Looking for Some Session Musicians
One of the early benefits of attempting to change my home production setup into a more mobile one is that it has made me question all parts of my creative process. I’ve realized that there are certain points in my process where the momentum I have in creating art comes to a standstill. In most instances, this is caused by a technical flaw in my workflow. A example of something like this would be not having enough midi inputs or cables to connect a drum machine that I really like. The fact that the drum machine isn’t connected all the time makes connecting it an inconvenience, and therefore reduces the likelihood I’ll use it.
In short, I’ve realized that I had a lot of small things like that in my process that need to be corrected and updated. Some are resolved naturally just by me moving my production tools into my laptop, but others remain and have to be addressed.
One of these areas is the ability to work with live musicians and session players.
In the past, I would basically create skeletons of beats and write songs to them. As the last step of the process I’d have musicians overdub certain parts of the beat with real instruments. Unfortunately, even when I’m at home for an extended period of time, this process slows down my workflow. There are two main problems:
1. Being in town for long enough to coordinate and schedule the session. The fact that I have to be at home to make this happen means that it is a very start-and-stop process and never has momentum.
2. Having a recording space that can accommodate recording live musicians. Like most hip-hop artists, my studio is setup for mic’ing vocals and beats – not live musicians.
As I’ve thought about this I’ve realized that the best solution is for me to a) start working with musicians who are capable of recording in their own space and b) start working with musicians from everywhere who are comfortable with file-sharing tools like dropbox as well as communication tools like e-mail and skype. This may seem like a small thing that every musician should have, but trust me it isn’t. While having a home recording setup in hip-hop or electronic music is almost a standard thing nowadays, it’s not for most people who play in bands. The setup for them is a bit too expensive, especially when most of the playing and recording they do is with other band members.
That said, if you are a talented musician who has done session work before and have the ability to record at home, lets talk. I’m looking for people who can play, can record at their own space, and are familiar with file-sharing techniques to do overdubs on some music.
Specifically, I’m looking for cats who can play any of the following:
– Strings
– Guitar
– Bass
– Flute
– Horns
Fuck it, pretty much anything…
Previous experience doing session work is helpful, but not necessary if you’re dope and easy to work with. If this sounds like something that interests you please e-mail me at info(at)printmatic.net. Let me know what instrument you play, where you’re from, and include a link to your work (something you’ve played on). Although what I’m looking for in most instances is pretty simple and would probably only take somebody 20-30 minutes to do, I would like to compensate people for their time.
Thanks for reading.
Word is Blog.
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