#206: Why Your Vocal Comping Workflow Is Slowing You Down

Struggling with too many vocal takes? You nailed the perfect take, then recorded five more “just in case.” Now you’re lost in a sea of options, wondering how to create the perfect comp without losing your mind.

In this episode of Inside the Mix, Marc Matthews and Tim Benson (Aisle9) reveal their proven strategies for organising takes and building seamless vocal comps. Learn how to avoid over-recording, why comping during the editing phase keeps your mixing sessions stress-free, and the ideal number of takes before vocal fatigue hits.

We’ll cover:

• How to organise multiple takes efficiently in your DAW
• The right way to edit without clicks or pops
• Why real double-tracking beats any plugin
• How to manage performance anxiety and red light syndrome

Whether you’re producing your music or working with artists, this episode gives you practical tools to streamline your workflow and get pro results, without the chaos.

Links mentioned in this episode: 

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Transcript

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Marc Matthews 0:00

Have you ever laid down the perfect vocal take , or just a take in general , but then recorded two more just in case ? Now you've got three versions of the same performance and the big question is what do you keep , what do you comp and when do you let go ? In this episode , we're diving into a super common workflow dilemma . How do you organize vocal takes , or just any take in general , to be honest , so you're not overwhelmed when it's time to mix ?

Tim Benson 0:29

You're listening to the Inside

Why Too Many Vocal Takes Hurt Your Workflow

Tim Benson 0:31

the Mix podcast with your host , Mark Matthews .

Marc Matthews 0:34

Welcome to Inside the Mix , your go-to podcast for music creation and production . Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills , join me each week for expert interviews , practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry . Let's dive in . Hey folks , welcome back , or welcome to , Inside the Mix . It is summer and it is very , very hot . Today I'm joined again by my good friend from the Southwest , Tim Benson , aka Aisle9 . And we're here answering a question from you . And the question is this how do you organize takes ? Say , you have three takes for a vocal track . Do you do that in the editing phase and then get rid of the unused takes for the mixing phase ? So if you're ever stuck sorting 10 vocal takes at 1am I don't know why I've put that in my notes , wondering which one was the right one . This episode is for you . So that is the question . But before we do that , Tim , how are you ? How are things ?

Tim Benson 1:36

I'm very good , thanks . Yeah , I've had a rather relaxing weekend , sort of a bit of a birthday weekend . On Saturday it was my birthday , so I've just been chilling out and uh , hanging around with family and uh , it's been very nice , yeah , very nice very nice .

Marc Matthews 1:53

we were discussing off air how hot it's been , because we're recording this stupid day after the heat wave , aren't we ? Uh , which was I'm glad we we didn't do this yesterday , because in here it would have been disgusting , yeah it's pretty roasty in here .

Marc Matthews 2:10

I'm in the eaves of my house , and so that's where my studio is , so it's pretty roasty oh wait , our bedroom is in the eaves of our place and on the first floor it was 28 degrees and it was a few degrees warmer up in the eaves . And then we got a cat that can't go outside .

Tim Benson 2:28

We can't have the windows open , oh dear .

Marc Matthews 2:32

So I'm just sweating and just disintegrating from my very eyes .

Tim Benson 2:38

We've got a handy thing for windows that you can't open because animals will dive through . Tell me more . We've got a mesh type thing , like a cloth mesh , yeah . You kind of pin all around your window and then , in theory , a cat , or in our case a dog , doesn't jump through it . But , like you know , that's the theory , does it ?

Marc Matthews 2:59

work well , because I considered this . But then I thought my cat would he ? Just scratch his way through it . He's a bit of a beast .

Tim Benson 3:07

Yeah , that is true . You see , cats are clever enough to scratch their way through it and round it or something . Dogs aren't really clever enough to do that . But , like , the problem with dogs is they are stupid enough to just jump into it and I'm not sure it'll really hold him . So I just sort of see this cartoon dog like flying . Sure it'll really hold him .

Marc Matthews 3:27

So I just sort of see this cartoon dog like flying the other way or something . I don't know .

Tim Benson 3:30

But like yeah , yeah , yeah , sorry , go about no , we got a we got a baby gate . We've got this new rescue dog that's part whip it and we got a baby gate to stop him coming into our kitchen when we're cooking , only to sort of be sitting in their cookie way going . Oh , it's great we got the baby gate . Why is the dog in here ?

Marc Matthews 3:46

he just straight over the gate , just just ignored it and I did it four more times and we just went well that's rubbish , isn't it ?

Marc Matthews 3:55

so yeah yeah , just like that doesn't stop a whip it you know , it's just like not bothered I do have visions of that because I I again I toyed with it with the mesh over the window and I thought you know what ? I can just see him leaning against it and then he'll go out the window and then he's straight onto the sloping roof and then it's just two floors to the ground and I don't know , I don't think he'd do well with that . I kind of look out the window and I think , mate , like you can see it's sloping . What do you think is going to happen ?

Tim Benson 4:23

if you go out there .

Marc Matthews 4:24

Obviously , the animal doesn't see it that way . But there we go anyway , on to uh this episode .

Marc Matthews 4:32

Before we do that , folks , as always with these , uh , because this is I don't know how many times we've done this now , but anyway , uh , if you do have a question , we'd love to hear from you so you can click the speakpipe link in the episode description and send us a voice note or a question . Again , with speakpipe you don't need an account , you can use your mobile phone . It's like sending a voice message . Alternatively , there is a link there and you can just send a message , send a message through , so you don't actually have to use speakpipe if you don't want to . If you just want to send a message , click that send a message button and you can just send a , a text message . I guess they call it . No one's actually ever used that yet , so you could be the first if you try that , but because I've never used it , if you do do that , make sure that you put your name at the end of it so I know who you are . So back onto this topic . So we're talking about comping . So we're going to talk about what we do when we comp , how we clean up takes and why leaving just in case takes can backfire . I've got that in my notes . I've never really had that backfire on me , so I'm not totally sure why I put that in there , but I must have put it there for a reason . So , comping vocals or just comping in general .

Marc Matthews 5:36

Now , admittedly , I work in a post-production sort of realm these days , so I don't do a massive amount .

How to Comp Vocal Takes for a Natural, Professional Sound

Marc Matthews 5:46

But when I was in the studio environment and recording bands , recording individuals , um , I think it's par for the course that you just record multiple takes and in doing so you've got that backup further down the line . And I was always of the mindset as well I'd even record when they were warming up and specifically with vocalists I don't know if you ever did that , but I'd always record when , when they were warming up , in case you get that like perfect take when they're trying to do a demo . You can never get it again . I'd always do that . But when it came to comping , I always did that in the editing phase . So I wouldn't do any comping or any of that during the recording phase and I wouldn't also do it in the mixing phase , because I sort of compartmentalize it recording , editing , mixing , mastering for me , if I'm producing my own stuff , there's some production in there somewhere , but I always comp it in the editing phase , bounce it in place , so it's just one solid track as such audio region , and then move on to the mixing phase . I'm assuming cubase is probably the same , but even bouncing it in place , I've still got access to the old pre-comped takes if I do need them . But I then hide them in logic . So that's that's sort of my work .

Marc Matthews 6:58

I don't think there's a massive amount to go through , really , it's just a case of . I suppose one question would be how many ? How many takes is enough ? When ? When do you stop ? Because sometimes I've had this , specifically with guitars , right where , because I'm an okay guitarist but I'm always searching for that perfect take and sometimes I need to know when actually you know what enough's enough . How many takes is too many ? I suppose that's a good question , but I'll get your thoughts on it . So what are your thoughts ?

Tim Benson 7:29

and on comping and just uh that process um , yeah , for me , I mean , bit like you , I will sort of roll sort of when I'm doing a session , probably from the beginning , just in case anything start happening . I want to capture anything that might be good because sometimes when people are relaxed and not thinking about it too much , they come up with better stuff than when they go right . Red lights on first take . Got to get this right . I won't comp , like obviously initially when we're in a vocal session I would sort of do one take , then another take , probably . Personally I tend to do about three takes if possible the whole way through the song . Um , so that you kind of get a performance element , because I think you want to get that sort of performance in the vocal .

Tim Benson 8:28

I think after three takes all the way through a song , a lot of vocalists will be losing their stamina , losing their their thing , and you've got to watch out that you don't overdo anything on the vocalist and start to tire their voice out .

Tim Benson 8:44

But then I think I generally stop and have a break with the vocalist and go through those three takes and actually say have we got something that we like here ?

Tim Benson 8:54

And maybe I will do a bit of comping at that point and sort of comp with them through the vocal take so that we've maybe got a vocal take we can listen back to and if we've got a vocal take we can listen back to , and if we've got a vocal take we can listen back to and we go we're happy , great , we move on . More than likely we're going to find we've got a few little bits and pieces that aren't quite right the over . Hopefully we've got an overall take in there between the three takes that we can put together and then maybe we drop in any parts that aren't aren't that good . So if we've got a few little problems you know to fix , we'll just do them and then at the end of the session , hopefully that's it , you've . You've got that vocal take , but of course you've also got to think most vocal sessions you've got to do the main vocal , then you've got to do a double of the main vocal for you know , people always forget to double track things , like I know .

Tim Benson 9:48

I get this a lot when people send me things and they've got oh it's all right , I just copied it onto this other track and I go no , no , you do realize that's just rubbish it will not help in any way , shape or form .

Tim Benson 10:02

We've got the same chat twice , so that just is like louder , yeah , you know . Like , yeah , you know it's not going to help . So you know , yeah , that thing of double tracking is not easy to fake in the studio either . You , really it's best to do it literally . To go right , I've got my , which is why I think it's helpful to comp your vocal take , if you can , in the studio to get a pretty solid idea .

Tim Benson 10:28

I wouldn't bounce it necessarily at that point , but then I'd do a double against it and try and get a decent double .

Tim Benson 10:35

And then you've got to think of all the backing vocals and you've got to double all the backing vocals and do all of that stuff . And I would do all of that religiously every vocal , every backing vocal , double every single one of them and get all of the stuff that I want there , um , and during the recording session , so that it's all there . When it comes to a bit more editing , obviously later on , and then mixing , but I think , like you , I would separate . I mean , the editing is probably what I do at the beginning of a mixing session . A lot for me , I get a folder and then I go through it all before I start mixing . But I know what you mean . I don't want to be deciding on takes in the middle of mixing no , this is it .

Marc Matthews 11:19

I feel like if I was in the flow of mixing a vocal and then suddenly I've , if I was in the flow of of mixing a vocal and then suddenly I've got , oh , I've got to quickly go in and comp this , uh , when I'm in there trying to , yeah , just getting the flow of things and just listening to that that static mix and getting everything working together , I don't want to have to then stick my cans on and then dive into a comp to make sure it's all . That's why , yeah , I kind of like them having . I mean , there's no reason you can't do it . But for me , like I said that it's not something I want , to want to go through sections , because this , this reminds me of a story I heard I think it was billy eilish's recordings and phineas , because they , they do hats off to the great production , they do it all themselves .

Marc Matthews 11:59

But I heard something along the lines of that they have hundreds , hundreds of comps , um , in in their text , which , which is quite interesting , which makes me think they must be doing in tiny sections , and that I suppose that's what I've always done when it comes to recording instruments , that I do it section by section . Is that something you follow as well ? Would you have you ever done like a whole track in one and then just another one , and another one , and then taking the best bits ?

Tim Benson 12:24

I , yeah , I mean I will do . But a lot of the time when I'm recording myself , like I'm putting guitar parts , bass parts on things like keep certainly keyboard parts , my keyboard play would manage a whole track . But like , yeah , my , yeah , I , I definitely I will , I will just work on a section till I get it right . And yeah , I'm quite happy doing that , like with guitars and bass and things . Um , I don't know , it's weird , like some things I tend to play a bit more all through the like bass for some reason . I can't tell you why , but I tend to sort of , if I know what I'm doing and how the track goes , how the song goes , I might actually , if I was putting some bass down or something , play the entire way through it maybe and then go back and work on sections until but I do like that kind of thing of getting something in there the whole way through , but like , I

Vocal Recording Session Techniques: Prevent Fatigue and Boost Performance

Tim Benson 13:16

often end up going back and working on a section until it's right , you know , um , until I feel like I've nailed it . The bass .

Marc Matthews 13:25

One's interesting because it reminds me of when I was in the band and our bassist would come in and he'd just rock up and then he would just fly through the track not all of them , but certainly a lot of them in just one take and then do another take and another take after that . It must be something to do with the vibe , I guess , when they get locked in . I'm not a bassist , I I do the same I'm . I play back when I need bass . Depending on the genre of track I'm working on , I'll play bass and then usually I just say mate , my bass is rubbish , can you come in and replace ?

Marc Matthews 13:54

it , I'm just getting ideas down , but there is something about it that you just I sort of get locked in as much as I can , and then I just want to continue , yeah , and then move on from that .

Tim Benson 14:05

I think something about the transitions that happen when you're thinking of , like you know , verse into chorus , into bridge and whatever , like you know , these sorts of things that you when , certainly on bass , it's quite important . I guess it's important on guitar , but , like you know , you've got to think bass often is keying in with the drums and often those the drums are playing over those changes and giving you the feel of moving . If you've got live drum , stays that over the over , sort of from the end of the sort of verse into the chorus or something and how , and maybe you're sort of playing over the changes a bit . So like you sort of want to play over them rather than just go right , I'm doing this for the verse , this for the chorus , you know that kind of thing . So maybe that's part of it , I don't know getting in the groove of it , in the feel of it .

Marc Matthews 14:55

Yeah .

Tim Benson 14:56

And locking with a drummer and that kind of thing , which is very important with bass . But I mean , some people are just I I've recorded musicians who just like , yeah , amazing at just nailing things like really quickly . Or if they haven't nailed it , they know what they did wrong in their first take and they'll go back and do another take and they'll fix all the things that went wrong in the first yeah , yeah , the second one and , like you know , amazing like that .

Tim Benson 15:20

But I do tend to work a bit more on individual bits until I've nailed them . Yeah .

Marc Matthews 15:26

Yeah , I would say I do the same . I remember drummers . The drummer in my band was like that and he would just he'd be able to just on the button to the click because it was metal knock them out . And I'd be like , oh man , now I've got to come record my guitar parts and then everything slows down . When it comes to recording me playing guitar , I'm like , no , no , we need to break that down section by section . Or like you , bear a speed , because I can't quite play it fast .

Tim Benson 15:54

Yeah yeah , exactly , I mean . But like with vocals , yeah , you've , I mean . Another thing you've got to be really careful with the vocals is things like recording and getting a slightly different sound or a different feel on like you take a break , you come back , you go down the pub and come back . I've had that in sessions and like I would just like leave that there and I'll come back to it and then I'll keep that vocal . And I mean one guy who like used to sort of do multiple takes on his vocals over days and days and days and like he would have 99 takes on a vocal , literally like insane amount of takes on the vocal because they're recorded on different days and like it'd sound totally different on one day to another so I'd often say you know , you do realize all of these takes don't work .

Tim Benson 16:38

With all of these takes they just don't sound good . So you know , you've got to keep that feeling , haven't you , of it being one thing . It wants to feel like one thing at the other end .

Marc Matthews 16:49

So got to watch your transitions , you know I'd agree and I noticed that more so , for example , doing the podcast stuff and when I listened to episodes I've recorded previously and I had a bit of an issue with with my throat and I could tell when I was in the throes of the issue . I say , my throat my just above my vocal cords and they're had ulcers on them , basically , and I could tell when this was happening when I was listening back , because my voice was just getting like huskier and huskier , which some might sound so excited , quite nice , um , but to me it may sound , but it wasn't pleasant for me , but I could tell and little things like that matters less , say , for a podcast . But yeah , it certainly makes a difference . But I'm glad you mentioned that because I was going to say errors or rather things to watch out for when it comes to comping . And this is one in particular I thought was quite important because I was sent a session , a Logic Pro session , because sometimes I do that If they're using Logic , I'll say just send me this session , specifically if they're using Logic Pro plugins , because I can just open it up and I can go in and work from what they have .

Marc Matthews 17:54

And they were comping the vocal in there and what I noticed in particular was the lack of adherence to the I'm assuming it's the same in other daws but where you have those , where you are comping those takes and where you're placing the I guess you call it the comp line , I don't actually know what it's called and making sure that it doesn't go over a wave , far like an actual , a waveform , the waveform itself , because what I was finding is where they haven't gone in and dug in enough . They were comping it so that it was sort of like if they had a particular phrasing , it was halfway through the word and then it was just sounded really odd . So one thing that I've noticed I've noticed on more than one occasion when individuals have sent me their projects is that they're not due diligence , paying enough time to actually where they're positioning those lines when it comes to comping and make sure and it's not a cross waveform , because you get weird clicks , pops and all sorts of stuff happening um .

Tim Benson 18:51

So that's just one thing to watch out for that I've seen might be useful for the audience listening you can also , like I mean , you need to sometimes think of , like , where it goes from verse to chorus or something like that , or even the ends of lines . Sometimes you've got this weird thing of needing to cross over , like I mean , I know in reality as a vocalist you can't do that , but like um , maybe it's just me and my appalling breath control , but I find it useful . Sometimes , like you know , you're kind of singing and you go like , really , this note wants to kind of carry on just a little bit , but then I want to have come in sharp with the next vocal . So actually , of course , you're not going to be able to do that all on one line , so you actually create another channel . Just do your verse part one and verse part two comes in on channel two and then chorus comes in on another channel .

Tim Benson 19:45

So , so you've got these sort of ones where there's just a little overlap between , like , vocals and I mean , I mean , often that happens in songs and there's no reason why not to do it , um , and you can make it sound entirely natural . But , like , if you're going to do that , you'll need a few channels to split your , your takes across , um , you know , rather than just trying to do them all on one and then having these awkward bits where it sort of just it doesn't feel like a good intersection as one thing cuts off and the other comes yeah , yeah , exactly , exactly , and no amount of flex time or what have you or moving it about is going to be able to fix it .

Tim Benson 20:23

Uh , yeah , just try to avoid all that kind of fixing .

Marc Matthews 20:30

That is , I've said it on the podcast before , but it's like , if you've got the time and you know you need to do it , just get it right at source , just re-record it . That's my thought process , if you can . I appreciate not everybody can . Maybe they paid for studio time and they cannot go back in , or they haven't got access to XYZ or I don't know . The singer's dropped off the planet of the earth , which does happen

Double Tracking Vocals: Why Real Performances Beat Plugins Every Time

Marc Matthews 20:55

.

Tim Benson 20:57

Here's a question for you If you're tracking vocals like that during your session , do you apply autotune while you're tracking so that the person is singing live through auto-tune , which some people do um or do you take no auto-tune while the person's singing , but when you play the take back , do you put auto-tune on it a little bit of auto-tune so that they sound psychology in tune yeah , or do you put no auto to tune on it and so all of the um defaults are laid bare and hopefully you kind of get it as close to as good as possible before any tuning goes on it the short answer is no , what what I've done ?

Marc Matthews 21:42

what I do is , uh , and I was quite stickler for this I'll be on the um , the talkback mic , uh , close , but maybe just one more time . That's usually what it was , but in the cans it's usually uh . I would just go with reverb . Yeah , just a bit of reverb in there , like every reverb sweetens Everything , is the , the elixir of audio when I recording . But I in my head I'd like , if I've never actually used auto-tune when recording , but I'm I'm thinking actually , if I did that , then if it's kind of correcting their that recording and they are slightly off , that means I've now committed , yeah , to using that auto-tune yeah , and you've got that dodgy piece of audio that exactly wasn't very good in the first place yeah .

Marc Matthews 22:30

However , I can see the benefit of using it when you play it back to them from a psychological perspective , saying because they might be thinking , oh , I'm not on it today , I'm not feeling it , I can't hear it , and then they come back in and you're like no , no , have a listen , it sounds , sounds , sounds great . So psychologically I can see how it would work , um , in that respect , but no , I don't think I'd once I've .

Tim Benson 22:53

I mean I tend to track with , if I'm in a studio and got the option it depends how you're doing it , but like , if I've got the option of outboard bit of compression and , um , a little bit of eq and you know , and then obviously some tracking reverb , not so that you're actually recording it , but like so that you can just listen to it while you're a little bit of EQ and you know , and then obviously some tracking reverb , not so that you're actually recording it , but like so that you can just listen to it while you're putting down your vocal Then I will sort of , as I say , try and comp it with them a little bit once we've got a few takes in there and then do any fixes , and then I will put autotune on as we're listening back , yeah , yeah , um , and try to sort of go well , look , when we've got this all sort of fairly tidied up and with some tune on , does it actually work , does it sit there ?

Tim Benson 23:44

Because if anything isn't working at that point , then I know it's beyond , probably what altitude is going to solve and we really need to go in and fix it . But I won't use it while we're essentially tracking , because I'm just trying to get the vocal take as good as possible . But yeah , I mean afterwards I will have a little listen back with it on because if it's going awry or not not not working too well , you need to know perhaps indeed .

Marc Matthews 24:12

Yeah , you kind of want to know . It probably goes against what I was saying earlier with regards to getting it right at source , but if you , if you're recording something and then you do that , like like you say there , and then you realize you know what this , this isn't going to work , no matter like I've done this now .

Tim Benson 24:26

Um , now we should fix it rather than yeah , yeah now we still need to get that bit nailed yeah , yeah , yeah , definitely and also it can . You're right , it can make them feel better , because it can sort of sit it in and they can sweeten it a bit and they can go .

Marc Matthews 24:40

Oh , that sounds good yeah , the psychology of the studio , psychology yes indeed it's .

Marc Matthews 24:46

It's a very that red light syndrome . As soon as that red light goes on , then you're in the headlights , so to speak . But I think we've pretty much exercised , we've exhausted . That's what I was looking for Comping . So what was the original question ? How do you organize takes ? Yeah , we've been through that . And do you do that in the editing phase and then get rid of the unused takes ? So , yeah , I think we probably pretty much agreed it's in the editing phase , but you mentioned there again that you also do some of it in the recording phase , just to get an idea of what it could sound like . And if you are double tracking as well . Um , yeah , double tracking , that's what I was going to come back to just before we finished . I don't know what it is , maybe it's just the school of recording that I went to , but I just double track everything . I think it's just a given . Yeah , even if I don't , I'm not never going to use it , I'm just and DI yeah , yeah , exactly with guitars and bass as well .

Marc Matthews 25:36

Even if I have no intention of ever using the DI , I will . I will DI bass and guitar , just so I've got a clean signal . Yeah , I , yeah , I always do that as well . I think it's just something that has just been drilled into me and yeah , I mean guitar tracks .

Tim Benson 25:51

I just think they're always worth double tracking . I mean , obviously , bass is something we don't really double track , and you know drums as well , unless you , you know double tracking drums , but like um , yeah , but everything else , yeah .

Tim Benson 26:05

I mean , yeah , tambourine , don't try to double track , but like you know , yes , like vocals and guitars , acoustic guitars sound lovely double tracked and you know you can try all kinds of fun things with double tracks as well . You don't actually have to . It's like the Nashville thing where you've got one acoustic guitar in one tuning and then one in an Nashville tuning and they double track playing . But because the tunings of the strings are different although they're playing the same chords , they end up sounding really nice sort of like a 12 string kind of effect and that you know . But there is no button in the studio , no plug-in . That really makes double tracking for you , because it's that variance of timing and pitch only subtle , but like that gives you this lovely wide sort of thing when you pan it out yeah , I haven't recorded .

Marc Matthews 27:01

I've been meaning to get an acoustic guitar again . I haven't recorded acoustic guitar in years but I always found really good , found enjoyment in recording acoustic guitars and testing different microphone configurations . Um , I always found that really fun . I love doing that because you can acoustic guitars can sound absolutely incredible and just what they do . And this experiment experimenting with microphone configurations , microphone placement is so , so good . That's probably the bit I enjoyed the most when I was in the studio . I'd say the tangent here , probably the least , was recording drums . To be honest , just a lot of , just a lot involved . That's probably why I now just do posts . Somebody rang me today asking if I could help them with regards to recording and I was just like I'll be honest with you , I do Send me your stems when you're done and then we'll move on from there . Um , but , yeah , again a tangent . Um , tim , I think we've , as I said , I think we've exhausted comping there . Um , yes , we have . You mentioned a few things in there . Uh , that I think I've got penciled in for future discussions .

Marc Matthews 28:04

One was compression going in and recording so we won't touch on that now , but it is a question that , uh , I think we're going to cover in a in a later discussion , because it's on my list my notes , which would be quite an interesting one , um , but as always , before we wrap things up , uh , any releases , anything going on yes , I well , I don't know when this is coming out .

Tim Benson 28:27

When will this be out , this episode ? Let me check .

Marc Matthews 28:30

You know . I really need to put this in the notes .

Tim Benson 28:35

5th of August it should be out by then . If I don't mess it up , I'm planning , I think , for a release of my album on the 1st of July . Sorry , 1st of August . Friday , the 1st of August , um , is that right ? Yeah , um and um , yeah , so I've I've been working on an album for quite a while now and um , I think it's . Yeah , I keep changing the title , so I'm not going to commit to the title at the moment , but , like the um ,

Sneak Peek: Upcoming Music Releases and Future Podcast Topics

Tim Benson 29:07

it might be called paradise cove . At the moment , that is , that is the leading one . It's been called nine thousand steep and paradise cove , so they're totally different vibes to it . It's kind of a , because it's got a very sort of light side to it and a darker side to it . So you know it's , I'm just trying to find something that works for it . But like , yeah , it's very coastly .

Tim Benson 29:26

Um connected this album . So you know , and uh , quite a few singles have already been out from it . But , like um , there's a whole load of new stuff on it as well that no one's ever heard . And yeah , that's going to be coming out on spotify and apple and all the rest of it , and then it's uh , also going to be out on my band camp . But yeah , so that's pretty exciting . I haven't released an album since somewhere in the 90s , when I was at university , on cassettes . So you know , like . So it's going to be quite something for me to actually put an album together , like , so it's been taking me a while , but yeah , I think it's going to be worth it . I think it's going to be a good album .

Marc Matthews 30:05

Definitely , mate . Yeah , be worth it . I think it's going to be a good good , definitely , yeah . Yeah , I think it's a good time to release a coastal themed album as well , like , yeah , that's the walk-ins , um , but no , I'll put links to it in the show notes as well . So , audience , do go and check that out . I have some great stuff on there , as we've already included links to some of the releases already on previous episodes . So if you check those out , you you know what to expect . Yeah , indeed , exciting times , mate . It's uh , a lot of work that goes into an album . It's been a while , very probably over 10 years , since I released an album and there were five of us doing it then as opposed to one .

Tim Benson 30:40

So um , I've done so many albums for other people . It's untrue . Just like yeah , I've lost count . But like um , yeah , my own just hasn't happened in the meantime no , fair play mate .

Marc Matthews 30:51

It's a lot of good . When I did the ep at the end of 2003 , 2003 , uh , in school , and in 2023 , uh , a lot went into that and that was only four songs . Yeah , um , yeah , so a great ep .

Tim Benson 31:05

Oh , thanks mate . Yeah , thank you very much .

Marc Matthews 31:08

Folks , if you've got a question I mentioned this at the beginning that you'd like us to hash out , do click that SpeakPipe link , send us an audio message . Alternatively , just click the Send Message button and you can send us a question , and you can also give yourself a shout-out as well . Maybe that you want announced on the podcast , tim . Thank you very much . Until next time , folks , stay inspired , keep creating and keep experimenting inside the mix .