Recording with the Elcipse Trio: Day One

As I’ve posted before, the Eclipse Trio decided that two years or more was just too long a time to record an album. So, we booked four days in a studio and got to work recording the next one. Although, since the last one isn’t strictly finished either (deep sigh) it’s quite likely this one will be out first. Here is a potted history of how those four days went.

On the first day I arrived with three basses, bags of leads and a folder of track sheets to help me keep track of everything we recorded.

Once we had all the equipment plugged in, switched on and checked it was time to record the first song. We played it fairly well for the first two takes and got it right on the third. This was a seven minute opus that was followed by a six minute song. These formed a part I/part II tune which dominate the album. The third song came in at a snappy five and a bit minutes but proved to be harder to record. Having no drummer we’re following a pulse that is felt, rather than laid down on tape. In this song there is a section where it is surprisingly hard to have the three intruments play convincingly well together. When we’ve played it live it didn’t seem to matter. Certainly, no one noticed a problem. On tape (well, digital pretend tape) this tricky few bars had to be dealt with, or it would leave us with a deeply unsatisfying scar on an otherwise great record.

So, hours went by as we listened carefully. Bass and piano sounded good. Guitar and piano sounded good. Guitar and bass… well, you get the picture. The only combination that didn’t work was all three of us together. As the working day approached the twelve hour mark we had one more take and this time got it.

I was staying over at the guitarist’s house and enjoyed la few beers and ate night pizza before turning in.