If they start selling George Martin in a Can, I'll be first in line

[slipjig3]

I recently got my hands on a good—not tolerable, not mediocre, but good—USB mic. Y'know, one that doesn't drown everything in its wake with random hiss, require one to be three inches from the laptop monitor to record, or have the words "ROCK BAND" emblazoned on the side. Huzzah! This means I can stop whining and finish that CD! On the downside, it means I have to stop whining and finish that CD. Hmph.

The problem is that I have a deep abiding love-hate relationship with the recording process. On the one hand, I love the creative process that goes into it, and I love the product I'm left with at the end, usually. On the other hand, it's a frustrating slog at least 75% of the time, trying to get the mic placed well enough and the levels adjusted enough that you can hear what the hell I'm allegedly playing without clipping the track into defibrillation territory, or making my voice sound like yes, I do, in fact, care. Furthermore, there's the simple notion of trying to get it right, a process I'm going to call "qsijbnorvx-zpnrjji" so that the "easier said than done" ratio is a bit closer to 1:1. I'm constantly told that my voice is better than I think it is, and while I accept that to likely be the case, I still have wicked Tom Waits-sized pitch problems a lot of the time, and Mr. Shiny Happy Microphone dutifully picks up my ionosphere-level sharp vocal entrances with disturbing clarity. A least before, I could blame the static.

But with sufficient patience and enough repeated takes, I'm managing to get some good stuff out of the thing. Unfortunately, I had about six-and-a-half tracks laid down before Mr. Shiny Happy Microphone's arrival, most of which I'll have to either rerecord tracks from or completely restart from scratch. Granted, the paintings I'm throwing on the bonfire kinda needed burnin', but I'm still not exactly delighted about it. It's going to break down like this (hidden behind the cut, to spare the innocent from random irrelevance):

Keeping in current format with no changes
The Way Things Go

Redoing vocals
Eclipse
Untitled
Saint You or Saint Me

Redoing vocals and guitar
Camille Claudel

Redoing completely
Some of Us Bridesmaids
Frost

As yet unrecorded, but will definitely be on the CD
Legerdemain
Step It Out, Mary
Strowler's Song

May appear on CD if I have time to record
Cape Spear
The Back of Your Head

So yes, a ton of stuff to get done, especially since I hope to at least have some self-bootlegged discs available in time for the Heather Dale concert. For now it's full speed ahead, pausing to pound my head on the nearest hard surface in abject frustration. And possibly recording that, if I get a good rhythm going. Mic placement'll be a bitch, though.

Comments

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

It's a Blue Microphones Snowball USB mic, in brushed aluminum. Again, not Top of the Line, but a far cry better than what I've been using. I'm quite pleased with it.