The Making of a Record - Part 2

By Patrick Jenkins/Two Cent Offering

Jacob at OmniSound Studios Jaob lays down tracks whie at OmniSound Studios/

So, with the last guitar packed into the trailer we made our way back to Peoria to continue work on the album. We had gone to Nashville to get as much down on the new record as we could - this ended up entailing basic rhythm tracks (bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, and vocals). A great start for our first studio effort!

Back in Peoria with Scott Kramer at Electric Station Studios
The next step was to take these basic tracks and augment them with overdubs - strings, synths, extra guitar and percussion parts, and background vocals. I wish everyone could experience the process of hearing a song in its original raw form - just voice, lyrics and a guitar or piano - and then witness the journey the song takes to become the fully developed work heard on the cd. It’s humbling to have the songs treated with such care and respect by people who put in long hours to add even more beauty, meaning, and excitement to the music! Amazing! At this point it is important to mention the work of David Browning. David is a producer, programmer, and musician working out of Nashville - he’s worked with a wide variety of artists on many records, and working with him was a real privilege! Scott has worked with David on past projects and knew he would be able to add some fantastic elements to the music. His work can be heard on Wayward in the form or string, organ, percussion, and synthesiser parts - listen to Wide is the Road, Narrow the Path and check out the string and organ parts- we are moved with each hearing of the song - a great example of all elements (lyrics, chords, rhythm, tone, texture, and passion) working together to create a stunning big picture.

Mixing
This part of the process followed the overdubbing and took hours of hard work from Scott - once again, Scott is a champion with a huge heart to serve. It is safe to say that not only does he have a huge impact on the music, but on us personally as well. Can’t say enough about him! - When mixing a project, the engineer (Scott, in this case), begins creating well-balanced tracks out of everything we recorded. Each instrument and voice must be at the right volume level and blend with everything else. Nothing is overlooked - and everything has its place. This is an immensely important in determining the overall sound of a record.

Mastering
Once everything had been mixed to our liking we sent the tracks off to a mastering engineer. This is the final step for the recording and includes finishing touches like order of the songs, time in between songs, overall sound and volume of the record. Once the mastering engineer finished, he sent the tracks back to us, ready to be sent off the manufacturer, along with the art work and design for the cd (all painstakingly and skillfully done by Chris, our resident design man!)

Hopefully this gives you an idea of all that goes into making a record. We are extremely excited to be able to share this finished project and invite you to experience the record in its an entirety - you can preorder Wayward for just $12 with free shipping from our myspace as well as our website. Keep checking back for live dates and the date for our cd release concert. www.twocentoffering.com. Happy listening and be encouraged!