4 posts tagged “recording”

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Singles vs. albums

My day job as an interaction designer involves a lot of user research. I recently did a project for an online music distribution service where I talked to a bunch of "music junkies" in the SF Bay Area about the way they listen. I was surprised to find that most of my participants (all btwn 18 and 35) were still pretty album-focused - even though they're mostly listening on computers or iPods, where other sorting methods (artist, genre, playlist) are easily accessible. It's a listening paradigm that's deeply entrenched in popular culture.

As a musician, that kinda bums me out. I mostly work solo. I'm something of a perfectionist about my songwriting, recording, and production. I have a day job, hobbies, and an active social life. An album takes me a really fucking long time to finish. 

My buddy Aki says I should just throw tracks up online as I get them finished and not worry about it. Music isn't going to be a full-time job for me; it's not like I have the time or physical stamina to tour. If I want to press CDs at some point, I could just do it when I have enough singles completed.

I can't rationally refute his argument. I'm showing my age, I guess. I subscribe to the album paradigm. I have a romanticized view of physical media - 7", 12", CD - even though I buy all of my music digitally. Posting online singles just feels like cheating, somehow.
1 comment Tags: music, recording

Now I know why new albums are two years apart

I've been working on mixes for two of the 13 songs I have earmarked for the next record. Composition, arrangement, and primary recording don't generally take me that long - maybe 40-50 hours per song, soup to nuts. Sounds like a lot for four minutes of music, but it starts to look more reasonable when you consider what's involved: drums, bass, two or more guitar parts, synth parts (sometimes none, sometimes as many as five or six), main vocal melody, harmonies, and lyrics.


In the past, my mixes have been pretty simple. "Raw" or "natural" would be putting it kindly, but "basic" and "unsophisticated" are closer to the truth. Once the recording is done, I generally set the levels to something that sounds good, adjust the reverb sends, and bounce to disk.

It's always bothered me that my recordings don't sparkle like other bands' recordings that I admire. I can write some of that off to professional gear and seasoned engineers...but I know that there's a lot that I could be doing and I just haven't bothered to learn it until now.

I kinda wish my standards were lower.

Why? Because I have discovered that mixing - setting the relative levels of each instrument, setting equalization, adding effects and other touches here and there - takes just as long as writing, arranging, and recording the damned song in the first place. It's some serious cold water in the face for a guy who's always looked at mixing as "the home stretch". But really listening with a critical ear, taking the time to make each instrument sound its best in relation to the other parts, and placing everything carefully in the audio spectrum is a huge amount of work.

What's worse is that it can't be immersive work. I often go through the creation & recording process in one huge push. I become totally consumed by the one song I'm working on. Mixing, I've found, requires time away from the song. Work on it for a couple of short sessions (2 or 3 hours), put it down for a few days, pick it back up with fresh ears, and so on. Recording for the mix I finished tonight was done five weeks ago. No joke.

Do I think it's worth it? Hell yes, or I wouldn't be doing the work. But if it takes me, a part-time musician with a day job and a bunch of other hobbies, two months to complete a single track - then no wonder it takes full-time musicians two years to come out with a new record. Now I grok in fullness.

I've been having trouble uploading the track but I imagine I'll post it later when I have more time.

Post a comment Tags: music, recording

Vox Hunt: Recent Purchase

Funny...I was going to post about this anyway. Timely Vox Hunt.
Esp
Esp
Just got a new ESP Viper 400. EMG 85 at the neck, 81 at the bridge. It's about half the weight of my old guitar (a Gretsch Electromatic Jet Pro) and the neck is a lot more comfortable. Slightly wider string spacing for my big ol' fingers but not as bulky front-to-back. The EMG 81 doesn't sound all that different than the Duncan humbucker in the Gretsch, but the 85 is just beautiful - warm and round, without much of a humbucker twang. Grover tuners, too, which are a big step up.
I'm also replacing my ancient (in music technology years) Pod Pro with Native Instruments' Guitar Rig. Amp modeling technology has come a long way in the last six years. Hooray for good guitar tone!

Post a comment Tags: music, guitar, recording, vox hunt, recent purchase

These things come in cycles

Two years later, I'm suddenly compelled to send some bits out into blogland again. Why? I don't know. These things come in cycles.

I have a different house, which is built entirely of 1950s Midcentury Modern Awesome. Moxie (nee Tigerlily) is 2 years old now, very sweet, and dumb as a bag of hammers. I'm crazy about her. I'm working on a new record. My MacBook killed 2 hard drives within a year of each other so now I have a MacBook Pro 15 and I dig it.

So much for the recap.

SF Bay Area Derby Girls rocked the Sacred City Rollergirls this weekend, 99-84. Came down to the last jam with 1:47 on the clock - whoever got Lead Jammer was going to win it, and Kitt Turbo delivered. It was a nail-biting bout with some brutal blocking by both sides...well worth the 90m drive to Sac. (B.A.D. Girls Website)

Also, I am doing my best to absorb a crapload of research about mixing, engineering, and production. I think it's paying off in the tracks I'm working on, but since I'm wearing all the hats (songwriter, performer, engineer, and producer) it's hard for me to tell.

1 comment Tags: music, puppy, roller derby, macbook, home improvement, bay area derby girls, recording …