we laid down 5 songs at my home shed/studio yesterday, mostly in an effort to the get the drums right. from there we will take turns laying down our parts.

first problem:

which tone do i go with? i have so many presets that i am tied up thinking about which sound to go with. we are a rockin band, like Lincoln Brewster but a little heavier, so i wasn't sure if i should go with a little more edge to my tone or not. anyone who has played around with the "singtall krunch" preset knows how i roll. i'm a jcm800 kinda guy, but the amp has to be able to clean up by using the guitar volume control (ala EVH).

second challenge:

do we overdub and produce this to the point where no one can play it perfectly live? that's pretty much the norm for recording....put your best foot forward. the only downside is that people get used to all of those extra sounds you add in and expect them live, especially if the sounds really make the song. example song: "how he loves". listen to the ebow at 1:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCunuL58odQ

the other challenge is that only two of us have been in the studio before. everyone else will be learning to play with a click track and dealing with headphones. it's weird your first time in, especially if you haven't been playing very long. our drummer did great for his first time in the studio. it took him a few minutes to get used to the click track, but he soon locked on. i'm thinking that i will turn off the click track for everyone else so that it doesn't end up sounding too mechanical. everyone can just play off the drums instead.

i've done cd's with several churches over the years, but none have ventured out further than what's commercially viable in that moment. we mean to push the envelope and maybe break it. lol. the church is called River Rock, and we like to rock for sure. plenty of 80's metal heads in there.

i appreciate any feedback/advice you guys can give. i'll be posting clips along the way for evaluation to make sure i haven't gone too far.