My New Home Recording Studio Setup

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Corey Stewart

As I mentioned in a recent blog post called How To Write Off Three Months Of Your Life, Mara and I have bought ourselves a new home and with that comes the reassembling of my home recording studio.

Now in the old place I had the luxury of taking up two rooms of the house for my purposes however, in our new home I had to work out a way to condense two rooms into one.

This was a huge challenge for me but I think I have risen up to it for the time being.

The first thing I had to do with my music stuff was to declutter and generally work out what to keep and what to sell off/throw away.

Once that was done I had the task of working out how to operate two separate 27″ iMacs (one for studio work and the other for everything else that I do) but using only one wireless keyboard and mouse.

Once I worked that out next came the issue of hooking everything up which was made easier with the purchase of a small mixing desk and the end result is this (chaos and all)…

As always this home studio setup is a work in progress.

I know that this setup will look very different in 12 months time to what it is today but right now I’m now champing at the bit to do some recording and once I do I’ll be putting up the results on here so WATCH THIS SPACE.

Peace,

Corey

A Studio Engineers Nightmare

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Corey Stewart

Here’s some humour to start the day off for you.

I couldn’t resist… I certainly have been in this situation before. Have you?

I dedicate this to Anthony Stewart at Red Brick Music.

Peace,

Corey

CD Project Update #21 – A Revised Timeline

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Corey Stewart

I was in the studio on Wednesday (23rd November) and completed the backing vocals to “Don’t Turn To Me Now”, “Jigsaw” and “Seeing Stars.” I’ve only got the backing vocals for three more songs to go and all the recording for the CD will be done.

Man that is going to be a load off my back but of course that doesn’t mean that the CD is ready to release.

The next step after recording is for the tracks to be mixed down and balanced by Anthony Stewart. After discussions with Anthony about this, we’ve worked out that this next process is looking like being finished by the end of February 2012.

While the mixing of the tracks is taking place I’ll be making sure that the artwork for the CD will be completed by the same time. Once this is done we are then well and truly on the home stretch.

With the mixing and the artwork completed, all that needs to be done is for the tracks to be mastered by Neville Clarke at DiskEdits and then for the physical product to be printed and put together which will be done by Alec Gheude at Pro Advanced Media.

Only after all of that will I then have my own debut CD in my hot little hands. I’m anticipating that this will happen by the end of April 2012 so there’s a little bit more of a wait ahead for me but I tell you what…

It’ll be well worth it.

Peace,

Corey

The Second Time Around – Song Video

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Corey Stewart

As promised here is the video presentation used at the CD launch of “The Second Time Around” a song written by myself, Heather Frahn and members of the Community Re-Entry Program at Flinders University as outlined in a previous post.

Here it is for you to enjoy.

The Second Time Around – written by CRP members, Heather Frahn & Corey Stewart

Here is some more information about the Musical Brainwaves project from the YouTube page…

Musical Brainwaves was a group song-writing project with members from the Community Re-Entry Program at Flinders University in 2011. Collaborating with songwriters Heather Frahn and Corey Stewart the members contributed their own song lyrics, voices and artwork expressing positive viewpoints about their lives.

The creation of the song “The Second Time Around” brought much celebration of the things that inspire life and wellbeing.

CRP Members: Ben Howell, Cherrie Almond, Ron Brooks, Bernadette Circtzki, Joelene Schmerl, Adam Houston, Ralph Kloss, Zeke Langsford, Peter Coulter, Gary Irons, John Weston, Peter Guidera, Joanne King, Andrew King, Jayne Linke, Darryl Thompson, Cele Richardson, Meg Bartel, Luna Aboulhosn, Janma Gazmere, Jasmine Grace, Matthew Thomas, Karina Wight, Margaret Ellis, Christiana Wu, Louisa Schettini

Musical Brain Waves was facilitated by Corey Stewart and Heather Frahn, with visual art assistance from Jasmine Grace. Recording and Music Production by Corey Stewart and Heather Frahn © 2011.

With thanks to Charmaine Mahar, Jaime Gardner and Roger Rees for their support for this project.

Let me know what you think.

Peace,

Corey

Musical Brainwaves – The Finished Song

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Corey Stewart

In previous posts “My Involvement With Musical Brainwaves” and “Musical Brainwaves – Using The Home Recording Studio” you would’ve read about my involvement in this 6 week Songwriting Project held in conjunction with Flinder University and its Community Re-entry Program.

Well, last Friday was the CD launch party of the song “The Second Time Around” written by Heather Frahn, members of the Community Re-Entry Program and myself.

Held at Flinders Uni, it was a very simple affair with about 50 people ranging from members of the project, their carers and Flinders Uni staff and students in attendance.

After an introduction from the Co-ordinator of the Community Re-entry Program it was our turn to give an outline of what we had been doing for the last 6 weeks (well Heather did most of the talking).

Once we finished Heather put on a video collage she made out of all the photos and images taken during the project with the finished song as its soundtrack. Well, there was not a dry eye in the room, it was very powerful stuff. it went down so well Heather was asked to run the video again.

The launch was a great success.

Heather and I during one of our recording sessions

While I was watching the video I was feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and cold shivers running down my spine. This hardly ever happens to me at all but last Friday I was deeply touched, moved and inspired by the event.

I realised that over the past 6 weeks I was provided with proof that music can still matter and that it can still make a profound difference in people’s lives.

I was immensely proud of what we had all achieved with the writing of the song and especially how the finished product sounds as it was totally recorded at home.

Here is the finished product for you to enjoy.

The Second Time Around

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Once I get hold of Heather’s video montage of the song I’ll post it up here.

You have to see it to believe it.

Peace,

Corey

Musical Brainwaves – Using The Home Recording Studio

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Corey Stewart

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was involved with a community songwriting project called “Musical Brainwaves” with good friend and award winning singer/songwriter Heather Frahn.

Well, today and tomorrow, Heather and I will be completing the recording of the song “The Second Time Around” for the project. This will be the first time that my home studio will be used to record something that will be formally released to the general public (albeit a limited release of about 50 copies).

Heather has brought over her mobile recording booth (which I’ll be purchasing for myself later on down the track) to ensure that we get the clearest recordings possible.

I’m really excited about this because it marks another milestone in my learning the craft of recording audio at home however, if I was asked a few years ago whether I would be excited about recording something myself I would’ve said a resounding NO as my answer.

There was a time where I was really afraid of the recording process and always thought that recording music in a studio was something “other people did.”

I have tried a few times over the years to put together a home recording studio but I never used it through the fear of not recording something good.

How silly is that? Me being scared of a medium that if something is not right I could always delete and start again.

Anyway, yesterday I tidied up all of the audio tracks that Heather and I recorded at Flinders Uni over the last three weeks (some choral work in the chorus and some spoken word bits in the bridge) ready for the final instrumental overdubs.

Control Room

Keys & Headphones

Heather’s Portable Vocal Booth

Today is when the real fun begins…

Peace,

Corey

CD Project Update #19 – It’s Slowly But Surely

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Corey Stewart

Recording is now back into full swing at Red Brick Music for my CD last Wednesday (May 25th) and we’re now putting electric guitar onto the tracks that feature Stig Lindell’s keyboard tracks.

The two tracks we worked on were Don’t Turn To Me Now and Shadows.

The main challenge that Darren and I were facing on the day was to come up with guitar overdub ideas that successfully weave in-between what the keyboards were doing. This is so we can try and get some sort of balance between the two instruments.

I think we did pretty well on the day.

I even attempted to put down a lead solo in Shadows which was a daunting task with both Darren and our engineer, Anthony Stewart being gun guitarists themselves.

The end result however, is something that I’m really proud of and it was an experience that filled me with a little bit more confidence in my electric guitar playing.

Speaking about electric guitar, here are some more photos of Darren’s rig…

Darren’s Amps

Darren’s Pedals

Darren Jamming

Until the next time…

Peace,

Corey

CD Project Update #17 – It’s On The FlashDrive

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Corey Stewart

Today I’m going into Chapel Lane Studios to pick up my 8GB flash-drive with Stig Lindell’s keyboard parts on it all mixed and lined up ready to be taken back to Anthony Stewart at Red Brick Music to be integrated into his system.

Today is also the day that Darren Zaza goes back into the studio and overdubs his electric guitar parts to “We Can’t Be Together Anymore.” Last Wednesday he completed his guitar parts to “Jigsaw.”

I can’t wait to hear what he has done with both songs as I haven’t been able to get to the studio due to prior recording commitments.

Lately I’ve had more and more people ask me when the CD is going to be finished.

I’m hoping that by the start of the new financial year (July 1st, 2011) I will have a finished CD in my hands and ready to be launched onto an unsuspecting public but, as with all good goals though, it’s best to not set them in concrete.

I’ll keep you posted as always.

Peace,

Corey

CD Project Update #14 – False Alarm

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Corey Stewart

: Image via Wikipedia

Last weeks studio session was a complete disaster because I was fighting yet another head cold and my voice wasn’t up to the challenge of singing the rest of the songs.

We did try one song but I sounded like I was singing while holding my nostrils together and let me tell you, it wasn’t a good start to the day.

This recent experience has really taught me a lesson about how important it is as a performing musician to maintain a healthy mind and body.

It seems really obvious but it is amazing how easily a live performance (or a studio session) can be affected with even the slightest amount of sickness going through the body or negativity going through the mind.

I’ve rescheduled the session for either next Tuesday or Wednesday (22nd or 23rd of December) and I hope that all of the vocals will be done by then which will then free up my time to concentrate on getting guitars, keys and maybe some backing vocals completed in January 2011.

Peace,

Corey

CD Project Update #9 – Mixing The SCALA Exclusive Song “Billboard Angel”

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Corey Stewart

I just wanted to thank all of you who passed on feedback regarding which song should become the “SCALA Exclusive” release. I’ve now finally decided and the winner is Billboard Angel.

As Darren wasn’t able to make it to the studio to do his guitar parts yesterday I took the opportunity to finish off the vocals, minor tweaks and final mix-downs on the song.

I now have a CD of the final mix of Billboard Angel for me to review over the weekend and it sounds fantastic. I’m very happy with how the song has turned out.

Billboard Angel is a song that I co-wrote with a dear friend of mine and amazing instrumentalist/studio producer, Jeff Smith. The song is about a man who falls in love with a picture of a woman on a sexy billboard hence the title of the song.

The concept of the song was Jeff’s idea which demonstrates beautifully his off the wall sense of humour.

Doing the vocals was a bit touch and go at the beginning as I hadn’t properly warmed up before attempting the take but after a few run-throughs and a hot lemon and honey drink to help the vocal chords along I was able to complete the vocal tracks and do some harmonies in the bridge section.

Personally, the mixing process is a fascinating one for me to witness but one where I have no real clue as to what really goes on. My hearing is not that flash at the best of times so it’s wonderful to have Anthony’s ears working on the job at hand.

With every session I’m learning something new. It’s back to overdubbing electric guitars and keyboards next Wednesday.

Peace,

Corey