Fifteen years ago, Gregg Miner decided to test the limits of home recording and multitracking. On his two-CD set, Gregg Miner: A Christmas Collection, he played 100 acoustic instruments then skillfully interwove the tracks into 27 spectacular arrangements. Musicians can check out the sound clips on his site, then read on to discover some of the incredibly low-tech tips behind the project.
The Home Recording Equipment for Gregg Miner: A Christmas Collection
Miner had a lofty goal of creating arrangements to showcase 100 rare, vintage, and exotic musical instruments. Despite his grandiose concept for the project, he never undertook it with the idea of future publication. He had no recording studio and no professional audio engineers. It was just Miner and his stacks of 100 instruments in the bedroom.
“Back then,” Miner remembers, “I recorded the first two songs with an old Tascam analogue 8-track machine. I’d finished just about two tracks when lo and behold, the first digital recorder came out. It was an ADAT 8-track tape player. Literally the first week they came out, I bought one. That enabled all of us to get a whole different, cleaner digital sound.”
Miner redid those first two tracks and went forward on his project using the ADAT digital 8-track. This, he plugged in to a basic Mackie mixer using its own internal preamps, and a couple of decent microphones.
Miner’s Home Recording Studio and Homemade Sound-Proof Booth
Miner set up shop in his 10x13 bedroom with instruments everywhere. He constructed a workable sound-proof booth by putting up four panels of 8x4 foam core covered with mattress foam. “I lived in that sweat box for over four years,” he laughs. “Now, I still record at home, but have a much more professional set up. Back then though, it was the only way I could have done it. And again, I wasn’t thinking of any release.”
Miner finds it more than a little ironic that the record label which finally picked up his Christmas collection was Delos International. “Their thing was making very good recordings with state-of-the-art-audio equipment,” Miner explains. “And here they’re distributing the CD that was recorded in my bedroom.”
Fifteen years after the publication of Gregg Miner: A Christmas Collection, home recording and multitracking has never been easier. Any musician who has a personal computer with an analogue-to-digital interface and a microphone is ready to join the fun. Multitrack software completes the package. This software ranges in price from professional programs such as Adobe Audition to completely free open source software like Audacity.
Interested readers can check out similar articles covering -
The story behind the vintage instruments and recording of Gregg Miner: A Christmas Collection,
Techniques enabling Miner to learn 100 rare and exotic musical instruments for the recording,
The Miner Museum of Vintage, Exotic, and Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments
And Miner’s thoughts on restoring, recording, and collecting vintage instruments.
Quotes taken in conversation with Gregg Miner January 2011.
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