How I wrote/recorded my album "Disposable" (2025)

Click to listen on YouTube, out now!!

This blog post will attempt to fully encapsulate as much of the writing/recording/mixing process of this album as possible, read below to find out just how I created this music. As for the cover art creation process, that is also described at the end of the article. In addition to the YouTube version, The album is also available for purchase via my online store. Enjoy reading!

The origins

Writing and recording this album took exactly 7 months and 5 days. Plus a week to finish mixing it before I sent it off for mastering. I guess it's worth noting I was working 30-50 hours a week (variably) during the entire production process, so this is an album I made in my "leisure-time."

The way I approached the songwriting was to parse through some half-completed ideas (just two or three barely completed melodies over some chords) I had saved from around two or three summers ago. These were ideas I abandoned before further developing but knew had some sort of potential. I started from there. I hadn't written anything with vocals since then, (I took a three year break) so I picked up where I had left off.

The Mosrite gospel copy guitar I used on the album

One of my missions for this album was to add more song-parts than previously. I think some of my previous EPs suffer from being a bit simplistic. The songs have like only two or three parts, whereas I've noticed a lot of popular rock songs will have maybe 6-10 song parts-- mini bridges, guitar solos, outros, little breaks in songs, etc. For this album I tried to add more variation. 

I completed seventeen demos total, and 12 songs made the final album.

I've been recording myself for almost twenty years, so I'm comfortable doing it by now. I've created a system where I can get ideas down fast and move from drums to guitar to bass, to vocals seamlessly. 

Using analog gear and keeping everything nearby is key. I can flip a few switches, pick up my guitar or sit down at the microphone and click "Record" and I'm tracking the album like it's nothing. Just like that. Everything (the gain levels, mic orientations, etc.) is already dialed into the analog mixer which just gets A/D converted via the interface. I never touch the mixer or the interface once I dial in the gain knobs, they just sit there. I only touch the mixer's ON/OFF switch. 

For guitar purposes, having a pedal-train is key, because I can tune up my guitar with my KORG pedal tuner and I'm tracking within seconds. What I'm trying to say is, I leave everything not only set up, but dialed the entire time I am tracking. Yes, for seven months straight. Another critical piece of gear in terms of this idea-- several 25 foot long "Pig Hog" XLR cables that allowed me to have a livable space (I recorded this album in my living room) as they essentially acted as one big snaked set of XLRs, along the wall of the room. That way I never had to step over any cables for seven months straight-- instead they are routed along the wall.

Notes on vocals and tracking

To jump right into tracking notes, a few songs required many repetitions. For example, the song "Lovebomb" was recorded in full five times in a row before I felt it was good. The vocals for "Turn the page" were redone several times (maybe about ten or twelve full takes) until I felt good about how I sounded.

The amp I used for guitar (absolutely cranked it this time around)

One fun fact is that I played the entire album on guitar and bass while standing up. I sat down for all the vocals-- a practice I quite enjoy. In the past I used to think you should stand up for vocals and probably it's best if you want to sing as best as possible to stand (because of air flow), however sitting provides a comfort level that makes for more natural vocal recordings for me. It's also worth mentioning I recorded the entire album without any monitoring system in place. 

I monitored my own vocals by artfully displacing the right earphone of my headphones (Sennheiser HD 280 Pro) while tracking vocals. I believe this process also contributes to some sort of mental magic when listening back and evaluating my own vocals. Because I haven't fully heard them (via monitoring) until they are recorded, once I listen to playback I have a certain percentage (say, 35%) of unknown vocal-delivery tone that I am able to evaluate further. It's a strategy to remove myself somewhat from becoming too familiar with my own voice while I'm tracking vocals. I focus less on the actual sound of my own voice and more on the feelings of how I'm singing that are inaudible. Over the course of the album there's only one track that I believe I could've done slightly better vocals on. 

Really the only mistake I noticed I made while tracking (and fixed many times) was singing a little too "hard" at times. I preferred to chill out a bit on the vocals and not try as hard. On one song I was super chilled out on the demo, and the final version I pushed my voice a little, which is sort of like emo-rock... but whatever.

How I make ideas

Early on in the writing/recording process, I felt like I had a lot of ideas and songwriting was effortless. I used a notebook to draft out ideas. As I started to write and record new songs I drafted out lengthy lists of song ideas (conceptual) that went to the 20+ range. I could draft an idea that would say something like, "Breeders Title TK guitar sound... Song about liquid metal/mercury, flow" and in my mind that would be enough of a starting point to create a snippet of music that would set the origin in place for the creation of at least an introductory melody over chords, maybe a drum part... and I could expand on that to create a tune. So I had a lot of ideas penned out like that and also names of B-sides I have recorded that I could've used as new material (although I never did this, and instead opted for writing everything from scratch).

I felt like everything was going well for the entire writing process, almost the entire duration. Only once did I make a time-wasting mistake and it was spending two weeks writing a song called "Pancake syrup" that conceptually held my interest, but once actualized didn't live up to my expectations.

More notes on engineering/creative process

Towards the end of writing and recording it's almost like I "blacked out." I just kept going without getting in my own head at all. I became very determined and serious once I had finished the twelve tracks to make sure I completed the album tracking correctly and make it as good as possible, but also making sure I was loose and carefree from a musical standpoint. This involved a significant amount of re-tracking songs once all twelve were written-- I'll elaborate more on this in a bit.

My pedalboard. The KORG tuner is my favorite.

I think a truth to music recording (and making art in general) is you have to balance between being natural, carefree and comfortable, effortless, really... but at the same time maintaining a very high level (systematic, almost) of focus and discipline-- if you can master and balance these two modes of thought, and also take a clear picture of what you're trying to do from your mind's eye into reality as cleanly as possible (while allowing for natural mistakes to occur) that's for the best. 

Personally, and I've said this before, if I'm tracking a song and there's some sort of small "mistake" on the recording, if it's something that's small enough, it's tolerable to me, insofar as... if I were to redo it, could I absolutely with full confidence do it better? If the answer is yes, I'll redo it. Many times, if it's a guitar take, the answer is yes-- I can replay stuff on guitar and almost always fix any errors because it's easy for me, but on vocals or drums it might be more subtle and if it's good enough, I just take it. Drums and the way I record mine (using only a few mics) heavily rely on dynamics-- if I hit a cymbal or snare an eighth of an inch differently it can change a lot from take to take. On one album cut I smashed my China cymbal in such a way that I wouldn't be able to re-create it in 100 tries if I had to. 

To me, there aren't any deal-breaker errors on the album from a technical standpoint. I spent extra time fixing every little thing, so that when I listen back in full nothing bothers me from the recorded audio. 

View of the drums, the orange music stand holds my reference sheets

I wonder about taking more time to write different bass lines that maybe hit on the root notes but also maybe walk along a bit more instead of being pinned to the guitar chords... but this can get tricky because I might inadvertently alter the harmonies in a negative way... so I normally don't do this. If I had to write entirely new, unique bass lines for every track I could potentially do it but I'm not sure how well and how long it would take. My approach would likely be to write melodies that matched the vocals but were variations on a theme (using a guitar, likely) and then use those as basslines. As much as I would like to do this, I evaluate the recordings on the spot for instantaneous feeling of yes or no and that's how I determine the songs are filled out enough. If I were to then spend extra time editing bass lines I'd be delaying the album's completion significantly while also messing with the fabric of the harmonies quite a bit and so it's a delicate task I often bypass when recording.

I did re-track some bass, though. For example, I knew I needed to play quarter notes on bass for 4-6 bars of a song instead of dotted half notes on a specific (unnamed) song. To fix it I re-tracked the entire song on bass again, two months after having originally recorded the song. I could've just left it but I knew I had to redo it because it would matter. When it came to this album I sorted through everything with a fine-toothed comb to make sure it lived up to my own quality standard.

How I tracked, then re-tracked

Believe it or not, as mentioned, I re-tracked a lot of the album. In fact, six songs (half the album) was re-recorded in three non-stop eight hour recording sessions by myself. I stayed up until two or three in the morning doing vocals on some songs, then clocked into work the next day at noon. Not bad. The next day, rinse and repeat. 

For example, In one seven hour session I fully re-tracked "I don't know," and "Ruin my life." A day later, I re-tracked "Seasonal" and "Day in the Life" in one night. And on the third day, "Fell into this world" and "Tomorrow is a new day" were re-tracked in a single night. This all happened without much thought about what I was doing, aside from mechanical considerations. I just knew it had to be done so I just did it without thinking. Like I said, I blacked out.

Some of the re-tracked songs I hadn't actually played since I wrote them (back in August or September 2024) so the sensation of re-learning them on guitar paired with the tactile feeling of smashing the drums (and using a new metal snare I had acquired) lent the performances to have more energy and excitement. I surprised myself on how enthusiastic the end results were compared to the demo versions. I had fun re-learning the parts too.

Two guitars and a bass.... in front of my kick drum

I mostly write using major barre chords (though I added a few different chords into the mix for this album), so it's easy to play the songs, but also, easy to remember how to play them. That's one reason I almost exclusively use major barre chords-- it stylistically helps my vocals sound more ambiguous (minor chords + my soft voice = a bit weak) and if I were to use complicated chords/riffs I may not be able to remember how to play the songs. Using the barre chords ensures I can play these songs for years to come without forgetting how to.

Example of the reference sheets I use to track drums

In terms of drums, I always use reference sheets I draw out myself using shapes for song parts (shaded rectangle = verse with vocals, triangle = chorus, circle = bridge, swirly design = post-chorus, etc). 

But anyway, to give an example of how my drum tracking goes... when I was re-tracking drums for "Tomorrow is a new day" I re-learned the song on drums over the course of maybe a half hour and within about another twenty minutes and had completed the recorded drum take. I used my system of reference sheets and my orange music stand to get it done.

I guess one key to the album was the pairing of my OCD distortion pedal with another guitar pedal I'm not sure I will reveal what it is... though it's not pictured above. But it adds that shoegaze sound you hear on the songs. I also used a DS-1 pedal and definitely figured out how to make it sound good, there's a specific setting you need to have it on. I also used an MXR multi-flanger and a electro-harmonix "Holy Grail" reverb pedal as well. I probably should've spent more time dialing in crazy guitar sounds and adding overdubs but I pretty much abide by the Steve Albini rule of evaluation where upon listening back, you ask yourself, "Are you instantly pleased by the sound you're hearing back?" If yes, then you're done. That's how I go about the recording process as a whole, really. 

I played a sonic blue Stratocaster that was custom built (lightweight) and a Mosrite gospel copy guitar on the album. Also my Spector bass (through the Radial DI) which is probably the most expensive instrument I own, believe it or not. Also I made sure everything had fresh batteries, including the pickups on my bass. I also made sure every guitar had new strings. I also spent one night doing a setup on my strat which involved carefully sanding down the nut and adjusting the intonation--something I tweaked over the course of about three days. One interesting note was I listened to the Russian Circles album "Blood Year" while setting up my guitar and I had a fun time that night.

When re-tracking I was really into playing the strat so I don't believe I re-tracked anything using the Mosrite copy, aside from some overdubs on "Seasonal" if I'm not mistaken. The sound of the Mosrite copy guitar can be heard on the song "Figure It Out" for sure, and its comparable to a Les Paul type of "chord-banging" sound, if you ask me. 

Don't get me wrong I play the Mosrite copy on half the album. It's more thick and chunky compared to the more spindly sounds of the strat. Put more simply, the strat has a different style of note articulation. For reference, the strat has Telnico V pickups and I recorded using all pickup configurations, occasionally using the rhythm pickup, as I found it gave me a pleasing sensation of fizzing soda (Mug root beer, anyone?) as I played it through the amp. 

For reference, again, my amp was absolutely cranked when recording, this time around. Not so cranked that it was at ear-bleeding levels, but way louder than it needed to be to be considered "loud" in the room I recorded in. Into a Shure PG56 mic that was 15 inches away, slightly off-center from the cone's center. Some guitar tracks were recorded through the same mic I used for vocals, which is a Nady SPC-15. At one point I'd actually move the mic from the guitar amp and reset it on the boom stand for vocals, but eventually I just plugged and unplugged the XLR cable to achieve this switch off and also swapped out the Nady (condenser) for the Shure (dynamic).

My Yamaha analog mixer, never touched it once dialed

I tried to be as disciplined as possible with the engineering this time around, in terms of keeping the mixer dialed, not tearing down gear, and tracking bass on every song. The only piece of "discipline" I left behind was the use of a pop filter. 

There's some philosophy to recording yourself, and not taking yourself too seriously is part of it. If I'm setting up the pop filter it seems like I might be "trying too hard," but my vocal takes are as casual and comfortable as possible, yet there are some "p" sound plosives I had to spend two mixing sessions fixing. This involved sorting through the mixes again and applying a 100db roll off EQ to every instance. There were 44 total instances. I wrote them all down in a notebook while evaluating the pops through my HiFI setup. I actually parsed through, listened back and evaluated all of the plosives against the time-coded notes twice-- once at night, and then again the next morning again after sleeping in.

When I was tracking I always used a foam covering for the microphone. I must add, I was aware of the p sounds while tracking after a while and did my best to avoid popping my ps into the mic as I sang on songs, for sure. So, I did my best with it, without ever busting out the pop filter. It wasn't too bad to sort through and fix... just a slight annoyance. I wanted to send the best possible mixes off for mastering so this was yet again a further step I took to ensure I was making the best album I could possibly make.

One key to the recording and mixing process is that I always kept the stereo drum bus at 0dB and mixed the bass, guitar and vocals from there, for every single song. Easy as pie.

Re-recording process

To re-iterate what I was talking about before, I had "finished" all the songs/demos, but then I kept recording. I only did that after I evaluated all of the songs while driving around late at night. Over the course of two days I knew I needed to re-record six songs off the album. Certain aspects of the original recordings were either flawed, or bothering me in the fact the snare sound wasn't as forceful as the steel snare.

As mentioned, I had recently acquired a steel snare drum that was adding a different sound to the songs, so it was used on all the re-recordings. In fact, it appears on eight of the twelve tracks. The four tracks it does not appear on provide a nice balance for the listener. I believe the steel snare (and how hard I was hitting it) could become a bit grating for the full album and possibly cause ear fatigue, so I'm happy some of the songs have my wooden snare on them, instead. It's certainly a warmer tonality.

One interesting part of the writing/recording process was how I wrote and recorded the final three songs on the album. I put all three songs to tape pretty easily, just off-the-cuff. I had the lyrics written out for two of the songs from months prior just waiting to be used over music. I spent a few weeks procrastinating on putting the words to music until one day I was finally ready.

Normally I work the other way (music first then words), but I'm comfortable doing either, really. Vocal melodies are somewhat independent of the actual written words (aside from engrained syllabic inflections), and many times you can sing certain words into a melody of choice. Though occasionally the lyrics won't actually work and will need to be rewritten if they were composed without music. In my experience, at least. I have written several notebooks full of lyrics that were actually unusable to reach this conclusion/hypothesis. It seems this time around I was inspired by words to create music that would be able to express the ideas the words conveyed. In previous music writing sessions I was much more focused on music first, so this was a nice change of pace, and probably the result of feeling more comfortable with my musical compositions forming as per my intentions. 

Where I sit and watch Star Trek on mute while listening back

I mixed those first two (of the final 3 tracks on the album) songs as best as possible right after writing/recording and then did not listen to them at all until all three were done. It was about a two-and-a-half-week period. This required discipline and the thinking is that once you listen back you're more apt to write something too similar to what you've just written (the melodies seep into your subconscious). I didn't listen back for that reason, to avoid repeating the song twice. When I finally did listen back it was a cool feeling because I didn't even remember the songs at all. 

I definitely felt I could have continued writing more shoegaze-type songs but then again, once I finished three (and rounded out an album of twelve songs) I quit while I was ahead. Similarly, I usually required a week off between writing songs for this album. At my best I believe I wrote about three songs (completely from nothing) in three weeks, which was definitely a speed record of mine.

There was something about this album's writing process that seemed like I was being guided along by what you might call a "Guardian Angel" or something. It's like every step of the way I knew what I needed to do and it was never a struggle to complete that task. 

In the past I've struggled to fill out an album, but this time around it's like it was pre-destined that this was going to happen, no matter what. It's hard to describe but it's like a hand was guiding me the entire time to complete the songs. Whenever I needed a specific instrumental or tool to aide in the recording/production process it was instantly at my fingertips. Whenever I thought about what to do next I felt at ease with the decision making process and just went for it. The recording process and writing process, especially towards the end of tracking was very seamless in that way. 

I must admit I practiced meditation for several months during the final stages of the writing process, though never focused on music during my meditations. I also took a lot of time off during the seven months wherein I didn't track any music or think about music whatsoever. At one point I was rendered unable to play guitar for a solid month due to an injury, and thankfully recovered. I watched the World Series during these times and researched saloon music. I stared at my keyboard and wanted badly to play it, but my body wouldn't allow for that. Eventually after a month off, I recovered.

Now what?

After completing my EP "Can't be Anyone but Myself" back in 2021 I continued to write and write and record more for a solid year afterwards, which ultimately led to the material getting worse and worse, in my opinion. All the best outtakes from that continued writing made my second EP "Mike's Garage" which is basically a bunch of B-sides. 

After I finished tracking for "Disposable" and filled out a thirty-minute album I was more cautious this time around to just stop. In fact, I might just stop entirely with singing over music. I may just pull a Billy Joel and claim, "I can't write songs anymore." Not because I can't technically, but because I'm pretty old and a 40 year old singing rock songs comes off a bit cheezy, doesn't it? Perhaps some more mellow, acoustic music is in the cards. I'm taking a considerable amount of time off, first, though. That's for sure. If you've followed along with me at all you'll know I've been changing my musical proclivities to Handel and Bach on synthesizers for the past few years and that's where I still aim to be, going forward. It's the most satisfying way for me to engage with music as of now.

With "Disposable" I finally indulged in something I've been avoiding for a decade which is writing what I call "chick songs." The meaning of that is up for you to decipher, but I definitely wrote a lot of them for this album. So it's probably best I step back for a while. The good news is I'm still juiced about playing vintage synthesizers and the music of composers like Bach, Handel and maybe even Rachmaninoff on those 80's synthesizers, and I will absolutely continue that project whole-heartedly. I'm also interested in saloon/ragtime music as well so my desire to improve as a keyboardist is still alive. And, if you think about it, if I wanted to play a concert I certainly have enough material to front a 3-piece. And no I'm not playing bass... I'm playing guitar and singing. Best believe that.

"Disposable" along with my EPs were all written with the idea of a 3-piece band, which is why I never go too crazy with overdubs or creating some sort of sonic collage that's impossible to recreate, although when I listen to a lot of studio albums (Smashing Pumpkins, anyone?) I hear a lot of overdubs and noises etc. added in, so I start to think aww sh*t, maybe I should've added more stuff in there for people to listen to. But strangely it seems I can listen back to these stripped down recordings and get something new from them each time, which is a good sign. It seems following the recording ethos of my most dissected album (as a fan) In Utero has reaped some sort of benefits. I've created something that to me sounds beautiful one day, and perhaps lackluster the next, and so on. At the least it's forced me to think, and hopefully the listener feels similarly. Moving along, back to some thoughts on the finished product.

My thoughts on the outcome

Overall I'm definitely happy I did so much re-recording on Disposable because it helped the album sound better and more polished. Plus, some of my writing process is to track while I write, so having the demos as reference for several months, then re-tracking them from memory provided final cuts with more energy and looseness. 

I literally could not sing "Day in the life" at first because it was too complicated (a lot of words), but when I re-tracked it I was able to just sing the song in one take because I had memorized it. The demo was sort of pieced together.

Similarly, some of my other demos sounded a little disjointed because I also wrote them as I tracked them. Some of the demos also contained literal flaws like playing the wrong notes on guitar. I lived with those flaws, as it was just a reference anyway, and became dangerously close to just "living with" those errors forever-- some of them almost made the final cut, until I told myself, no not this time and re-recorded everything that was flawed to the best of my ability. For example, the original versions of "I don't know" and "Ruin my life" while good, contained such flaws.

Big fan of the "partscaster" Stratocaster I used

Something I improved on for this recording process was the idea of focus. In the past I would've let issues from my personal life affect the result of the recordings, but not this time. But I can't tell you how to improve on this, other than with practice. I guess a good comparison is playing soccer. When you're on a soccer team and at practice at the field, you tend to "forget all the bullshit" and only focus on playing soccer. It's almost meditative in a sense. Same goes for skateboarding. 

At this point in time, same goes for me and music, but it wasn't always that way. Being a musician/artist requires "sensitivity" but sometimes you can start becoming paranoid and develop some sort of OCD level of sensitivity to where you can't perform unless you have some sort of perfect environment that becomes almost impossible to find in natural life. Writing and recording this album in isolation is a great pleasure and honor because it affords me the solace to operate at pretty much the highest level I possibly can. I tried my best to split the arrow of focus/discipline and artistic effort as best I could. You've gotta remember I'm also engineering myself here and evaluating everything myself. It's quite an undertaking to complete something like this without help from anyone whatsoever, completely by myself and in total silence from others. Not a single person was privy to my activities or heard any of the music as I recorded it, other than me. The first person to hear the album was of course the mastering engineer.

Philosophy behind self-recording

Taking yourself too seriously is an Achilles heel, so then how do you accomplish anything that projects balance, completion and professionalism in its presentation? Can you do this while also being "non-serious?" The answer to this hypothetical question requires going a further step beyond just having a quiet environment and it's something I've tried to conquer with my recording of "Disposable." After listening back to the album I'm left asking myself, "Could I have written even better music?" In my mind, the answer is yes, but in reality, the answer is just "maybe."

Music is more emotion-based than sports, so it's easy to let your creativity get stuffed up by outside influence. And if you've read this article you can tell I'm weary of naively forging ahead with unrealized delusions about my ability to pen more and more good songs as if it were just that easy. It might be, but I'm a little bit seasoned by now and sort of jaded when it comes to hitting a songwriting "hot streak" as it were. I'd rather stop and not press my luck. Once you've think you've got it figured out, you slowly realize you were wrong.

But in terms of letting outside influences affect or not affect me, over time I've become better at separating what I'm doing as a leisure activity (writing and recording music) from my personal life, to where I am no longer affected by what's happening outside of the music. 

If you were to be a fly on the wall I think it might shock you how I was able to write and record a lot of this stuff after dealing with specific situations outside of the music writing. Of course, music is somewhat like therapy and that element is critical to what I'm describing here. But in the past I would've let the outside influences hinder my progress and affect the final result, but this time around I was much more ruthless and very focused on completing the album, no matter what... The strange part is, I can't even tell you why. I didn't feel driven to finishing this album for any specific reason, other than just having fun, I guess? I can't even tell you why I recorded it other than I like music and wanted to create something I'd want to hear, I guess. I don't even know!! 

But as I was saying, when I was writing and recording I did it in a way where nothing else affected me, and I did not even consider that a possibility. Strange but true. I surprised myself when I listened back to some of it. Sort of wondering just how and why have I recorded this? I didn't think about anything, I just did it. There's something to be said for this type of meditative denial. Also bear in mind I wasn't supposed to be recording this album in the first place. I'm supposed to be playing Bach on my Korg DW-6000 synthesizer until I finish my 80's synth album. 

This wasn't supposed to happen, as I was in the process of self-denial in terms of recording songs. Until I started to see it come together and then I didn't stand in the way of the natural progression of events and how it all played out. In fact, quite the opposite as I've mentioned I felt someone else's hand was guiding me towards completion the whole time, with sort sort of mystical even magical timing. I always agreed with these messages from the universe (or whatever you want to call them) and let them help guide me towards completing this music.

What about the artwork?

The artwork process was completed on a time crunch. I essentially brainstormed an idea out on paper, and then tried to enact the idea as well as possible. It sort of just happened spontaneously. I took some spur of the moment photography outside after some heavy rainfall to use as a backdrop for the album front and back (as juxtaposition for flat images/text) as I knew it would be far more interesting than just putting a blank white or black backdrop (which I almost did, and thankfully didn't!). I chose some imagery (heart, skeleton, spiral) to accompany that and applied basic effects to those images as well (colorization, rotation, perspective shift). 

I used GNU image software to do the editing, and having gone through this process before I was fairly good at it in terms of knowing the right resolutions and sizes for how the art should look. In working with the CD duplication company (duplication.ca) I was kept on my toes in terms of formatting the artwork to have the proper bleed, and DPI, etc. (and was asked to make some revisions) and I liken it almost exactly to the process of editing music-- It is delicate because the spacing of elements (and colorization settings, etc) is all very specific and even the smallest change will impact the visual result. You can also make changes and then you may need to revert those changes so you have to become a very precise bookkeeper of your own files. 

I was luckily very thorough in keeping my artwork/photography files organized this time around and when called upon (by duplication.ca) I was able to make the appropriate changes to accommodate for the proper cut lines and bleed areas for the natural shifting that occurs during the printing process. At first go I was "off" by what might seem like a negligible amount of pixels, but this small error would have impacted the printing process. Simply put my artwork at first was not perfect, but when called upon I was able to reformat the images with the right care to fix these mistakes. 

For the artwork I was inspired by colors featured on the album cover for MGMT's "Congratulations" which is one of my favorite albums, randomly. I knew I had to get artwork done fast and I'm happy with the result. Very early on I knew I wanted my album artwork to feature certain colors (purples, pinks, silvers, maybe orange) and made sure to represent those colors in my final images. I messed around a bit with yellow and neon green but landed on the pink. The font was selected by flipping through about ten different fonts before I found one I liked. As with the music process, the artwork formatting is something I have practiced over and over and at this point in time I'm more comfortable using GIMP to format album art properly and create something that should come off as somewhat professional and interesting looking. To be fair, I do believe handing off the album art to a professional artist is ideal, but I was already over budget by the time I needed the artwork done, so I handled it all myself.

So there you have it. Recording, mixing, engineering, editing, full graphics work for album art, interfacing/dialogue with mastering engineers and CD printing artists, the whole nine yards, to bring you this album. Thanks for reading and until next time. - Mike.

18 inspirations for my upcoming album and why

I finally finished up a new album recently after spending 336 days on it. That's a total of 11 months and two days from day one until it was completed. Over the course of writing and recording I finished 35 songs and the album will feature 16 of those.

Here's a list of eighteen influences for this upcoming set of songs and a brief explanation as to why I consider the band/person an inspiration. Check it out!

1. Nirvana

Starting with the most obvious. Heck, my entire last album was an admitted attempt at emulating the compositional approach of Kurt Cobain. I followed that same rubric for more than half of the songs of my upcoming album. For me, it's not only the music of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, it's the on-stag swag of just standing there (for the most part) and playing the songs seemingly unbothered by all the chaos around you, the choice in equipment, and the fact the compositions are simple yet sophisticated in their own way. Some piano covers of Nirvana can further demonstrate this idea.

2. KISS

Ace Frehely was one of the main reasons why I started playing guitar in the first place. Over the past six or seven years I've started to listen to more KISS, mainly because of hearing the Melvins' cover of "Goin' Blind" back in 2014. Recently I've listened to "Hotter than Hell" and "Dressed to Kill" quite a bit. I enjoy how their success is majorly attributed to their blatant gimmick, and was interested in discovering if the music beneath was at all worth a deeper listen. Turns out most of what KISS puts out isn't that great, but there are some cool compositional approaches in songs and some great songs on "Destroyer," like "King of the Night-time World" and "Detroit Rock City." I like how stripped down the sound of "Dressed to Kill" is too. You can hear every instrument easily.

3. Niil

I found this band like millions of other unsuspecting Nirvana fans, by clicking on their YouTube video that's titled "Lost Nirvana song" or something like that. It's actually a Niil song called, "Insomnia" but it's a similar idea to what I've been doing, which is trying to write music similar to Nirvana (by way of nuts-and-bolts composition). While my stuff is more "influenced by," certain Niil songs sound like they almost could actually be Nirvana. I went on a week or two Niil scavenger hunt and found a couple of their songs worthwhile, but moreso I enjoy their approach. The instruments aren't played totally cleanly on the tracks, and there's some variety in what they do. Other good songs are  "I don't play with guns" and the first couple tracks off their more "mature" sounding album called Labryinth.

4. Tim Kasher 

Tim Kasher and Cursive were a major interest of mine back in the 2008-2011 era. He's another guy who goes on stage with a guitar and stands there and plays straightforward rock music, except he's developed his own niche of lyric-based music that forces the listener to contemplate more interpersonal-politics sort of issues. While an art-rock concept album about some ancient Greek tragedy seems literally impossible to pull off, Tim Kasher can actually do it. I listened to Domestica twice while tracking my own stuff and also listened to some tracks off of "Get Fixed" and Vitriola for some inspiration.

5. Jet Lag Gemini

This band was from the 2004-05 New Jersey music scene, except they had a totally different sound than what was primarily popular at the time. They were also immediately popular once they came out, which always makes you wonder why, and how? They played sort of pop-punk mixed with hard rock and it was all based on catchy riffs and choruses. They signed to Doghouse Records, which was the only record label's office I've ever been to in person, before it went out of business. This was about 2008 before the financial crisis and smartphones ruined life and the music business as we knew it. Their guitarist was particularly into the Van Halen stuff like lowering the ohmage or whatever Van Halen did to his amp, and "shredding" too, obviously. But I still enjoy Jet Lag Gemini and one of my frat brothers was even friends with their drummer. There's something about their music and their look. Every couple of weeks I'd watch their music video where there's a giant fire... I think it's called "Geared for Action."

6. Velvet Revolver

Back in April of this year, when I first sat down and decided I wanted to put out another album after "Can't Be Anyone but Myself" I had driven home from a place called "Mike's Diner" in Guilderland. The sun was out, it was a beautiful day. I sat down with my guitar and felt inspired by a certain sound that I couldn't quite articulate, but Velvet Revolver and their track "Fall to Pieces" definitely falls in line with what I was trying to do. The music video for that song is great, too. It provides a nice contrast between the rock star of old and the new, totally sterilized and manufactured, and dare I say, sissified stars of today.  Although I abandoned my idea of going for this type of sound after a couple months of failed attempts at it, I still hear something in the best Velvet Revolver tracks that keeps me interested.

7. Dave Grohl / Foo Fighters

When I was eleven years old, I got the "Nothing Left to Lose" CD for Christmas, or my birthday, and used to listen to it all the time. I've actually bought the thing at least twice, because I always lose it. Obviously Dave Grohl is a drum-spiration, but his vocals are overlooked too. I think a lot of the Foo Fighters stuff is a bit too "radio rock" for what I was trying to do (in fact I recently heard "My Hero" on the radio on the drive to work, and the underlying music doesn't really pull you in, though it's composed nicely), but I do occasionally refer back to Dave Grohl's self-recorded first Foo Fighters album to hear how he pieces together songs. I do enjoy their song "Low" and the music video and put on that music video every now and then. One of the songs off my upcoming album would benefit from Dave Grohl's throaty and reckless-with-abandon vocal yelling during the chorus, but unfortunately I cannot come anywhere remotely close to doing something like that.

8. The Cramps

For a brief period I thought I might be able to replicate or put my own spin on the music of the Cramps, but boy was I wrong. It's impossible to record stuff like this unless you can do the Lux Interior vocals, which I can't. Not to mention, the guitar playing from Poison Ivy Rorshach isn't that easy, either. She has a specific guitar, specific pedals, and uses her own vocabulary of chords and riffs intermixed. I think their live show from Norway is a cool example of a band that sounds good, plays relatively simple music and that's exactly what I tried to do for my upcoming album (within my own limitations). I particularly like their cover of "Rock on the Moon" from that show in Oslo, Norway. If I could pull off music like this, I might have to give up "alternative rock" all together!

9. Richie Ramone

Richie Ramone was a big inspiration for me to keep writing and recording music being that I'm officially old and over 30, believe it or not. He's even older (in his 60's?) but still has a music video that's somewhat current, and his live performance from MegaRock 2019 at the least says that an old guy can not only still play drums and perform his original songs he can also wear a leather jacket. I spent a couple weeks trying to cover a live-on-MTV version of the Ramones' "Somebody put something in my drink" and spent a couple of days on it before I gave up trying to figure out the exact measure counts.

 

 

10. Armor for Sleep

I've written about Ben Jorgenson in a previous post, and still think Armor for Sleep  were onto something when they put out "Smile for You" about 10 or 11 years before the major wave of the YouTube star even hit. The final era of the band before they broke up is still interesting to me, including their trip to LA, soundtrack inclusion for "Transformers" and then subsequent implosion and being dropped by whatever major signed them, I think SONY (Edit: It was actually Sire). There's plenty times I'm writing a song and thinking about the catchy chorus and distinctly different guitar parts type of approach you hear in a lot of Armor for Sleep songs, like the grunge guitar in "Stars in your Eyes" off Smile for Them.

11. Oasis

I was listening to tracks off of "The Masterplan" by Oasis while I was writing songs for this album. I particularly like the song where Noel Gallagher talks about how he wants to buy a Jaguar (automobile). I probably demoed somewhere around like 70 songs for this album, and a lot of the unused cuts end up turning into reverb-soaked 32-measure guitar solos as if I'm in Oasis. It's funny, because objectively some of those guitar solos actually sound good, but usually the next day I listen back and say to myself,  "Yeah.. no." But yes, I'm an Oasis fan and when in doubt I will listen to or play along to one of their songs for fun, sort of like I'm recharging my batteries.

12. Breeders

I'm almost embarrassed to admit I'm such a big fan of this band, because their singer and main songwriter is a girl. In an interesting aside, I banned myself from listening to The Breeders for the entire time I tracked "Can't be Anyone but Myself" because I didn't want my own stuff to end up sounding soft and girly by way of subconscious influence. For this upcoming album, I lifted that restriction and discovered I can actually gather some inspiration from listening to The Breeders after all, for my own stuff. Big fan of the guitar playing from all their guitarists (including the heavy, mixed-to-the-back riffs from Tanya on 'Pod') and two of their drummers: Britt Walford and Jim MacPherson." To write/lead a group for more than one album that's good like Kim Deal has done with Pod and Last Splash is impressive.

13. Marine Girls

I found this band directly through Kurt Cobain's list of 50 albums. The best thing about this group is the fact they write some pretty good songs using like two or three chords, so I was able to use that approach in coming up with my own vocal melodies. You can hear how the pivoting bass lines and simple and repetitive open-chord changes really do open up a lot of space for a vocal melody, and you don't need to over-complicate songwriting that much. Obviously Kurt Cobain appreciated this approach and used it when he covered the Vaselines and in some of his own songwriting. Not a CD I go back to often, but interesting for sure.

 

14. Steve Albini

When in doubt, I rely on many principles I've learned listening to Steve Albini talk about recording. Writing music can vary between difficult and "not working" to... "so easy it's like you're not even trying." Aside from that whole exercise, I still have to 1. engineer all of my own recordings 2. view myself as a performer and an engineer simultaneously, and act accordingly. It's something I've been doing for over ten years (relying on myself to record, myself) and I wouldn't have been able to excel in this process without learning from Albini's methodologies.

15. My Bloody Valentine

I listened to some of Kevin Shields' and My Bloody Valentine's music towards the end of recording the songs for this upcoming album. I like how he's passionate about Jazzmasters and playing guitar and recording himself, and his music is pretty cool, and also very varied. From "Ecastasy and Wine" which sounds like a sped-up version of the Jesus and Mary Chain, all the way to "Loveless" and "mbv" is a major progression. I also like reading about the fact his band kind of fell apart and then he started just doing everything himself. Also love a good story about a musician blowing a huge budget for an album and coming up with nothing. Shields allegedly bankrupted his former label trying to make Loveless. I can't really copy the style he does (without investing thousands into different guitars and equipment), but generally, he plays drums and guitars into recording equipment to create alternative rock, so... It's somewhat similar to what I do.

16. Dinosaur Jr.

One of my buddies likes this band and sent me a link to their first full-length album over the past year. At first I didn't like the sound at all. It kind of sounded like I was having a sideways hangover of crunchy guitars and unorganized songwriting. But, as I kept discovering more music from Dinosaur Jr. I noticed different cool stuff and found some more straight-forward music that I actually liked. At the end of the day, their music is mostly simple (i.e. 4/4) drum beats pushed to the back and up front you'll have distortion-laden guitars and songs that are primarily driven by a rhythm-guitar approach. Pretty similar to what I try to do, except I'm missing all the solos and riffs, oh and the lazy vocals are pushed up front heavily too. I was listening to Dino Jr. towards the end of the recording timeline and enjoying it. One of my upcoming songs has a part in it that I refer to as a "Dinosaur Jr." part.

17. Pentagram

Pentagram (also known as Death Row) was a hard rock band from the 70's through the 80's and 90's. I bought and listened to their CD "Relentless," while I was tracking my own stuff. I was definitely inspired by the guitarist in the band, Victor Griffin, after hearing his playing, and listening to an interview he did on a podcast where he talked about his music career. The interview is fairly long and I listened to it while driving many miles away to a 7-11 late at night. Weeks later I was experimenting with mic setup and trying to replicate the guitar sound from "Relentless." Eventually through this exercise I stumbled across a new sound that eventually led to some lyrical ideas and the writing and recording of two of the tracks off of my upcoming album/E.P..

18. Autolux

I heard this group playing on someone else's bluetooth speaker a while back, about ten years ago. I guess they're referred to as "Shoegaze" but it's kind of like a combination of Elliott Smith with some other sort of sound. When I was playing a ton of guitar back in 2015-2016 I stumbled across many new chord shapes I had never played before. During these chord revelations I definitely figured out a specific set of chords you hear a lot of in Autolux's music that goes very smoothly with a certain vocal style I can also do. I used it for a bridge of one song off my upcoming album. So while not a huge inspiration, I do still like aspects of their music and even used a similar approach for about 8 measures of my own music.

It's been a long 11-month journey. Album will be out soon! - Mike

UPDATE: The album is finally done, check it out here:

Can't be Anyone but Myself album release notes

I just spent the past 10 months writing and recording this set of 8 songs. "Why only 8 songs?" Well, I actually wrote and recorded around 60 songs total, but I'm only putting out the best 8.
Of course, out of the 60, the majority aren't good enough at all, although I will mention I could probably put out a 12 song album, and no one would blink. I have the extra four songs, they're just not quite up to snuff.

Click to listen to my album, "Can't Be Anyone but Myself"

First off, I believe songwriting is the ultimate test of a musician, at least the type of musician I am, which is basically a hobbyist (multi-instrumentalist) who is involved in the pop/rock world of music for the "common man." The world of classical music is a whole 'nother reality, which is quite honestly a lot of riding up on a high horse. But that's for another blog post. I guess I might as well mention I do have a college degree in music, but who cares, right?

The way I tried to write this music was basically trying to emulate Kurt Cobain's songwriting style, although I applied and developed my own style over the course of doing this. I think if I had to summarize how Cobain writes songs I would basically say he balances dissonance with an appropriate measure of consonance, and melody is the key ingredient in all of his stuff.

Back to Kurt Cobain's songwriting... This is somewhat common knowledge as he's already been quoted as saying he wanted to combine the sound of The Beatles (melodic consonance) with Black Sabbath (think, tritone-based dissonance). Some of Cobain's writing is simplistic (i.e. "Negative Creep") while other stuff is more layered melodically (i.e. "Lounge Act"). Regardless, there are always creative melodic additives, in the form of quirky vocal stylings that when boiled down are note-perfect and surprisingly upbeat, and even cartoonish. Despite the media's image of Nirvana as death rockers, the music speaks for itself and is full of life, hence why it's still popular today. The level of dynamics in Cobain's songwriting is fairly high if you ask me. The music is full of juxtapositions, both lyrically and in the arrangements.

Why did I write a Nirvana-influenced album of music? I guess it's because I tried to write/record stuff I actually want to listen to. Most of the time I listen to pop rock. While recording this music I listened to a lot of Nirvana, Sarah Jane from Australia, a bit of the Meat Puppets album "Mirage," some Armor for Sleep, some Velvet Revolver, I also listened to a hip hop album "Now or Never" by Giggs, some other stuff thrown in there, some of the second (or third) Foo Fighters album, Motley Crue's Greatest Hits, Mountain's Greatest Hits. A good amount of Ramones, including some cuts from a Live in Germany DVD, and "Subterranean Jungle." Some other stuff I'm probably forgetting too. 

My taste in music is not as eclectic as you might think. Over the past four years I've found I'm much less interested in certain types of music. I almost exclusively listen to pop/rock music at this point, and there's a ton of crappy rock music out there. It's tough to find stuff I want which is why I tried to write it myself. I mostly listen to the same albums over and over, and it's a lot of Pop/Rock or Alternative rock.

What else about my own album can I mention, what's relevant?
From a technical standpoint, it's nothing new. I tried out some different microphones, and used mostly cheap gear. Then again, if I were to write a break-down of how much money I've spent recording this "album" it would be laughable. Just for a ballpark figure, it's easily over $1000.

I made one major change halfway through recording: I bought an adult-sized drum set. For half of these songs I'm playing on a drum set intended for use by children more or less. I finally invested in a proper kick pedal which made a huge difference. I bought an Iron Cobra Tama pedal. I actually broke the other kick pedal in half while recording a song. Then I glued it back together and kept going.

Another interesting note... I recorded and wrote everything while working a 40-hour a week job. The type of work I do has lent itself better than any other occupation I've had to being a musician. Needless to say, I don't sit at a desk all day and stare at a computer. I'm active at the workplace, but not so active that I return home exhausted. 

I've tried to write/record music while working at a desk job, and I couldn't do it. I've also tried to be a musician while working closer to 60 hours a week at a manual labor job, and that was impossible. At 40 hours and a moderate pace and friendly environment I can come home with energy to write music and I'm comfortable and focused. I guess I'll also mention I'm completely sober, and I don't even drink caffeine. No cigarettes, no coffee, no alcohol. Once in a while I eat Gummi Bears.

From a lyrical standpoint, I basically tried to come up with lyrics that fit the song and that I wouldn't be embarrassed to sing in front of an audience of my closest friends, or strangers. I don't labor over lyrics, if it doesn't work, I move on. Although some of the lyrics I sketch out, and then I fine-tune them and trim the fat so they fit into the song properly. Let it be known at one point I was writing a lot of lyrics, maybe about a page a day, and none of that was ever used. It's more of a writing exercise that helps you practice a bit. If someone found my notebook full of unused lyrics and started reading it out loud I'd turn red in the face. I might even crap my pants. Just kidding..

Strangely enough, I wrote and recorded most of the album cuts out of thin air. I don't even remember recording a lot of it. Other cuts I spent a while on. I spent 3-4 weeks figuring out how to structure the guitar parts for "Mouthwash." I also spent about a week preparing to play the drums on "Dose." I basically write songs based on the form, so once I have the form solidified, I can start writing the drum parts. All you need is two parts for a song. The form would be something like ABABAAA, for example. I try to keep my drum parts somewhat simple, because at the end of the day I only have so much time to work on stuff. If I spend 3 weeks writing a set of drum fills, I'd have way less material.

Writing the music for this album was, at times, a major struggle. I went weeks and weeks trying to come up with chord progressions and churning out crap. Then, out of nowhere, I'd come up with something I liked. That's what happened with "Sketches by the Campfire." I had put in a solid day of attempted writing before anything worked... I occasionally spend 8-10 hours straight of a day off writing music, and come up with nothing. Then all of the sudden, I figure out chords and write lyrics within minutes, seemingly out of nowhere.

Some of the songs I wrote on the spot completely. I laid down the drum track for "Don't Want a Boring Life" by itself, without any music or lyrics in mind at all. From there, I just picked up the guitar and played the first chord progression that I came up with (that worked) and finished the song like that.

Songwriting isn't always so easy, though. It's more difficult than it seems. Going back to Cobain, if you listen to the Nirvana song "Stain," (check it out above, or click here) it's pretty simple. Verse, chorus, solo. Those are all the parts. But the actual vocal melodies over the guitar chords and how it's so simple yet signature is why it's so good. If you prompted any musician to "come up with something like Nirvana's Stain that's a different piece of music entirely but is similar," it might be more difficult than you'd think, particularly to make it 100% original.

While we're on the subject, this music was written with a three-piece arrangement in mind, so if anyone's out there reading this and thinks they're good enough and wants to play the bass parts or drum parts from this album with me live at some place... i.e. wants to join in, be my guest. Because this material is this simplistic, you can rehearse in short amount of time, I've actually done it before.

To finish up on the difficulty of songwriting topic.... You can't just churn out a song like "Come As You Are," but at the same time, you might. I've mentioned this analogy before, but it's like a litmus test. With songwriting you never know what you might come up with, what's written within seconds that could last many years afterwards. That's why laboring over music can be useful in certain contexts, but it can also be a waste of time. I think listening to yourself and knowing your limitations and exactly what you want to achieve is key. If you know exactly what you're doing with clarity and certainty, who can stop you? No one.

Where do I go from here?

As I wrapped up this project, I grappled with the idea of putting out 12, or 14 songs instead of just the eight. I was working on a set of songs that were faster-paced and even shorter in length, but the material wasn't quite there yet.

Going forward I have a vision of the music I want to create that will accompany this stuff. Putting a concept of a potential musical sound into words is near impossible (although I do use thought-bubble exercises at times), so I'll spare you any details. But still...

There were certain elements of songwriting missing from this "grunge rock masterpiece, well... kind of" album. Notably, I think I can write better lyrics, if not generally, at least over the course of 1or 2 songs. I also believe I can improve with dynamics, and maybe experiment a bit. If you look into the final days of Nirvana, the sound was going towards a more experimental type of sound, as Cobain put it, "Sort of like the Grunge version of The Beatles Sgt. Peppers." For examples you might check out the X-rated B-side from "In Utero" that's "Moist" or... the radio hit, "You Know You're Right." Maybe an entire album doesn't need to sound like that, but using those examples as conceptual guidelines can lead towards success for one song, and you certainly need to write songs one at a time. 

Basically, I'm going to keep going, and try to write another grunge rock album, that should be at least the same quality if not better overall, though certainly different-sounding. If I were to follow the trajectory of Nirvana this album would be my version of "Bleach," I guess.

Overall, I like to draw in influences and express myself. One of my non-musical influences is the cartoon Ren and Stimpy. I like how the cartoonist's work is overly "out there" and exaggerated. It's just way out there. At the end of the day, I'd like to achieve my full potential as a musician, without holding back anything. I'd like to be the best I can be. Who knows how good that is?

I'm going to keep going and work on that next project now. If you're a fan of the music that's great. Until next time. - Mike

Spending all my free time on songwriting, I hate my own hobby?

Since June, I've been spending all my free time on songwriting and music recording. Every last drop of it. When I had a day off and on my off-hours after work I played and recorded music, that's it. Nothing else. I work 40 hours a week (thankfully not the 60 I used to work).

My routine was: wake up, go to work, come home. As soon as I got home I'd practice drums for a minimum of 15 minutes, but usually if I was working on a song I'd play for longer, maybe an hour. I'd get a sweat going, then once I felt comfortable with a drum take, I'd know it and say to myself, "That one felt pretty good." Usually it was just a matter of not flubbing any notes and making sure the tempo was correct. The drum mics were constantly set up so to record all I had to do was open up my DAW and press record. As a side note I live in a tiny room so... My bed was actually on the floor with wires tangled all around it and drum mics wavering overhead and the drums setup mere inches away from the mattress, for the entire 6 months.

Once the drum take was done, then I'd plug in my guitar (into a keyboard amp) and start messing around with an idea of some chords, or a melody. I have a nice pair of studio headphones I used for overdubs. For June and July I wrote using an acoustic bass through a fuzz pedal (with some reverb). I probably recorded about 10 songs this way before I found a certain formula using an actual electric guitar that worked for me.

It's now the end of November. I started this routine around June 1st. In this span of time, I've recorded 27 completed B-sides (That's a finished song with bass, guitar, drums, and vocals) and 5 finished songs I will release. So that's 32 songs in 6 months. I think if I really wanted, I could probably put out 10 songs (instead of only 5), but I'll save those 5 extra B-sides for a rainy day.

I gotta admit, I'm pretty much annoyed with recording and have been for a while. The final product is always awesome... when you record something that you're satisfied with, but the nuts and bolts of setting up the equipment, and the fact it's sort of like an endless pursuit (because at what point does it end?) have soured my take on it (and I've felt that way since about 2015). Many times it's a giant waste of time. As much as I love playing drums and guitar I'm ready to ditch recording for a while, maybe play some golf, go fishing, take up painting again. Just something different. I wouldn't mind performing live again, if only I could find a suitable drummer.

Ideally, I'd like to have a nice separate room to play drums in, and play guitar in, but I think the concept of having a recording interface always setup is too addictive for me, in a bad way. Years ago, I sold all of my recording and music equipment (except for one guitar), which was probably for the best, since the acoustic songwriting stuff I was recording was pretty cringy (looking back). But I'm happy with the songs I'm about to put out, at the same time.

 I'll be sharing the 5 songs shortly, after I finish up the mixing and cover-art. Stay tuned. - Mike

The pseudo-science of digital audio recording

It wasn't so long ago that digital recording didn't exist or wasn't accessible at all to anyone with any conservative budget. Because it's so new, it should've been a red flag to me to see so much "expertise" in the area of advice to young "recording engineers" (of which I've been) and I should've done a bit more research into the history of the art-form before jumping right in. I started recording music in 2001 or so and I started digitally. My first recording device was a Fostex MR-8 Digital Multitracker. Only last year did I ever experiment with using analog tape to record live music and the experience has changed my approach, to say the least. Not because it sounds "better"... but because the way you get signals to tape (or in the case of digital, hard-drive) is, in my opinion, overlooked.

Let me elaborate... When you record to tape the audio signal needs to live on the physical magnetic tape, whereas with digital the signal is converted to digital information (i.e. 0s and 1s) and this difference has an effect on how you should be recording. Now, the size (width) of the tape is finite and so is the size of the digital storage space, but the sizes are different.

The big mistake I was making was that if you read any beginners guide to recording they tell you this: Get the loudest signal you can get without going into the red (clipping) for each component of your music, then once it's all recorded, go back and "mix" your audio and adjust the volumes. I blindly followed this advice for years but now, I don't anymore and this is why...

When you record to tape, if the signal is too hot you will achieve tape "saturation" which is generally an unpleasant sound of distortion, but before hitting this "point of no return" you will hear the tape gladly accepting the signal and letting it fill out all of the space it is alotted: generally this is what's referred to as "warmth," i.e. natural tape-based signal compression. Now the physical size (i.e. width) of the tape is only 2 inches or less, so it's generally a small space to live. I think the idea of capturing  the most digital info as possible in terms of the various components to a mix is mis-guided, almost by definition. This is because the point isn't to hoard all the sonic information just because you can, the point is to record the sound you want to hear on playback. The luxury of "unlimited tape" blinded the neophyte digital recordists ability to properly engineer mixes. The analog workflow has proven to be essential to a natural sounding recording. When you dive deeper into this subject it becomes a combination of philosophical decisions and assessment of history, but ultimately it's about one thing... what sounds good?

Of course we aren't taught this concept of commitment and technique to recreate analog warmth on a digital audio capturing device when it comes to digital recording expert advice and that's where my issue is. If you apply this strategy of get-the-loudest-signals-you-can-without-clipping-and-then-adjust-in-mixing to your digital recording, you'll make a recording where it will come out sounding not necessarily over-saturated, but somehow wrong. It's too many hot signals competing with one another... and only one or two break through at a time. It's a lot for the ear to handle. The processing power of digital recording is mis-used in this context and the results are less than good typically. At long last, clarity?

So how do you achieve tape warmth on a digital recording interface? Change the way you take in audio signals. Just take in the signal at the volume it will be heard at in the mix (i.e. an appropriate and accurate reproduction of what you're actually hearing in the room) and don't go as high as the red, don't even go as high as the yellow. Don't have to adjust any volume knobs at all in your DAW. They should all always be at zero. I personally record to peak signals somewhere between -24dB and -12dB depending on the instrument. I assess this input level as I mostly focus on what I'm hearing through the monitors. If you're using a mixer, put your faders all just below 0 and adjust your input signal volumes with gain (and EQ) only. Your results will be better because you are following an analog workflow for your digital session, and the unity gain simulates the concept of natural tape compression in that it limits the input depth? Something like that... I'm still working on articulating this properly.