Recording Devices
Aug. 11, 2024
The photo shows my recording devices. The microphone is a Marantz MPM-1000 and the audio interface is a Steinberg UR22C.
From my first released song, Shopping Street Seaside to the 11th song, Sleeping Village, I didn’t have this microphone yet, and I recorded the songs with my smartphone on a cushion. I used a free app to record, but it was more of a practical app for everyday use than a music-specific app. When playing a fermata with a small sound, the noise reduction automatically cut off the sound as the sound became quieter. So I had to find the lowest loudness that wouldn’t be cut off, and play carefully with the loudness. I find myself laughing at myself for honing this technique, which has nothing to do with music, but I didn’t care much about anything other than the composition itself, so I just used the app as it was.
Getting back to the photo, it was my son who bought me this microphone and audio interface. He gave them to me as a gift for my 60th birthday. It was two years after I had started composing. He saw that I was very serious about composing but hadn’t upgraded my equipment, so he bought me music-specific equipment to match my seriousness about music. At first, my family probably thought that I was just composing on a whim, but I was happy to know that they recognized that I was serious.
This microphone came with a small tripod. (Shown on the upper left in the photo above). I set up the microphone on the desk using the tripod and recorded. But contrary to my expectations, the sound was not good. After I released a few songs, I realized that the top of the desk was picking up the sound of the bass A, and the vibrations made the sound unnatural.
So I bought a microphone stand that could be set up directly from the floor, and since then I’ve been able to record with a natural sound.
But, in the song New Year’s Delight, which was recorded before that, I probably put the microphone at the place that picked up the vibrations strongly and it wasn’t recorded clearly. It’s a bit disappointing because many people visit the page for this song.
I’ll introduce another device. A guitar tuner. At first I used a 440 Hz tuning fork, but because I have poor sense of pitch it took me quite a while to tune all the strings. After that, I started using a free smartphone app, but it was a bit inconvenient because I had to search for my smartphone and it took a while for the app to launch on my cheap smartphone.
My son couldn’t bear to see me wasting time on something so trivial, so he bought me the tuner shown in the photo for my 61st birthday. This tuner is always attached to the guitar like a cicada, so I can tune it immediately when I want to play. It’s really convenient.
My recording environment, which consisted only of a tuning fork and a smartphone at first, has now become much more equipped.