Need to be early for Christmas

We are going with a 2 song single for Christmas (it is just getting prepped and will be uploaded soon). There ended up being a bit of debate over this. As I discussed in my last update, we were looking for a simple song to just add to the set. After some research (it did have to be public domain obviously), we settled on the Alleluia Chorus (Handel). Though at first that sounds like a complicated go, in reality, it is just four parts (so one part per tape). We were even discussing letting me play one of the parts (so we all had our own tape). All we would have to do is record each part, mix and get it uploaded.

Well, as they say “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”. We went through the process of picking 4 voices (for the 4 parts). We wanted something similar in sound as it was intended for voices (which would be similar). We got that all worked out and verified the success (the first four measures sound great). Then something happened.

Our process of working all our songs independently has some effects. If you listen to any one of the tapes on the OP-1, they all actually sound pretty good on their own. Basically, they are pieces of the whole, but they all make good musical sense individually. The Alleluia Chorus is not that. There are times when one part (or another) diverges from the expected. I do not know how many times Dark had to yell at someone for playing the wrong note (it sounded good with what they were doing but would have sounded out of place when it was all put together).

As we are trying to put together a new process (where each can modify their own tape) it did not seem to be a good idea to try something new (and if we do not get it out soon, we will have to wait another year). So as stated above, we are putting out the two songs we have (last years Sparking Flash and this years Silent Night). However, when relistening to the songs, we noticed a significant difference in quality (both were recorded on Topper, not the OP-1 Field). We are taking a few days break now to review our back catalog and look at our progress (and that will be the topic of the next blog post).