Critter's Crazy Corner

It's been almost 4 months since my last update here, and those 4 months have been a very busy time! The "Rockin' Around the Town Square" 2010 concerts were a blast and a success - so much so that the 2011 dates have already been scheduled and confirmed! Since January, I've kept busy working on recordings for 3 different simultaneous recording projects, which include an instrumental album of original material, a rockin' Christmas album, and an album of original material featuring vocals. As of now, I've made the most progress on the instrumental album, the Christmas album is the next most complete project, and the vocal album still has much work left to do. Considering my track record of being a perfectionist (to the point of obsessive compulsion) with my recordings, I'm amazed at how much material I've actually managed to complete recently.

Tentative plans for the remainder of 2011 will include much time spent recording - including completing and releasing the Christmas album (which will feature many of my arrangements as used for the past "Rockin' Around the Town Square" concerts, plus brand new material), plus completing (and possibly releasing) the instrumental album. The goal is to complete the Christmas album in time for this year's concerts, but time ultimately reveal the final outcome. I'm also in the process of scheduling several live performances for this coming summer and fall.

In addition, after nearly 3 years, I've finally updated the music player at baydamusic.com - it now features a total of 15 songs (with more to come soon) recorded between 1998 and 2011. Many of the songs recorded for the above-mentioned recording projects are currently streaming in the Jukebox Music Player - check it out at baydamusic.com by clicking on the "MUSIC" link!

Until next time, please stay tuned to baydamusic.com for more news and information!

Posted by Christopher Lee at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

About an hour ago, I finished recording the instrumentation for the new songs for this year's "Rockin' Around the Town Square" concerts in early December (in an effort to maximize time and efficiency, I record demo versions of my arrangements to distribute to each of the performing musicians along with chord and lyric sheets so they can learn and practice with the recordings prior to the rehearsals). In about 10 hours, I'll be recording Greg and Natalie Sprouse's vocal tracks for the new songs - and I am PUMPED to see how they will bring the songs to life! The new recordings are sounding awesome to these ears, and have made me even more excited for the upcoming concerts. At this point, I'm most excited about the recordings and arrangements for "Ode to Jam (The Classics)," "Joy to the World," and "Little Drummer Boy," and I can't wait to see how well they translate to the live performances.

Hope to see you at the shows on December 3-5! Stay tuned for more info...

Posted by Christopher Lee at 03:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Due to popular demand, I've decided to temporarily "open the vault" to unveil a small bit of some new music that I've been working on over the past couple weeks. A portion of a freshly recorded home demo is now available online. It is approximately 2 minutes in length, and I perform all of the instruments. It is a "rough demo" and not a polished, final recording; as a result, there are plenty of mistakes, but it serves its purpose, which is to relay the general idea of what I want to accomplish with it.

After having said all of that, it's time to move on to the good stuff! Click HERE to listen to the new demo recording. A flash music player will open in a new window. Feel free to share your thoughts and leave any comments. Enjoy!

P.S. - this is just one of the arrangements I'm presently working on for the upcoming "Rockin' Around the Town Square" Holiday Rock Concerts on December 18-20, 2009. Please come check it out - and see this arrangement performed in its entirety in a LIVE setting!

Posted by Christopher Lee at 01:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just completed some new demo recordings for my next studio recording project - I'm excited to see what the future holds for it. I've also been working on recording some of my arrangments and music for the upcoming "Rockin' Around the Town Square" holiday concert, which is already shaping up to be an excellent show! If all goes according to plan, I'll be recording some keyboard tracks this weekend to add to the guitar tracks already completed. I've also been contemplating revisiting some of the incomplete recorded material I have shelved for the past few years...

As the second part of the studio update, I recently expanded my recording equipment - I finally gave in and purchased some Mackie studio monitors. I connected everything last night and experimented with some preliminary mixes; I am more than pleased thus far - perhaps it will help with the "listener's fatigue" after spending hours of recording and mixing through headphones exclusively.

Great things are happening - stay tuned for further updates!

Posted by Christopher Lee at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Because it has been quite awhile since my last post, I wanted to offer a quick update.

Recording sessions for the Reality Effect are well underway - "scratch" tracks have been recorded for a total of 8 songs thus far, and for much of this past Saturday (July 29) I had the privilege of recording final drum tracks with the one and only Mike Miller. To say the least, I am thrilled with how the drums are sounding.

On that note, I have one quick funny story - as I was nearly finished setting up the drums and all of the recording gear (I had just set up the final microphone and was about to do a quick sound check to monitor the recording levels of the drum mics), the power went out - for approximately 2.5 hours! Thankfully it came back on, which put us further behind schedule... we finished the last of the tracking sessions at shortly past 1:00AM. Much progress has been made - drums have yet to be recorded for 3 songs, and we will be recording "scratch" tracks this Friday evening for another original song - a new song that the band has never performed live. Barring an unforseen emergency, drum tracks will be recorded for the remaining songs this Saturday afternoon.

After all of the drum tracks have been recorded, we will begin recording final vocal, guitar, and bass tracks. A projected date of completion still has yet to be decided.

Keep checking back here for further progress updates.

Posted by Christopher Lee at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past weekend was very productive in terms of recording for my new "praise & worship" CD. My pal Roger Lewis (an amazing drummer, by the way) and I recorded drum tracks for the 8 remaining songs, and also re-recorded drum tracks for 3 of the previously recorded songs. I am very pleased with the sound quality of the new drum tracks - they sound great even before adding effects and EQ. Part of it is due to the fact that I am getting better at recording drums, since I've now done it a few times, and the other part is due to the fact that Roger has a brand new custom-built Bronwyn drum kit. Maple drums tend to sound amazing, especially when recorded. I would like to re-record a few other songs that we had previously cut the drums tracks for last November, as well as adding percussion tracks.

Regarding the other instrumentation tracks, only "scratch" tracks of the rhythm (and some lead) guitars have been recorded, mainly as an aid for vocals and drums. Some of the "scratch" tracks are worth keeping; however, I will for the most part re-record the guitar tracks as well, which should be relatively easy now that drums have been added (recording guitar tracks alone without any musical accompaniment besides a metronome can be rather difficult at times). Don still has to add bass tracks to the recordings, which I would like to complete sometime in the near future (pending on his insanely busy schedule). Lead vocal and some background vocal tracks are for the most part complete, although I would like to re-record several of them, especially since I now own a professional studio microphone designed specifically for recording vocals.

Here's a summary of what has been recorded so far:

Guitars - July, August 2006 - all songs

Lead & Background Vocals - August 2006 - all songs except "Only A God Like You" (recorded December 2006)

Drums - November 2006:

• Ain't No Rock
• Better Is One Day
• Days Of Elijah
• Forever
• Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing)
• Meet With Me
• Only A God Like You
• Romans 16:19 (Be Excellent At What Is Good)

Drums - February 2007:

• Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
• Great Things
• Joy
• Praise Medley
• Victory In Jesus
• We Fall Down
• When I Think About You
• You Are Holy
• Days Of Elijah
• Only A God Like You
• Romans 16:19 (Be Excellent At What Is Good)

That sums up the progress made thus far. Keep checking back for further updates regarding all of the albums I am currently working on.

Until next time!

Posted by Christopher Lee at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)