Day 1 recording - not so great.
Day 1 of recording presented a few challenges I had not really anticipated.
This is the first time I'm doing this so everything is brand new.
First - I had a parking issue outside the studio which soured my mood.
The un-attended parking payment device took my money but didn't give me a parking pass. So I ended up getting a ticket which is 3 times the cost I had already paid to park. I can't help but think these machines are rigged to fail like that.
Once I got into the studio and set up I started playing and recording I was really uncomfortable. I don't know if it was the "formality" of the whole thing - or the room or the way it was set-up. I just wasn't comfortable for at least an hour.
I tried to record a few "simple" tunes and quicklly realized I had not spent enough time getting the kinks worked out. That further annoyed me -so I moved on to some other pieces and experimented with different recording techniques.
I had hoped to get about 4 tunes done. HA!
I ended up with nothing recorded but I certianly learned a lot about what it's going to take to get this project done.
For whatever it's worth - the ProTools HD system I was using sounded great. A little too great actually. It totally revealed how noisy my Boss GT6b effects unit is. In contrast - the Avalon U5 is DEAD quite.
That's another thing. The short comings of the effects and tones I find useful in my home practice space and playing live were quite obvious in a higher end recording set up with good monitors.
Anyway - I'm not sure I'm going back in to the studio today. I think I need to spend more time working the kinks out of some of the tunes I wanted to record. That's why I'd really like to be able to record this at home. But - it will sound much much nicer to record at studio J.
On another level - the issue of performance - I was really not pleased. There's a certain amount of imperfection I'm willing to tolerate. But I really need this stuff to sound good.
Backstage at Solo Bass night - Michael Manring asked if he could hear my recordings. I started talking about my problem comitting anything to tape right now - and how I usually will record something 1 day and then cringe at it the next. Michael said - "it can be perfect, or it can be done".
How true.
I just want it not to suck. ,-)
I'm comitted to getting this CD recorded and out this summer. It's going to be a lot harder than I anticipated.