Do Things Need To Be Perfect So We Can Truly Enjoy Them?

The previous articles mainly talked about our backgrounds as people with distinctive personalities, and how we met and built chemistry in music together. It was quite challenging. We didn't even have a solid foundation for getting to know each other but because of sharing the same passion for music, we did everything to make things possible. 

For today's article, I'm gonna share with you the journey of us behind the recording sessions we have for instrumentals. 

Compromise – for the sake of artistic creativity

The first original song that Gifter introduced to me was a song called “Panagway” – which is our own dialect’s term for “countenance” or “face”. Having known him to prefer English songs on most playlists, I was a bit surprised he chose a Visayan song to be the track that he believes would bring us a decent level of fame someday.

He labels that song he wrote as something that belongs to the “alternative-acoustic genre.” For those who find it strange, an alternative is one of the sub-genres of modern rock – Gifter’s favorite genre. Personally, I would rather have us choose the folk-country route since I’m a huge fan of Taylor Swift. But he’s the songwriter of the duo, so alternative seems the best path to trek into.

After giving me instructions on how to play his song with the keyboards, we practiced it for a few days. It was the beginning of my journey as a co-songwriter, and it’s kinda elating to learn something new in the name of artistic creativity.

Building our makeshift studio

Due to his previous experiences as a musician, Gifter told me being in a professional recording studio is outrageously expensive. On Average, 1 hour of studio session would cost around 1,000 to 1,500 pesos (20 to 25 USD) per hour. He’s not certain of the rates in other cities but that’s how it is in the Davao area. For freelance writers who rarely write these days, such an amount is a bit heavy for us.

We have to make do with what we have. Thankfully, we have some cheap, yet useful equipment that we could use, and there are lots of Youtube tutorials that can help us reach our dreams… in a non-expensive way.

Using Gifter’s bedroom as our own studio space, we utilized the following equipment:

• Gifter’s old Compaq Presario laptop

• His cheap, yet good-sounding Maxine acoustic guitar

• My standard condenser mic that I bought online

• My cheap audio interface

• My phone (that I use for participating here in Read.cash, hehe)

• My Yamaha keyboard – the only fairly expensive equipment we have

It’s a good thing we had these equipment already even before we met. I don’t know if Gifter is just trying to lift my spirits, but he said such tools are already enough for us to create some “good-enough music” that we could be proud of.

Gifter as a one-man-band

I was hesitant at first that we could already create compelling home recordings because I always thought that the only way to be a professional music artist (which was our goal) is to be inside a music studio made by professionals.

But I was greatly inspired by Gifter’s drive and resilience, so we still pushed on… though we’re so unsure yet what is it we’re really doing.

Using audio tracks that he recorded on his own, we recorded my keyboard parts using the equipment I mentioned above. I’m really amazed at how Gifter was able to do all of the guitar, bass, and percussion parts by himself.

He told me it was all about software and some wonders that digital technology could do today. Still, I’m amazed at how one guy could do a thing that complex- coming up with a groovy harmony that sounded like 4 or 5 musicians playing together.

We know for sure that plenty of indie artists do this, I’m just very overwhelmed to meet one myself. As a newbie, it’s truly mind-blowing for me to handle. Listening to Gifter’s full-track recording (minus the piano and vocals part) is an extraordinary experience.

I never thought one person could really do it alone. It was then that I finally understood why he would need to lock himself inside his room for days just for recording.

My first home-recording experience

The recording of the piano instrumentals did well. With Gifter’s tracks, I just have to play along with its rhythm and do my part. However, it took hours for us to finally decide to settle with my audio interface. 

The recording session for our first song turned out well. We enjoyed the process. I personally enjoyed it. Of course, I’m certain that if a professional sound engineer would judge it, our output would be “nothing but crap” since it’s way too far from being on an “expert level.”

But hey, do things need to be perfect so we can truly enjoy them? Judging from the joy and pleasure that I got from my first moments of home recording, I can say that the answer… is no.

Thanks for reading!

Keep safe everyone.