In the Studio

Musician, Personal

One of my older students asked me yesterday what my studio looked like. I’m sure he was imagining the puffy egg cartons on the walls, a rolling desk chair, a gigantic mixing board, and a plate glass window.

We had been talking about recording, and he was interested in what I am doing right now, so we’d had to listen to the track I’m working on (“Saint Clement’s, Forestbury“).

At one point, I guess it must’ve been about 15 years ago, my studio did indeed take up a small room of its own — a full-size digital piano, a smaller controller keyboard, digital sound modules in a rack, a mini disc deck (and before that, a DAT deck), a big lunky computer, etc. I still use versions of all those things and more; but as we know, electronics have gotten much smaller and much more powerful. I use an iPad Pro, an Akai MK3 mini, and a Sennheiser condenser mic.

A picture sounds 1000 notes, so here is a photo of my studio and workstation these days; including my recording engineer, Eli.

No vocals today, so we didn’t have the mic set up.

Treasonous Medieval Electronica

Musician

Don’t tell King John (1166-1216).

For better or for worse, here’s a small sample of the music & recording project I am working on.

As I mentioned, it’s chill electronica/deep house using medieval influences, melodies, and sometimes instruments. I know it’s weird. It has a element of soundscape to it as well.

I’m planning on doing eight tracks. Each one will have its own location and “story,” as this one does.

I figure eight tracks is good for an album, especially with these tending to be around four minutes. I’ll put it up on iTunes/Amazon/Spotify when all tracks are done and if people stumble upon it and enjoy it, that’s great. =)