The People's Republic of South Devon

Katie Marie has been working on her new album. Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

This week has been filled with lots of plans for my new album which is finally starting to come together.

The official release date is (drum roll please…) **February 29, 2012**.  For this release you’ll be able to pre-order the album. All who pre-order a CD will be entered into a competition to win an MP3 player loaded with the new album and also some other unreleased live and studio recordings. If you fancy checking it out, head on over to my website: www.funkeegirl.de

So that means I really need to get finished up recording in the studio so the promotional bits and bobs can begin!

I did have a lot of fun last week recording a new tune for the album called The Other Side. I had a really specific drum sound that I could hear in my little brain but had no idea how I was going to replicate it. Time for some experimenting!

I tried playing various snare drums and cajons and couldn’t get the right sort of sound with just a spot of EQ-ing. I decided that it probably needed some kind of effect, but I didn’t really know what that might be. Then it suddenly dawned on me, that lurking somewhere in the back of my studio was an old Korg Digital Reverb rack unit that has a really nice sounding reverse effect. I’ve kept it for years and years hoping that one day it would come in handy, now that day had finally arrived (horrah!).

I plugged it in, hooked it up to my ickle Spirit Folio desk and ran a Rode NT1a through it. I had a mess around with the reverse settings and managed to find something that sounded lovely and snappy.

Katie Marie's Spirit Folio desk

Next up was recording a bass drum part… oh no, hang on a minute, next up was taking Molly out for a stroll before she started getting grumpy…

Molly eager for a walk

…then it was time for more recording.

I decided to record the bass drum part separately as I had a specific sound in mind for that too. I used my faithful floor tom which I’ve used many times before for bass drum parts and it always sounds pretty nifty. For this song I wanted to have lots of attack and not so much drum sound. I used a Rode NT1a up high to hopefully pick up lots of attack from the skin and then whacked it for all it was worth.

After adding a few other little bits and bobs it was all wrapped up and finished (minus the vocals of course).

Here’s little sneaky clip if you fancy a listen, (it’s a rough mix with no vocals, but you get the general jist of it).

If you read last week’s article you’ll know that I had oodles of fun being part of a new Logarhythm promo video… and it’s now up online!. Check it out:

Logarhythm with Katie Marie from nickjamesgordon on Vimeo.

So I’ve got a few gigs to look forward to over the next few days. Later this evening I’m going to be supporting Sion Russell Jones at The Barrel House in Totnes and then Saturday I’ll be doing another gig with Sion at a wonderful vibey cafe called Miss Peapods in Cornwall, pop along if you’re free!

Related posts:

1. Noodling in the studio (behind the scenes of laying down a track for the new album)
2. Recording with Nicky Swann at Sawmill studios in Cornwall
3. Gigging, filming and recording albums…

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