What is this “moving air” shit?
A while back I got it in my head I wanted to move air when I made recordable sound. After mixing my own stuff for a bit, it’s dawned on me that my favorite takes involve making a noise and capturing that with a microphone. A lot of music isn’t made this way. It’s not wrong, one way or another. I simply enjoy the mixing more when air gets moved around.
Fuck it let’s do it.
Keri and I begin tracking soon for a homebrew album of 20 songs. Last night I discovered I have the final piece of the “band,” a bass amp. Although, it’s really my PA. It sounds like I want when it moves speakers, not needles on a screen. Air.
Every instrument on the whole record makes recordable noise. I like this spot. Mixing, it means I get the kinds of sounds I want to mix. Performing, it means I get to work with my hands.
The line-up.
My guitars are acoustic or use the amp. Percussion is actually me banging on various doodads or djembe or a cymbal. Singing well, obviously. No overnight tracking with headphones on any part. Moving air makes noise, for recording. Movement is interesting when I hear it. Goals.
As far as mics go, I have a couple of condensers, a ribbon, a couple of SM58’s. I’ll use them all.
About software.
I recently changed DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation, my main piece of software) to Reaper from Logic Pro. Logic just quit working for me. I get the distinct impression from it that it’s headed toward what I’m hoping to move away from. Good luck in all that. Reaper feels a lot better to me for where I’m at musically. DAWs are so important and engrossing, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t eager to dive into mixing. I’ve been playing some Djembe Funk stuff just to practice tracking and mixing. Reaper is a nice DAW. Shoutout to Kenny for the videos! Also, Reaper recently protested ICE and well.. we all know how I feel about that. Big hugs, Reaper.
A more controlled experiment.
We are recording and mixing all 20 songs together, same “session,” same tools. Hope it’s enjoyable. Hope I learn things. Hope it sounds good. But I’m really just excited to be making it. Album work is my favorite. I usually contract this or that. All us this time. Very tickled.
Because I do usually contract out, I have no control over tracking. Every project with big collaboration in it has parts from all over the world. They were emailed to me. This record will all be recorded the same way, same place, by the same people. Mixed by the same person. Mastered all together. And I can make rules like the “moving air” thing, and they get followed unless I change my mind. New things for me. All of it.
The down-side.
If you would ever like to try this route to making music, I strongly recommend working out some insulated areas to track certain instruments. I test my music room against other rooms and it is hands down better sounding. It probably has something to do with al the damn insulation and the gobos. It’s a hassle, but it’s easy to hear the difference. Sound design involves strategic knowledge of what kind of sound does what. Your records will sound better if you look for that. It can be closets and blankets. It can be foaming and fiberglass. I really like gobos too. All of that is here and I use that stuff a lot.
Excited to hit “Record”!
I want to make a large cohesive record by ourselves. I got all the stuff. We got a lot of songs. Exciting time.
Getting the air-game on.
Air is a hard thing to nail down in a recording. I’m at least going to record it. See what happens.
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