THE STUDIO IN THE GARAGE...

THE STUDIO is about finished. Christened it Thursday night by recording a song–a new cut of "Twenty-Four Seven," which the Country Rose Show wanted for a Valentine’s Day special. I’ll need to re-do it, but the facilities worked okay.
It’s just a roughly 5 ft. by roughly 7 ft. room partitioned off a corner of the garage, built entirely out of scrap lumber and plywood. Only costs were for nails and screws (Unemployed Person is happy about that). It has heat (though it needs insulation to hold the heat) and ventilation, and has the computer desk in there (but not the computer yet). Even though the walls are bare, it works for a recording space because the surfaces are all convoluted–there are no big reflective surfaces that could project sound. I additionally protect myself from echoes by having a singing mike that will only pick up sound in a narrow cone right next to the mike, and by playing the guitar through the pickup rather than trying to mike it.
It is a one-person space, but that’s all I need. The little Tascam is only 4 channels, and two of them have to be allocated to the rhythm guitar to get sufficient volume without distortion. That leaves one track for a vocal, and one for a lead. If and when I want to do more, I will seek professional help.
UPDATES: "Prehistoric Roadkill" got another verse (finally); I need to take more long trips in the car without the radio or CD player on. The Risk-Takers have about a 3-hour set for the CCIS conference that will maybe turn out okay; it’s been hard getting the whole band together at once to practice (and that includes me–I’ll have been to 4 of their 8 practices). They have worked out a nice set of background vocals to "Duct Tape"–a 4-part harmony (all male voices) that sounds frighteningly like something Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys might do.