Jeremy is probably the closest thing to a roots blues man you're likely to find in central Indiana. He came over yesterday afternoon for a second recording session, and to my surprise, banged out three songs in as many hours. With his permission, I posted two of the songs over in the music section.
I attribute yesterday's unusual speed to the different ways the two of us record music. I have always recorded in four to eight measure spurts alongside rigid MIDI backup tracks. This makes it easier to modify and mix songs electronically, but it also promotes a time consuming stop-and-go method of playing. Also, I regularly spend 25 takes or more on each short section of track, which, once I get one I like, I copy as many times as needed. Jeremy is the exact opposite. It always amazes me that he can record an entire song-length track without any kind of backup; know exactly how many measures he needs; keep incredibly solid time; play well throughout the song; and do it all in less than three takes.
Now this method of recording does have its downside: it makes it nearly impossible to go back and seamlessly modify a track. When listening to the recordings, you'll probably notice a few places where I made some recording mistakes that I couln't go back and fix by splicing in a better section. The best I could do was play with levels and tweak the EQ, though as I mentioned in the last post, I'll be the first to admit I'm still learning in both respects.
Despite these minor difficulties, I feel the songs came out okay and give a good impression of Jeremy's impressive Blues talent. It was a learning experience for both of us, and I enjoyed helping him out.