My wife and I did a day of recording at the end of last year... and it went pretty smoothly, and we got quite a lot of decent takes of quite a few pieces. And we have to start the editing process with the recording engineer in the next month or so... and that means that I have to get off my arse and listen critically to all the takes that we have done.

... My wife started a couple of weeks ago. And I have been avoiding it like crazy. I hate listening to myself on recordings... if you have ever heard yourself on an answering machine... well, you will know what I'm talking about. What you think you sound like and the way that you come across... well, it isn't always what is there on the recording!

But I bit the bullet and started doing the listening today... and the recording engineer was pretty good (well, that is why we asked him to do it!) and the sound quality is decent and full sounding. It is sort of strange listening in again... it is characteristically me... I have certain mannerisms and quirks of interpretation, the sort of individual musical fingerprint of a chamber player.

The first pass of listening is to see which of the full takes are worth using as a base foundation for any edits that we might want to make. Other musicians do lots of stitching and editing, and the end result is a Frankenstein monster of edits all over the place... which you wouldn't know wasn't real if you didn't know about it.

We opted to have a more live version... something that reflects us in reality... and not a "perfect" recording that has no semblance to the actual performers.

So, that means have large single takes... and using one or two of them as the base foundation... which we can just fix some minor blemishes and accidents with little patches from the other takes.

And on the first pass of listening... I think we have several base takes that we can use for every one of the pieces that we recorded. Mostly, I'm listening for the right "vibe".. the sort of energy that we are aiming for in a a live concert. Sometimes, recordings can sound dull and quite different to a live concert... and even worse, sometimes musicians can try to start making their concerts to sound like recording. We are hoping for the other way around...

... and it will mean that our recording will have a "live" feel to it. Not perfect, but something that hopefully captures the essence of us as an ensemble and individual players!

Now, to get back to listening again...

Handy Crypto Tools

Infinex: The future of self-custodied crypto wallets. Simple but powerful to use, made for normies!
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Coinbase Wallet: Multi chain wallet with lots of opportunities to Learn and Earn!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
WooX: The centralised version of WooFi. Stake WOO for fee-free trades and free withdrawals! This link also gives you back 25% of the commission.
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
KuCoin: I still use this exchange to take part in the Spotlight and Burning Drop launches.
MEXC: Accepts HIVE, and trades in most poopcoins! Join the casino!
ByBit: Leverage and spot trading, next Binance?
OkX: Again, another Binance contender?