Old post from 9/30/07

First note that these notes are geared towards singer/songwriters who, while at least moderately proficient at conceiving and playing their songs, are still novices at capturing and blending down their music to a deliverable media (e.g., CD).

Second, while I'm hopeful that these notes will help "someone out there," I don't plan (at least initially) to organize these notes linearly (or at all): I'm just going to write things down as the "pop in there."

Okay, first thing that pops in there is that I spent the past couple years recording through a MOTU 896 into Digital Performer, and I'm happy to say that I've finally realized why it was so frustrating: Digital Performer, while undoubtably great software for the professional recording engineer, is simply too complicated for the typical singer/songwriter (well, at least for me). I just recently got Garageband '08, and so far I'm happier with the prospect of recording my music than I've been in years. I also got an M-Audio Axiom 25 MIDI controller to replace my Alesis QS8 keyboard, and while I never would have figured out how to assign the transport buttons without help, it is still light-years easier than routing the QS8 through a MIDI interface into Digital Performer (which after many long hours bent over the manuals never really worked the way I wanted it to). Also, since Garageband now allows for true multi-track audio recording (i.e., 8 independent mics/lines can be recorded simultaneously), it is even more appealing because of its simplicity (9/30/07).