the home recording revolution & field assembly

05Jun11

recording drums with josh van tassel in his living room for field assembly. photo by adam fox.

with current technology it has become simple for artists to record from demos to complete albums on their own with a modest investment compared to the financial involvement required as little as fifteen years ago. there are arguments to be made for and against this convenience as it can serve to create an endless sea of sub-par releases fighting for attention, but it also facilitates the existence of some creative approaches and music that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to be heard. there are many musicians, engineers and producers embracing the small studio approach rather than mourning the lost art of the pro analog studio (which fortunately does still exist!). they use unusual spaces, ingenuity, a mix of pro and consumer technology and without the access to all the expensive gear found in a commercial studio they arrive at their own unique results. recordings are now regularly made in ways that were never considered before personal computer recording was available.

i have spent the past several months working on a new record with the windsor ontario project field assembly. the majority of this album was recorded up in my 3rd floor mini-studio much of it was recorded by different players in windsor and vancouver and toronto with their own home recording setups. adam fox recorded his lead vocals and acoustic guitar in a few different places over the past year on his own then shared them with me over the internet with dropbox. we recorded the majority of the overdubs over a couple of his weekend visits to my studio and i added some more sounds in his absence as did he in mine. from vancouver to toronto to windsor, a few drummers contributed tracks then uploaded them to our dropbox.

when working this way there are elements that i as a producer lose control of, for example: mic choices and positioning, preamps, how many mics are used, and the sound of the room the instrument is recorded in. honestly it is a challenging way but an interesting way to work, encouraging inventiveness with parts, placement and context in a mix. through this i’ve learned you that have two choices when it comes to challenges: back down or dive in.

because adam (and others) had control of gear and creative decisions on many of these sessions, we are calling this a co-production. as a sole producer, a normal way for me to record a band would be to be continually present and therefore able to inform recording choices and help with creative direction if needed. i’d also likely record mainly in one location with a collection of recording equipment i am familiar with. but that being a traditional way doesn’t make it the only way. and i’m not really interested in repeating. i’m not really interested in repeating.

assembling sounds from several people’s home studios, living rooms, cottages etc. can be a puzzle when considering how to present it all so it sonically makes sense. but what we hope to end up with is a recording that has its own character and space that no other recording will have. i think unorthodox methods could take a recording which might otherwise sound usual and bring its own distinguishable, unrepeatable character.

on the field assembly recording there is still work to do so it’s difficult to know objectively how this is particular experiment is succeeding. but in about a week i will be delivering first mixes for notes. from there we can assess what changes should be made to fine tune the music’s presentation.

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Filed under: creativity / process, recording / producing, releases   |  1 Comment
Tags: field assembly, recording