Home Recording Blog
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Other Diary Entries... 
In The Beginning... 
Beginners Start Here 
The Keyboard is King! 
~ My Keyboard Family 
I Wanna be Eight Again 
Getting the Perfect Take 
Dare To Be Different  
Dare To Be Different #2 
Read The Flaming Manual! 

Home Recording Diary
Monday, June 21, 2004

OK, I AGREE... I should have started writing this diary back in September 2003, when I first sat down in front of the computer and began recording the first song for my album, American Dream. Then I could have used it to document each step of the process I passed through to record the album. But I didn't. I was having too much fun staying up late, making mistakes, and learning how to use the hardware and software in front of me.

So where to start? How about wherever my thought processes and memory takes me.

While it is relatively cheap and easy to set up a home recording studio, it doesn't follow that you (or I for that matter), are ever going to produce something that will set the world on fire. However, for me, that is not the point. 

Having made the decision to start performing my songs at around 47-48 years of age, and having found that people thought them good, I then made the decision to record some of them. This I did. Not because I thought I'd get rich and famous, but because I thought a few more people than my immediate family and small circle of friends would like a permanent record of some of my songs.

Having achieved that goal, I decided last year (2003) to record another album. Since I didn't have the money to pay for a producer, session musicians and studio time, I decided to record, produce and perform everything on the album myself. Nothing to it really.

The Australian computer magazine, PC User, had a cut down version of Cool Edit Pro on the cover disk (I forget which issue). You could only record 12 individual tracks at a time, but since these could be 'bounced down' to one track, thereby freeing up 11 of the previously used tracks, you essentially had an unlimited number of tracks with which to record a song.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," said I to myself, and with that, I sat down to find out how this home recording thing worked. 

And thus began Big Jim's Excellent Adventure...
 

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