Rock Song “In The Box” – The PC Recording Studio

Now that I am married and settled, touring and playing gigs with a rock band are definitely a thing of the past.

But I’m still a musician, and I still write songs.  So home music recording is now very important.  Luckily my wife and I are both singer/songwriter/guitar-payers with our own niche audience in the acoustic folk world, so there is still an outlet for the “playing live” jones. 

But every now and then I feel like playing some RAWK.  For years, there was really nothing I could do about that.  But since starting Home Brew Audio, I decided it was time to dust off the electric guitar and bass and see what I could do as a 1-man-band.

The song I recorded is “You’re All I Have,” by Snow Patrol (written by Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly, Jonny Quinn, Tom Simpson, Paul Wilson)

All In The Box

So what do I mean by “in the box?”  I’m talking about the computer.  This song (there is an mp3 of what this song sounds like so far at the end of this post;  follow along as I complete it) was recorded in my home pc recording studio. 

I don’t have a drum kit, so that was a computer program.  I don’t have a bass amp, so that was a computer program.  I do have a guitar amp, but didn’t want to bother with it, so that was recorded with a virtual amp like the bass. 

Finally, there is a synthesizer which was…you guessed it…a computer program.  So what I have thus far is a drum track that I “programmed” with drum software (Rayzoon Jamstix), two electric guitar parts I played with my electric guitar (Carvin DC200, 1985 model) plugged into my computer through a USB interface and virtual amps from a software program (Line 6 Pod Studio), a bass recorded the same way, and a synthesizer software program (Omnisphere) whose notes I played on a tiny USB keyboard.  That’s it.

When you listen, try to forget the fact that it was not a typical rock band recording.  If I hadn’t told you, would you have known?  Be honest.

One Man Band

For the singing, I used a large diaphragm condenser microphone (Rode NT2A) plugged into an interface with a pre-amp/interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) and connected to my computer via USB. 

So even though I don’t have a drum kit, and I don’t have a bass amp, and I have no backup singers, every single thing in this song was played/sung by me through the magic of multi-track recording, overdubbing, and some pretty cool software programs.

Below is finished product. Enjoy!