Gaudeamus until the next time, as Brian had to be at work in five hours).

The "final" version of Comical Dreamer is as far away from our prior version as it's possible to get without being a different band altogether. For starters, it doesn't sound like we're singing in a closet, the levels are set right (so there's no audio clipping during forte passages) and it's about 50% faster than the original (which makes it much more vibrant). And Sid's delivery is several orders of magnitude better than the tepid, soulless vocal stylings of our previous female singer; she has fun with it, and that fact comes pouring through in her voice.

Karen was a real trouper, running the desk without complaint, as we cut short take after take due to dissatisfaction with a wrong note or an accidentally muted string. Once the input levels are set, there's little for her to do except hit "record", "stop", "rewind" and "undo" (and, on the rare occasion when we make it through a take successfully, "play"). Hopefully she won't get bored with doing this week after week; she did a great job and really made it easier for us.

May all our sessions go that smoothly...