You aren’t supposed to favour a child over all the rest are you?  Thing is, of the songs on the Fantasy Bridge project, this one is undoubtedly my favourite.

A dimension spanning, time and space love song, where the protagonists are living in alternative universes, and only know of each other through their mutual dreams.  OK, maybe I have been watching too much Doctor Who… Nah!

Loads of keyboards, layered vocal harmonies, a big Moog Modular solo, electric and acoustic guitars from Nick Crosby, (he does some rather luscious harmonics at one point), gothic choirs, and of course… Cowbell! You can’t have a an album without some cowbell there somewhere.

The track clocks in at around 8 minutes, and I figured that meant more than one clip.

So here are two excerpts for you.  The first is the intro, driven by  heavy-ish  bass riff, that Adam, it should be pointed out rather likes playing. The second is the 2nd verse and chorus fading as the big instrumental starts to kick in (with Adam’s other favourite bass riff!)

There might be a couple of tweaks to this before it goes off to the mastering process, but it’s more or less there.

Enjoy!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A somewhat action packed edition of the blog today folks.

First off: Guitars.  Andy came over the other Friday and brought his rather nice Yamaha acoustic, and his even nicer American Stratocaster.  I miked up the Yamaha with a Samson CO2 Small Diameter Condenser mic set about 18″ (45cm) from the soundboard pointing at about the 12th fret.  Got a really nice sound.  Anyway, we tracked the acoustic guitar parts for A Day by the Sea and Together on the Shores of Time.  Then we moved to the Strat, which I DI’d directly into the DAW, and then using Logic’s Amp Designer I selected the Large Tweed Combo which is modelled from a classic Fender Tweed amp.  This was used to great effect on the rock section of A Day by the Sea.  I’m really pleased with it.

Also on the Guitar front Nick has agreed to do me another solo, this time the guitar solo in the 6/8 instrumental section of A Day by the Sea.  I  sent him links to the section in question, and the whole song, and he’s going to get to work on it.

Next up: Bass.Adam was in Tracking some alternative bass parts for A Day by the Sea, because we agreed that what we had worked out last time could be improved on.  This time we came up with some really outstanding bass parts, and it has lifted the arrangement to another level.  We also tracked about 70% of the bass for Children of a Forgotten Sun before we ran out of time.  We have another session booked for this coming Friday so that should see all the bass in the can.

Finally for today: Drums. Paul is booked in for an all day session on the first Saturday in March.  This will be a fun day.  I’ve booked a Church building for the day, which has some killer acoustics – It’s a large vaulted ceiling building which would seat up to 300 people but it is carpeted and the chairs are upholstered.  This gives a space which has a nice  reverb tail but isn’t overly lively.  I reckon that we can get a great drum sound in there.  I also have access to a fair selection of mics – D112 Kick mic, Audio Technica AT4021 overheads, Shure SM57 for the Snare, Rode M3 for the hi-hat and another for the floor tom.  and my Samson C02 pair for the rack toms.  I’ll also take my Groove Tubes GT57 Large Capsule condenser for the ambience mic.

I have installed Logic onto the Macbook pro, and I’ll be taking the Alesis Multimix to interface it all to the computer.  I’ve recorded a drum kit in that space before and was please with the results, but this will be the first time with my own gear, so it’s all going to be a bit of an adventure.

This is the big push to get the final bits of tracking done.  I still have Sue’s electric violin part to get for Ode to Joy, but I can now see the end in sight for the tracking.

No, not a new dance genre, but a thoroughly satisfying tracking session with Adam.  This weekend we got the Bass for the new Together on the Shores of Time arrangement and The Ode to Joy tracked.

Together is sounding beautiful, I’m really happy with the way the new arrangement has come, er,  together.  Whilst Mr Beethoven’s tune has got more energy than a can of Red Bull!

In other news, Quiescence is now officially part of the Fantasy Bridge canon, while the new aforementioned unnamed tune has not only gained a name, but has found some lyrics, in the form of a song sketch I had lying around from 2006, so the ‘new’ song will after all not be quite so new, and is to be called Autumn Rain.  Both Sue and Adam think that this song should also be part of the album, so although I have yet to make a final decision it is looking more likely.

And Adam’s verdict of the weekend?