I’ve received some nice compliments from a couple of listeners regarding the quality of the recordings, so I thought I would share how the album got recorded and mastered. At the end of this post, I’ve made a list of the equipment I used in case you’re interested.
First, you should know that I am a do-it-yourself kind of person generally, and I made the decision early in the process to do the recordings myself here at home. In my previous career as manager of a creative team we produced corporate video and audio projects, and I had the benefit of working with amazing technical people during that time. That experience made me curious about the audio recording process, and over the years I’ve collected mics, a couple of digital interface units, and several digital audio workstation packages that I played around with.
Now typically, serious recording is built around ProTools, or similar professional software, running on a high-end Mac workstation. But for this project, I made the decision to see if open source platforms could deliver good results, and instead of dragging this out, the answer is: yes they can.
The shocking truth is that I recorded, mixed, and mastered the whole album on a Raspberry Pi 400, which is about the least expensive computer you can buy new: It’s presently about $110 bucks, including a mouse. It runs a version of the Linux operating system created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, called Raspberry OS, and although it works pretty differently from Mac OS or Windows, it’s not too hard to learn. There are several different form factors of RPi’s – the most common ones are tiny single board computers designed for electronics projects. The 400 is different – it’s a keyboard with the computer inside – so all you have to do is plug in a monitor, turn it on and start working.
Admittedly, although it worked, in the future I doubt I will use that computer again for recording, because it was under-powered for the task. For example, application of filters to tracks would sometimes freeze the system for a minute or more while it churned away. I just want to be transparent here.
As far as recording software is concerned, I opted for Audacity, which for my application was perfectly fine. Audacity is freeware available for Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms, and has all the plug-ins I needed, built-in.
I should note at this point that the music I recorded was a mix including human voice and acoustic instruments – there were no beats or samples in there. Obviously if my album used artificial digital instruments, more computing horsepower would be required. But not so in this case.
The other important piece of gear was a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface. This piece of equipment allowed me to plug in my mic and instrument and record them both simultaneously.
I used the iconic Shure SM58 dynamic mic for all the vocals. I added a minimal amount of reverb, just to open it up. I also used reference tracks from professional recordings with similar vocals and instruments, so I had something to aim for. And that’s pretty much it.
Obviously, if you have the budget and no interest in learning the tech stuff, and you just want to concentrate on making music, you can find good audio engineers pretty much everywhere. I was curious, and wanted to try it myself, with minimal investment so that’s what I did.
Computer Hardware and Software:
Raspberry Pi 400 from Canakit
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Interface from Sweetwater
Shure SM58 Microphone from Sweetwater
Audacity recording software
Instruments I used:
Parlor-sized travel guitar I built myself with a K&K Pure Mini pickup
Gibson L-00 Studio Walnut guitar with a Fishman pickup
Vintage 1930’s Regal Flat-top Mandolin recorded with the Shure mic
Vintage No-name 1950’s 5-string Banjo recorded with the Shure mic
Hohner Special 20 Harmonica recorded with the Shure mic
1990’s Epiphone AccuBass
On “Get On Up”, my friend Janette Combs graciously supplied beautiful violin tracks as well as backing vocals. She makes everything better!
Woodsong Strings 