Thoughts on Tracking

For reasons even I can't fully comprehend or explain, I am in the market for a second iRig microphone pre-amp to give me the ability to record two microphones at the same time. 

I point out the lack of reasoning because the method I am currently considering is pretty damn close to the least efficient way to multitrack. 

I will need to:

1. Setup two separate phones with their own iRig preamps and microphones. 

2. Press record on one of the phones

3. Press record on the other phone

4. Provide some sort of loud noise to create a sync point for the tracks

5. Record

6. After recording, export one of the tracks as a WAV file

7. Drop it in to the main project file

8. Sync the tracks based on the sync point 

It would be far easier to just get a multitrack interface like a Focusrite 2i2. 

But... I feel as if I won't record if it's on to my laptop. I have no idea why...

And I want to create as little barriers to recording as possible. 

And also, maybe... I'm self sabotaging and creating excuses for when things don't sound how I want them to sound...

Ugh... I need to carve out some time to record. 

Writing: SOP

 Get everything out of your head. 

Riffs, licks, chords, melodies, bits of lyrics if they happen in the moment. 

Record them in some sort of voice memo app on your phone. I literally use Voice Memo on my iPhone. 

Title them whatever feels right. This will change. Often. Make sure you include the word "idea" at the end so you can search and find all the ideas. 

Let them sit. Listen to these ideas a couple times a week and if anything sticks out, give it some deep work time. 

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 

Eliminate Choices

Eliminate choices to reveal creativity. 

Set parameters to reveal elasticity. 

Stop making it about making a perfect album. 

Start making it about making an album using a suitcase drumkit, an electric guitar, an orange mini crush amp, a chorus pedal, an overdrive pedal, a distortion pedal, a bass, an instrument preamp, a mic preamp, an iPhone, garageband, an sm57, an MXL 990/991 condenser mic set, your fingers, your vocal cords, and your songwriting skills. 

The album will be about traveling. 

12 songs (a song a month). Less than 26 minutes.

You play and sing everything yourself. 

It's an album of demos.

Indie rock.

And a brutally disciplined adherence to limitations.

Eliminate choices to reveal creativity.

Keep Plugging Away

When things are going well... it's easy.

The Dodgers are winning = I'm such a huge fan!

The songs are just flowing = I want to play guitar all the time!

I feel good after every workout = I'm gonna run everyday!

...

But then things don't go so well, and you'd rather be doing anything else, like lying in bed watching TV, or lounging on the couch on your iPhone, or sitting at a computer looking at really expensive triathlon bikes.

Those are the times when it's most important to focus and stay motivated and keep plugging away. Because the pendulum will swing, the tide will turn, the momentum will shift... and things will become easy again.

On a sidenote... the muppet on top of Rachel's desk is really scary in the dark...

Items On A Desk

An iPhone box. Hand sanitizer. A clip of three of my business cards. Burt's Bees lip balm. A bag of personalized guitar picks with my son's face on them. A FedEx branded chocolate mint. A SanDisk 2GB memory card. A 2010 nickel. An Eric Karros Upper Deck rookie card.

These are all items sitting in a cubby hole. The cubby hole is part of my wife's computer desk. The computer desk houses the computer upon which I type this blog post. The blog post is part of the internet. I'm not sure where that progression was going, but it appears to have gone to wherever that is.

Unrelated items? Yeah. Or maybe not so unrelated.

After all, they occupy the same space now. They're all neighbors. Some of the items are touching. I'm sure some of the items were probably manufactured in the same country.

They all cost money. To produce. To purchase. They're all commodities. Well, except the nickel. But isn't money a commodity nowadays, too?

Why am I writing about items on a desk? Am I that lazy? Or am I that genius...?

Unrelated and unimportant and uninteresting are the new related, important, and interesting, are they not? If they're not, they should be. Because I say so.

It's a pattern, you know. Starting with some sort of vague intention and then devolving into a nonsensical BLob Of Gibberish. You're frustrated. You're annoyed. You're bored. Reading what you've written has made you bored. Listening to the songs you've written... bored. Or unintentionally entertained because you're biased. Bias is not good. Bias blinds you...

Bias can blind you
Especially when you are
Creator and crowd

Why do you like haikus so much? Because they're easy? You like a lot of things that are easy, don't you? Don't you ever want to push yourself? Don't you ever want to set out to do something where you expect to fail... so you can prove that expectation wrong? Aren't you capable of that? Can you answer that question without pushing yourself to that uncomfortable place? Is this paragraph of questions Socratic or another symptom of you liking things that are easy...?

Pretentious. Lable this... pretentious...

I used the French spelling of label because I'm feeling cultured tonight. Fine dining at classy joints can do that to a man... make him feel cultured.

I figured it out. Why this blog feels forced. It's because I can't see the ending. Because I couldn't see the beginning, and the middle is definitely out of sight. Because I can't see the moves. Am I even making moves or am I just treading water, waiting for a lifeboat, taking in water and gasping for air and endlessly moving my arms and legs to barely keep afloat.

I need to learn the moves. Which I guess is the whole point of this blog, this job, this life.

I just wonder... when do you stop learning and start doing?

All this from items on a desk? Am I that lazy? Or am I that... genius...?