A Very Long But Productive Day

The plan was to start by  9:00 a.m. at the very latest yesterday.  We succeeded in that regard, as our very first recording began at 8:40/  That particular track went like a breeze, with no glitches whatsoever of which i was aware, although we did record one more version of the track, as the producer wanted at least two recordings of every track for insurance. The second recording of that particular number was equally .glitch-free.

Some of  the subsequent recordings presnted a few more technical challenges, but we stuck with the job until      
everything had been nailed.  The producer listened to everything multiple times for problems that hadn't shown up while we were recording,, and he said all our final copies were clean.

I  played keyboards on six of the tracks, which had not been in the original plans at all. The producer didn't know that I played. I'm actually more skilled in that area than he is, although on some of the songs he was looking for a particular  effect that was easier to do himself than to demonstrate to me. Having played keyboards will supposed ly increase my paycheck, ,which should be ready and handed to me when the producer and his wife pick me up at the condo just before 4:00 tomorrow to take me to the airport.  This isn't exactly The  Titanic in terms of its budget production,  but i should still clear enough  to avoid delving into my savings account for this year's spending money, which is great, as I originally planned to take about $1,500  for that purpose this year.   In the grand scheme of things, perhaps $1,500 won't make a huge difference, but  with interest, it adds up.

the day went incredibly long. I'm surprised my voice held up, but we didn't have to do a large number of takes on the vocal tracks. I think we ended up doing more takes on instrumental tracks than on the vocals. I also played violin parts on three tracks, and even a couple of brief tuba excepts for effect.  Had I known, I would have brought my violin. My mom has a  case I could've borrowed that make s the instrument safe for air travel.   I don't own a tuba or sousaphone, but the producer borrowed one from some local band director  who is a friend f his.

We didn't get out of the studio until 11:20, but since that we completed my portion of the project yesterday and I'm totally free today, I'm really glad we stayed. I just kept pushing the bottled water down  They do ave plenty of that in Lehi even if their tap water supply is critically  low. The producer's wife is concerned about the quality of the water at the very bottom of the underground wells, so she uses bottled water even for cooking. She says if it were practical, she would truck enough in to bathe her children, but that it's not practical. As much as possible, she tries to take her kids to her mom's house in another happy valley community to swim and shower,  but doing so every day sin't practical, so she uses as little of the well water as she can get by with using and just hopes for the best. water shortage isn't usually a problem there, so individual homes aren't even metered. The city has to encourage residents to conserve water and hope that they actually do. The local LDS church officials are involved in the campaign to encourage citizens not to over-tap their limited supply of water. Involving church officials increases the chances of success in encouraging compliance. There's 'nothing they [the local LDS officials] can do other to than say something to members they observe abusing the "voluntary" (the city is scrambling to enact laws mandating watering days and such), but Mormons are in general compliant with their church leaders.


.A few acquaintances of the producers came in to add vocals and a few lead guitar parts, which didn't exactly simplify matters, ut they were all professionals, so it wasn't as though i had to stand  around waiting while they mastered their parts. It's always good experience to work with high-quality musicians, and even though any sort of recording career in recording is the furthest thing form my plans, the networking that is happening by chance can only work in y favor. All the musicians with whom I worked yesterday were very professional and were most kind to me. I may have the opportunity to earn a little additional cash working on other projects when I;;m in break from med school or law school, I like as much financial independence from my parents as possible.

When it was time to wrap thing sup, the producer's wife insisted that he follow me in his car all the way back to the condo where i was staying. It seemed a little overly cautious, but I'm sure my parents would have appreciated the gesture,  An advantage to having worked such a long day is that I slept soundly enough that I heard no boogeymen lurking outside my doors or windows. I'm not saying they weren't actually there, but if they were, I was too exhausted to take any notice of them,

In a few minutes I'm having breakfast a my pseudouncle's sister;s  house. she's the one who had twins  around Christmas. They're finally getting old enough to be just a bit mobile, so they're fun to watch in action.  Pseudouncle's niece [and Jared's cousin :(], Alyssa, who is my age, is coming as well. Alyssa is also coming with me to tour a couple of canyons and to go up into the hills to Sundance. Tonight the two of use will babysit pseudouncle's sister's six kids. Alyssa could probably manage the job by herself, as she;s the  oldest of eighth and is used to managing large numbers of children, but we;ll have more fun watching them together.

Tomorrow I'm sleeping late, packing, going to lunch with my grandmother, and heading to the airport to leave the confines of Happy Valley for the sad and miserable shores of  California's central coast ;).  It's been fun, but I won't be sad to leave, and there will be plenty of times when I can return to visit if i so desire.