Sheeptown Studios Month Two

Ok, so that's two months of Sheeptown Studios in the can! Wow, it's been an experience and November '22 really pushed me in all sorts of different directions with the wide variety of music acts coming through the door. We had bluesy worship, jam band funk, hip hop, acoustic rock and folk punk. *Takes a deep breath* ah... I can relax! It's been incredible, so let's get jump inside why!

In my last blog post I talked about feeling a sense of impostor syndrome throughout October and how by the end of the month that feeling had waned, instead replaced by a new confidence. Well I definitely took that new confidence into November with me, but boy was I challenged. I was recording all sorts of new instruments like the double bass and bongos and even polaroid cameras (yeah that totally happened). Whereas before I would have gone online and done a ton of research into how to record a certain instrument and how to mix it, now I was using my ear a lot more and figuring out the best way to mic it. The results were pretty strong, there were only a couple of times later on when I felt I should've gone with a slightly different mic position on a certain instrument, but overall, my recordings were cleaner and sharper than before.

What really added to that was the level of musicianship in the studio this month. We had some great musicians in the previous month, but most of them were soloists. Now we had full bands coming in to record along with session players and there was a big difference to having several musicians play on a track, rather than having me accompany the soloists by playing all the backing instruments. This is the first time I've recorded a 'band' in the studio and when the bands are firing on all cylinders, you can hear each individual on the track, but also you see them gel and glue together in a way that only a band could. It's challenged me to bring in more musicians to play on my tracks, rather than play all the parts myself.

I don't know if you've read the review section of the site, but I've been getting some really positive feedback off people. I'm really chuffed about that and it gives me a lot more confidence moving ahead. We shall see what month three brings!