Here is one 30 second clip of the end of the tune. This tune has existed in one form or another for around 10 years. There are three different copy writes to this tune so far. It is loaded with just about every instrument known to rock and roll. Again, this is my Gretsch Kit with two snare mics for a different sound. The bass is the Musicman Stingray through an Ampeg b-15 and direct. The electrics are the Parker Fly and the 62 Custom Telecaster. There is a Rickenbacker 360-12 string and the pianos are the Korg M-1 played in real time. All sounds are recorded to 2" 16 Tracks @30IPS. All instruments are played in real time by me. Slide guitar in the lead and multi layered vocals to follow soon. Hope you like the feel.

Maybe Just One Day

Here is a track that I recorded about 5 years ago. The track was recorded totally in digital on an Alesis HD-24 and then transferred to Cubase for total chaos. This was something that I had sent to my friend David Cooley for collaborating as it was right up his alley. He was murdered three days after receiving an acoustic version that I sent to him. We never got to work on it. This would have turned out better had David been involved. I somewhat finished it and here it is. All instruments and vocals by me. 
Parker Fly for the very dirty guitars. '62 Fender Telecaster Custom for the flanged parts. Steinberger bass, Gretsch drums. Recorded in two days total including the mult-ilayered harmonies. 

Shake Your Ass.MP3

Here is another one that was recorded around 7 years ago at the time when you had the Jonas Brothers cranking out records that sounded similar to this one. This was actually considered for the Jonas Bros, but as you all know the biz, that never came about. This started out as a Na, Na, Na ,Na, Na thing that I used to do on the acoustic guitar and then I cut an acoustic version that was decent. I decided to go full on production with it and added a modulation which freshened the last part of the song a bit. The drums is a drum machine as I could not get the "processed" drum sound I was looking for from real drums (somewhere there is a version with real drums). Recorded totally in digital using an Alesis HD-24 and Mixed to 1/2" analog at 30IPS. All guitars are the '62 Fender Telecaster Custom through a Line6 processor. Bass is the Musicman Stingray through a Line6 Bass processor. Dunlop Crybaby Wha pedal and some echo courtesy of an analog 2 track machine rigged up to create the effect. Lots of percussion instruments played in real time using software instruments. All Vocals and instruments by me.

Baby One More Chance.MP3

Here is the intro to a track that includes horns (Guitar Synth). I cut this a few years ago on the 16 track machine as a test track. The more I played with it, the more I enjoyed the feel. It's about a guy who runs all over town with a different woman every night and he tells his main squeeze that he's been bad. Nice story… sort of brings back memories. 1976 Fender Stratocaster and '62 Fender Telecaster Custom throughout. Fender P Bass and Gretsch Kit. Overdubbed cymbals and Hi Hat. Will finish this one soon.

I've Been Bad

All harmonies recorded today to the track. Lead vocals coming soon. 16 tracks of vocals all recorded one by one by me. Each musical note was quadrupled and spread across the stereo landscape to simulate 4 voices recorded four times. No pitch correction used as I don't own that software. If you can't sing it in tune, you should not be attempting it, period. a bit of Brian Wilson influence in the tracks. This is the way we used to do it in the 80's onto tape when there was no pitch correction or cut and paste. All vocals recorded digitally using one MXL V-67 microphone straight into the RME interface with a bit of Universal Audio LA2A compression and the Roland 201 Space Echo plugin to add a bit of ambiance. I am up to 42 audio tracks in Cubase and there are still the lead vocals and a slide guitar solo to be added to the song.  

Maybe just some day

This is one of the oldest tracks that I decided to resurrect. It dates back to 1989 when I was in Broken Toys. The vocals were added today and they are again, 16 channels of discrete vocals cut one by one by me. onto cubase going straight into the RME interface. The basic track was cut on 2" 16 track around 7 years ago and I recently discovered the 2" tape in my crawl space. I've added a few instruments and there are still a few more to add. Scratch lead vox for guide to the harmonies. Fender Stratocaster as main GTR. Rickenbacker 610-12 with a phase modification that I made to the rick for the jangle guitars (the 610-12 fit this track better than the 360-12). Korg M-1 Organ and Gretsch set for the drums that were played by me. Musicman Stingray bass into bass POD. Lead vox and Organ solo coming eventually.

Love to you ( for now)

Isolated vocal tracks. I was checking them out while I was balancing them and decided that they sounded real nice. Almost like Brian Wilson Smile era.

Love to you (for Now) Vocals only)

The basic track to this one had a date of 2003 on the tape box. The main "You say" backing vocals were cut back in 2003 but were incomplete. I tried to cut completely new backgrounds but I could not match the compression that was introduced by the tape so I left the old "you say" vocals alone. They're not perfect in phrasing but they had a feel that could not be matched easily so I added two voices of the lower harmony in order to have a matching 4 plus 4 since what was on the tape was 4 high and 2 low. All of the other "na na's" and "ooohs" were newly added. The track was cut on 16 track 2" analog at 30ips and transferred to Cubase for additional vocals and eventually mixing to analog half inch 2 track stereo. The electric guitars were the Les Paul for the dirty parts and the 62 Custom Fender Telecaster for the scat parts. The drums are the Gretsch set mic'd with two snare mics one on top and one on the bottom. The bass is the Steinberger into the Line 6 bass POD.

You Say, They Say, I Say

The backing vocal tracks. Now it's really evident which are the old analog vox and which are the digital one cut recently. Most of the Ooohs and ahhhs will not be used in the final.

You Say, They Say, I Say Bkgs Only

New tune. Cut the drums yesterday and bass & acoustic guitars today. This started out as an electric song and I could not get a decent guitar tone to save my life. I went from three stratocasters to a Les Paul with P-90's to a Telecaster to a Rickenbacker. Just did not work. I even tried to  mic up the Fender Twin Reverb… Nada! I overdubbed two rough acoustic guitar tracks and when I muted the electrics, it became an acoustic track. I  may still go electric as this is the way I heard it in my head. Got a really decent drum sound on this one. The bass is a Fender precision with active electronics. The entire track is done digitally. No tape here. New acoustic guitar tracks next as is a piano. I made up a title.

Charlie Castro