I Love recording At Home!

It's so great to be recording at home. You can monitor in the same sort of environment that most people listen to music in. Most people in my experience listen to music as a background to their life. Some of course listen intently but often there are things happening around people that has them not fully engaged with the music. It's easy in the studio to ignore that fact and have contrapuntal ideas carry way too much importance. Not that you want every overdub to be hitting you between the eyes but getting into the detail and recording way too many overdubs-something which I have been guilty of in the past- can be a mistake.

I gave a mix the ultimate test last night and played it through £1 speakers. The verdict? Don't buy speakers from Poundland!

We've already mixed two instrumental tracks and started work on the first song using bits we like from the demo and building on it.

Processes

I've just realised that I've fallen back into the trap ( my own created trap!) of too many variables. So I decided that we'd record and mix the album using the Cubasis app on an iPad but immediately I was thinking ok maybe I should be eq'ing this and a spot of compression and let's just tweak that LFO etc So we have decided to do all or most of the tracking on Garageband and then transfer the tracks to Cubasis for all of the fine tuning. Garageband is so simple and with so few options it keeps our creativity alive for us. 

We are set up and ready to go!

At last all set up and ready to go. It's not exactly Abbey Road but such a creative space and available without booking 24 hours a day! We have such little gear that I can easily list it here.

Akai S1000 sampler

EMU Vintage Keys

Micro Korg Keyboard

Jo Meek Compressor/Limiter

Ipad running:

Cubasis

Garageband

Alchemy

Nlog Pro

Nano Studio

iMPC

Launchkey

Nanologue

Midisynth

New Ipad new Apps

Our new iPad 4 (well second hand really but as good as new!)

We have decided to record the album using Cubasis as our recorder, mixer mastering machine etc anything recorded here can then later be transferred  to a PC or Mac into Cubase for mixing and mastering if we think that would improve the quality. Cubasis is just £34.99. A lot for an app but a small amount to pay for such amazing technology. We will still use Garageband for composing, creating and demos as it's simplicity enables you to not be distracted by too many variables. 

I have begun to transfer songs that have been recorded on Garageband into Cubasis. How this is done is quite laborious as you have to save each song track by track and the export it into the media files of Cubasis and the drag it into a newly created song with the same tempo as the original. One song with just 8 tracks took about 20 mins to do but I'm sure it will speed up as I get more familiar with the process. 

The availability of so many options is a bit mind blowing at first as I've become used to just getting it recorded quickly. Each track has individual EQ, Compression and FX's and then the same with the master channel. I'll keep you up to date how it's all going but my one concern is over stretching the iPad's processing capability and getting glitching. I heard that happen for a period until I re booted and went into Airport mode. It was then smooth. 

Using Multitrack DAW

Multitrack DAW EQ and Compression

I've just discovered a way of working and using the apps I have to their potential.

Garageband is so great to record as you have limited options and therefore don't get bogged down with detail that stops the creative flow but on the iphone there aren't even any options for using eq. So I use Garageband for tracking and then transfer the individual tracks to Multitrack DAW where I can eq and compress the individual tracks and master eq and compress. The only drag is that there is only one BUS send to the FX but not individual for each track so you can only use one effect on the whole mix. I'm now looking at how to defeat this using an 'outboard' app utilising Audioshare. Still, we are talking about mutitracking and mastering on a phone here! So I guess I should be grateful for this amazing facility! 

In The Bleak Mid Winter

Here is our rendition of Gustav Holst's 'In The Bleak Mid Winter'

Recorded and filmed entirely on an iPhone.

The process was:

I used Garageband for the basic tracking.I used Midi Synth and Alchemy Apps for the synth sounds. These sounds can be linked directly to Garageband using the inter app setting. I made a sample of our Kora

Kora

which I looped. I also sampled our glockenspiel. The vocals were recorded in the Multitrack DAW. It was then mastered in the DAW as well. The video was filmed on my iPhone and then put together on the Cute Cut App.
Cute Cut is fabulous! You can layer either video footage or photos and also draw over the top of images. I had been using imovie which is great but basic.

Glockenspiel