Recording In The Home

OOn Monday, April 19th MicControl.com will begin a week-long interview series entitled ‘Recording In The Home’. The series that will explore the equipment, techinques, tips, stategies and styles of in-home recording. Each day, Recording In The Home will feature the interview of a different artist (6 in total), all of whom write and record a different style of music, and whose recordings are of the utmost quality.

While the need to record in a professional studio used to be the standard, the same quality of recordings can now be achieved from the comfort of your own home – you just need to know what you are doing. The purpose of this series is twofold – first, to explore different forms in-home recording in hopes of sharing some insight with other emerging artists looking to record their own music. Second, to expose the music of emerging artists who have put the time and effort into perfecting their craft.

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The music featured in Recording In The Home will vary from acoustic based blues to electronic based house, where the recordings were obtained in settings that range from an attic to a home-office based studio.

Except from interview with Eric Dennis – Metal Guitarist who goes by the stage name Daemon Blak:

Typical how many tracks will one of your songs contain? Can you explain the different tracks use?

On most of my songs, there are the following tracks – Drum rhythm tracks= 3-  main drum track for the primary beat, one fill track for cymbals, one fill track for drum fills, Bass track= 1. Rhythm guitar =2 tracks- one for left, and one for right, and Lead Track=1 for the guitar solo. There may also be two additional tracks for a lead harmony. That makes for an average total of 7 to 9 tracks for the music. There will be one track for vocals (when I find a singer), so the average track count is 7 to 10 total tracks, depending on the song.

Except from interview with ESEMDEE – Electronic Instrumental Composer:

Where do you get your samples from?

I hit the dollar (record) bins something serious. I had to not shop at the spot I go to for a while because I cleaned house. I got Prince’s “Purple Rain” album for .50 cents not too long ago. Everything from my 404’s & Cold Sores* album was made from dollar records. With vinyl back on the rise, so are the prices. I’m a man on a budget. If I’m feeling lazy, I’ll just sample whatever songs I have on my computer. It could have came out today or in the ’40’s.. I’ll sample it. When I first started, I was using the sound of a heart beat for drum kicks. I might record my vocals to chop up and throw in a track from time to time. I get my samples from anything and everything. I’ll record voice memo’s on my phone when I’m riding the bus or hanging out and use everyday events even. Nothing is safe. You can’t limit your sources.

This series is right in line with the goals and purpose of MicControl.com – to establish a learning network through the use the fully functional blogging platform, where musicians can teach each other and learn from past experience. While MicControl.com is a fully functioning music social network, the primary focus is blogging and learning – forming a level of engagement and trust within the music community that has yet to be established on the internet.

This was a guest post by Jonathan Ostrow. Be sure to check out his ‘Recording In The Home’ interview series next week and express your thoughts on the topic in the comments below.