Recording music

Last week when I made the bold declaration that I was going to at least demo my old songs & put them on here, I did so partially to force myself to do it. Unfortunately there are 2 things that make it, well, difficult. One, is that requires me singing, for people, I’m ok with playing guitar for people, but signing, that is a whole other thing. The 2nd thing is that recording music is actually really quite difficult.

Don’t get me wrong, recording sound is easy, you attached a microphone to your chosen recording medium (usually a computer these days) & hit record. Recording music that sounds well done, like something I’d be proud to share, that is a whole other thing. There is a reason people like Butch Vig & Bob Rock are as successful as they are. Recording music is an art form that is not easily grasped.

The challenge I have is either getting much better at it, or learn to be ok with putting things out there for others to hear that sounds like it was done by a rank amateur. The thing is, I am a rank amateur, I have no clue what I am doing with recording music. I don’t get EQs, I don’t get the effects / plug ins, I spend half the time in Cubase trying to work out how to use the stinking program.

I also need to get more equipment, I currently don’t have a practical way to add drums to a track (just like real drums, I can’t play midi drums on the keys, I just can’t). Likewise the only way I have to add bass is with a keyboard which is less than ideal. Oh well, I do love to buy music stuff, so there’s my excuse.

So I have decided that in addition to committing to recording these songs, I am also going to learn how to do it better. This will be a long process, which should at least give me something to write about. Over time I shall rerecord anything I make that is actually good & see if I can get it to a stage to where I can say that it is how I actually want it to sound.

It has been almost a week since I began this post, I have procrastinated much. I was initially going to post a cover song as my first song, but unfortunately copyright laws make that somewhat unwise.  So my next post will be the 1^st of my songs that I have recorded, the only one so far. It is just guitar & vocals, I need to practice singing a lot, but it is at least a start, welcome to the journey.