Final Update, in which we summarize the project and discuss what went well and what could have gone better.
Our family after a hike in the jungles of Borneo, where we first sang John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" around a campfire.
WEEK ONE: I introduced the project.
THE OSBORN FAMILY because it involved our whole family. That includes me, husband Tony, daughter Rosie, son-in-law James, daughter Sonja, son-in-law Eboy, and son Russell.
TRANS-PACIFIC because three of us are on the America side of the Pacific Ocean, and four of us are on the Asia side of the Pacific Ocean.
RECORDING because that is what we did. We recorded a song together, sort of. We have a master studio at home here in Arizona, and our kids have satellite studios at their homes in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo and in Okcheon, South Korea.
PILOT PROJECT because, although our family is not new to recording, we are new to recording tracks, sending them across the ocean, recording more tracks, sending them back across the ocean, etc.
The hardware for this project is FocusRite 18/20 (18 inputs, 20 outputs). The software is Ableton Light. We found early on that we needed more than Ableton Light provided, and we upgraded to Ableton Standard. It is the software that makes it possible to email tracks to each other.
WEEK TWO: COVID-19 shut down South Korea, Rosie and James converted their University classes to online, and Tony and I created a basic practice track and emailed it to the kids. And we lost our dog, Patches. Our dogs Jack and Rocky still don’t know what to do with themselves.
WEEK THREE: we started laying down the instrumental tracks. And I wrote down the string part (arranged by Lee Holdridge for John Denver’s concert at Universal Studios Amphitheater).
WEEK FOUR: COVID-19 shut down Arizona, and Tony and I both converted to online, Tony to online teaching, and I to online learning. Russell was already studying online. Frustrated with the limitations of Ableton Light, we upgraded to Ableton Standard. We had latency issues which we fixed (we thought).
WEEK FIVE: we found out the latency problem wasn’t fixed. We figured it out. Because Tony is tenacious. We discovered the problem of not having visual cues, and I created a template vocal recording for consonants and cutoffs. I laid down the strings.
WEEK SIX: everyone has made progress up to this point, doing some trial tracks and learning the technology. We started on the final instrumental track.
Russell and a very groggy Jack coming home from the vet.
WEEKS SEVEN AND EIGHT: COVID-19 shut down Malaysian Borneo. Sonja was already teaching online; Eboy is on the front lines, working in Public Health. We sent out the final instrumental track, and everybody sent their final tracks back to us. We mixed it down, sent it to the kids, and did a final mix down based on their feedback. Our dog Jack started limping and we discovered a growth on his foot, which was removed (the growth, not the foot!). The growth was benign, so no worries. Jack is the dog who was bitten on another foot by a poisonous snake in Korea. He survived that and has the scars to prove it. Now two of his feet have stories to tell!
The spreadsheet we used as our guide for mix down.
SUMMARY: We learned that long-distance recording has its challenges, especially during a worldwide pandemic.
THE PANDEMIC:
Son-in-Law Eboy is on the front lines in Borneo, working twelve to fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. It’s hard to come home exhausted and then put time and energy into recording.
I am a student and my husband is a professor. We both suddenly had to convert to online learning and teaching, which required quite an investment of time, right in the middle of the recording project. Rosie and James, both professors in Korea, also had to convert to online.
When we found we needed additional equipment, it difficult to get, because the music stores were all closed (and remain so), and online retailers were slow shipping nonessential items. Deliveries that would normally take two to three days have been taking two to three weeks. In fact, we are still waiting on some items would have been really useful in this project.
THE CHALLENGES: There were a lot of firsts with this project. Everyone involved had to learn the technology including both the FocusRite hardware and the Ableton software. All needed to go from a blank slate to being able to apply some technically difficult concepts. Even husband Tony, who has experience with multitrack recording, had to learn how to use a digital audio workstation. Even the language was different.
Importing and exporting files between locations turned out to be a major issue. It was difficult to sync all the tracks with each other. There were a few secrets which in the end made it easier, but we had to learn the secrets, which further slowed the process. Fortunately, there is an online community of Ableton users, who are happy to share their secrets.
Not being in the same room with our fellow musicians proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. It seems we really cue off each other visually. It’s important for blending and keeping consonants and cutoffs together. You can hear in the recording that we are not always quite together.
We were building the plane as we were flying it, and had a great adventure doing it. After we landed safely, we realized that this is a viable thing, and we anticipate many Osborn Family Trans-Pacific Recording Adventures to come.
Take Me Home, Country Roads
Words & Music by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, & John Denver
Performed by the Osborn Family
Verse 1: Sonja & Eboy
Chorus 1: Debbie, Rosie, & Sonja
Verse 2: Rosie & James
Chorus 2: Everybody
Bridge: Tony, Debbie, & Russell
Chorus 3: Everybody
Chorus 4: Everybody doubled
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