Blog: Technology AHOY!

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I'm getting Quite Excited at the moment about the Recording Possibilities for this SOLO TAPE I'm going to be recording for Popgun Recordings later this year. Recently I discovered that my 4 Track had KEELED OVER - it was the least good of the SEVERAL i have used over the years (the best being one with a BIG BLUE BUTTON on it, the make of which i can't remember, which allowed Automatic Bounce Downs! It was THE BUSINESS!) as it had pretty dodgy monitoring levels, sounded fuzzy and, in the end, couldn't cope with TAPES themselves very well, so everything sounded like it was recorded underwater, through a straw. THUS i have been investigating possible replacements.

DURING my studies i recieved from Mr J Cairney (who put the Brighton gig on earlier this week) a copy of ACID SOUNDFORGE. Now, I have LONG steered clear of this sort of thing, not because i am WARY of technology, but because i spend most of my working day staring at a computer. ALSO, in our house, the computer is in a seperated room from all the MUSICAL EQUIPMENT and generally when I'm in one room ROCKING OUT The Files In My Cabinet can be found in the other, utilising the DESK SPACE. Thus if I ever wanted to record stuff on the computer it'd be annoying for her, and PESKY for me having to tidy up after myself.

HOWEVER! I realised earlier this week: I'm going to record this new tape during the week when both my Housemates are away on HOLIDAY. This is something they traditionally do around this time of year, leaving me to a) go BATCHELOR CHOW crazy cooking grub that only i like b) worry myself silly in case anything happens to the cats and c) mope around the house being a bit fed up on my own and especially missing said Roof On My Building. This year, therefore, i am embarking on this RECORDING PROJECT to keep me busy (and to stop me worrying about feline fatality), and as, as stated, they're both AWAY it doesn't really matter if i fill the ENTIRE HOUSE with musical equipment for the duration.

THUS i have been tentatively experimenting with What It Can Do, and this morning was GLEEFUL to discover that not only does it all WORK, but it's dead easy to use! Yesterday I bought a NEW EXTENDO-WIRE so i don't have to keep fiddling with the back of the computer when I want to plug things in, and before i went to work i plugged in a microphone and multi-tracked me a VOCAL DRUM LOOP!

OK, it sounded RUBBISH, but i worked out how to put effects on individual tracks, alter the recording input levels, and generally MESS AROUND with it, so now i feel READY to get going. I am QUITE EXCITED at the prospect, and have to keep reminding myself that just because i CAN record massed choirs made up of hundreds of ME, it doesn't mean i should. I'm also getting SUDDEN RETRO ideas about SAMPLING stuff - these thoughts increased by the fact that I'm reading the utterly GRATE "Fortress Of Solitude" at the moment, and I've just got to 1979 when SCRATCHING first appears.

We'll have to see how it goes once i get going properly I guess, and I might well end up coming into town to buy an old fashioned four track in the end. It feels ODD, i must say, to finally be contemplating Going Digital when I'm recording stuff for a CASSETTE, especially when MOST of my stuff on vinyl and LOADS of my stuff on CD has been recorded on EXTREMELY lo-fi equipment - nearly half the songs on "Warriors From Nanpantan" were done on various REGENERATIONS of my four track.

There's going to be six songs on the finished thing, and at the moment these are going to be "Born Yesterday", "Ctrl-Alt-Delete", "Sod It, Let's Get Pissed", "Hey William", "If You Need Loving" and "Closer To You" but these may well change as we go along - doubtless i will end up recording something twenty minutes long, backwards, that I think is ACE and will regret the minute the tapes have been made - this is somewhat TRADITIONAL for me. SESSIONS commence at the start of June - all the FACTS will be here FIRST!

posted 18/5/2005 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

cor blimey hibbett!
you don't seemto have really mentioned how ace Popgun is as a label. this must be stressed, and indeed anything that has links with indiepages.com is ACE. popgun
posted 18/5/2005 by Anonymous

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