SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: It’s warm in San Diego. I mean, duh. Northern Hemisphere! But it’s been less warm here than in a lot of other places under the heat dome this summer, and for that this shark is sweatily grateful. Although our only AC is a small window unit in one room, it’s been tolerable enough indoors for me to do some recording — including my first proper recordings of someone else.
Usually I record solo in my living room, and my collaborators record themselves in their living rooms, and then whomever’s mixing the song mixes it in their living room. But my old bandmate James simply didn’t have the equipment. He lives just across town from me, so I invited him over to record playing guitar.
Except for a brief try-out session I did with a visiting friend a month or so back, I have not only not recorded someone else — as a keyboard player and singer, I haven’t recorded a guitar! James brought over both electric and acoustic guitars, and I got to learn about how to get those into the DAW (digital audio workstation) on my computer. The electric guitar’s cable plugged right into my Motu 8pre audio interface (we’ll talk more about audio interfaces in my next column), and then I discovered that I could change the sound of the guitar with different presets in my DAW, much like a guitarist might use pedals to change their sound. For the acoustic guitar, because it didn’t have a built-in “pickup” (essentially a built-in microphone), I had to use a mic on a mic stand, and then plug the microphone’s cable into the audio interface.
I learned a lot of things, including that an acoustic guitar is a lot softer than an electric — not surprising, but it meant I needed to crank the volume on the acoustic tracks and turn it down on the electric. But what really surprised me was just how responsible I felt: how much care I took with James’ recordings, wanting to make them sound good and represent his intentions well. It’s a very different sensation to have responsibility over the way someone else looks to the world. Producers, directors, photographers are used to this, of course. It’s their life’s work. But it was fascinating to experience for myself.
Interested in how it came out? Check out Imaginary Set’s cover of Men Without Hats’ classic “Pop Goes the World.”
Cheers, Huge Shark
