Newly Made in Argentina
The past three weeks or so have been quite productive for Black Sea Storm. I was able to write the first Black Sea Storm song made in Argentina. Just finished laying down all the tracks today.
Until yesterday there was no vocals, because I did not have a microphone here in Buenos Aires. Yesterday I went to Oddity Music on Sarmiento, between Avenida Callao and Montevideo. I bought an audio-technica AT2050 condenser microphone. Between yesterday and today I laid down all the vocals, I even have all the lyrics ready. What I don’t have though, are monitors to mix. I’ve been doing everything with my Beyerdynamic DT770 headphones so far, but for mixing I need speakers. If you’ve done some music recordings on your own, you probably know all the bad things that will happen to your mix, when you only mix with headphones.
I have to admit that buying music gear in Argentina has a heavy impact on my budget. Pretty much everything in terms of gear is way more expensive than in the United States. Since my gear purchases are made according to the progress of the first song, it makes me feel a bit better about the expenses. I’m trying to spend money on needs that are going to push the project forward, rather than nice to have wants. I purchased the microphone when it was time to lay down the vocals, and I’ll be getting the monitors when it will be time for mixing. When I think that two months ago I was still playing my electric bass acoustically, just so I could stay in shape. Now I have a complete song recorded with all instruments. I am so grateful for being able put together complete songs again. It’s been a long time since I had the logistics together, to produce music. It feels extremely good to be able to express myself through this beautiful medium again.
Here’s my “Lean” plan to put an album together: I am going to do a digital release of one single song. That way, I would of completed the whole song production process here in Argentina. I’ll most likely learn some new and valuable things along the way. If it works well for me, I’ll keep producing more. If things don’t sound good enough to my ears, I’ll keep writing songs, but maybe not releasing them until I have the proper setup.
I’ve also been working on the “Story” page of the website. I’m attempting put the Black Sea Storm story in writing. I have near five thousand words so far. Revisiting my memories through the history of Black Sea Storm has been a fun and at times a bit emotional experience for me. I realized how much friends, band-mates, bosses, and even acquaintances helped me along the journey, and made this project possible. I am extremely grateful that I’ve crossed paths with all them in life, and I will always be thankful for their support.
If you want to know more about the history of Black Sea Storm, you’ll find the writings on the “Story” page of this site. It’s not complete yet, but I’ve been not too lazy at adding new parts to the story on a regular basis lately.
Enjoy!