I figured I'd copy the format of J.Hall's thread about releasing a record, with a thread to document, and allow critique/comments of, my adventures in tracking and mixing two records with poor equipment, but with a whole lot of attitude. hah.
I'm an ametuer recordist in Fort Worth, TX. I am a poor seminary student, so gear is less than perfect. Signal path is typical for a home guy: 8 ch. M-Audio preamp-lightpipe out/Digidesign 002Rack-lightpipe in, firewire out/MusicXPC dedicated audio PC-firewire in. Everything is mixed in the box. Monitoring is 002/dbx DriveRack Studio/Alesis RA500/Tannoy Reveal Passive Shielded Monitors. I'll get to the mic list later on.
Here's the background info on the projects.
Paint the Sky(soon to be changed?) - 5 piece (heavier indie rock) band from Denton TX.
This is going to be a 5 song demo/ep to sell at shows. Basically, we're going to track it in the bass player's living room. Which is horrible and beautiful. Horrible as it's completely untreated, and next to the campus of UNT (lots of bg noise). Beautiful because it is a challenge. We're talking about 16'x12' room, lots of rattling windows, and 8' ceiling. Oddly enough, I'm really excited, as I am going to try using "underheads" instead of overheads for the first time. And to really make things interesting, I'm thinking about tracking the band live. But we'll see how I feel next weekend when I wake up that morning. I am a moody ametuer recordist, doing everything by how I feel at the moment - which can be rewarding or constricting.
Ever/Rest - a two piece acoustic act from random places in TX.
This act is acoustic guitar, chello, keyboards, and vocals. The plan is 9 2-3 minute songs of quirky indie-pop. We're going to track it in my room at the house. Which is totally untreated of course, but has nice 12' vaulted ceilings plus I don't have to lug my rack anywhere.
I'm going to do some weird things on this record. I've decided to experiment with piano contact microphones, as well as boundary mics - along with the more traditional condensors and dynamics. I'm hoping for some weird cool noises and textures.
Stay tuned if you will - I start the projects next week.