and onwards - i'm not very bright you know

April's CD-R was a noisy recording. Now I was happy with that since it was recorded on cassette and meant to be fairly messy.

However with the limited technology at my disposal it was a nuisance having to transfer the recording into Garageband as individual and inexplicably one-sided mono tracks then export each track in WAV format to iTunes, convert to mp3 format, open the mp3 in Audacity so the sound could be edited to make it more listenable and rendered in stereo when I export it back to iTunes as a new WAV file which is then converted to the final mp3. Even if I'd done all of that with the whole session as a single track and then split it up it still would have taken hours. What I needed was access to a studio.

In fact irrespective of whether I have recorded on cassette or straight to Garageband the problem of the tracks being mono in only one side has added considerably to the time taken to record each CD-R this year.

What's worse is the adapter I use to record in Garageband creates a lot of noise making it difficult to record pieces that rely on silence and space. If only I had access to a studio. I could really use it for May's CD-R which I want to record over the next week or so. I'm planning to use a lot of silence on tracks that build slowly from nothing through random sounds initially at quite long intervals. A studio, something relatively quiet, that renders tracks in stereo first time would be absolutely ideal.

D'oh! Sat in my room for over year has been a Boss digital micro studio. It records in stereo, cuts out noise, works with my LoopStation, I can monitor the sound, it records in WAV or mp3, and I can copy tracks straight onto my Mac. I bought it for exactly this kind of purpose. I've used it, I know it works. Like I said, not very bright.

For all you noisy recording fans the apparent standout fave rave from monkey sex (officially at this time of year it's always unpredictable) the track i am ant features on the latest Wordsalad. Make sure you check out the rest of the site and the archives. I'll review highlights of this week's show tomorrow or over the weekend.

Briefly back to the recording quality issues that have made up the bulk of this post. It seems perhaps contradictory to be concerned about recording fidelity if I am as happy as I say with noisy and messy recordings. And it is but I have a good explanation. The fact is I'm not very experienced at recording myself or anything for that matter and I'm certainly not really able to control the sort of effects I get from using a cassette recorder. I suspect I could have made monkey sex just as noisy but much easier to listen to. What it comes down to is a matter of confidence - if I can get a couple of CD-Rs produced with relatively pristine sound it's one less thing to worry about and will allow me to stretch out and experiment elsewhere. I'll be happier to bring in sounds from noisemakers or my voice recorders, either the cassette machine or the microcassette machine. Basically I'll be happier, I'll get to grips with the different techniques more quickly because I'm less anxious, and the CD-Rs will sound much as I envision them.