Sunday, October 09, 2005

Some notes on recording...

OK, so I'm meant to be getting stuck into this album. Because I record at home, I have to deal with all sorts of factors - equipment problems, procrastination and isolation. For the past few weeks I've been waiting to have my Duo soundcard repaired by M-Audio. It turned out that they didn't have the right part, as they've discontinued the manufacture of USB soundcards for laptops. I was using Nick's computer to record vocals - using his customised machine and hardware setup would drive me crazy. Everyday there would be a new development version of Ardour installed. Weird, unpredictable things would happen. Not to mention that I needed to understand a pretty complicated patching setup involving so many audio devices. I just wanted to be able to plug a mic into a computer and get on with it. Usually, by the time I had discovered the correct settings and connections, I forgot what my vocal idea was in the first place!

Now that M-Audio have kindly sent me a replacement soundcard that's firewire, you'd think I'd be sorted and making trouble-free music. Nooo...Nick sort of got it working for last week's gig with the help of Freebob. I wrote down the lengthy startup instructions - 7 separate commands were needed to get Jack going with it. Fair enough, at least it worked.

This morning I sit down to record some more vocals and I can't even get my computer to turn on. Nick mumbles something about 'kernel problems.' He is being deliberately vague because he's got some work to do on Ardour. Aargh!

posted by deprogram @ 8:43 PM