365freesounds-blog

[365freesounds-blog]

Hello, if you are reading this. 

This blog was created to go along with my project #365freesounds. I’m putting out 365 free, downloadable sounds; one for every day of the year under the moniker ‘Yum Yum Eat ‘Em Up’. It all began when a good buddy bet me that I couldn’t record 30 seconds of sound, upload it in a downloadable format for free, and share it on social media every day for a full year. We’d been sharing ideas, and laughs at Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., so I was just fuzzy enough to take him on. I’m 31 days in; exhausted, and simultaneously exhilarated. 

I had every intention of starting this blog on day one, to track my progress each day, but realized what a challenge that would be. Pretty well realized that this entire idea would be a bit of a challenge on day one, ha. 

The process so far:

1: Record sounds(s) 2: Mix/Edit sound 3: Render sound as .wav file 3: create image for Bandcamp & Instagram 4: upload at $0.00 to Bandcamp.com 5: share to Instagram 6: use hashtag #365freesounds

So, I guess a brief summary is in order. Gotta get you caught up on what has been happening. Day 1 I started with a short demo song, “Adventure. Adventure!”. This was a mistake. It was a very fun, excellent feeling mistake. I made over 3 minutes of music in that first day. Great, right? Wrong. I spent 5 hours tracking, and that 5 hours was all I had available on Day 1. That was just one song, meaning one sound. Now I had to scramble to create an “album cover” for Bandcamp, battle with my inefficient software, go to war with my barely usable internet connections, blah, blah, blah. On Day 1, I only got my song uploaded and shared to Instagram at 12:02 am, on Day 2. I had failed.

I was really upset with myself, obviously, but I had fallen in love with the idea of pushing myself to create every day, so I couldn’t just give up. Alas, Day 2 was upon me, and it was a Monday. I had work all day, couldn’t bring my software into the office. After work came rehearsal. When was I going to have time to record another 30 seconds? I was panicking. Then I came up with a strategy to break out the different components of the song: take the drums and mix those, grab the arpgeggiated synth part and add a shimmery, reverbed-out octave above. It worked out great! I was able to release each piece as a “kit” of different components that eventually led to Day 7 when I released “Adventure. Adventure!” in its final form.

Since then I have been recording “batches” of 30-45 second clips, or loops. I quickly realized I could and should be doing the same with the images. Right now we are sitting at the beginning of December, a month where I’m recording my first album with my sister (a Christmas album), and rehearsing and playing out with two original music groups. These batches have been saving the project. I’m able to slowly release them through the week while meeting my other daily requirements, and maintaining most of my sanity.

The batches are great, and I would be drowning if I didn’t have them, but it’s not enough. These sounds have very little meaning, structure, or purpose at this point. My goal for January will be to go into a week having a theme, or challenge to base the batches on. “CT-636 Week”, “Only Analog Week”, “Jazz Week”, “Beats Weeks”, and so on. The goal will be to push myself out of my comfort zone, learn more about the equipment I already have, and experiment with new ideas and technology as much as possible.

Furthermore, I want to have a far more active social media presence, since the second half of the bet was to share the sounds. Currently it’s only a technicality that these are being shared. I’ve not started building a following, or generating any interest. I’ve finally obtained a domain name, and am polishing my Soundcloud, and Twitter pages.

Right now, it’s just “keep on swimming” tactics. Come January things are going to get far more interesting, far more fun, and far more challenging. I’m really excited.

Thanks for reading to the end.