That went relatively well, I guess. I finished my first song, and it turned out about as I’d hoped it would. If I can ever figure out how to create a “Music” page that hosts songs, I’ll do it. That’s my current challenge. It’s something to do with FTP clients, passwords long forgotten, and an audio player plugin. I am a little worried that I’ll end up destroying my blog as it is, but it’s a risk probably worth taking.
I don’t have a lot of patience for this crap. It’s the reason I took two weeks to finish a very simple song. I hate playing the same thing over and over, and I REALLY hate having to dig through forums and help files to figure out how to make things work in Garageband. Don’t let anyone tell you that recording in your home is fun. It ain’t.
Speaking of Garageband, my biggest frustration was its method for punch-ins. Put simply, it doesn’t work. That means it’s very difficult to go back and fix little mistakes. That means take after take until everything is just right — or, as in my case, take after take until you finally give up and say it’s good enough like it is.
I was further harassed by my apparent inability to sing in tune. Believe me, this is not something I already knew about. Now, I’m a very arrogant principled man. Music should be organic and honest. But it also needs to be, you know, good. For philosophical reasons, I absolutely refuse to use pitch correction. I have to question, though, if it’s really any more honest to sing the same part about a dozen times, trying to get it perfect. A quandary. In the end, a lack of patience overrode all arguments. I kept the best of about four attempts. I’ll never use pitch correction, but I do have to accept some less-than-perfect vocal performances.
I realize that I’m painting a pretty bleak picture here — so why do it at all? Despite the many hassles, recording is rewarding. That rhymed, man. At the end of the day you have something that you can (sometimes) be proud of, and, hopefully, have culled the most embarrassing mistakes from. If it’s a particularly good song, or if you’re particularly delusional, you can cultivate a false sense of self-importance, which is nice.
I finished my easiest song, and I’ll probably record a few more. For now, though, my test is to create that “Music” page I mentioned. If I can’t figure that out, my next philosophical dilemma will be whether or not to start a PureVolume or *shudder* Myspace page to host my songs.
Pray for me.