My road to recording, I think, was like no one else's here. My brother was a big time audiophile in the 60's, with an open reel 4-tracker, Macintosh power amps, and Jensen Triaxials. I didn't do recording, but I did a fair amount of editing, and got good with scissors and scotch tape. I picked up guitar at 16, and was a runaway. I was inspired by a number of musicians, mostly psychedelic and British invasion, including mod folkies like Donovan and Bobby Dylan. Played for a living for about 12 years, first in bands, and then as a solo act or half of an acoustic duet. I did everything from weddings to biker bars, lounges, coffee hoses, and busking. Then I just sort of quit playing,went back to school, and barely picked up a guitar for 20 years or so. I became a married registered nurse.
Just before Christmas about 2003, my wife just stops out of the blue and says, "Richie, how long have you been playing guitar, anyway?" I said, "30 years, 12 of them for money". She says, "What do you think it would cost to produce your first album, and do the first run of production?" Of course, I had no clue. My brain was still back in the days of scissors, scotch tape, and vinyl. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "$25,000, plus $5,000 in high end guitars." She paused for a moment and said, "Oh- we can do that. I think you should go down to the guitar store, and buy the acoustic guitar and the electric guitar you would own in a perfect world. Try to keep it under $10,000. I love you dear- merry Christmas."
Oh my! Lions and Tigers and Fender Jaguars! My wife is an accountant. I give her all my money, and I don't ask what she does with it. She had been saving my money for over 10 years to do that! I think she figured I would go to a studio, and pay the nice audio wizards to wave their magic wands, and maybe I should have. But I was still in the land of scissors and scotch tape. I started spooking around on the internet and found... Homerec.com! I then did a bunch of things right. First, I bought a couple of very serious axes, and started playing every day. I got on the phone to every badass I'd ever worked with in the business, and signed them. Next, I hired a tracking engineer for a consultant, brought him into my ugly little basement with the $100 guitar, no mics, no gear, and paid him by the hour to tell me how to turn that basement into a place where he could work. I spent about 18 months studying digital recording, mics, compressors, preamps, FX, everything from standing waves to phase distortion. Then I spent a lot of money. Then I spent more money in a 2 phase major upgrade. In the end, the few hundred I paid that engineer saved me thousands.
Meanwhile, my wife became the executive producer, and handled artistic direction, work for hire agreements, copyright, residuals, mechanical royalties, and subcontracting legal and photography, production and distribution. Did I forget to mention- I'd marry her again in a heartbeat? Guide tracks and overdubs for 14 months, mixing and mastering were done by 2 old time homerec'ers, David L. Sparr (Littledog) and Sjoko at NGS Productions.
Today, I mostly record other people- acoustic early music, folk, Middle Eastern dance music, small ensemble classical. Anything that's fairly small, and mostly acoustic. But there's no doubt about this- My studio is built with the bones, blood, soul, and love of Homerec.com. Without the input of Blue Bear and Harvey Gerst, Mr. QQ, Track Rat, C7sus, and dozens of others, I would know nothing, and I would own nothing, except a gold pressed red book compliant master recorded by somebody else. And that is why I sometimes write those huge overview posts for noobs, because they can get, for free, a lot of what I paid for in cash.
In some ways, I am unique, here, I think, because I wasn't the kid with no experience and lots of his parents' money, who annoys everybody because he can afford to buy a Neumann he doesn't have a clue how to use. On the other hand, I started this with a $40,000-$50,000 budget, money that I worked for. I paid my dues in more low-paying gigs than I could ever remember, rode on Greyhound buses, and slept with drunk girls I'd never see again. I took my uppers, my downers, and everything in between. I recorded RC Cola commercials. I still have nightmares about "The Wedding Song", body perms, and leisure suits. Finally, I got to make my album my way, and sign a lot of copies at the release party. I learned that recording your own album is the hardest, slowest, and most expensive way to do it. It is also, by far, the most rewarding.
I think the dedication in the liner of my album "Reunion", says it all:
"I dedicate this album to my dear friend, Maureen Fleming, who taught me that dreams aren't something that just happen to you. You have to make them happen. And- to my beloved wife Susan, who makes dreams happen."
this lady friend kicked in $10K for us to buy some gear and get the ball rolling. True story.
