Will Muir's Recording Blog

My quest for a Grammy or a least a hit record or two.

[willmuir]

2014

Now that it's 2014 can jugbands and ragtime music be banished to the 1890s. White people trying to be Scott Joplin is more embarrassing than them trying to be Otis Redding.

[newyorker]

“How would a Rihanna live album differ from a Rihanna studio album? What would be the advantage of a Britney Spears concert document, especially one without accompanying video? Artists now rely on a staggering amount of technology, which isn’t to say trickery, but the music doesn’t translate easily to an onstage environment.”

Ben Greenman on the live album: http://nyr.kr/1cEU9al (via newyorker)

Sadly the New Yorker has this terribly wrong. A rarity for this magazine.

[willmuir]

December 29 - Drums - Amy Rola Sessions

A good night back tracking with Shawn Moore on the kit. Songs are of the pop/country genre, and sounding pretty cool so far. After using 421's and an SM7 on toms for a few months we went back to a setup that worked well for me at Fanshawe during my music industry arts days where I used mostly condensers on the kit. Whenever I get the chance to do that I'll jump on it. Last night had me thinking a bit about people using iOS based recording systems to make a record or who claim that it's the next big thing. Unless something dramatic happens I don't see an iPad being able to carry more than an 8-16 track session. That wouldn't even handle my drums on most night let alone other instrumentation and effects. I tend to favour 14 mics. That seems to be the golden number, depending on the number of toms. When I got home I dug deep into some info about the late, great, Mike Shipley. His layering of samples is something that I've been doing for the past year but may take things to a new level this year and build my own sample library. Put my history degree to good use and research kicks, snares, toms etc. Till Tomorrow In Plaid, W.M.M.

[willmuir]

In order to go full on Mutt Lange we needed a few tools. I'm also brushing up on the practices of Sant Mat

[willmuir]

Installed some more tape in the machine. I guess that's a joke only a few nerds can appreciate.