A Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged to the Melody of Tetris

Here goes my adventure in home recording!

To get started learning how to record my own music, I decided to try the easiest Christian rock song I could think of. My family formed a Christian children's singing group called the McLean Family Singers when I was real little and this song was my big solo number back then. It was interesting going back to this song as an adult and making a grownup version! You can get our original recorded version (produced in the 1990s by Phil Rogers of AirDigital Recording Studios) on BandCamp here: https://restorationaudio.bandcamp.com/track/king-jesus-is-all

When our group performed live, my grandfather Jim Noland would play keyboard and he'd often use a fake applause sound effect from his keyboard as a joke. Since we still have that old keyboard at my parents place, I brought my audio interface over there when I visited for Thanksgiving to get that exact applause sound effect you hear at the end just to go the extra mile for this track. :)

I played everything you hear in this track: keyboards, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. I pretty much only ran compression and noise removal on stuff -- no effects, and no looping or sequencing, so everything is very "live" sounding and less than perfect. This was just a first try though. Next time it will be better!

I'd appreciate any technical advice, especially about how to make the vocals sound better. One thing I want very much to focus on is making sure my recordings retain proper dynamics so the drums sound nice and punchy like they should instead of the music being a boring flat brick wall. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

The painting I put up as the picture for this is "One Nation Under God" by Mormon artist Jon McNaughton. http://jonmcnaughton.com/one-nation-under-god/

Software used: Audacity
My music equipment:
M Audio Fast Track USB audio interface
Sterling Audio ST51 Large Diaphragm FET Condenser Microphone
Yamaha DD-65 Portable Digital Drum Kit
Yamaha PSS-570 "SoundBlaster" keyboard - I love this keyboard! Absolutely had to get one after I learned about it from 8-Bit Guy https://youtu.be/QLJSdNYcdpk
Yamaha PSR-262 keyboard only used for intro (found at Goodwill for only 20 bucks!!)
Rogue Dreadnought acoustic guitar (old, beat up, needs to be restrung if not outright replaced)
Fender electric guitar (cheap, desperately needs new strings)
Ibanez bass guitar leftover from McLean Family Singers
Ensoniq KT-88 keyboard leftover from McLean Family Singers (only for sound effect at the end)

King Jesus is All

New Album Out Now: NOT A TRAMPOLINE
Visit www.robcantor.com for more information

King Jesus is All

Ben McLean

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