4 Tracks

Bit Off More Than I Can Chew

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 10:20:25 -0500

Yeah so—I probably bit off a bit more than I chew with this project. Obviously, I way past my original 10 week deadline. Life happened, I moved to anther state, got a different job, and life situation just totally changed. I’ve still been recording, just not at the breakneck pace that I first envisioned.

In order to complete the project, I’m using some existing simple recordings I had, and I’ve still got a few more to record. I WILL FINISH THIS PROJECT!!

But probably not ‘till December. ‘Specially since we’re now in November, and like everybody else that has too much to do, decided to participate in NaNoWriMo.

Getting Rid of Some Hiss

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:49:24 -0400

Getting back in the recording groove! Realized that the last song I recorded was pretty quiet overall, and boosting the volume to make it listenable introduced some not-so-pleasant hiss into the mix.

I solved this problem by running a low-pass filter in Audacity, and then boosting the high end with some EQ. Worked great, actually!

The problem now is that the track is still a little low in terms of volume compared to other recordings I have — and bringing it up more will just give me more hiss. I guess I may have to bring the other recordings down? Alternatively, I guess a bit of hiss may go with the “lo-fi” concept?

What do you think - how should I go about mastering this thing when I have some widening differences in volume levels?

Should have been packing, but decided to record this so I have...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:14:00 -0400

Should have been packing, but decided to record this so I have some ideas on tape. This may end up on the final album.

Lyrics:
We’ve been here for so long
Still we never change
Statues in the rain
We stand, we think, we wear away

To think you are the one
To think you made me who I am

We wait for the sun to burn our eyes
For the faith to see through our disguise
For a man to fall from the sky
For the lightning to make us sigh

To think you are the one
To think you made me who I am

To think you are the one
To think you can change me

Statues in The Rain by Nathan R. Hale is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Pause

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:52:00 -0400

Okay so, something has come up in my personal life—something big. I’m moving, and I’m moving in about 3 weeks to Phoenix, AZ. So I have a lot to do, and I have a short amount of time to do it in. I have some thoughts on the whole project that I may be blogging about every now and then, but I’m probably not going to have much time for recording.

If you’re interested in some of my non-minimalist acoustic music, here are a few tracks I had recorded and tossed online yesterday.

Getting In The Acoustic Groove

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:13:24 -0400

So, already behind on this project—barely have one song done (still have to finish piano and backing vocals).

A big part of the delay is getting in to a acoustic groove—thinking in terms of acoustic arrangements, lighter vocals, etc. I started recording with a drum track and bass, and realized that what I was doing was kind of contrary to the whole idea of the project.

After trying to emulate a full band sound, this is actually kind of new to me, so I’m having to kind of play with it.

A big challenge is making full use of piano—something I’ve not done before.

Bandcamp - Elegant Music Hosting

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:21:53 -0400

Bandcamp - Elegant Music Hosting:

Thanks to filmapart for throwing this across my radar. Actually, it looks perfect. And I love their sense of humor.

Filmapart also suggested (in response to my previous post) that I “get back to recording.”

Well said, sir, and great advice! I’ll do that now.

Create, Then Market?

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:24:38 -0400

Last night I spent about an hour researching various theories and ways to market music—how many online stores should have your album, which ones, effectively making directs sales, etc.

After I wrapped the session and was heading to bed, I realized that I could have been using that time to create music. If not directly, I could have been working on my setlist, setting up my recording rig for today’s session, or something pertaining to actually making my piece of art.

I know for many other kinds of products, it’s good to have a strategy and do market research before you create it, but for this kind of art, I wonder if all of that can be another way to just keep putting off making the darn thing.

I mean, I’m creating the album primarily for myself, not as a way to generate lots of income (although getting some compensation would be nice) - so maybe I should just make my art first, concentrating on making it as high quality as I can, and then figure out ways to get it to people that might like it.

What do you think?

The Gear Post

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:29:46 -0400

What this project is all about

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:49:41 -0400

So, here’s the idea: I have no money, little time, and decidedly limited access to high quality sound equipment. That said, I’ve got a decent guitar, an ok computer, the resources of open source software, and a few hours each month. And I really, really want to just record a complete (10 song) album, and I’m tired of putting it off. This blog exists to record my journey.

To keep things manageable, I’m imposing some rules on myself, and the big one is the title of this blog - I’m only going to use 4 tracks for each song. Not just four tracks at a time, four tracks, period. Two of those will be the lead vocal and guitar/piano. The other two may be synth, percussion, or harmony vocal…but I can only have four total tracks. This will make things easy on my aging computer, and will help me to actually complete compositions without trying to add a million different instruments/lead lines.

Oh, and I want get this done by September 1.

Even with this massive self-imposed limitation, the idea of complete album, done in just 2 and half months seems daunting. I’ll need to be recording about a song a week—no easy feat when I’m working two jobs and taking care of my wife and son.

I’m convinced it’s possible, and I’ve talked it over with my wife, and I have her full support to take on the project, so I’m actually pretty confident that it could happen. I’m excited to see where this takes me.