click the album art above to check out “Cave” on bandcamp
So, as many of you know, studio recording is expensive. What's a gal to do when she has more than a full length album's worth of writing, but no capital to enlist a pro's help (and gear) in laying down the tracks? I'd been trying my hand at DIY music production for a short while, buying my home studio recording gear at the start of 2023 and slowly figuring out how to make things work through a lot of trial and error from there. As someone who doesn't consider themselves to be very tech-literate, my biggest obstacles in the process seemed to involve figuring out how to turn my new devices on, including the microphone. This hurdle seemed insurmountable and proved to be a two-man job, but I now know my way around an XLR port!
Around the beginning of May (2023) I set to work with Garageband, a $60 audio interface, an AT2035 cardioid condenser mic equipped with 6-layer pop filter and a dream (a.k.a. an undying compulsive hyperfixation hell-bent on creating). As far as having a plan of attack or order of operations, I was pretty well in the dark, which admittedly did lead to the time consuming process of reworking the same elements over and over again at times when things went south. My saving grace much of the time was that I had remembered to save the project as multiple files at various steps, so when I'd made an error that couldn't be undone I'd have a recent saved file to return to rather than scrambling to attempt a fix. Youtube, as always, was an invaluable resource when I was wondering how to achieve something specific with my digital audio workspace, and I also learned about these magical things known as FREE software plug ins for sound processing (namely the Fetish compression pack and TokyoDawn's Nova Dynamic EQ). It seems there's always more gear that needs to be purchased to up production value in some sense or another when it comes to music, so I can always appreciate a quality freebie to help bridge that gap in accessibility.
I also learned a lot through just fucking around with things and making choices based on sounds that I personally preferred, whether it was according to supposed “proper” tenets of producing music or not. My choice to not work off “order of operations”-type checklists supplied by other producers online was a benefit to that process for sure, because while these frameworks no doubt speed up the process in achieving a commercial sound, I felt they might also impose restrictions on my current state of creative freedom. At this point as an amateur in producing I was blissfully unaware of any music production faux pas I had committed, and it can be so lovely to remain ignorant as to when you are doing things “wrong,” (so long as the end result is desirable).
About the Track: "Retreating to a refuge from climate crisis, people problems and sewing circles. A self-produced single written in 2022."
“Cave” is available for purchase or to listen to on bandcamp currently, and will become available on all streaming services on the official release date of June 9th.
-al3x4