Hello everyone.
This is an update on the project you so kindly helped us with. We're finally on the home straight! As you’ve probably noticed It's been a far slower process than we expected. But we’re finally close enough to the quality we're looking for (or at least close enough that we can stifle the procrastination and cold feet). Time to get over the hand-wringing and get the thing out :)
Here follows a bit of brain spew.. Feel free to skip the next chunk of text :) It's really a bunch of reasons/excuses for taking 9 + months longer than planned.
Recording and mastering is HARD. All those stories of people recording albums in their bedrooms lures you into thinking it's just down to time spent with the right gear. However -- here's the rub -- if you aim to record music in the traditional idiom of analogue/acoustic instruments you're trying to emulate (unintentionally or otherwise) the canon of analogue recorded music. As such you’re trying to work at the level of genuine engineers and groups of people whose life craft has been using technology and chutzpah to sculpt sound. Hence your own ears are your worst enemy and simultaneously your only sensory tool! Let's put it like this: Imagine banging a guitar/keyboard/drums for a half your life (INNER MONOLOGUE - 'yep I can do songs me') and then deciding that you could probably figure out the recording jiggery-pokery in a few months. That's the breathtaking naivety that we and most like minded musicians are guilty of. We want to put the temporal mess of live music in a box. On top of that we want it to sound acceptable within the matrix of music that was recorded by people who know what their doing. It's like natural selection - recorded music has been available for about 100 years and that century has been a paradigm of praxis - an incremental development of technology, skills, conventions, fashion and commercialism. Assuming that you can digest that and hop into the maelstrom is a recipe for extreme frustration.
Here’s the advice that we would give to ourselves if we could go back in time and give ourselves a good talking too. It might be valid to those of your in a similar position
Its stands to reason If your ultimate goal is recording then anytime you practice whilst being plugged into your recording setup is doubly useful.
So in the end the process is really learning to balance between your own treacherous ears as well as your technical limitations. Even if you have faith in your music you’ll still be constantly asking people ‘is this ok?’ ..’ can I get away with this?’.. ‘Does this sound like real music?’. At the same time you’ll be trying to swat up on technical shit and hoping that you’ve reached a skill level that allows you to record something that is plausible!
To finish we think we have made something that is (at best) plausible.. and yet we are pretty proud of it. Turns out even getting near your own level of plausibility is so hard it’s a relief to even see it on the horizon.
It’s worth saying that we’re especially thankful for the crowdfunding system as well as the wee bit of faith and good will that made you people pass us a few quid. If you people hadn’t pledged money towards the CD that didn’t exist the gauntlet of doubt and ignorance would have definitely defeated us.
Thanks.
All the Best
Dan, Eoghan,Ben & Roger
St.Simeon & the stylites
This is an update on the project you so kindly helped us with. We're finally on the home straight! As you’ve probably noticed It's been a far slower process than we expected. But we’re finally close enough to the quality we're looking for (or at least close enough that we can stifle the procrastination and cold feet). Time to get over the hand-wringing and get the thing out :)
Here follows a bit of brain spew.. Feel free to skip the next chunk of text :) It's really a bunch of reasons/excuses for taking 9 + months longer than planned.
Recording and mastering is HARD. All those stories of people recording albums in their bedrooms lures you into thinking it's just down to time spent with the right gear. However -- here's the rub -- if you aim to record music in the traditional idiom of analogue/acoustic instruments you're trying to emulate (unintentionally or otherwise) the canon of analogue recorded music. As such you’re trying to work at the level of genuine engineers and groups of people whose life craft has been using technology and chutzpah to sculpt sound. Hence your own ears are your worst enemy and simultaneously your only sensory tool! Let's put it like this: Imagine banging a guitar/keyboard/drums for a half your life (INNER MONOLOGUE - 'yep I can do songs me') and then deciding that you could probably figure out the recording jiggery-pokery in a few months. That's the breathtaking naivety that we and most like minded musicians are guilty of. We want to put the temporal mess of live music in a box. On top of that we want it to sound acceptable within the matrix of music that was recorded by people who know what their doing. It's like natural selection - recorded music has been available for about 100 years and that century has been a paradigm of praxis - an incremental development of technology, skills, conventions, fashion and commercialism. Assuming that you can digest that and hop into the maelstrom is a recipe for extreme frustration.
Here’s the advice that we would give to ourselves if we could go back in time and give ourselves a good talking too. It might be valid to those of your in a similar position
- Always practice and play with a metronome or other people whose timing is better than your own
- Go study sound engineering (twould save a lot of hassle)
- Think of your recording equipment (software and hardware) as an extension of your prefered instrument..
- Let your recording equipment affect your arrangements and become part of your songwriting process
- Listen to isolated tracks of music you like whenever you can find it
- Give up analogue and acoustic music and go full electronic (mostly joking here… … … mostly)
Its stands to reason If your ultimate goal is recording then anytime you practice whilst being plugged into your recording setup is doubly useful.
So in the end the process is really learning to balance between your own treacherous ears as well as your technical limitations. Even if you have faith in your music you’ll still be constantly asking people ‘is this ok?’ ..’ can I get away with this?’.. ‘Does this sound like real music?’. At the same time you’ll be trying to swat up on technical shit and hoping that you’ve reached a skill level that allows you to record something that is plausible!
To finish we think we have made something that is (at best) plausible.. and yet we are pretty proud of it. Turns out even getting near your own level of plausibility is so hard it’s a relief to even see it on the horizon.
It’s worth saying that we’re especially thankful for the crowdfunding system as well as the wee bit of faith and good will that made you people pass us a few quid. If you people hadn’t pledged money towards the CD that didn’t exist the gauntlet of doubt and ignorance would have definitely defeated us.
Thanks.
All the Best
Dan, Eoghan,Ben & Roger
St.Simeon & the stylites
