I’ve grown confused by it because as far as music is concerned, it means sound that is not amplified by electrical means. But since then, I’ve seen performances and listened to recordings that are said to be acoustic but feature nothing that we would associate with an acoustic sound. The video below for instance:

Savannah Drive by Maria Taylor and Andy Lemaster is another example. It’s been described as an acoustic record, but every single sound on it would be absolutely impossible without the addition of some kind of electricity. The guitars are electric guitars. The bass is an electric bass. They’re all running through amplifiers. It isn’t an acoustic record in any way.

It seems that acoustic is beginning to mean a recording that doesn’t have drums or is just one person with any kind of guitar?

Basically, I know that there are things that I need to work on and they are primarily in the realm of vocals and recording. And as I am putting together songs that I want to put on my first official release, I am trying to decide how I want them to sound as well as how the songs are supposed to sound, regardless of what it is that I want for them.

From the very beginning, I’ve been trying to make up for what I lack by adding more instrumentation. I’ve tried everything I possibly could to get a song to sound less like it is just a guy alone in his bedroom and more like a guy with a bunch of guitars and drums and synths in his bedroom. Mostly, I am neither, since I have only two guitars in working condition and a ukulele. Also, I have a wife and two kids around.

And as much as I love them, that simply does not make the act of recording in a noisy house any easier.

So what decision have I come to? I’m going to try and make the most of what I have, with the addition of some better recording gear so that I am capturing the best sounds I can afford, and I am going to keep my song arrangements very, very simple.

It’s time to focus on becoming a better singer.

A few notes on the recording:

I used Garageband, but only used some of the EQ in it. The guitar sound is my Takamine G series running straight into my ancient Line 6 Toneport. The vocal is my Shure SM57 also running straight into the Toneport. I used Line 6 Gearbox for all the tones. Considering it’s almost an entirely digitally processed recording, I don’t think it sounds too digital. But I am no audiophile. I just know what I like.

While this setup is definitely more than I need to make demos of this sort, I am looking at upgrading my gear because it is long overdue.

But I will say this.

If you’re just starting out, don’t be tempted to buy a condenser mic thinking that it will sound better than a dynamic. You’re going to be better off starting out with a dynamic mic because you get better build quality for your money and they’re much more forgiving in terms of bleed and recording in an environment that is less than studio silent.

Plus, you can generally plug them straight into any audio interface that you end up with because they don’t need phantom power. Any USB interface that will take an XLR will work with it.

Also, I may be able to start recording in a couple of weeks?

To a degree, I can kind of understand it, but at the end of the day, isn’t it all just a different means of reading words? I wonder if people that find themselves attached to books care more about the book as a form than the things that books can hold.

For me, reading isn’t about the experience of holding a block of paper in my hands. It’s about a really good story.

When I was first starting to write songs, I would read everything that I could about how to write songs and I expected that to help me but mostly I got frustrated because I didn’t really understand that songwriting isn’t and shouldn’t be something that is forced. It may have worked for the hit factories when Motown was churning out hits, but it doesn’t work for someone that tries to write songs that they can actually feel.

Then, I went through a long phase where I was constantly writing down lyrics and trying to make them fit whatever music I could come up with afterward. This resulted in some of my worst songs.

Now, for that past year, I’ve been working the other way around. I know that “lyrics first” works for some people and it works really well but as I’ve been writing slower and working on figuring out if each song is really worth my time, I have definitely been focusing on getting the base of the song right.

And the songs that I’ve managed so far are starting to sound  much more coherent than my previous attempts. What I mean by that is I feel like they are all part of a bigger project. I feel like I’m writing an album rather than a bunch of singles. I don’t feel like I have to engineer them into a cohesive unit when it comes time to record them. They already feel like they belong together.

Every song that I’ve ever released for people to hear is really just a rough draft. I know that these songs have potential, if I could just find the time to invest into them, but now that they’re out there, I simply don’t have that attachement to them anymore.

That’s why it’s been months since I release anything at all. It isn’t that I’m not working on music at the moment or that I’m finished with that work, it’s that I am working harder on making sure the songs are everything that they could be before I share them with anyone. I don’t want to think that I’m offering anything less than my best to the people that care enough to listen.

With that being said, I’m probably three songs away from having what feels like it’s going to be my first real debut release. At least it will be ready to record if I manage to scrape together the money for some more equipment.

It’s a chance to have some quiet and alone time so that I can try and get sleepy enough to take a nap when I get home (I work third shift and this has given me a biphasic sleeping pattern).

It’s also a chance to limit the amount of time that I spend either sitting down or sleeping. While my work does have me on my feet for 8 hours, it is work that doesn’t have me necessarily walking around all the time. There is much standing at one station. I care very much about this because I have only so much time in the day to think about getting any exercise at all.

It’s a chance to smile at the face that while I am walking home from work, getting ready to head straight to bed, I am passing drivers on the road that are rushing to work and are likely running late. I walk passed businesses that are getting ready for the days work. All the while, I am going home to rest.

These are small things but they’re significant. And I’m going to try and stay thankful for them as long as I am walking home from work.