It's been a long time coming, but we finished the final song (aptly titled "The Last Day") and turned the Pro Tools session over to Cozzi to be mixed on Tuesday June 7, 2016. Daniel worked with Michael to get the drums in order (thanks to D'Vonne Lewis for playing drums on the final track).
It's weird. We started this project in Garageband, quickly moved to Logic ... and now Daniel has learned Pro Tools in order to prepare sessions for mixing. Lots of learning of software to get this far, but also plenty of arranging physical space in our basement to make the album happen. We started out with a Melodigrand piano (a gift from Thaddeus) and eventually upgraded to a 1949 Steinway console piano. Inspired by a D'Angelo interview in the Village Voice that described D'Angelo's recording tent, Daniel designed and installed a vocal tent to improve the sound of our recorded vocals in the concrete basement bunker that is our studio. We also recently added a 4' x 6' sound panel above the drums and a sound panel in front of the vocal mic to subdue the concrete wall. These nips and tucks happened over time as efficiencies were discovered—it feels more like the slow pace of gardening. If you work hard enough, you eventually you get a decent crop of tomatoes.
Back to this week—once the The Last Day is mixed, we'll listen to all the songs, make a few rounds of final mix adjustments, find the song order for the album and prepare it for mastering. Mastering. That's a hard concept to describe but we'll try to break it down as we approach that final stage of releasing a recorded album.