Having just come from the studio last night, where I was fixing the first two line of "I courted a wee girl" octave jump and all - I am particularly tuned into everyone's angst over this issue. It took me about 20 takes (or seemed like) to get those lines soft enough, well supported, with feeling, and all the other rot that goes into it.

Recording takes a certain level of persistance that requires being beyond the shock value of listening. One of the most valuable tools we used in this project was recording our rehearsals and distributing the scratch recordings to everyone. I bet it has cut down our recording time by a third. So, not just vocalists benefit from recording themselves and listening - if you are in a band it can be invaluable. From now on, we will record our rehearsals to help us arrange new material not just in prep for a cd.

Claire