Home or Studio Album

Throughout the recording of the album I have been battling with the idea of recording at home or taking it to the studio. With growing confidence in my producing and recording ability, I started to weigh up the option of taking full control of the whole project. A fair idea at the time and an ambition that I would like to pursue, but after much deliberation it will have to wait.

The latest in home studio recording has come along way from the old Teac four track stations. Some of the updates in logic, to which I’m somewhat familiar with are amazing. The plug in options that are about are very convincing. I come from the old ideology of tape and tubes, and effects that you stomp on with your foot or your face, but with time and experimentation with the possibilities of built in plugs, you can get some really great sounds. I have really enjoyed learning about and using compression, EQing sounds to how I hear them, filtering, reverbs and panning. It’s great to hear what you can achieve with a good musical take and how much a piece can evolve once you have tweaked it.

As great as these skills have come in handy and the improvement in my recording taking my tracks to another level, they still don’t go beyond that of a demo level. Even if I had have invested in some new gear, I know now that I wouldn’t be able to pull that sounds that a pro would. At the time it seemed possible and created quite a dimmela – but now it just seems silly. The benefit of hindsight.

After to-ing and fro-ing for a few months and talking to musicians, producers, home recorders and friends it all seemed to come to light. The studio and producer is going to bring so much more than I could. I’m a guitarist, singer and song writer. I mess around with home recordings. Some people can make it happen. But my skills won’t match that of someone who has studied and made it a life’s art form.

A drunken conversation with guitarist **** outside of Passing Clouds was the final decider in which way to go. His advice; that all the time I’ve been playing guitars and writing songs, someone else has been doing the same toward recording. I couldn’t argue any more. It just made perfect sense.

So a new dilemma presents itself. Who is this person? That has been spending years shaping their craft, exploring recording and developing their ears, parallel to me as I have been writing, singing and doing what I do best.

The search begins…