Song # 1 Freelance Whales- Location (Cover)

Well, this sure is incredibly relieving, having one song down and not a whole week has gone by in the first month of the year. We're off to a pretty good start, I think. Though, to be completely honest (I want this blog to be a Sanctuary of Honesty for us music folk), I've been working on this Cover for a little over three weeks. So to say that I completed this in three days would be a lie, indeed.

The song was written by Freelance Whales.

It's odd how music works, isn't it? When I hear a song by a band (let's use hmmmm...Freelance Whales?), I think of something completely different than what might come to your mind. Today, when I listen to the original recording of Location, my brain goes to Tucson, Arizona and road trips through the parched Southern Californian deserts. I think of odd Mars-looking rock formations and touristy gas stations and the Pacific Coast. I think of a white van and six friends and my parents. Most of all, I think of carefree curiosity for the world. All of this is instilled by one song. Isn't that remarkable? Another reason to love music.

So now, onto my version of this song.
When first setting out to record this one, I knew I wanted it to be a Video Song. However, having only done one Video Song in my entire life (to see that one, click Here), I was very much at a loss as to how to approach it. How do I get the video to line up with the audio? How do I record video and audio from a lap top at the same time, and then edit the audio, but not the video? How do I get proper lighting? Why is my video looking all yellow-y? On and on and on.

To put this out there right now, I use a Macbook Pro. For recording audio, I just use Garageband. For Video, it's iMovie. I didn't use any special mic or anything, just the mic on the laptop. So pretty much anybody with a Macbook Pro can do what I do. Haha.

What I Learned
Well, lots of things.
First, the significance of a metronome. For some terrible reason that I don't remember, I decided to start recording without any type of time keeper whatsoever. Perhaps I just wanted the music to "flow as music does" from my soul, and "whatever happens happens" or something along those lines. However, I must say that that was a terrible idea. So here's my advice: when recording the base track for a song, the track that every other instrument will branch off of, ALWAYS use a metronome. 
I guess that's not very profound, but whatevs.

Second, the importance of presence in front of the camera. Sure, okay. My laptop shoots thirty frames per second and there's not much to look at, anyway. But really. The way the music Looks in a VideoSong is almost just as important as how the music Sounds. I mean, weren't you kind of repulsed at the end of the video when I'm playing the last couple strums on my guitar, donning the facial expressions of doom across my face? It's like a conglomeration of sadness, boredom, hatred, and well... just plain ugliness. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but when it comes to VideoSongs, it kind of is.
To see what I mean, watch This.

Third, I can't whistle for the life of me.
Fourth, when recording a song that's a bit more folky, go easy on the Reverb when it comes to vocals and any instrument for that matter. Folk has this sort of dry, earthy feel to it. Reverb gives things a bit smoother of a touch. So what I did was use only about 10% Reverb or less on any of my instruments if it was necessary. And no Echo. The only exception was the Accordion. Some of its notes were off key, and there were some rough spots when changing chords. To fix this, I applied more reverb than usual (Around 40%) and a bit more echo. I also compressed it a bit tighter than anything else, to give it a more even sound throughout.

I feel like I'm writing a badly-written cookbook for musicians.... Haha.

Fifth, whenever you're listening to music, you're doing the musician a favor by turning up the volume as high as comfort lets you and wearing headphones. This way, you get to hear every detail in the music that you might've missed if you had listened to it through speakers or with lower volume. I mean... when I want you to listen to my music, I want you to listen to it with headphones and lots of volume. Please? Thanks. I knew you'd understand.


Anyway, I'm kind of rambling.
Did you like the Tennis Ball? I'm pretty proud of that one. To be honest, I did a lot of audio editing with the equalizer to give it a lot more bass and a lot less bounce. Haha. Aaaaaand, okay. I'll be honest again. I added a synthetic bass drum every once in a while when I thought it needed it. But honestly, it's not that big of a difference and I turned it down. For some reason I thought I could justify it and now it seems really stupid to. But yeah. What else....
Do you like my new haircut?
Okay I'm done.

This is Song #1 of Isaac Middleton's fifty-two-song thingy that he's doing for no legitimate reason other than Delight.
One Down! Fifty-one to go.
Thanks for reading and listening!
-Isaac