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Before the bits were dry on my final Groove95 take, I knocked out the next tune, Cincinnati Summer. It’s a simple song, and more to the point it’s short: about two and a half minutes.

Steve had recorded an acoustic-guitar version of the song for a previous solo CD, so we had a good demo to work from. He also sent a fresh demo on cassette, which I thought I might import into Pro-Tools as a guide track, but due to tape deck inconsistencies the click on the cassette demo did not match the desired tempo. I therefore started from scratch by programming a click track, and (as I had for Bleed) recorded the drums with no external guide track.

To help me keep my place in the song, I made an arrangement chart showing the song’s sections, with bar counts and lyrics. For the most part I was able to sing the song from memory, but I know from experience that a moment’s uncertainty can blow a take, so I like to have a written guide.

Getting into and out of the song quickly was the challenge here; there wasn’t enough time for a gradual build or fade. For example, I considered laying out for the first verse, to provide impact by coming in on the downbeat of the first chorus. But I thought that would make the song sound choppy, e.g. if the drums played only for the middle ~90 seconds of the song.

I settled on a couple basic, feel-good grooves that seemed to fit well. The verses are dead simple: two and four with a cross-stick. This gives a clear contrast to the chorus sections, which are built on a ghost-note feel on the snare drum and a bit more interplay between the kick and snare.

Rather than share the bare drum track, I’ve provided an MP3 of the drums and bass together. This is a second-generation recording: I made a rough drum mix, converted to MP3, and put it online for Andrew, who imported it into Cakewalk, recorded his bass to it, then mixed the result back to MP3. This is modern asynchronous multracking at its finest. And it’s a hip bassline too. Check it out:

Cincinnati Summer (drums and bass only, rough mix, dry) (Copyright © 2004 matthew mcglynn & Andrew Thomas)

It was during my frantic tracking of this song that I learned that Andrew had suffered a catastrophic hardware failure, wiping out at least a few recent recordings, or at worst a few years worth. I had been making backups, but even so I did what anyone who hears a data-loss story should do immediately: I made another one. I burned all my audio thus far to CD. I mention this only to set up my own data-loss story, which you’ll read in a few days’ time.