Following a Thread

Following a thread is a metaphor for what it is I do to find inner peace. I am a self-producing musician. I write, record, mix, and master my favorite styles of music. There are a lot of finer details that are apart of these processes that I will gladly type out for you to read. There are places from which I draw inspiration from and these include listening to specific artists/musicians, watching certain movies, and also consuming certain types of content. All of this is a labor of love.

When it comes to writing music I use instruments such as 6, 7, and 8 stringed guitars all set up in different tunings and 5 string basses. I also have piano and synthesizers as a part of my rotation. Analog synthesizers such as the Moog Mother 32 and an analog/digital Arturia Micro Freak help me chase a thread just by acting as inspirations for creating sounds from scratch. I thoroughly enjoy Native Instruments and Spit Fire Audio sound libraries and am grateful that I can rely on them to create massive orchestras and just browse through the sound libraries available. I specifically use Fractal Audio Systems for all my piano and guitar effects and that is a rabbit hole so deep that I will only say this about the Axe Fx: It is Pandora's box for guitarists. Every guitar amp and effect you could possibly want in this rackmount box. I use Dark glass electronics for my bass.

Now that you have a decent rundown of my audio equipment, we can talk about the recording part of creating music. I use a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software known as Cubase to record all my ideas. There is one more piece of equipment I forgot to mention known as the Scarlett 18i8 audio interface and this soundcard as some would call it makes it so that audio signals can be transformed into digital signals that Cubase can easily playback and I can edit. Recording requires a metronome and there is a scene from the movie “Se7en” starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt where Morgan Freeman’s character uses a metronome to fall asleep. Recording requires me layering tracks. I’ll usually record four guitar tracks of the same thing or harmonies. I’ll also record multiple tracks to create counter points or a lead and rhythm guitar playing at the same time. Guitar is nothing without bass so I record bass tracks as well. The writing and recording process are interchangeable and one and the same, because if I write something I have to record it to remember it. Recording has me heavily dependent on software especially for the drums. The software companies I use are Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol + Maschine, Get Good Drums, Spit Fire Audio, Fractal Audio Systems Axe Edit, Darkglass Suite (also an app on my phone) and Steinberg.

Mixing is the part where I use everything at my disposal and put it together to create songs. Mixing could also be called audio engineering and/or production. It is the process that also relies on key pieces of software known as plugins. Cubase has a plethora of stock plugins that are great but I also use FabFilter, Slate Digital, and Solid State Logic plugins. These are the same tools that an audio engineer would use in order to get a mixed song to sound mathematically better. Knowing things like how frequencies work really help to bring out the creative ideas much more easily. I never went to school for audio engineering but I have done things an audio engineer would do such as capturing impulse responses. I have a basic understanding of the frequency spectrum but just enough to be a self-producing musician but not enough to be classified as an audio engineer.

Mastering is the part where I polish my demos. It’s supposed to be quick and easy, just as long as the mix of the song is good. If you have a good mix, you’ll have a great master. The best way to get a good mix is to record to a metronome and get everything as on point as possible, paying extra attention to the recorded takes and how they sound put together as well as to how you play them. Rule of thumb is good recordings make for good mixes and good mixes make for great masters.

Now that you understand that much we can talk about the creative artistic side of these passion project endeavors. My favorite styles of music to write are progressive metal and soundtrack. Here is a list of artists that inspire me: Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Carlos Santana, Tom Morello, Deftones, Sleep Token, Periphery, At The Gates, Sylosis, Viatrophy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Trivium, Ramin Djawadi, Deadmau5, CHVRCHES, Tears For Fears, Carpenter Brut, and Steve Reich just to name a few.

I am also inspired movies and tv shows like: The Dave Chapelle Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Young Justice, Rick and Morty, South Park, Westworld, The Twilight Zone, Halt and Catch Fire, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The point I’m trying to make here is that I do my best to live a life that is inspired and maybe, just maybe it’ll be enough to inspire people around me whether or not they cite me as a source of inspiration.