The video below is a track taken from our new album released shortly.

As with our first album 'First' it was recorded, mixed and mastered using an ipad4.

How we create our album is by firstly tracking using Garageband. The advantage to us in using a fairly basic recording App is that we don't get lost in the detail. There are many more sophisticated DAW's out there and I have tried them but find that I get distracted by the amount of variables and my attention to the music is sidetracked. With Garageband we basically record it all flat with a little limiting and compression from our Joe Meek Compressor/Exciter. Again the Joe Meek is very basic and simple to use. We record 16 tracks of say backing, drums, bass, guitar, keys etc and then bounce those to stereo whilst keeping the original separate tracks. This way we create slaves for our vocals, strings (Rachel, my wife plays Cello) and any other overdubs that we want to multi layer.

 Cubasis for iPad

We usually end up with 20 to 30 tracks which we then transfer to Cubasis which is basically Cubase for the iPad.Cubasis is fully automated and has reverbs, compression, delays many different FX. Basically its all we need to mix with and again its simple to use. We then send the mix for mastering to the Mastering App.

Mastering App for iPad

In the Mastering App the track can be eq'd, the stereo can be widened and much more but its here that we check that the volume and the apparent volume matches up to other music out there. What I do is download a track to the Mastering App that I think sounds great and then switch between our tracks and it to see how it compares. I'm also comparing it for loudness, size, eq etc against the other tracks on our album to make sure that it works as an album. Its at this stage that I will print a CD of the track or tracks and listen to them wherever I can. The car is always a good test.

I will be going through the process in a bit more detail soon.

Blue Note by The Purple Pudding Clause

The Purple Pudding Clause 'Only One'

This video was shot and edited using my iPhone. The app is fantastic. Its called Cute CUT and is the best video editing app I have seen. What's great about it is that there are options for many different layers. You can have layers that are Video,Photos, Text, Drawings or Audio. All of this was done on their free version and was deliberately low fi but you could make something of real quality if you choose. They also have a Pro version for just £3.99

Cute CUT

Our Debut Album 'First'

Here it is. Recorded, mixed and mastered at home on Ipad and Iphone. Very cheaply!

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/first/id897541630

Mastering.

I've been a bit stumped with how to master the album. You can do it through the digital distribution site but a) it's not cheap and b) as good as they may be, sound is subjective and what they might do to it could be the opposite of how we want it to sound. 

So we've done everything to complete the album from home including the cover so I thought for better or for worse why don't we just master it ourselves using the mastering app.This has meant a bit more work making sure that the apparent volume of the tracks was levelled out and that the start and end of the tracks worked together. I've put it all on our Walkman as an album and I think it works but let's see! 

Album Completed Today?

So we thought we had it all in the bag. Twelve tracks and ready to go but then I did my thing and thought that a duet on one if the tracks that features me on vocals was better than me on my own. So today we will nail it! I think.

We have decided to go with the digital distribution company mondo tunes. They distribute to iTunes, Spotify, emusic and all of the other sights throughout the world for a flat fee. So if all goes to plan then the album will be available in 4 to 5 weeks. 

Recording With Heather

We've had some great contributions recently to our album project. Our lovely and very talented friend Heather visited and recorded some beautiful harmonies on a track with the working title Heart In Winter. We also recorded her track 'China Mind' with Rachel playing cello. Heather is recording tracks for a release soon to be announced.