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re: recording an album
my 2 cents...
some suggestions: if you read "tape op" mag-always articles about beginning engineers/producers who build their resume by recording folks for free or cheap to get experience.
one suggestion, from yrs of reading it, most talk about the good experience of it, so ask around, see if any of these folks exist in your area....
my self, 8 yrs ago a friend gave me her old tascam 4 track porta-studio, i had it fixed for a $100, and went to town, recorded loop experiments (that was FUN, and honestly
i still think it's my best stuff, and i had NO GEAR back then!!!!) and then i also practiced recording my acoustic singer/songwriter type things, that was a lot of
experiment, trial & error....mistakes, boy you learn from them. i wouldn't say i was great or did a great job, but i think in the end what i learned was simpler was better
and i was trying to capture the best performance, so recording over and over, over a long period worked for me, the great thing about having your own gear, no time
constraints. i then moved up to the cheapest at the time digital recorder, the fostex mr8-man when i had 8 tracks i didn't know what to do w/ myself...ha..
there was just a back page editorial in tape op about the charm of the old 4-track recording method....
as for the other options....yes, if you've saved your $$, and there is a local studio that is w/in your budget and you can get your material together, that can be a great
way too...for me, i doubt i could perform when the red recording light goes on, but that's me.
i remember in the david torn GP interview from back in '87, he talked about why people didn't strive for sounding like they do when they play in their own living room,
he was talking about the soundpage he recorded for the flexi-disk that was included in that issue, the 80s were the beginning of the 4-track taper, since the stuff was
getting semi-cheap for folks to use/buy (it was still WAY OUT OF MY PRICE RANGE!!!!)
of course the other route is the HUGE RANGE OF SMALL DIGITAL recorders out there, ranging from under $100 & up & up...in the same recent tape op from above
in the reviews section was a review of some singer/songwriter from somewhere (an indy guy) who had some band projects from yrs past, but about 3 yrs ago recorded
some acoustic guitar/voice stuff in his bedroom w/ a marantz portable digital recorder (i think it was the one in the $500 range-so more "professional" i guess), but they
talked about the "intimate feel", laid back-loose feel it has w/ recorded in bedroom capturing song performances....certainly an option (think the michelle shocked 'campfire album'
or springsteen's 'nebraska')
there is also the david pajo & thom yorke recorded solo albums on their mac books a few yrs ago.and i believe i read that the latest gorillaz album (blur singer guy)
did their recent album w/ an ipad. and when i was (endlessly) researching small digital recorders, i think it was matt davignon (please confirm if i'm wrong here MATT, my old brain works not great lately!) who emailed me to tell me he records all his stuff w/ the zoom h2 (endless hrs of stuff) then transfers to computer and edits down to the good stuff to
release things. man i thought that was a great process, let the creativity roll, pull good stuff later....
& certainly listen to david torn's "splattercell oah" disc--there are a couple of things on there recorded w/ a microcassette (improvised jams) that he transferred to computer. i remember reading that & thought , WOW!
after my exhaustive 2 months of researching small digital recorders i ended up buying the tascam dr03 tonight from musiciansfriend.com...i 'm excited to get it & try out...
some rambling thoughts...not sure if it helps or hinders, but probably rambles...good luck....
s---
www.myspace.com/scotthansen (the newish stuff here-april '10- recorded w/ the onboard mic on my fostex mr8-i've got bad line input for direct recording on it....)
