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Edward Epiphone's Tutorials
Recording & Songwriting
With the advent of portastudios, it is quite odd that
my first multi-track recording experience occurred at a professional recording
studio. Eventually, it occurred with my band at the time in Winetree
Studios, California. The control room featured a state-of-the-art 24-track
machine with all the digital effect processors on the market. I knew we were
not prepared for this abrupt event, but we went ahead and rushed into it
for we were excited and motivated to experience the sensations of being like
rock & roll stars. For one thing, our materials were not refined (mostly
lyrics) and polished enough to make a professional finished product, and
we did not have much rehearsals on the new songs we had composed at the time.
There is no doubt that it was a thrilling and a fun event, though it caused
us a bundle as it took us several hours to end up with a mediocre recordings
of these songs, which later, stand out as demos.
I learned from this experience that if we had our own portastudio, we would have been more efficient for a better finished presentation. So I decided then to set up my own home recording studio by purchasing a Tascam 388 Studio 8 multi-track recorder along with the Yamaha SPX 90 and the Alesis Midiverb III digital effect processors. Although these were meant for personal use with band members, I have heard other prominent artists using the Tascam 388 to put out their own records. It is in these machines that we experimented rigorously and enhanced our creativity as musicians to no limits. I have already recorded about 60 of my personal compositions that are set for mastering.
As a songwriter, I am more at the melody-maker side when it comes to writing new songs. I usually find it easier and faster to come up with a good guitar part on a new song than coming up with a good lyric line, but there are days that I can come up with a great idea and have something profound to say. Since most of my songs were composed by starting off with a melody line or a background accompaniment, I often find it difficult but more challenging to create a musical structure to blend with poetic words with chemistry. These thoughts came from within, so I take little pride to create and express them. I carry a microcassete recorder with me to take notes whenever a lyric or melody line buzz into my head or when I come up with a good guitar riff. Then later, I would colorize my ideas in the portastudio. I think this is the most efficient method to prepare yourself before going to a master studio.
