By Jeff Copperthite:
Jeff Copperthite is working on a new album called Greenlight. Catch some insight on how he is doing by watching this video.
Jeff walks you through his thought process as he works with his recorded guitar tracks. He comments on his process, procedure, and thoughts in progress.
Keep watching for a news tidbit from www.fusco-moore.com, and continue to check out www.guitarbucketlist.com for everything related to Fusco-Moore Productions!
By Jeff Copperthite:
I hope you haven’t thought ill of me in the past month.
For some reason, the holiday season tends to be the busiest for me. I got the chance to see a lot of family on both my side and my wife’s side, so that is always a positive. I even got a chance to have some of my family listen to FMP’s music. My Quilt bandmate Scott even got compared to Bob Dylan. I find that quite complimentary.
If you’re reading about me, you’re probably asking 2 or possibly 3 questions which i’d like to answer right now.
1) How is Greenlight going?
The recording is going slow, but that is because I want my first official solo effort to be the best I can possibly do. It took me 3 weeks to record “What not to do”, which you now hear in the FMP frontpage player. I went through a lot of takes in most of the instruments, and some of my previous entries dealt with how tough some of those parts were. However, you can tell how much work went into it. I’m very proud of that recording. I am in the middle of finishing up guitars for another song, which i’m still debating the title of. Another song i’m ironing out the lyrics too, and has yet to meet my recorder. I also plan to pull out an oldie from my MIDI library and record it as well. In all, I plan on having 2 instrumentals and 7 vocal songs on the EP. 5 of those vocal songs are primarily finished, while i’m working on the 6th and 7th as mentioned above. If all goes well I plan on finishing primary recording within the next two weeks. It is an optimistic goal, but I know a lot of people who can’t wait to hear it. At the same time, i’m not trying to rush it and if I need more time I will make sure to take it.
2) Where have you been in the Laptop Sessions?
To tell you the truth, I was not all impressed with my $20 webcam and the video it put out. It took forever to get somewhat acceptable settings, and I needed to hook up an external directional microphone to pick my sound up. If you have seen my videos a lot, you’ll notice the video and sound quality is mediocre at best (which is a weird combination of words, but let’s not get into that). And I was also a bit demoralized by a quick rash of negative comments on my “Emaline” video. Due to this combination, and my busy holiday schedule, I let that production slip by. However, over the holidays one of our gifts was a brand spankin’ new digital camera that does awesome video AND has a great condenser microphone. I promise to return to the laptop sessions very soon.
3) What is with that weird Grizzly Adams beard?
Hey, it’s short! It works great for me because now I don’t get asked for a hall pass at the school I teach at.
4) Ignore these four words.
I look forward to using the above mentioned camera to also record some in-studio video for the bonus material, and perhaps i’ll post one or two on this blog. Operation: Studio Improvement will also be commencing in two short months. Watch as I use much effort to paint my studio, put up new doorframe and corkboard ceiling, and a decorative yet inflammable curtain to block out the water heater and furnace from my recording view.
Again, I enjoy hearing from you guys and it really makes me feel great that I have fans on this site. Please email me or post comments for all of us to read.
And, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! May the new year be as fulfilling and rewarding to you as your previous years.
By Jeff Copperthite:
I know you wonder how it is going with the Fusco-Moore Productions crew, so here is another update.
As you have seen, as of Saturday all members of FMP have contributed to the Laptop Sessions, and they are slowly gaining popularity among youtube viewers (as well as those reading this blog – like yourself. You’re a distinguished individual for reading this blog!), and hopefully other well known people.
However, you’ll notice Thursday was the last time I have done a session. There are two reasons for this.
One, I want to get to know the video software that came with my web camera, because Youtube quickcapture is a bit, well, slow. When you watch them, it looks like our strumming hand is one huge blur. That, and you can see us going to the computer to click “Save and Continue”. You’ll also notice Jim and Chris’ videos have titles to them. I want to learn how to do that, so that way, you can hear as little of my voice as possible.
The second is Friday night I injured my left index finger – falling up the stairs. Just when that people only fell down the stairs, I have defied yet another law of nature. That was all that happened, and thankfully it isn’t broken. It is a bit swollen right now, but I figure tomorrow or Tuesday it should be fine enough to play again.
Speaking of playing and recording, another song is almost done for the EP. Only the bass is left to record. I can’t wait to get to the other 3 songs to record. I can see the end of recording in sight. Baseball season is over as of Saturday, so now the weekends are now much more available.
When my finger does heal, I will be playing a couple of Jim Fusco originals on my laptop sessions installments. Hopefully Jim’s ears won’t cringe (or his eyes for that matter) when he hears them.
Until then…
By Jeff Copperthite:
Finally was able to get a solid session in today. With a schedule like mine, it is very difficult to find an hour or two at a time.
Between teaching, marriage, and a running addiction to Final Fantasy XI, recording time is hard to come by all at once.
Thankfully, Final Fantasy XI was down for maintenance, my wife was at work, and school was over for the day.
So I got down to the studio and finished the guitars for the song i’m working on now.
And those who have recorded before know how much it takes to lay down one track you are happy with. I ended up with five guitar tracks. The song is about 4 1/2 minutes long. That’s 22 1/2 minutes of guitar recording. That is assuming of course I get each one right on the first try.
Good thing nobody under the age of 27 lives in my house. When you mess up what was a terrific guitar track by missing the string or the chord, it is usually followed by a four letter word that isn’t “love”.
Multiply that by 40.
While three of the five guitar tracks were done in 4 takes or less, the fourth one went through creative changes. Do I want it distorted? Let’s try it clean – nah, screw that lets get that distortion back – wait, is that how I had it? 9 takes later, I had a track that i’m somewhat happy with – i’ll probably end up recording it again. If anyone listened to me talking while recording they’d think i’m nuts.
It’s weird when you know you’re nuts as well.
That’s not even considering the guitar solo, which only happens for 1 minute of the song.
I must’ve played the same solo for the 1st half of this time span about 24 times before I got one perfect.
Then I did the 2nd half on the first take.
When I listened back to it expecting to have to record it again, I surprised myself with it. Recording is like that. Once in a while you nail an entire song in an hour. Other times the song nails you. Or gets you nailed…
No, just kidding. I have yet to have the need to throw throngs of fans off my legs so I could get in my tour bus.
But as you can see. It is a fickle hobby that we are involved in. Good thing you get to hear the end result. It takes hours of recording to get one 4 1/2 minute song for you to enjoy. Imagine how long it takes to record an entire EP or album. Good thing we’re allowed to sleep in between.
Well, more updates to come when they happen.
Until then…