There’s a box in Freston. It just looks like a scrappy wooden box. But I think it’ll contain worlds. But… fuck me it has been an absolute nightmare making it all fit together.
First of all sticking all the soundproofing.
Glue gun helped and yes it’s not perfect but I read somewhere that it shouldn’t be perfect, you just need to stop reflections but a few surfaces actually help the sound. I’ve put my cast iron stool in there, a little art deco table, and attached the R0de Nt1.
Gear4Music sent me an unthreaded housing for the pop filter so I’ve gaffered the thing to the cage instead of complaining.
I can’t run it through my iPad though as it doesn’t power the mic and the focusrite. I’ve had to run it through my laptop.
Audacity is not the most intuitive software to use but it’s free.
At lunchtime on the way in, I stopped at a little Italian restaurant in Notting Hill and sat outside in the sun. I spent £25 on a spaghetti amatriciana and a double espresso in the sunshine, and I’m so glad I did as once I went into that studio I didn’t see daylight again. I had no idea I’d lose the day like that.
An hour and a half to build the hardware. An hour to record. “I’ll be done by five.” That was the idea.
At 19:15 I threw in the towel. I had enough for a proof of concept recording to the sound engineer which I’ve just sent. I am pretty sure it’ll pass muster as I’m surprised how good it sounds in there. Just… When the fuck will I have time to record them now? I’m crazy busy for the next week. Maybe in the week gap we have from Awaken rehearsals. There’s already plenty of stuff in the diary for that gap… But if as I suspect I’ve finally made sense of the hardware, once the software is doing what I need I’ll have a thing I can send pretty quickly. And I’ll have a booth and the understanding to start coming in on the voice industry right at the low point. It is currently cripplingly beleaguered by AI and will continue to be so until people catch on how empty and arbitrary the choices are.
Back in rehearsal tomorrow. I still haven’t stopped for ages. But thankfully I adore my work. Last night I was decompressing knowing my weekend was gonna be a snippet. I’ve still got admin hanging over me, plus the endless cycle of laundry and so much learning.
All will be well. Particularly if I stop writing, hang up my washing and go to sleep. Gonna have to start activating my early mornings as well now. I’ll post about Awaken soon too at it’s a bit of theatre I’d love to see some friendly faces through.
