The plan.

As I discussed in my previous post, I have difficulty relating to others on a collaborative musical level-- especially if I am required to get many of these people together in a room and do something besides converse about the weather. On the flip side, because technology enabled me to do virtually anything I want musically, including making whole melody lines based on alterations of one note sample I've recorded, sometimes I can be a bit of a musical control freak (AKA: Billy Corgan Syndrome.) A third problem is the members of my ideal band live far away. And probably would not be able to stand each other over a long period of time.

Well, I found a work-around for all three of these problems. The idea was sparked by something my friend Terry told me when I was first trying to pull together an ensemble. I found a viola player, but she just gave birth a month prior and it was difficult for her to leave the house for long periods of time. Terry suggested I bring her recordings of the band's sessions for her to use for practice purposes.

In the end, the band never materialized as I would have liked. But Terry's advice stuck with me and came back in a different manifestation. Why not record every instrument separately and put them together as I go along? I can even email the next player the tracks ahead of time so when I get there, the individual would have a basic idea of where to start. When I get done, I can do a final mix and master in Cakewalk Sonar. But I will need to keep myself in check and avoid the temptation of cutting, altering and editing parts outside of the basic effects (ie: reverb, noise reduction, pan, etc.) I want this to be as close as a collaborative effort as possible. Not just me doing what I have always done-- recording what I want and slapping it together however I deem fit.

For my audio recording, I ordered a Tascam DR-1. It is a pocket-sized audio recorder with an external mic input which can capture 24-bit 48/44.1kHz .wav files. I've also decided to document the process so I have also ordered a cheapo video camera (you know where my priorities lie), an SVP HDDV 2300 which can capture videos up to11MP and 640x480 in size.

The plan.