The Confetti Clatter June, 2014

New Recording in Progress

IT’S MY PARTY! went into their recording studio in Penfield, NY to record more material. There will be new recordings available for the 2014 summer tour. The first song selected for recording, “You Won’t Even Know Her Name,” has been a part of the IT’S MY PARTY! live repertoire for the past few seasons. This song was selected based on strong audience response and execution by the singers and band. You can watch a live video performance of the song here:

The first session was on March 23. On that day, drums, electric bass, and electric guitar were recorded live in the “dry” room of the studio. The instrumentalists were Dave Carroll on Fender Jaguar guitar, Paul Kanack on Fender Jazz bass, and John Giotto on Slingerland drums. Calvin May engineered the session. Calvin recorded three takes, and chose take-two as the best of the three.

The next recording session was on May 11. The studio is going through a transition from an analog studio (recording on tape) to a digital studio (recording on a computer). There have been many challenges along the way. In digital recording, there has to be a happy marriage between the computer operating system, the DAW (digital audio workstation) software and controller; this challenge slowed down the recording process, as the studio continued to emerge as a digital facility. The good news is that Calvin has made major progress with these critical elements.

On May 11, an additional upright bass track was added to the three original tracks. Paul Kanack played the upright bass, while listening to his performance and the original tracks through headphones. The idea was to layer the bass track with both electric and acoustic bass. The session went well, and we achieved the desired effect.

The last session-to-date was on May 17. Michelle came in to record the lead vocal track. We had a short window of opportunity, because Michelle was leaving for a trip to Greece the next day. The recording session couldn’t have gone better. Within one hour, we had both lead tracks recorded. Two tracks are needed to double the lead vocal, a technique that has been around for a while. Lesley Gore, the “It’s My Party” girl, is famous for her smooth double-tracked leads. Michelle sang both takes from beginning to end. The only hitch was an incorrect lyric, which we fixed quickly with what is called a “punch-in.” A “punch-in” is a recording technique that preserves most of the take an only records over the mistake. Calvin selected two different microphones for each take to give the two recordings a different feel.

Next up will be strings and saxophones. We will keep you updated on this recording and others in the July edition of the Confetti Clatter.

New Mobile Presence for IT’S MY PARTY!

With so many people getting their information on smartphones these days, it’s important that IT’S MY PARTY! have an official presence designed for mobile users. Although our website can be viewed on a mobile phone screen, it is not designed for a mobile device.

A few years ago we created an account with a company called Appsbar, which offers a service where companies create and publish their own Android and iPhone apps. The process was easy and the service was, and still is, free. Although we still have our Appsbar app, both Android and Apple took down Appsbar apps from their stores. Apple and Android charge a developers fee, so Appsbar could no longer offer a free native Android or Apple app. Our Appsbar app is still available, by going to appcatch.com. Click here to see our Appsbar app: It’s My Party App . If you attempt to download this app on an Android phone, you will receive a warning that your phone will not download an app that does not come directly from the “Play Store.” You can, however, launch the app in your phone’s web browser without a problem. Once there, you could bookmark the app on your mobile browser.

About a month ago, we discovered a company called Advamobile, they are relatively new, and geared specifically to bands and music. Like Appsbar, Advamobile offers a totally free service. We have created an Advamobile app, which you can access by texting getimp to 88704 on your mobile phone.

There are some nice features available with Advamobile, including offering exclusive content to fans, and having an online store available. Advamobile captures the phone numbers of fans, so the artist can keep in touch with followers by way of  sending text messages. With Advamobile, we could have contests from the stage in real-time, with a random winner selected through a text message.

Like Appsbar, the fan uses his or her mobile web browser to access the Advamobile app. Fans would have to save a bookmark to this link for easy access in the future. Advamobile also offers native apps for Apple and Android. There is a yearly fee for this service — remember that Android and Apple charge a developers fee — but the end result is a native app available through the Apple and Google Play stores. This seems like a more convenient way to keep in touch with fans on mobile devices. However, most users have many apps, and tend to only open a few with regularity. The thought at Advamobile is that through regular texts to fans, the artist can prompt followers to open the app.

We’d like you, our fans, to help us decide whether to take the plunge and spend money on the native apps and coding through Advamobile, or stay with the free app services. Please weigh in by participating in the poll below: