The
Mauger & Conroy songwriting project is rounding out our first year. In that time, we’ve managed to compose roughly a dozen songs; some of which are more complete than others. We’ve auditioned two drummers, a bassist, and another two guitarists – none have panned out. Let me tell you, it is tough to find other musicians with compatible musical tastes, visions, age, style, skill level, etc.
That endeavor aside, we turned our attention toward practicing for performance at an open mic. Five songs were selected, and revised and rehearsed for an acoustic duo setting. I skimmed through an outdated open mic listing on the
NJ Musicians website.
Filtering through the list, I learned that a handful of bars had discontinued their open mic night only weeks before. In the single best illustration of Murphy’s law at work, Mauger and I learned that one bar went out of business as one bar had closed its business, as in went bankrupt. This was a bar I visited one week before (mind you, there were only five people in the audience: the four musicians jamming on stage and me).
What now? Continue writing songs is top priority. As a spinoff project, I am now turning my attention towards home recording. Mauger lent me an old-school Apple computer desktop mic. Combined with a trial ware copy of
Acoustica’s Mixcraft, I gave it a go. The project was all about the home recording process, and not so much the product. The scope of this experiment was limited: record two guitar tracks, electric lead overdubbed an acoustic rhythm track.
This was quite a learning experience. What sounds good in an open mic setting - ex. playing with rhythm and volume dynamics – don't translate as well in recording. I traded dynamics for precision and technique; the result is more musical but less driving to my ears. Laying one track over the other excercised my ear and chops. I hope this will transfer to playing with other musicians. Home recording is the single best tool to help me learn lead guitar and improve my songwriting.
For the time being, I created a MySpace music page to highlight this sideproject. The name “Postgraduate Automotive Maze” is worthy of a blog post in itself. I'll need to explain that title later on. Check it out
http://www.myspace.com/postgraduateautomotivemaze. Other services, such as Sound Click and Pure Volume, may offer the ability to upload more songs, but MySpace allows me to craft an "image" and social network - an awesome marketing tool. Considering the popularity of MySpace, it’ll offer my music more exposure if I choose to go that route.
This summer I intended to really delve into learning the ins and outs of home recording. I managed to get my hands on
Adobe Audition. Adobe makes professional quality software, and all the product reviews rave about Adobe. This program offers a wide palette of recording and mixing features. Unfortunately, even simple procedures were embedded within various menus. This program isn’t what guitarists would describe “plug in and play”; there is quite a learning curve. I’m fairly certain that any time I invest to learn this program will payoff in the long run. My main concern is that my laptop may not have enough processing speed to handle multiple tracks.
Acoustica’s Mixcraft is my favorite recording software (not to mention the fist and only software I’ve thoroughly learned to date). Stripped down of any bells and whistles, it is simple and friendly to use. The $40 price tag is much more than I am willing to spend on this product. Perhaps if it cost $15 or $10 cheaper I would consider making the purchase. Unfortunately Adobe is much more powerful, and
Audacity is much more cost effective. This program originated in the freeware community. This program is free, frequently updated, and crosses platforms are among the many bragging rights of this software. I’ve heard it said that Audacity is the PC’s answer to Apple computer. Considering Audacity’s ease of use combined with ultimate cost effectiveness, I might commit myself to learn this program as well.
In addition to the digital recording software, the home recording hobbyist also needs to acquire a microphone and preamp to interface the laptop. Preamps starting around $200and cost upward of $600. Half-decent condenser microphones start around $100 and cost upward of $1000. This could get rather costly. Doing some homework on this topic, I’ve come across a microphone ideal for laptop recording. Samsung manufactures a condenser microphone that plugs directly into a USB port – the
C01U; no need to also purchase a preamp and mixer. This is by far the most cost effective solution considering that I’d rather invest top dollars on guitar equipment.
Ideally, if and when Caroline and I have money to burn, we would like to purchase an Apple as our next computer. Apples far exceed PC's in terms of audio, video, and digital picture programs by industry standards, and make these powerful programs friendly for the home user. Caroline is starting to take off with her digital photography, and I have my home recording side project. This would make for the third, and most crucial item needed to really start this home recording side project.
