Wow! I can't believe it's already week five. Time flies when you're having fun ;-). This project is taking a hold of me every day more and more. When I first had this idea it was like, this might be bit of fun. Five weeks in to it, and my mind is working twenty four seven (and the body only stops for food and sleep). I am constantly thinking about every single detail, what I want the CD package to look like, how I want to arrange a particular song, how to improve the website, how to get more people on board, how to get more traffic to my Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, rehearsal rooms, microphone positioning, next weeks video... The list goes on, and grows longer every day. The support I have got on personal level, and from the readers of this blog, and on all of the social media sites have been just over whelming. And when I check the statistics of this blog, the website, the plays on YouTube and Reverbnation player, I can only smile :-). I am a strong believer that there is time for everything, but still I have put off recording a CD of my own songs for years. I became really good at coming up with excuses and with out sounding like a contestant in American reality show, when I finally started this, there is no stopping me.
But hey, I'm not here to tell you that it’s all just a fun ride in the park. Recording a CD to professional standard even on a big record company budget is not easy, let alone on a non existent budget. So I still need to get very inventive, use every bit of an experience I have gained in my career as musician. And you do need to become a bit of a jack of all trades. I am very lucky having had the chance of working with some of the best sound engineers around. They have offered their knowledge to me with open arms, and I will try to pass some of this to you. Also I was never great at drawing, but I do have an eye for visual things, and again I had the pleasure of sharing flat years ago with a graphic designer, who thought me thing or two. Also my Mother is a brilliant artist, and my childhood home was always filled with paintings, so I am sure that helped the eye. But this is all things that I need to work on all the time, and you can learn it if you put your heart in it. But it takes the same determination as working on your music. Practise makes perfect, and you need to have hunger for information. I have read every book or magazine I could get my hands on about sound engineering, music promotion, band websites, you name it. How do I find time for this? Well if you have the desire, you will find the time. But if all else fails, you can always read my blog ;-)
So new week, new tricks. I wrote a new song last week, recorded it and posted it on the Reverbnation player on the side bar of this blog. Also I got little bit creative with this week’s video. It’s a song called “Alive” and you can see it at http://www.youtube.com/jpkallio
I recorded the sound straight in to computer with the Line6 UX1 that I talked about last week and videoed it at the same time. Then just for a good measure I did it again. Now all I did after was to mach the video to the sound and then compile a nice mix of the two video recordings. I think it is pretty effective, and only took me four hours from start to finished product. It has given me loads of new ideas that I'm sure I'll put to good use in the near future.
There was one thing I forgot to mention about the Line6 UX1 last week, it does not have phantom power, which you need to use condenser microphones. So far all the recordings I've done on it has been with my trusted Sure Beta 57. This is very versatile and cabable microphone, and if you only have one microphone, this would not be a bad choice. Also my trusted Acoustic guitar has a Takamine Tri-AX sound hole pick up (Basically same as L.R. Baggs M1) and this actually sounds ok recorded. What I did on the two tracks on the Reverbnation player, “Glory to the world” and “I wouldn't have it any other way” was to position the sure beta 57 around the 16th fret of the guitar and record the line from the pick up. I would pan these on opposite sides. Bit of compression and reverb to your own taste, and you get pretty nice results. But in the final recordings I will go for condenser microphones.
This week I will spend recording demos of the rest of the songs, tweaking my website and rehearsing. I am also hoping to finish a proper mix of the song “Glory to the world”. And if I get a version I am happy with, we will submit this to iTunes, and release it before Christmas as a Download. The idea is to finance some CD with the profits. But for now, have a great week :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment