Chapter 3 -- Sweet Saturday Jam
Not having planned for an overnighter, none of the girls had a change of clothes. It really didn't matter except in the guest room.
"Uh Bob," Heather said softly. "I don't have any night clothes to wear, would you have an extra T-shirt with you? A really big one?"
Bob looked at her with a smile and said, "You don't need any night clothes Heather. I'm willing to go the nude route if you are? That's what I'm used to."
Cocking her head to one side, Heather looked with an evil grin, "Later big fella."
"There is a certain girl in the group that has let it be known she wants you first, so I think the rest of us owe her the courtesy. If she hadn't said anything, we'd be naked in the bed already," she finished with a heavy sigh.
Bob smiled, "You gonna tell me which girl it is?" As if he didn't already know.
"Ha. In your dreams, you'll know soon enough," turning to look him in the eyes, hers were sparkling brightly. "Got a shirt?"
"Oh yeah, Sorry, I was distracted," he said digging through his suitcase. He had packed a few T-Shirts, but wasn't sure of the sizes. If he'd had a small that's what he'd have given her, but all he had was XXL's. He wasn't that big but liked really loose T-shirts. He figured he'd mess with her anyway. "I see a small here," he chuckled as he looked over his shoulder at her.
She smiled at him sweetly and asked sarcastically, "So, whom did you bring the small for? The little guy?"
"Oooo. Low blow," he laughed.
"No, the only low blow is you offering me a small shirt," she said laughing. "If our certain girl friend hadn't said anything I'd have happily worn the small, but it's not fair to you for me to be that 'tempting'."
"Oh, hurt me, hurt me," he retorted quickly.
"I can do that," she said with gusto.
"Yeah, I'll bet," he chuckled. Then throwing her a XXL T-shirt said, "Here's your shirt, Sweetheart."
"Thank you sir."
So they both climbed into the king sized bed together, shutting off the light. Bob was settling in keeping his back turned to Heater by design. Heather on the other hand, slid over and put her arm around him pressing her lithe body against his in a classic spoon.
"Heather?"
"Uh huhmm."
"What about the other girl?"
"Nobody said anything about cuddles. I thought you wore a mask."
"I do, but haven't put it on yet. Believe me, you'll know when I do."
He started to turn towards her and got to his back when she stopped his progress throwing a leg over his and moving her head into a position to kiss him.
The moon was shining in the window enough that he could see her movements and was ready when she lowered her lips to his. Hers were warm, soft and parted allowing her tongue to dart out to lick on his upper lip. He met her thrusts with his own causing her to moan quietly and press herself into him even more tightly.
When the kiss broke Bob whispered, "Heather. If there is someone else with a claim perhaps she should come in tonight and trade with you, or we need to stop what we're doing before something unplanned happens."
"You're right," she whispered with a heavy sigh. "We need to stop. She can't trade with me tonight. It wouldn't look right. It will happen soon, you can count on that because she's, shall we say, very horny for you."
"Ok. I just thought I'd be fair. I won't do anything with any of you unless it's your idea. It also needs to be what you really want, and you can convince me. Everything needs to be right. I'm a guy, but I try to maintain some semblance of courtesy."
"Well, I haven't known you very long, but from my initial assessment," she giggled, "I really want to, but things aren't right, so... later. I'm sure I'll get my chances, and I'm not one that would worry about sharing. I don't have any problem doing that with the right guy, and the right girls."
Bob took all of that in with interest. "Let's get our music together before we start trying to deal with emotions. Honestly, I don't want anything to get in the way of your musical development. All four of you are hella talented, and that talent needs to be nurtured."
Then added, "Between you and me, I hope to get some good recording done during a few sessions before I spring it on all of you, but with proper releases from original artists we can all go on a tour playing for real audiences."
"I think with my connections and you girl's talents we can pretty much bypass the "club" scene, which is a real grind.
"Mmhummmm," she sighed.
"Sweetheart, I've been looking for something to do since the band split. I've needed something to focus on and it sounds like it's kind of the same for you four. This may be a perfect opportunity for all of us. We'll find out more in the morning, but I'm very optimistic."
Heather had been lying with him just caressing his chest softly as he was talking. "That's awfully ambitious. I mean none of us has ever played in front of people before. Well Maryanne and Chelly have while they were doing lessons and in the band, but recitals and school band are different than "concerts". It kind of scares me to think about it."
"Those would be valid fears if you four weren't so damned talented. I hate to keep harping on that, but musically you four are already excellent. In the garage are five sets of top-notch musical equipments to work with. Stage fright is common when you first start, but it's usually born of self-confidence issues.
"Heather you have no reason to lack self-confidence. You can play that guitar better than 90 percent of all the current musicians I know of."
"Shit, I still get nervous before a show and I've done three or four hundred of them. You just go out and play your music. You really don't even think about the audience being there, well you can't ignore them," with a smile she couldn't see but heard in his voice. "They usually make too much noise, but you learn not to think about it. Once you start playing, it's just doing what comes naturally."
"I think by the time it can happen, all four of you will be so comfortable that it won't matter if there's 10 people listening or 10,000 people listening. Just play the guitar. We'll talk about all of that when the time comes, but just keep it in the back of your mind, in ten years you and the other three ladies can have lots of millions in the bank. Just for playing your music, something you all love. It's not easy, I'll be completely honest, but it's not something to get overly stressed about either."
"Let's get some sleep honey, we have a lot of work to do."
He leaned over to grab the mask that he uses to sleep with, and put it on his face. Breathing turned the CPAP machine on automatically, and Heather chuckled when it first fired up, but continued holding her arm over him cuddling closely.
Soon they were off for a visit to to slumber land.
In Judy's room, the hanky panky was winding down, and it had been quiet hanky panky. It's not the first time Janell and Judy have enjoyed each other's bedtime company.
There were similar activities going on in Chelly's room as well. Between Maryanne and Michelle there was some quiet hanky panky going on for a short time. They've apparently enjoyed each other's company in the past as well.
Michelle had totally forgotten her conversations earlier, which prevented Heather from having any kind of hanky panky that night. It wasn't fair, but Heather honored her best friends request.
-----
The morning came fairly late considering the level of excitement that was floating around when they went to bed. Bob was actually the first one up and about, and when he was up Heather got up with him. They showered together and dressed before going down to the kitchen to see if they could scare up some coffee.
That done, and the coffee started, Bob went out to the garage to begin turning everything on so that by the time they went to play it would all be warmed up. Because of the sound qualities he wanted, some of the amplifier equipment he'd chosen was tube technology and took some time to warm up and reach optimum performance.
By the time he was finished with the power switches and board set up, the coffee was ready and Heather had poured two cups. She also set four more out on the counter next to the pot.
When Judy and Janell came into the kitchen, Janell walked over to the pot, poured a couple cups, and set one in front of her lover. Judy looked up with a smile and said, "Thank you Sweetie."
Janell returned the smile and whispered, "You're welcome."
Bob and Heather had been chatting quietly, so when they got their coffee, Judy and Janell joined in. It was at least another twenty minutes before Michelle and Maryanne sleepily wandered into the kitchen. It seems they had a bit more fun than they had initially intended.
All were sitting around the table engaging in the usual banter between teenage girls after a "sleepover". Bob and Judy just sat back taking it all in with widening grins. "Ah, to be young again!!"
Judy offered to make some breakfast for the gang so they could down some nourishment before they went out to get started. There were nods and thanks around the table with offers of help, so with everyone pitching in, about twenty minutes later there were eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage and orange juice in front of everyone.
Bob hadn't had a "spread" like this since his last trip to Denny's for a super grande grand slam breakfast, and this one was a whole lot more tasty.
After they finished eating, everyone helped with the dishes and kitchen cleanup before heading out to start the day's fun.
The neighbors were already used to the weekend disturbances, and some actually came by to listen for a short time, but nobody was prepared for the level of sound that came out of the garage that day. They all had their amplifiers turned down to well less than 50% output but it still rattled things around.
Well, think about it, the amplification equipment that Bob was using for his bass was the same equipment he would use in a concert hall. They were in a garage! Bob had only hooked up two of the eight speakers that he brought, and has his amp down to 10% output which was still too much.
When each had found their place and new instruments, Bob picked up his Fender Jazz Bass and got all of their attention. "Ladies, ladies, please," he had to talk loudly to be heard over the clamor. The girls looked up and could see the humor on his face.
"Let's take an hour or so to familiarize with the new toys before we try to do anything like a tune. Is that a reasonable idea?"
He got serious nods from Janell and Michelle as they sat wide eyed behind their new drums and keyboards. Maryanne just emptied her chest to set up the things she'd brought. Heather was already feeling at home with her new guitars. She was really starting to whip the Clapton Strat into shape, and it was very apparent that she really liked the Taylor acoustic. It had been set up with internal sound pickups and all the instruments were wireless. The only cables running around were the microphones around the drums, congas and other non-electronic gear.
It was obvious that Bob had set things like that up previously. The cables were neatly run, neatly bundled and run in a way that nobody was going to trip over them. The roadies of the future would learn how to do cabling from Mr. Bob.
Nobody could say that Bob didn't know how to equip a band for optimum sound.
Bob excused himself for a minute and walked into the driveway to make a quick phone call. When he was finished, he walked back in with a big grin on his face. The girls were too involved in their familiarization to have noticed, but when he picked up his bass and started his warm up, that got their attention.
He was facing his amplifier working on getting the volume and tone settings where he wanted them before he started playing with the multitudes of foot switches he had laid out at the base of his microphone. None were new, but most hadn't been used in a long time so he wanted to make sure they still worked and the settings hadn't been altered.
Heather also had a wide selection of foot switches that she was working through finding out what each did, and moved a few of them around based on their function. She had a few of her own, but nothing like the array that Bob had provided. Once she got them in the order she wanted, they would all be mounted to a plank in the proper order so that all that would need to be done is pull out the board and hook up the cables.
When he was warmed up, which took all of 10 minutes, Bob just sat on a stool in front of his amp, instrument on his lap. He was watching each of the girls and listening to their learning, especially Michelle as she worked through the intricacies of her new synthesizers. It sounded like she had already programmed one for some orchestration, and another for just plain keyboard. She knew how to do it from the others she'd used, but these were 10x better with 100x more options, voices etc.
Heather began to lay down a lead on the new Strat that was technically difficult but she sounded masterful. Bob stood up, and turned on his guitar and began to play along with her. It got Heather's attention immediately as she turned to face him but continued to play. The look on her face was priceless as Bob matched her every note on his bass. They both finished together like they'd been rehearsing for months, both laughing hysterically at what they had just done.
"That was great," Heather said almost shouting. Bob just nodded his head and with a big grin on his face sat back down on his stool to continue his observations.
Maryanne looked at Michelle and mouthed "Wow" silently. Michelle just nodded her head and whispered, "Yeah, any wonder why he's considered the best?" Maryanne just shook her head.
A "delivery" truck pulled up in front of the house and two guys got out, unloaded more than a few boxes from the rear and proceeded to push them up the driveway on a very large cart.
As he noticed, Bob turned and smiled at the older of the two and they shook hands, while telling him to set all the boxes close to where Maryanne was working with her usual things. She looked up at Bob with a questioning look, but he just winked at her and nodded his head. He walked slowly over and began to help unpack some of the things the truck had brought.
As an afterthought he just asked Maryanne to set up the things and start learning what they did and how to make it all happen. He looked at her with a big smile when she looked at him with some exasperation. Bob reached out to her and hugged her whispering in her ear, "Be mellow Sweetie, this is just the beginning. I can't wait to hear you working all this stuff, and when you figure it out you can teach me!"
She pulled back a little and shot him a shocked look, "You're kidding, right? You want me to teach you?"
"Well yeah. How can I help you out if I don't know how to do it? I'm a bass player, Sweetheart. I can bang on the drums, and I can play a six string, but you've mastered all of this. If we need more, we'll figure it out and you'll get it."
She raised her eyebrows giving him a strained look, then let out a very heavy sigh. Then she moved over to start unpacking one of the boxes that had been delivered.
He walked over to the two men that had just finished unloading and looked like they were getting ready to leave. They'd distributed the boxes to the most logical persons, and were in the process of wrapping things up, grab assing with the girls as they could. The girls could hold their own and bantered back without any hesitation.
Watching the interactions Bob couldn't help wonder what the hell everyone was talking about in that the girls didn't "like" guys. Even Janell was bantering with George, the younger of the delivery fellows, and Maryanne was occupied with the elder, the one Bob had called Bill. He wondered if anyone else noticed that Maryanne got a little goo-goo eyed during the conversations.
He just sat back and watched for a while. He wanted to chat with Bill for a moment anyway before he managed to escape.
Bob finally addressed the older of the two men, "Stick around Bill. You gotta hear this. You're not going to fucking believe how this girl plays."
He flipped on the recorder attached to the mixer, and set the pots for a neutral recording, pretty much centered. Then he strapped on the Jazz bass, stepped up to his amp, flipped a switch, and turned a couple knobs. Then he checked to make sure everything was set up the way he wanted it for what he had in mind. Bill just sat on Bob's stool and waited.
He looked over to Heather who was still playing with the multitude of floor switches she had in front of her. When he got her attention, Bob asked her to play the little section they'd done together earlier.
She looked at him with a strange look, but he said, "Just play it for me Sweetie, let's do it to it," using one of her phrases.
Before either could start, Janell started playing the drum part of the piece they were going to play. When she got to the appropriate place, both Bob and Heather started to play the section again, this time with drums accompanying. They certainly didn't detract from the two guitarists.
Once again when the end came, all three of them stopped simultaneously as though they had been playing it together forever. Heather and Jan looked at each other and began to laugh. "That was great Jan, thanks." Janell just nodded her head and went back to her location exercises. It had been a good exercise for her as well because she found that everything was placed pretty well and she was pretty happy with the overall setup.
Everyone, including Bill and Bob, had noticed that while she played, there was no hesitation or missed drums in the piece. Janell had already put the whole thing together in her mind, so now it was just time to pound on them. She knew where they were.
Bob, with a huge grin said, "Thank you Sweetheart," to Heather, then looked over to the two men in the corner of the garage with their mouths hanging open. Bob looked at Bill with sparkles in his eyes. He could see that Bill was, shall we say, impressed?"
"Well?" Bob laughingly queried.
Bill looked at Bob with eyes that said amazing things and just said one word, "Duuuddde..."
"Yeah, I know," Bob acknowledged.
With a rolling chuckle Bob said to him, "Check's in the mail Billy-boy! Just send me the invoice. We're going to need a bunch more."
"Yeah right," Bill said skeptically. "We can do better if you need, this is just what I had around."
"Then let's upgrade it. I want the very top of the line for these four. By the way, are you doing me at cost or are you making a buck?" Bob asked with a wry smile.
"Pretty much cost man, I have to put in a couple percent for shipping and administration, but trust me, I won't be getting rich selling shit to you," Bill chuckled!
Then he asked, "She's 20?"
"Yeah," chuckled Bob.
Billy just looked at Heather, who noticed the look on his face. He shook his head as he turned around to leave and was heard uttering a long drawn out, "Fuuuuck."
Bob just laughed out loud then danced a quick little jig with an even louder giggle. He turned around to ten wide eyes staring at him with some seriously questioning looks. He glanced around the room stopping at each of the girls in turn, then to Judy. He started to laugh hysterically bringing more interesting looks from the assembled peanut gallery.
"I suppose you're all wondering what that was about," he chuckled when he regained his composure.
He saw five women nodding their heads quite vigorously.
He took a few seconds to collect his thoughts. It wasn't like anything was going to change. If anything it would be getting much better. Apparently Bill could get better equipment than that he'd given Bob over the last couple days. This stuff was what he had on hand, or could put his hands on in the timeframe Bob had given him. When he looked at the ladies again he almost started laughing again, but thought that's not what they really needed at this moment.
With a huge grin he started, "Well... All of this equipment that you are now working with is his, and from what he just heard, it's going to belong to you very soon. He'll send me the invoice."
Then with a chuckle he added, "Don't get too attached to it though. We'll use it to learn with, but apparently there are better instruments out there that we can get. Bill said this was just the stuff he could put his hands on in the one day timeframe I gave him."
The girl's mouths fell open in disbelief, then he continued, "Bill is also a very longtime friend, and I consider him to be the premier music producer in the industry right now. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one that I would say is as innovative, and that's Alan Parsons." Adding, "Maybe Phil Spector, but he's pretty whacked." Then thoughtfully, "His former partner in crime, Jilly, is probably pretty close to as good."
Seeing lack of knowing whom he was talking about, he clarified. "Alan Parsons? You know, Pink Floyd, The Alan Parsons Project? That's a couple."
Then turning to Heather with a gleam in his eyes, "You, young missy, just blew his fucking socks off!"
Then turning to Janell, "That was perfect timing, Sweetheart. I hadn't planned or expected that, but it was perfect Janell, thank you!"
Jan blushed, and giving him a warm smile, "You're welcome."
Then perking up she noted, "They brought me a set of quad bongos Bob, you didn't have to do that!"
He just smiled at her and said, "Ask, and ye shall receive. Use them well my dear," causing Janell to blush a little more. Then he added, "There should be another set over there somewhere for Maryanne."
A quick "thank you" from Maryanne and Janell was slightly interrupted by Michelle, who had been looking at some of the new boxes and asked, "What's a Moog?"
Bob laughed, but his dancing eyes gave him away. "It's a different kind of synth, Sweetie. Bob Moog developed the first viable synthesizer back in the '50's, and this is just an updated version. It's totally analog, and can make wholly different sounds than the digital Rolands or Korgs. Just play with it; I think you're going to grow to love it!"
She looked at him with exasperation, "More stuff to learn?"
Bob nodded and said softly, "Chelly, you're going to love the Moog, trust me!"
She nodded her acknowledgement with a smile. "Thank you Bobby," she said.
He gave them all a big smile, then, "I can guarantee you that you have not seen the last of Mr. Bill." He was sure he's the only one that noted the look that came to Maryanne's face, but Heather had noticed as well.
Then looking back at Janell he scrunched his face a little and asked, "What's with the get up?"
"Huh," from Janell with a strange look.
"The way you're dressed. What's with that," he asked again.
That brought laughs from everyone else in the room, while Jan just turned a brighter shade of pink.
Jan was dressed in a pair of men's very large gym shorts, like basketball shorts, which hung down past her knees. With that she had pulled on a very tight, hot pink sports bra which squished her poor little boobies almost flat, and over that a very large men's tie dyed tank top which didn't cover the sports bra much at all. On her head she wore a tie dyed, thick, overly wide terry cloth headband over which she had installed the set of Sennheiser headphones that was to become her standard appendage. Her hair was pulled up some but where it came out of the top of the headband it kind of stuck straight up then curved over and was tied in total disarray.
"This is the way I dress to play Bobby," she said with some mock indignation. "I sweat like a damn pig when I play, and I want to be comfortable." Then quickly, "Oh, excuse me, I forgot. Women don't sweat we perspire. I perspire like swine when I take on my drums, and I must maintain a 'presentable' aura."
With all of them laughing loudly, including Bob, he pushed up both hands, palms out while backing away a couple steps. He had a huge smile on his face and just said, "Hey Jan, it's ok. I just wondered if I needed to invest in some new 'gig duds'. They look damned comfy to me! Is that going to be our standard stage uniform?"
With that, everyone else shook their heads vigorously. They totally cracked up looking at Janell. She just looked around at everyone and laughingly said, "Aw, phooey on all of you." Reaching down for a bottle of Gatorade, she unscrewed the top and took a huge drink, and giggling once again, looked at everyone saying, "I'm a quart low, so I need to add a little before I overheat."
Jan could go through well over a gallon of Gatorade and/or water during a session. The way she played was an incredible work out and she was probably in the best physical condition of all of them. Jan could play a six hour session in the garage and though sweating like a pig, she certainly wasn't breathing hard.
Now everyone was laughing hysterically and the vibe in the garage was light and fun, perfect for playing some music.
Truth be told, they were all in gym shorts, even Bob. The others just didn't tie themselves up so tightly. It was understandable with Jan because when she played she moved A LOT! She was literally all over the place behind those drums, so tied up tight she wouldn't be stretching those wonderfully delicate tissues. Very smart girl our Janell!
Maryanne was blown away as well. In all those boxes were four keyboards so that while Michelle is trying to do the three hands on the synth equipment, Maryanne could help out with the keyboard pieces. She had a match for one of Chelly's Korgs, two of the Kurzweils, as well as a Roland, so if necessary they could also do some additional synth work. Also in the boxes were three different saxophones, a couple flutes, a complete set of 4 conga drums, the quad set of bongos, as well as a set of electric drums to do background percussion when Janell needed a third and fourth hand. They could be tuned like a synth to make any sound she wanted them to make.
"How do you guys feel about getting started on some tracks," he asked looking around the room.
"You all warmed up?" walking over to the mixing board. He needed to set everything the way he wanted it for inputting to the recorder.
The only hesitation was Michelle, but he'd expected that. It was too much to learn in a short period of time and she definitely had the tallest learning curve of them all, well Maryanne too, but she'd work with Chelly and have it down in no time. He knew Chelly was up to the challenge, acknowledged her concern telling her to just do the best you can for now, and continue to work on things.
"Honey, it will take you years to learn those boxes fully, so just take your time, play with things, make them do the things you want and the stuff we need right now. As time goes on, you can experiment with some of those other things you want to add eventually. I have the utmost confidence that you will master those things in a short time, you and Maryanne both. You guys will learn new things every time you touch them. Remember, you're going to get more and better equipment as soon as Billy can get it delivered."
She looked at him with a little skepticism, but he just smiled and blew her a kiss, which caused her to blush slightly. She smiled widely then returned the kiss. That didn't escape Bob's notice.
"Ok. I've got the board set up to mix everything pretty loosely, so when it goes on the recorder, it'll be at a generic level. Each of the microphones have a separate input channel, each of the instruments have their own channels from the wireless, and if you notice there are about 10 or 15 microphones surrounding poor Janell besides the one she uses for vocals. Each of those has a separate channel as well. Do any of you know how everything is mixed together to come out with a master for a CD or in the old days an LP?"
Looking at each and getting shakes indicating they had little or no idea, he decided to give them a quick rundown before the playing started. He wanted them all to be comfortable with all the equipment they'd be working with.
"Gather around the mixer 'O students O mine', and I'll give you a quick and dirty lesson on how this stuff works."
All of the girls moved in behind him so they could see all the knobs, switches and meters.
"You see all of those meters?" he started. "Each channel has an input and meters to monitor the sound levels. It's split in two, one for the right channel and one for the left. The sound level and some other tweaks are set with these knobs along each channels 'path' under the meter, but the actual 'master' level for the channel is set with this slider at the bottom. If you notice I have all the sliders in a middle position. A sound engineer like Bill would have them all over the place based on how he expected to mix it down later. Ok so far?"
Each of them nodded, so he continued. Hitting a couple buttons he started again, "Let's listen to the raw recording of our earlier demonstration."
He pushed a button on the side and out of the speakers below the board came Janell starting the drums, then both Heather and Bob joining in at the perfect time, then all of them stopping together. It actually sounded pretty darn good.
"Ok, you heard the total composite of all three of us at the same time. Now, here's what it sounded like without Heather and I."
Bob set it to channel playback and lowered the sliders associated with his bass and Heathers guitar leaving only Janell's part. Everyone listened with interest to hear Janell's playing the new drums absolutely perfectly. She didn't miss a beat, a drum or hit a rim.
Bob then reset it back and by moving a few of the sliders around began to replay just Janell's part again. This time there was only the upper tom-toms, some cymbals and the snare. No bass drum or the floor tom. That was met with surprised looks.
Bob then reset everything once more and only left one slider in the middle of the range and started again. This time the only thing that was heard was Heather's guitar playing every note without any slip or error. It was perfect. When that part was finished he set it once again, left only one slider up, and pushed the play button again. This time the only thing heard was his bass, which he played like a lead part hitting every note with Heathers lead.
As he listened to himself playing, he started to get a big smile on his face. When his part had finished playing, he looked back at the girls and said, "Damn I'm good!"
They all started laughing while Bob put on a crushed, hurt face, but couldn't hold it, and laughed along with them.
"Ok. Here's what we do in the studio control booth."
He reset all the sliders to the middle position again, then as the instruments began to play he moved one slider down just a little and raised another just a little. The sum of the movements put the lead part Heather was playing slightly into the foreground and put the bass part slightly into the background where it would normally be.
It didn't even sound the same. Bob had just been showing off, but he had shown the rest of them that his reputation wasn't trumped up or inflated. He was capable of playing along with anyone.
After it was finished he reversed the sliders, the bass was accented, and the lead part was in the background. He looked around the group seeing total attention to what he was doing, how it was happening, and the effect it had on the output.
"Got it?"
All of them nodded their heads with smiles and began moving back to their instruments. Maryanne whispered, "That's totally cool!"
"Yeah, we just play it and someone adjusts it," Michelle commented.
Bob heard the comment and wanted to clarify, "The 'someone' is adjusting for an overall output level that will sound good on normal stereo equipment you'd find in a home. When you play it and when you play it on a stage, he can adjust it as well, but when you do things live, it's just that. Live. One of the things I heard on that tape was that you played it live like someone would mix it down, so you're already a leg up. Don't get lazy thinking a producer will "fix" your errors. He can do that, but that's not the way to play, especially if you know you can do better. Ok?"
Both Chelly and Maryanne blushed a little and nodded their acknowledgment.
Then Heather asked, "Hey Bob," getting his attention, "If we blow a piece, can we just re-record it and the guy that mixes everything puts that in instead of the bad part?"
"Yes ma'am, that's one of its prime uses. By the by, the 'guy that mixes everything' is the engineer/producer. If I get my way, Billy will be doing our producing.
He returned the sliders to where he wanted for the raw input, then moved over to take his bass in hand.
"Let's rock and roll," he said emphatically. "What are we going to start with?"
"Bob, you haven't played with us before or really know what we play. Will you be able to keep it together?"
Heather chuckled, "Don't worry about him Maryanne," then looking right at Bob, "I don't think he's going to have a problem keeping up with us." Then added, "You get to start adding your stuff where it should have been all along, except you had to do the bass. I think it's going to sound even better than before."
Bob just smiled at Maryanne thinking, "Oh ye of little faith."
"Let's start with "Dream Weaver", then seg right into "Walk this way". We can stop and see how we all feel after those two warm ups," Heather suggested, obviously the leader of the gang. It was obvious that once the music started, Janell took over control of everything. Bob figured he'd leave it that way because there was no reason to change it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
"Uh, guys," Bob noted looking at them, "Gary Wright didn't use a bass for that number, or anything else on that album for that matter."
Maryanne looked at him in shock, "You mean I busted my ass learning all of those double notes and he did it with a synth?"
Smiling, Bob nodded his head, "Yes he did, and if you mastered all of that bass part you are an exceptional bass player my dear. Let's see if I can even play it."
You could see Maryanne glow with pride knowing that a master of the instrument had praised her efforts, as well as her ability. She knew she could play that music perfectly sounding just like Gary Wright had done it on the album.
They were all excellent musicians but they were still teenage girls with all the "built in" insecurities that go along with that. Someone giving praise like that was serious for them because it validated them not only as musicians but also as people. They're still searching for who they are. Yeah, I know, but that's the way teenagers are. Boys too!
They played for about four hours doing tune after tune from the past, the girls marveling at Bob playing each of the tunes perfectly without having heard most of them in many years. Turns out he was right though; he did like to add extra notes. It certainly didn't detract from the music, in fact it added a little spark to it, but it varied from the recorded version. Given time and freedom to play like she wanted, Maryanne could become as good as Bob, or as he always said, "she'd be better". They decided to just let Bob play it his way.
When they went back to listen to the "Dream Weaver" effort, he put all but the bass part into the background and cringed as he listened to himself miss more than a couple notes in the doubling sequences that was originally done with quick fingers on a keyboard. He looked at them and said, "Iam so embarrassed. That was terrible."
Just for fun Bob asked Maryanne to play the bass on another run through of the same tune. They all walked back to their instruments, and Maryanne strapped on Bob's Jazz with a huge smile. She'd never played a Jazz bass, and they're "the best". She blasted through a few exercises to make sure she could deal with size of the neck, they're all different, but it was no big thing, at least to her.
After hearing himself being less than perfect, they did the same with the version that Maryanne had just played. As they listened, Bob closed his eyes and bobbed his head along with the part. She didn't miss a note, not a beat. She played it absolutely as perfectly as it had been done with the synth on the studio release.
Bob just looked at her shaking his head, "Damn girl, you are good! No you're better than good. If you weren't so fucking talented with everything else, I'd have to tell these girls to keep you playing the bass and I'd just pack up and go home or sit on my ass and watch."
Then as an afterthought, "We may do that anyway. I can play some of the stuff you do, but I'm not nearly as good at it as you are." Then added with a facetious grin, "But with practice, I might get almost as good."
Once again, Maryanne was beaming at the comments when Heather spoke up, "Bob, I think you are finding what the rest of us noticed a long time ago. Maryanne is probably the most talented musician of all of us."
She blushed when Heather gave her the same kind of praise that Bob had laid on her, but Bob noted everyone else in the room nodding their heads.
Heather continued, "In fact, Annie go and pick up my guitar, any one you want."
Bob looked at Heather with a questioning look, but didn't say a word.
Maryanne went over and picked up one of the Fender Strats, then picked up one of the Gibsons. She smiled and put the strap of that guitar over her head, adjusted the pickup knobs to her liking, then looked at Heather.
"Play that piece that Bob and I played this morning."
Maryanne started to complain, "Heather, you know..."
"Play it," Heather interrupted gently but with her command voice.
Maryanne frowned, but then strummed a few times seemingly trying to put the notes in her head before they went to her fingers. Tentatively she started to pick at the strings like she was checking the tune.
She looked up at everyone watching, then to Heather, "Heather, I ca..."
"Play it Sweetie, you know you can do it, we've done it together," Heather said in a soft loving voice.
Suddenly Maryanne's fingers started dancing on the fret board, the pick flying, carefully choosing strings, and she started playing the same lead part that Heather had played so well before the first session.
Bob's mouth dropped opened and his eyes almost bugged out. He could hardly believe what he was seeing or hearing. Maryanne wasn't quite as smooth as Heather, but she didn't miss a note.
When she was finished, she blushed brightly and looked over to the group that had been sitting there listening. Every one of them began to clap their hands, including Bob. Bob may have been the loudest. Like Heather had blown Bill's socks off, Maryanne had just done the same to Bob.
"Oh my god Maryanne, that was incredible. If you put in the same kind of time that Heather has, you'd give her a good run for her money."
"She'd be better than me Bob," Heather quietly sighed. "A lot better."
Bob thought to himself, "this was going to be a lot of fun." He also knew that he might end up breaking up the group because he would be pushing each individual to excel on her own, and noting that if some producers and/or bands came in need of a player, he would not hesitate to recommend any one of these young women.
It might not be forever, but he was going to ride this tide as long as he could. Most of all, more than anything, he wanted them all to succeed, so he'd happily write the check to provide all of the instruments and the upgrades that Bill came up with, that and more.
For him, it was pocket change. Petty Cash.