Hearing yourself play music

[Thenop]

Finding some recent rehearsal room recordings made me wonder: what was the first time I heard myself playing? Well, to find that out I need to go back a bit.
My first interest in any musical instrument was the piano, my father played it and it was prominently displayed. I can remember him playing, mostly classical and he recorded himself on cassette tapes. He was an avid radio and hifi home builder (maybe I'll dive into that some time, but not now) and so I came to learn that it was even possible to record yourself. I was very young though: my father died when I just turned seven. Those tapes were something tangible he left behind, but honestly everything in the house was like that. So they disappeared over time, that's just how things go.

Back to the recording bit then. I was aware it was possible and I was always experimenting with equipment, up to the point where I recorded the audio of early video tapes, very rudimentary, by simply holding a cassette recorder to the speaker of the television while playing an early Betamax tape of Venom's 7th Date of Hell tape. It wasn't available on LP so I figured, let's do this, so I can hear the music whenever I want and I don't need to occupy the tv set in the living room. I won't recommend anyone trying this, it took a good 60 minutes, with a break in the middle to flip over the tape, of sitting very still and being very quiet. But I managed, that tape I surely held onto for years!

It wasn't long after that, that I tossed the idea of playing a musical instrument. My family at that point being a bit dysfunctional (again perhaps later), thought it would probably be good – it got me out of the house – so I took up drumming lessons. It was there that it dawned on me: I can record myself and listen back what I am doing.
Biggest problem: I had no drumkit. It took a month or 6 before it became clear it wasn't a fluke, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the teacher, a young and aspiring drummer himself, informed my parents I was sort of talented, other than just knowing how to keep time. Fortunately, there was some money on a separate account (aka, the inheritance) that could be turned to and so – with the help of said drum teacher – I purchased a massive (no really massive!) drumkit. It was a Rogers Big R, gloss black, with 2 absurdly 26" bassdrums, 7 toms ranging from 12" to 20" (!!) and a slew of cymbals, mostly Paiste. The best part, if someone asked what it looked like, I could point them to LP cover of Dutch heavy metal band Picture, because it was that kit I bought.
I set it up in the attic and the whole neighbourhood got to enjoy it...



Fast forward a year or so, quickly progressing, I switched schools and ran into a fellow long haired metalhead. Low and behold, he played in a band! And their drummer just left. He wasn't the right fit anyway, being a good 10 years older than the rest and when you're 16 that's a huge age gap. Whether I could let them hear what I did, how was my playing? I knew all the right bands, so it was just down to that.
And that, was when I thought: How the hell am I am going to do that? I need to record myself.
I thought back to everything I knew and had seen and brought up my stereo. It included a tapedeck and somehow I needed to figure out how to make that work. Don't ask me why, or how, but I managed to plug in the homemade headphones from my late father into the mic in, turn the shells inside out and play my heart out. I went as fast as I could, fill after fill, pushing up the pace, bouncing off the walls banging those double bassdrums like a boy possessed. And it worked! I listened to the tape, and again, and again. It actually worked, I had a tape recording of myself playing the drums!
The next day I brought to school, handed it over and impatiently waited. I impressed upon him I wanted that tape back, it was the only one I had plus on the flipside was a demo recording from a local band I had been given.
Over the weekend the other guys had listened and when I returned to school on Monday I was invited to come over the next Sunday evening for an audition. The audition itself is a story for another time, but I got the gig!
This was in October / November 1986 and today still, the guitar player and I are together, making music.

We have recorded so much music over the years, it would be impossible to remember all of that. I do remember most of the recording set ups we used though. I will try and expand upon that in the near future.

Let me end with a link to a song I uploaded some years ago, that was maybe recorded in 2015 or so. Note this is more or less in line with the type of music we are playing currently. It used to be a bit different. But I'll get to that later as well...

For now:
https://lemoncrush1.bandcamp.com/track/100-funeral

[The Picnic Wasp]

Wow! Talk about hiding your light under a bushel! Brilliant post and I love the track. Looking forward to more hopefully. I most definitely won't be posting anything of my musical "journey" after this reveal. 👏👏👍

[Slim]

Nice! Sounds very professional.

[Matt2112]

Wow, what a great post and what a great idea for a thread!  The song, in all honesty, is not my thing aesthetically but clearly it's very tightly performed and sonically is very good!

I've recorded some basic demos of original material in my "Man Cave" (which is just a small spare room) and, to cut a long story short, not only am I a bit of a technical ignoramus and not terribly good at recording, but I try to do things in long or even song-length takes, which is usually fine when I'm laying down fairly basic rhythm or vocal tracks, but can be extremely exasperating when, say, I'm trying to nail a guitar solo.

It's funny that during a gig I'll rip out the solo to say, Hold The Line, and embellish it with some flashy "tricks" as carefree as you like, but in the stark loneliness of recording in a small room at home I'll duff my own solos multiple times.

There's something to be said about that "Red Button Effect", I think.

And practising more often.

[Matt2112]

The other thing I was going to mention is this thread has coincided with some arrangements I've been making to record some things "properly" in a proper studio environment with someone who knows how to properly record things.

So hopefully before too long that will be unleashed into the world.

Be warned though - it may well sound closer to Richard Marx than Rush...

[Thenop]

It appears I did a compilation of sorts 7 years ago of material we recorded. Came across it when sorting out old accounts. Forgot al about it. I really should finish those tracks and put them on Bandcamp.
https://soundcloud.com/lemon-crush/lc-mixes-rough?si=46d36d3cc2364cbd93e78cc7b1e9cada&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing