Having been writing songs for a few months and having enough material to create an 'album' which I put on Soundcloud meant that I had accomplished something I'd wanted to have done for a while now however it's only recently where it was made apparent to me that I could actually produce this and possibly have something to be proud of (possibly doing open mics/small gigs and being able to give out CDs that I made).
Recording something is always a nerve wracking task, even though you have as many chances as you want to get it right however it's always nice to get things done it one take, for a sense of accomplishment, as opposed to performing live where you only get once chance which allows for more mistakes. "A musician's fear of failure" (Fogle, 1982) can prevent the the piece being as effective, which in a sense is also true when recording because it was made aware that no take was ever perfect for me.
Cubase 7 was used to record and edit the tracks and like Protools, I think that if I were to play around with it, it would be quite easy to grasp and record things on my own (as opposed to being aided with the technician as I had no idea what I was doing). The recording was done in two 'sections'. First I recorded the guitar part, then when I was happy with that, I moved on to recording the vocals to the guitar part I recorded. I did it this was as opposed to doing it both together so I could concentrate more on getting on part right as opposed to having to split my attention 50/50.
Tech-y things that were used:
- DI Box which made it cleaner and better to mix
- Studio mics which pick up more clarity, as opposed to dynamic mics which can take more pressure (2 for the guitar, one above the fret board, the other below the sound hole. Never put the mic over the sound hole as all you'd get is the bass notes)
- Neumann condesner mic with a pop filter (the pop filter filters out the harsh blasts of sounds when made while singing certain letters - P or S for example, therefore softens the sound)
Recording the guitar part first, to get the levels I played a bit and when it was all set, proceeded to play the song. The first time I played I wasn't happy with the instrumental so recorded it again and found that I preferred the second take - however there a few mistakes. To create the mistakes, it was as simple as copying the good parts then pasting them over the bad parts (As an observer to that, as I didn't actually do it, it seemed pretty simple...but then again, the proof's in the pudding, maybe next time I'll do it)
Recording the vocals was always going to be my biggest challenge especially since I hate my voice and think I can't sing, even thought I've been told I can. Furthermore, only have one other person in the room was a bit nerve wracking so I decided to look at the wall and zone him out (I had a preference of playing to large crowds where I can pick out an individual face).
At first, I tried singing hearing myself back however I felt that because I could hear myself breathe, it put me off, therefore when trying it without hearing myself back, I was more comfortable with singing.
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