Merriam-Webster defines a labor of love as "a labor voluntarily undertaken or performed without consideration of any benefit or reward", I prefer the Dictionary.com take on it; "work done for the sake of one's own enjoyment or of benefit to others rather than for material rewards". Artist simply know it as "what we do".
For the modern recording artist, we live in the platinum age. While the basic task is the same: write music, record music, release music into the wild and hope for the best; the process has changed dramatically, and in my humble opinion, for the better. We have musicians who've never meet in person performing together on Youtube. We have session players recording multitrack in real time at different studios on different continents. Entire albums are being tracked, mixed, and mastered in basements, bedrooms, attics, and garages everywhere . . . right now, maybe next door to you. And once you've got a volume 'in the can' so to speak, you can sell it anywhere, anytime, to anyone, in any format that works best for your patrons.
In some ways the success of Timelight as a progressive rock band, may only be possible because of the times we live in. Ironic since we know all to well the genre that's our lifeblood is considered by many to be a 'vintage' style. That of course is a matter of opinion and not one I'll be tackling in a 'tech' blog. But this is all about a labor of love, the good kind. A labor made both easy and powerful by today's recording technology.
For the modern recording artist, we live in the platinum age. While the basic task is the same: write music, record music, release music into the wild and hope for the best; the process has changed dramatically, and in my humble opinion, for the better. We have musicians who've never meet in person performing together on Youtube. We have session players recording multitrack in real time at different studios on different continents. Entire albums are being tracked, mixed, and mastered in basements, bedrooms, attics, and garages everywhere . . . right now, maybe next door to you. And once you've got a volume 'in the can' so to speak, you can sell it anywhere, anytime, to anyone, in any format that works best for your patrons.
In some ways the success of Timelight as a progressive rock band, may only be possible because of the times we live in. Ironic since we know all to well the genre that's our lifeblood is considered by many to be a 'vintage' style. That of course is a matter of opinion and not one I'll be tackling in a 'tech' blog. But this is all about a labor of love, the good kind. A labor made both easy and powerful by today's recording technology.
While Timelight is currently writing, rehearsing and arranging songs for our upcoming CD release this fall, I will chronicle the 'nuts and bolts' of this process all over the course of production in this tech blog. We draw the curtain on a typical suspect for DIY recording; a basement turned rehearsal space/recording studio. Almost a month ago we acquired a Focusrite OctoPre MKII Dynamic eight channel mic preamp to ADAT A/D - D/A converter. This was a deliberate addition to the already existing Focusrite Saffire Liquid 56 eight channel mic pre/interface. The primary reason for the additional mic preamps was to enable us to track the drums our selves. Much was considered for this purpose including tracking the drums in one of the many local professional studios, but after careful research into what was available to add to our already existing recording system, it seemed like the best fit for us to add the OctoPre and track the drums ourselves. And not just because the OctoPre Dynamic has an 'over easy' style compressor on each channel (a very useful feature for tracking percussion), or that it would probably work the best with the Saffire Liquid 56 (which it does amazingly . . . more to come later on the 'Saffire Mix Control' monitoring interface). Ultimately, having the time to try out and do whatever it takes to get the 'sound' we want, the time to get the performances we were 'going for' recorded, and the time to do this when it work best for us where we are the most comfortable is the way we are recording our first Timelight album. All of the 'love' part of this labor will be ours to share with you.
Next BlogLight:TimeTech: I will outline how we've set up our Focusrite system to rehearse entirely 'in ear'. The basic track sheet and mic selection/placement as well as DI's and submixes, and the preliminary plans for tracking.
Stevie
Next BlogLight:TimeTech: I will outline how we've set up our Focusrite system to rehearse entirely 'in ear'. The basic track sheet and mic selection/placement as well as DI's and submixes, and the preliminary plans for tracking.
Stevie
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