Here, Tom details the recording processes he used for each song. "I recorded all of the instruments and vocals into a Windows based computer running Cubase 5.1. The 11 tracks took over 3 years to record and mix. Because this takes more time than recording a group of simpatico musicians, the hats of engineer, producer and artist must be interchanged frequently. This is probably the most difficult part; ensuring that the chorus has a singable hook, the song creates and holds interest and the Bass drum sounds good with the Bass guitar"

"Some songs were written before recording, others grew as the instruments went down and at least one was recorded 3 times to sound right. The recording equipment is seductive. It can make you want to record something, anything even if it’s not ready. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but a riff could sound interesting while it’s being recorded but be in an awkward key to sing"

The following are the recording highlights of each song.

The songs that feature the TC-Helicon processors are bookmarked here:

There’s More To You

Carpe Diem

Grab The Line

Waiting For The Big One

Had To Have You – "I was fooling around with a Roland drum machine borrowed from work and found this rhythm preset. I recorded a short section that I could repeat as you hear. The overlapping loop on the chorus is my main drum instrument on the CD, the Steinberg LM-4. The background vocals are real."

I Like The Sound – "This is one of the first songs I recorded when I first got the computer. The distorted loop you hear on the intro and later choruses was added very late in the process. I distorted a loop I had created through a tube mic preamp made by IVL Technologies for Digitech called the VTP-1. The reverse echo effect was a happy accident. I was after a reverse effect but the actual result is a glitch that just happened when I opened the program one day. I kept it. Pitch correction from the VoiceOne put the final sheen on the vocal."

Nuisance – "This is my “blues” song. This CD was originally to be recorded with my duo, The Acousticats, in which I play with a terrific singer, April Gislason who is very bluesy. I recorded the bed track for her to sing and she originally sang on it. Because of time constraints, April wasn’t available enough to commit to a CD project so I gave it a go as a personal effort. This meant I had to re-record the vocal myself in her key. I like how the slide guitar works in it. This is my Fender acoustic run through an overdrive plugin. Real vocals again. How many songs do you know with the word “preferential” in the lyric?"

There’s More To You - "TC-Helicon needed a demonstration of the VoiceOne, a combination pitch corrector and voice transformation product. VoiceOne can also be used as a single voice harmony processor so all the harmony voices heard in this song are not sung by me but by the VoiceOne. The whisper you hear at the beginning is actually a line sung full voice later in the song copied and put through the VoiceOne. My first version of this song had no whisper but the Helicon folks thought the tune needed some more product stuff at the beginning. A good call; thanks guys. Interestingly, I would not have chosen the intervals that you hear in the verse (“Then one day you spoke your intentions”) if I were adding background vocals in the conventional way. Those chorus harmonies sound pretty convincing for being virtual! This track is the only one with sequenced Bass. The Bass instrument is from my soundcard, I think it’s a Yamaha soundset"

Carpe Diem – "This is another Helicon demo commission, this time for the VoiceWorks which is a four voice harmony processor with pitch correction and effects. All the vocal harmonies are created “virtually”. I played the vocal harmony lines with a midi keyboard on the choruses. The flangey vocal effect in the bridge is done by having all four virtual voices sing unison but with a ton of the humanization parameters and portamento turned on. Also in the bridge, I used the VoiceOne product to get the wacky string quartet effect. What a fascinating experiment! I had no idea my fiddle would work through a voice processor but I wanted the tight ensemble sound.  What you hear is my low budget fiddle mic’d with an AKG 414 on to 3 tracks: the deepest track, (the “cello”) is pitch shifted an octave down with deep resonance effect added, the middle track is a pseudo viola; no pitch shifting but deep resonance to give my fiddle the large body sound, finally the highest fiddle is unprocessed. I think the Beatles and George Martin are due some credit for the melodic approach I took in my virtual quartet. I had just purchased my precious Larrivee acoustic when I was finishing instrument tracks and this is the only song with its contribution on it."

Waiting For The Big One – "As mentioned in my bio, I have no small fear of earthquakes. My wife and I were woken up one night by a small one and I felt I had to confront this fear by writing a song about it. I moderated the earthquake subject by equating it to waiting for love. This song had been recorded early on and I had put it away ready for mixing. The majority of the harmonies are real, but a couple of things nagged me as I listened to those early mixes: I needed a high harmony on the choruses and harmony on selected lines. Finally, during the mixing stage I patched in a VoiceWorks harmony processor and ran the lead vocal through it. Within about ten minutes I had exactly the harmonies I had heard in my mind. VoiceWorks provided the high scale-based harmony on the chorus lines “waiting for the big earthquake” and “waiting to feel the floor shake”. The accent harmonies in the 2nd verse are all VoiceWorks performed on a keyboard while I used pitch bend to provide differentiation. The fiddle solo was a one taker way back when I was still fairly new at fiddle. It’s played on this plexiglas prototype which is a solid beam of clear plexiglas with a fiddle neck bolted on."

Grab The Line - "That haunting, hard-to-identify instrument in the intro is my cheapie fiddle again performed through the VoiceOne processor. It’s pretty much the same settings as I used to create the virtual cello in Carpe Diem: octave down, no dry signal and deep resonance. The very last note of this part was a little shaky, so I pitch corrected it (yup, works on fiddle too) and added one of VoiceOne’s vibrato presets. Scary. I’ve since learned how to make fiddle vibrato with my fingers but this sure pulled me out of a sonic bind. I recorded this song 3 times to get it right. The guitar I used in this track belongs to a friend, Fred Speckeen who at the time of my 3^rd crack at this song had taken delivery of his new Taylor acoustic. We worked in the same building so I asked if I could use it on my new song. I rushed upstairs to the studio at lunchtime, put down a click track (I had no bed tracks recorded) and banged through as many takes and mic placements as I could. Later I assembled the takes into two tracks, added instruments and vocals. Voila. This song is normally played with a capo on the 2^nd fret, but the day I borrowed the guitar I had no capo so I’m singing in a lower range than usual. I like how it worked out that the vocal is a contrast to the rest of the CD where I’m in my natural range. Serendipity strikes again!"

Love’s First Kiss – "This is another one recorded in a female key that I had to re-sing. April, who sang on it originally, is ghosted in on the choruses and she whispers the “love’s first kiss” at the end of the breakdown. The thank you’s on the CD cover credit April with “the kiss” in this song which I intended to mean the whispered “love’s first kiss” and not my first romantic kiss which is what the song is otherwise about."

Devil In A Coupe De Ville – "The octave down vocals on the chorus are not virtual, they are me singing the lowest note I can. I could have used a harmony processor but the mic was up, my voice was warmed up and the idea was there so I went for it. This one took a couple of complete lyric rewrites to get the visual imagery where it is now. The vocal is run through a standard Cubase overdrive plug-in to get that nasty, semi-distorted sound. For you slide players out there, I’m playing the slide part in standard tuning on my Fender Stratocaster. I use the slide live a lot but I hate retuning or carrying other guitars so I improvised a way to get those classic intervals."

Take Me As I Am – "This song reveals my Country influences. If you have lived in Dallas, Texas and Alberta, Canada like I have, you can’t help but absorb Country music in some way."

Ode To A Classic – "The guitar used in this song came to me in an unusual way when I was young and irresponsible. I’ve had it since high school and never used it for any recording but lately my wife has been listening to Jesse Cook, a Canadian artist who blends flamenco-style guitar with World beats. I have a number of analog synthesizers lying around so it seemed natural to pair the semi-classical guitar performance with them. I originally hesitated to put this on the CD because it is an instrumental but I’m glad I did because it provides a gentle send off at the end of the CD."

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