So, as you may recall, I decided yesterday that maybe doing the bass for "A Long, Slow March to the Sea" in one continuous take wasn't a necessity, and that maybe I should use modern recording software's ability to loop and punch in and out to make things easier for me. I was hesitant about that because I've had a few small problems, mostly in the early going, creating loops with GarageBand that don't sound a bit robotronic. But, while I haven't mastered audio engineering, yet, I think I've gotten better than when I first played with this stuff, so I thought I might give it a go.

And in about two hours last night, I was finished.

Basically, I just started out and tried to make it through as much of the song as I could without dropping the ball. That would be the first verse and midway through the chorus. So I stopped, chopped off the recording where it made sense (the beginning of the chorus), and punched myself in. Voila; it blended pretty seamlessly. From there, it was just a matter of grabbing each part and looping it under the verses and choruses that followed. I had to do the bridge independently, since it's a bit different, and from there I rolled right into the final verse, which may have been the best I've actually played that part, to date (which means I may go back and put THAT under the first two verses, instead of the loop I originally used). After that, the chorus and concluding measure were pretty easy to knock out.

I certainly intend to try to make myself a better bassist, and ultimately, I'd rather have a recording that retained as much of that live feel as possible. But I have to remind myself, here, that I'm just demo-ing. Should I actually go into a studio to record these songs, I will definitely be recording the instruments live, so using loops and punch-ins/punch-outs for this part of the process isn't that big a deal. And, in the end, I have to be a little proud of the fact that it didn't come out sounding like something that was patched together. I still have some minor tweaks to do (the aforementioned possible substitution of the last verse's bass part under the first and second verses, and maybe some volume adjustment on individual parts just to make sure everything balances as well as it could), but I feel like I'm in a much better place than I was a couple of days ago.

Of course, the irony of all this is that "A Long, Slow March" is not a bass-driven song, and that ultimately, all of this drang und sturm is going into a part of the arrangement that's going to be mostly in the background. Still, I know myself, and I know that, even if no one else were to notice anything about this song's bassline, it'd be something I'd tear my hair out over if it was in an unsatisfactory place. Fortunately, at this point, it's not.

Now, it's on to the vocals, which should be the easiest piece of the puzzle, but most likely will be the one over which I agonize more than any other. Neurotic perfectionism is such a hard burden to bear.

And now, on a completely unrelated note...I don't watch American Idol as a general rule, but a friend of mine made me promise that I would watch this season so that she could have someone to discuss it with. The things I do for my friends...anyway, I'm still figuring out how I'm going to do that given that I don't get any TV reception in my house, but I have until the round of 12 to figure it out, as my friend has given me a reprieve from watching the excruciating early rounds, which are all about, to my eyes, humiliating people - not something I enjoy watching. But so anyway, I've been casually following what's going on, and ended up seeing this guy, who is awesome and should win everything there is to win. Of course, he won't - or, at the least, they're going to make him get the Hollywood makeover or something. But it would do my heart good to see Shaggy McGee become the next teen idol, damnit.