I’m not sure since when but I’m pretty sure I started very, very young on this. I remember having my very first mini compo radio which you can record just about any sound and also radio songs onto a cassette. I used to shut the doors, windows, lights down low to create the ambience for recording my piano playing. My upright piano is positioned at the corner of the living room where it reverb very well off the walls.
Technology improved over time and there was my very first camera phone. I had a 66-key Casio keyboard around secondary school days. I was starting to transcribe song and finding chords. I still have not discovered music notation software yet at that time. Everything was hand written.
Eventually I took up a minor course on Music Technology at university. I was introduced to sound recording on the iPad. It’s hard to deny the convenience of it. I really had great ambitions to record many things to the point where I got an audio interface just for the iPad 2. Unfortunately, I feel dubbed into buying it and probably a very impulsive buy because 7 years on, I didn’t got much use out of it. I had one too many demands and many things I wanted to do didn’t work out. At that point of time, I just graduated and was chasing my first career. So little time but many, many ambitions.
With the iPad, I really exhausted a lot of use out of it apart from recording. I used it to do homework, work, entertain and even played gigs with it. Recently, I had to depart with it due to the fact I had a great opportunity to upgrade. With that done, I also upgrade the gear I would need. I got myself an original camera connection kit. It’s crazy I know! It costs a bomb but I think in a long run, it’s a good investment.
For the past 6 months, I up my ante by learning quite a few new instruments: ukulele, cello, recently the bass guitar. The accumulation of basic skills to play quite a range of instruments has upped my desire to get a better and more compatible audio interface. It was risky but I really took my time to do my research this round. In the end, I got myself a Steinberg UR12. I got to use it for my recent Fiverr gig and I’m happy to say the quality is quite good. It surprises me and I surprise myself. I started to record samples of different other things like the ukulele and the cello. Prior to buying the interface, I got myself a Cherub pickup on Aliexpress. It’s really dirt cheap but really worth a try on what I can get from it. It’s not fantastic but it’s not too disappointing.
Ukulele and vocal_Steinberg sample – I never proclaim myself to be a good singer but recording my own voice brings a chill to me somewhat.
Steinberg_cello sample – This recording is giving me more reasons to push myself on playing the cello better.
Due to these recent recording experiences, I’m feeling more enthusiastic on improving my instrument playing.
Sound is really a mysterious thing.
