Jammin'
As planned, I put aside the whole 'Style' approach to todays recording session... basically I just programmed a click at different bpm's and jammed along to it playing whatever felt like coming out :) it was a lot of fun, especially just being able to play without the previously self-imposed boundaries! So far I have recorded 10 tracks and now I am having a little break (listening to Radioheads 'OK Computer' in the background)... will write some more later on...
Great weekend :oP
Yes, as I expected I had a GREAT weekend... just did exactly what I had planned: relax relax relax! Now I feel ready for a new week in the studio with some fresh inspiration... will be heading off down there around midday...
Experimenting
Last night I ended up programming a few sequences that I thought might be fun to play along to... I think it was around 5 in total. When I got into the studio today I decided to put the whole style thing aside and just experiment with yesterdays sequences, the focus being on my
own style rather than anything 'established'... It was more of a practice session than anything else really but I did record some of the stuff I was doing... basically I am still deciding what exactly it is that I am going to do with my last week in the studio next week... I think I will do maybe two or three more of these
style sessions and then just focus on recording a whole bunch of my own ideas... All I know is that the weekend is ahead and that I will just relax a little and start next week with some fresh inspiration... xo
Done for another day ;oP
Yes the time has come already to say goodbye to the studio... I managed to work my way through 20 tracks today which made me feel good as I hadn't recorded anything yesterday... these sessions are turning into speed recording sessions lol! I just come in, knock out as many tracks as possible in my given time frame and then I am out again... I haven't even listened to most of what I have recorded so far believe it or not... just backed it up on CD for later use... I am sure there will be a lot of junk in there... but a lot of little gems too :) I am glad I have this industrial style out of the way for now, as it can be pretty exhausting playing a lot of this kind of music only 'once in a while'... Anyway, who knows what the next style is going to be... I don't :)
Industrial
OK, it's time to get back in the studio! Feel like I have been away for days... Todays style will be industrial... fortunatley I have prepared all the tracks that I wish to record so I can just get straight to work... see ya later
Time Out
Today I gave myself a well-deserved break... or let’s put it like this:
I really need a break lol! I have had some family over from Ireland for the past week and I dropped them off to the airport at 8am… By the time I got home I was wrecked lol…I caught up on all the house work that has been piling up (he he) and later on I am going to do another little brain-storming session to see how I can best optimize the remaining time I have left in the studio. Should be interesting…good night :)
Done for today :oD
That was some session! In the end I managed to record the most tracks (in one session) to date... 17... it should be said though that I am recording all that I do, for it then to be cut up after it has been mixed into individual loops for this sample CD... so what 17 tracks really means is 17 different
feels from which I will then take certain pieces of audio... just thought I would clear that up :P
Time to back up todays session... my favorite part of the day (for this means that I must have achieved something or else I wouldn't be backing it up!!!)...
Gotta go.. catch you tomorrow :)
Getting Prepared
Back in the good ol' studio... I only have a few hours though because there are a couple of other 'normal' things I have to take care of today... so far I have been preparing tracks and relevant software for the coming sessions this week... I found that it was a lot more conducive to my workflow to get a whole bunch of tracks ready at once rather doing it before I recorded each individual track (if that makes sense lol!). Anyway I prepared tracks for the following styles:
Funk Metal
Industrial
... I think those sessions will be a lot of fun... I can let out all that pent up tension on my (poor) drums :)
Time to get back to work
xo
Monday morning feeling
Back in the studio as usual but it was a bit of a trial getting motivated again for another weeks worth of recording... I did manage to record another 15 tracks which lifted my spirits again :) I went into Aachen early this morning as well to get the alleged new drumskin! The man in the shop didn't really seem to have a clue so it was a good job I knew what I was looking for!
I actually ended up buying a couple of drum skins for the other toms as well... after putting them on I am still not sure if I like the sound of them as much as the other drumheads... Time will tell I am sure.
My style for today was experimental sample-based music. It was fun as usual but I have to admit it would be nice to have an assistant to save me runnung in and out of the control room between every take lol!
Anyway as usual I am now backing up the session in order to start anew tomorrow... still not sure what style I am going to do... I guess I will decide that when I get here... peace for now :)
xo xo xo
Busted Drum Skin
Yesterday whilst praciticing I managed to whack a big whole into my high tom... I didn't even feel like I was hitting it all that hard... but it was a pretty old one. So I am off into Aachen first thing tomorrow morning to pick up a whole new set of skins in order to continue my sessions... I had the day off today and feel so much better for it I have to say... It'll be nice to go into the studio with a clear and rested head tomorrow morning... xo
Homer-man
Well, I got everything that I had set out to do done - much quicker than I anticipated I might add... practice really does make perfect :) I also had some spare time leftover to just practice (without the tape running) which was nice and refreshing! The weather over here is still pretty mad... it just won't seem to stop snowing! It is so picturesque though out here in the 'Eifel'/Germany... here's a snow... nay,
Homerman that I managed to spot on my way home this evening... enjoy your Saturday eve and I will catch ya later....
A few pix
Just thought I would upload a couple more pix that I took yesterday... basically a stack of CD's that are currently serving as inspiration and a quick idea I jotted down before recording it... should be back in the studio this evening ... I thought it would be a good idea to get a whole bunch of preperation done ie working out what I want to record over the next few sessions and setting up all of my software accordingly... btw the problem with Nuendo seems to have sorted itself out :)
Catch you later xo
Nice and Easy
After the initial phase of getting my act together this morning, I have managed to record 14 tracks with Hip Hop in mind. It was quite fun actually because Hip Hop drumming tends to be pretty laid back and all about the groove... I needed that kind of session this morning because I was pretty wrecked and uninspired when I got in the studio :)
Slowly but surely I am getting into the full swing of things though. I have never had the luxury of spending a full month in the studio just doing whatever it is I please... the cool thing, is that I am starting to see a pattern emerge... just the order I do things in - getting the software set up so it all works as efficiently as possible... and obviously the more one practices this studio stuff the better and more efficient one gets. Already I am starting to have incredible amounts of raw audio collecting on my desk in the studio in the form of CD-r's... I pitty the mixing engineer who is going to have to work his way through it all LOL! I am trying to be good and back all of my work up after every session (which is the last thing I feel like doing after hours of drumming)... but it makes most sense to do it that way I find, as otherwise it can be hard to keep an overview on all of the different tracks etc... so that's exactly what I am doing right now... backing uppppppppp :)
Hip Hop Hurray
Just like I imagined, before I went to bed last night I decided to work on 'Hip Hop' as a style today... now I know that term has become a very broad one so the inspiration for todays session will be 'The Roots', as I am just using my acoustic kit. They are such a refreshing Hip Hop band to me because they really do take it back to their roots with the live instrumentation and so on.
I have to get a move on now though because I can only stay in the studio till about 14:30 this afternoon... Lets see if I can jam in ten tracks in that time...
Lots of work done
After backing-up all of the preliminary sessions, I started on my first 'style' - pop. I decided to do pop first for two reasons - the first being that it's a good style to use to get into the flow of things and secondly to get it out of the way as quickly as possible so I can move on to the more interesting stuff LOL! My goal had been to record ten tracks per session/style... today I managed to record 15 tracks for pop which is a good feeling :) So the next backing-up session has already commenced!
I haven't decided which style I am going to be doing tomorrow yet as my head is still too full with the tracks I have just been working on... but I am sure by the end of the evening I will have made my decision...
Catch you later :)
Time for first backup
Up until now I have pretty much just recorded whatever I felt like at the time. But after my 'drawing board' session yesterday I have decided it is time to just backup all of the recordings I have done up until now and then to systematically record beats from various styles as described in my previous blog. Even now it feels good to get all that (old) stuff off the hard drive and to (almost) start anew :)
Enough talking... time to get back to work!
Time to get some sleep
I am absolutely exhausted now... my pen and paper sessions went very well... I spent the past few hours going through stacks of CD's that will serve as the inspiration for the next two weeks in the studio... Billy Cobham, NERD, Tool, DJ Shadow, Tortoise, Incognito, Nine Inch Nails and The Beatles to name but a few... pretty eclectic mix, which makes the anticipation of the recording sessions even better!
Right, time to get some sleep b4 the next day begins.... :)
Back to the drawing board...
After spending the past week in the studio experimenting with all of the possibilities such an environment presents, I have decided to spend today at home with just pen and paper, mapping out how to best use the remaining two and a half weeks of studio-time available to me. I have come up with a recording schedule where I will hopefully record roughly ten tracks per session - each session will cover one particular style of music. In total I have twelve styles of music that I wish to cover... so as you can see, that pretty much has the next two weeks covered... especially when you consider that there will more than likely be a few hiccups along the way. But if all goes according to plan I will have enough raw audio to create multiple sample CD's with different themes... a very worthwhile investment!
Something else I would like to mention is that my blog has now been added to a very cool site called
Band Weblogs which is a worldwide directory of band and music weblogs - very worthwhile checking out if you are into musician blogs. A big thanks to Jenny May for the kind emails :)
Stay tuned... xo
As to be expected...
... I have run into some computer software problems... I have been using Nuendo to record the raw drum audio which I then tweak in Live 4... unfortunatley Nuendo has been a little confused to say the least for the last two takes... oh well, nothing that won't sort itself out I am sure...
I have spent most of the day so far just practicing to my favorite albums and then also to a few of my custom click tracks that really help work on timing...
The weather outside is still pretty crazy... all the more reason to keep working in the studio... xo
Bright and early
Back in the studio again... it is snowing like crazy outside and I don't think that will change all that quickly...
Well, I have a whole bunch of tracks that I recorded yesterday that need editing so that will be my first task this morning... once I have warmed up a little it's back to recording more groove ideas........ xo
Another day gone by...
Time just seems to be flying at a tremendous pace these days! I managed to get a lot done in the studio today... I am basically recording raw audio of acoustic drums at the moment and experimenting with the possibilites of processing and editing. As could be expected, I am doing all this on
ableton LIVE 4... (I don't know where I would be without this software :)
Early start tomorrow - got to be at the studio by 8:15 am, which is way earlier than I am used to getting up... but I guess you just have to do what you have to do... will keep you posted on how it goes... see ya :P
PS: ...will look into adding a little more 'pizzaz' to my site... might take a while though...
Greetings Bloggers
Hi everyone,
I decided that it would be a good idea to start my own blog... there is a lot going on at
beatkitchen.de these days and in order not to clutter the official website with everyday stuff, I thought that a blog would serve as a good means of getting out all those thoughts :)
At the moment I am sitting in Flow Collective Studios in Germany working on my first acoustic drum sample CD. I have three weeks of solid studio time left to experiment to my hearts content, which is exactly what I am doing. It's great to have such a long stretch of time to work on the various groove-ideas that have been swirling around in my head for the past few years.
Got to get back to work...stay tuned
eshan
