Sunday, May 16, 2010

Listening Day Five

No matter how adept I become at working the knobs of Logic Pro, I know I am miles away from producing a professional sound, which is inexpressibly frustrating. I must remind myself daily that I have zero training and am working on a do-it-yourself rig more worthy of a garage sale than a serious recording studio. Pffft.

I am trying to polish up the song called Commons, which has potential to be one of my favorite pieces on the Redline Project. The song is about an unlikely friendship that blossoms in Boston's public gardens on a warm summer day. Initially the two children in the story are assigned predictable stereotypes, with one friend coming from the privilege of wealthy urban living and the other dwelling in the misfortune of the projects. As the verses unravel, the cracks in both foundations of living standards are revealed and the subtle joys found in each setting are explored. Its a lyric that discusses the facade of inequity and the beautiful truth of equality among all human beings.

Too bad the recording quality vomits all over what I believe could be an excellent song.

Song Report Number Five: Commons
I am discovering that the source recording for Commons is quieter across the board than all of the other recordings in the project. I am trying to work with the raw material, but I am wondering if boosting the volume digitally is starting to distort the overall sound a bit. The edits to this track include gain, gain, and more gain to get the levels right. I also de-essed the vocals and added some overarching EQ to the mix. I wish a genius recordist would catch the excitement of this project and volunteer time and talents to make sense of my audio messes. That looks improbable, so I will continue to stab at it alone.

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