Good enough to release...or shite?

[Lostboy]

lots of people are recording albums by themselves and having a great deal of success ... so many now that i would say the whole idea of recording an album has changed drastically. just a few off the top of my head (there are many more):

iron and wine (an album out last year and now another EP recorded in a bedroom)
olivia tremor control (amazing sounding albums from an 8-track)
flying saucer attack (revolutionary ... also from a bedroom)
stars of the lid's first few albums (sound otherworldly, but recorded on a 4-track)
smog's first few albums

i would almost go as far as to say that the most interesting music available today is recorded by the artists themselves, in a bedroom or garage.

[penrithmatt]

my friend jerome is doing this.he quit his last band,bought an akai 16 track and is just about to release his first album.pretty much all of it recorded at home,apart from the one track he did here in new york with my wife,jeff mercel and i. you can check it out at www.sergemusic.org

also,jeromes old band have been doing it all pretty much themselves with a fair degree of success.www.chicano.clara.net

it takes a lot of hard work though.but it can be done.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

jeez jeff, that's a little rough, isn't it?

Without a band to play the songs- and you'll be hard pressed to find other creative types who will play yours without wanting money since they didn't write or co-write the material-

my bandmate and i have had no problem finding people to play our songs. likewise we both play in another band where we're not the writers, we're just helping out with the live show. neither project is making any real money at the moment...everyone just likes the music. go figure.

As for comments from others, if they aren't commenting on the melodic content or the songs, they are merely saying, "Gosh, you are creative."

awfully presumptuous to assume what people you've never met mean by their comments, no?

Truth be told, every person on this globe is creative.

sure. but very very few have the drive and discipline to do anything with it.

laupflow- if you're psyched about how your stuff sounds, it's good. put it out. my old band did both of our records at home, we pressed 500 of each and made our money back on both. fwiw, i've done a couple records at 'real studios' and i have to say i think the stuff i do at home comes out better.

-scott

[joel hamilton]

Jeff tells it like it is, though.

You need to figure out what your ultimate goal is.

You can do whatever the hell you want, which is part of the attraction to this whole music thing. You are the only factor limiting the options.

BUT:

Without knowing you, or what you do, or why, or to what end, I would say that jeff certainly has a point.

Do whatever the heck you want to with music, and dont be afraid.

Remember that the decisions you make will simply affect how far your project goes(in a self sustaining, monetary sense), not whether you are good, or talented or creative.

You can look at it as a business or hire an accountant to look at it as a business.

Or you can do it like me and have it be like smoking crack:

Lots of time and money invested, minimal return.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i agree that jeff has a point, it just seemed kind of beyond the scope of laupflow's question. i mean, if he's psyched about how his stuff sounds, he should run with it. send a bunch out to labels. if his stuff is good, someone will pick him up, and it's not as big a risk for them as there's no studio budget to pay for...blah blah blah.

anyway, i'll smoke crack with you anytime, joel.

scott

[wendy f]

my band has put stuff out that we recorded and mixed at home, although we have never put out an entire album made this way. the stuff we made ourselves sounds sonically smaller and more personal/idiosyncratic, which we felt was appropriate for that material . . . and we weren't concerned about playing that particular stuff live or making it sound like a "real band. . ." i guess you just have to figure out what you want. if you want to sound like a real, live, band with multiple players and you do not want people to think you are doing some weird one-man band recording project i think you should play your recordings for people and ask specifically "does this sound like a band playing?" you should be able to get honest answers from people if you don't ask them to make value judgements about your work (i.e. "does this suck?"). just ask specific questions about what the production/recording sounds like.

[trashy]

Yeah, Jeff is right to a point (that point being "what are your goals"), but I think totally misses the whole idea of what laupflow is getting at. I mean he (or she) recorded stuff through a pod, and used a Sampletank. We're definitely out of the "hiring musicians to go out on the road" territory here.

If your songs are good people will want to play with you. If your songs are good people will want to play with you. At least that's the way the indie scene works out my way. Hell, I want to play with you, and I haven't even heard the stuff. It'll cost you $35 for me to hear your stuff.

Seriously, professional mastering is not a bad idea. Neither is pressing cds and pro art work and the rest. What you have to decide is how much you're willing to risk. And by "how much" I mean "how much money". If you want to recoup then you have some tough decisions to make. Or maybe not, just burn copies of your stuff and do your own damn artwork, and I guarantee you'll recoup. On the other hand, some of the DIY projects that I've taken to the next level and have yet to recoup on have been the most fun. Hell, it's all fun. It's music, for chrissakes!!!

Anyway, laupflow, give me a holler if you need a backup band or have questions about DIY mastering.

[PatrickBrown]

laupflow, I hope you can post it. I'd love to hear it.

[gone]

...

[justinf]

one more fave. . .
the magnetic fields. Not only does S. Merritt blow away the aforementioned assumption that your home recordings will not attract any "pro" interest, but 69 Love Songs is one of my favorite records of the past 15 years, easily.

[Dingo]

will you post links to some of it so we can judge it without mercy...I mean supportively critique it?

[laupflow]

I typed a 5 paragraph response and got the dreaded <invalid session> response, so I'll keep it short and sweet.

a) thanks for the responses

b) yep, I'm convinced. Screw the $ studio time and other musicians. I'm doing this solo.

c) I'm getting it professionally mastered.

d) I'd be proud to post an MP3 for your critiques/teardowns/shitting on my dreams ( ) type of thing. But I don't have a website. If someone has a hosting site, I'd be happy to post a track w/out vox for your critiques.

e) Thanks for being so cool. Jesus, the mag is cool enough but the support and knowledge on this board too - Im speechless.

Thanks all,

P

[laupflow]

for some reason the dreaded response got edited out of my last email (hmmm - The Man keeping a guy down!) I meant that I got a response that said invalid session after I spent a half hour typing a reponse. Guess I got timed out.

[wardshorsehead]

check out the merge records site under the artist east river pipe. cornog records his stuff solo on a tascam 388...vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drum machine, and hand percussion. i picked up shining hours in a can a few months ago and i really like it. for whats it's worth, he doesn't gig or tour much (and the latter not at all as far as i can tell).

if your aspirations are to make pretty cool solo recordings in fairly short pressings, i'd say go for it. i think jeff hit the nail on the head with the notion of establishing goals.

i'm finishing up a recording by a local band here. their goals were to create a decent sounding release that will function mostly as a demo for gigs and a piece to sell at shows. they are looking to promote this very little other than using it as a promotion tool.

different people have different goals and expectations...

[madpie]

I think it's also interesting to consider what kind of sonic qualities you like or are trying to achieve. I've spent time working with a "real" band on demos in real studios and feeling stressed out by the time/money pressure and weird band dynamics only to find that the finished product really wasn't my cup of tea. ... I came home with songs that sounded like a weak version of mainstream pop radio or warmed over Stones outtakes, which was totally disappointing. Meanwhile I was playing Guided by Voices in the car and going "geez. This recording quality is shit, but it's *great*!" Or I'd listen to the fucked up doubletracking on the Cat Power vocals and think "perfect!" And maybe those are studio records (I have no idea), but the aesthetic they express puts a much higher value on capturing a moment of pleasant roughness than on achieving smoothed out perfection, and that's something I believe in strongly.. So for a while now I've just been doing the hermit trip at home, using my crappy fourtrack and crappy laptop to do the best I can. And I like the way it sounds. ... I'd love to have access to great gear, but more important than great gear is the ability to take control of what you do and to use whatever gear you have to capture something interesting. In that respect, being at home and being alone can be a huge advantage.