Here’s a minute and a half excerpt of what I’m working on at the moment. No lyrics and, therefore, no vocals yet, but drums, bass and guitar are all there. I’m hoping to maybe add some big synth sounds as well for added drama.
The whole thing is already up to 5 minutes. Gonna be an epic…
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I’m currently in the process of recording my next track which will hopefully be here next Monday. Yesterday I recorded the drums and I wanted to show you how that works at my place:
Microphones
It all starts with the mics. On the far left is my single overhead, an SE2200A, which captures the toms, snare and cymbals. In the centre is the SM57, which catches a more detailed snare sound and allows me to control the level of the snare separately. On the right is just a generic dynamic mic which gives me the bass drum.
The sound pressure levels produced by a bass drum are pretty high and will, over time, destroy any mic that you point at it so I just use a cheap one that I can afford to replace.
The outputs of the mics are connected to the stage box on the right, which is basically a huge extension cord and runs through the floor to the computer downstairs. This allows me to keep the upstairs room as a live room, and have a separate control room downstairs. Mainly its a space thing, but not having a noisy, humming computer in the same room as the microphones also helps to cut down on background noise when recording.
Into The Computer
The output of the stage box comes down through a carefully drilled (!) hole in the ceiling (far left), and connects to my Presonus Firepod (left), which is a 10-in, 10-out firewire interface.
What this means is that I can open up Reaper, which is the recording software I use, and assign each of the inputs to its own unique track within the software. Basically, it’s a 10 channel mixing desk, but all contained within the computer. Looks less impressive than having all the real world knobs and faders, but is slightly more compact and has a lot more flexibility.
It’s not perfect, by any means. For a start, I have no compression before the mics go in to the Firepod so if the signal going in is too loud, I get horrible-sounding digital clipping. It means I have to be very careful when setting levels and I have lost amazing takes because of it.
On the right is my workstation and studio monitors. I use a pair of Behringer Truths which have, so far, served me very well indeed. The produce a fairly flat frequency response, although housing them in the little alcove that I do does not help.
Ready to Record
I picked up this EeePC on my travels. I use this quiet, little laptop next to my drums, login to my main PC downstairs using remote desktop, and control recording and playback from the comfort of my drum stool.
When I’m ready, all I have to do is hit record on the laptop and start playing…
The Result
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And here’s how it sounds before any effects, mixing or mastering has been done. Not too shabby for a little home studio, I reckon.
So there you have it. Any questions?
This weekend my good friends Patrick and Dunstan came over for a weekend of music creation. The intention was to write and record a new song from scratch over the course of two days. We didn’t quite make that, but we did get the music finished and the drums, bass and guitars recorded.
That’s pretty much a complete new tune in about 6 hours. Hopefully we’ll get the rest of the parts recorded and get this song released over the coming weeks.
I’m sure the other two will have their own take on this, but what I got out of it was just how relaxed and easy it was. In my main musical project, songs are deliberated over and worked on for months. Ideas are developed slowly and indecision plagues the entire creative process: does playing it this way make it sound any better or was it better before? If I add this, does it work? Should I slow it down or speed it up slightly?
With this, partly because it was just a fun side project, none of that pressure existed and everything seemed just to flow easily. I think we were all aware of how little time there was which, instead of being a cause of stress, actually helped the process. Once a decision was reached, that was it. No time for reflection or reconsideration, we had to move on.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with spending a lot of time crafting a piece of music, but this weekend has made me aware of how much time is wasted second guessing my decisions. If a song takes a long time to write, I want it to be because there’s a depth and intricacy to it, not because I’m worried about the decisions I’ve made.
One of the most important things you can ever do as a musician, hell as a person, is define what the word ’success’ means for you. Where would you ideally like to be in five years? Who are you working with? Where are you based? What kind of music are you making? It’s important to get a real visceral sense of where you want to end up, not only so that you can start making informed decisions to get you there, but also so that you know when you’ve arrived.
A lot of musicians start with ‘I just want to get signed’. That’s kind of vague. What is it about being signed that attracts you to it? Surely it’s not just writing your name on a bit of paper.
Read accounts of people who have been there so that you know what it’s really like. Decide what it is about being signed that is so important to you and then see if it’s possible to do those things without the backing of a label (hint: it probably is).
Do you want to get signed so that you could tour all over the UK? While you’re waiting for that deal, why not see if you can’t do something yourself. You’ll need a van, some money to support you while you do it, venues to play at, maybe a band with a bigger following to support, and maybe places to stay on the road (put a shout out on Facebook and see who you could stay with). These are all things that you can start working towards today.
Maybe you wanted to get signed so that you could work in film. Instead of playing the same rubbish gigs over and over in hopes of meeting the ‘right person’, you could create a showreel – get clips of famous films and put your own music to them, then get on a film course or go down to a film college or university, find out who is making things happen and offer to help.
Maybe you want to get signed to make an album. OK, this one is a no-brainer. Everything you could possibly need to write, record, produce and release your own album is right at your fingertips.
I’m not saying that it’ll be easy, it won’t. But that’s the point. If you want it badly enough, then you’ll make it happen and once it starts, you’ll be well on your way to reaching your own personal definition of success.
If you don’t define success for yourself, then other people will. You will spend your time chasing down what they think you should want as a musician instead of going after what you really want and then, in 5 years, you’ll end up somewhere you don’t want to be, bitter and disappointed.
Your dreams are important. Life moves fast and you only get one shot at it. Spend some time defining success for yourself then go make it happen.
So what about you? What does ’success’ mean to you and what are you doing to get there? Leave a comment and let’s talk about it.
As part of my tips for musicians thing I wrote about how everyone should start moving away from MySpace. Unfortunately, I failed to mention where they should move to. To fix this, I now present my Top 5 Web applications For Musicians:
The biggest problem with MySpace is that it tried to be all things to all people and do it all on one page. The result is a cluttered, ugly, unweildy mess. Hopefully the above will help you to spread yourself out a bit, gather more fans and give them the opportunity to interact further and in more meaningful ways with you.
And, really, the question isn’t ‘which one should I choose?’ Choose them all. They’re all free (except CD Baby), are effortless to set up and offer amazing opportunities for reaching and retaining more fans. Let’s get your music out there.
What sites are you using that you would recommend to other people? Leave a comment with your suggestions.
