Setback on the home recording front. I received an adapter to fit our dynamic microphone (with a 3.5mm jack) into my new M-Audio Fast Track box (which has an XLR plug), but it still doesn’t get a signal through. I don’t know if the Mike is no good, or if the box is faulty, or if the adapter isn’t working!
I have a friend who lives nearby who has a Mic I’m going to try to borrow just to make sure the box is working. Hopefully I can borrow the mike for longer, until I can save up my pennies to get myself a new one. I’ve already spent more than I’d have liked, and this adapter really was a waste of money.
Still, I’ve been reading my GarageBand manual, and listening to some of my favorite music to get arrangement ideas, so it’s not been wasted time.
At last I am starting to get my recording equipment organised. I now have two pieces in place: a cheap pickup for my guitar and my M-Audio Fast Track USB input box. And it works, hooray! Now I need to get a vocal mike sorted out, and I will be ready to rock and roll.
I’ve also bought two books to help me understand what I want to do:
Pogue’s book has arrived and I can see the danger already – the temptation will be to play around with the software instead of actually using it to do something useful. Hopefully the fun factor will get me going with it. I’ve already taught myself a little trick just mucking about: lay down a rhythm track of some kind, (bass or percussion) to play and sing along to, even if you don’t intend to use it in the final song. It just helps you stay on the beat consistently, instead of randomly slowing down and speeding up over the course of the song, as is my wont!
Sokolow’s book hasn’t arrived yet, but the reviews on Amazon indicate it is the book I need to take my guitar playing to the next level. I’ve noodled around with chords and such for years and years, but it’s a bit, well, boring to listen to (imho), so hopefully I’ll be able to add a little musical interest the songs I’ll be putting up.
Now I just have to get my vocal mic and I can start laying down the songs. I’ll keep you posted.
I got an email saying my M-Audio Fast Track thing has been dispatched, so it looks like a fun weekend ahead.
I tweaked a lyric to one of my favourite songs, “Living on the Coast“. I never liked the last verse very much, the line, “The sea breeze that blows through your honey hair / is the same breeze that blows across my lips” just never sounded right, I mean a breeze blowing across your lips just sounds a bit odd, a bit, well, like your looking for a rhyme, ya know what I mean? So I’ve changed the verse as follows:
I don’t know if we’ll ever kiss each other’s lips again
Or ever feel our fingers interlace
But the sea breeze that blows through your honey hair
Is the same breeze that blows across my face
I have moved my music from the file store website “Fileden” to a music website “purevolume“. Thus links from here will lead to the music page on the Pure Volume, where you will be able to play the music or download it.
I have finally bitten the bullet and am buying some equipment to get my songs “properly” recorded (early Christmas presents…).
Following my friend Tim Riley’s advice, I have bought an M-Audio Fast Track audio input device, and a fairly cheap pickup for my guitar to be getting on with. I figure this can be upgradable if I feel the need.
The next step is to get a mike sorted out. I have a unidirectional dynamic mike, but I need to find out if it’s mono or stereo or if it matters. It has a 3.5 mm jack, which i will need to get an adapter for to plug it into the above-mentioned M-Audio box. The adapters don’t cost much, but the one I’ve seen says specifically it will work for any stereo mike with a 3.5 mm jack. If I need to get a new mike, I won’t bother getting the adapter, but I don’t want to have to spend any more money than necessary at the moment. I’ll keep you posted on how I get on. Shouldn’t be long now before new arrangements of some of the songs start appearing…
I came across a video demonstrating how to make a cross of St Brighid from reeds:
and here is my first effort (click on the thumbnail below to see the full size, though admittedly low-res, photo). I am fortunate in living near some boggy fields and there are reeds a-plenty for using. I am quite chuffed. I used rubber bands to secure the ends initially, then used short reeds for wrapping the ends which allowed me to remove the rubber bands.
Posted by paulmilne 
Posted by paulmilne 
Posted by paulmilne 
