I learned a valuable lesson today: check your levels before hitting record! The first take of this recording, I had the volume too high, and when I started adding reverb, the bass part started horribly clipping. I didn’t really hear it in the headphones, but once I dropped the file into Ableton, it sounded awful. Actually, I learned a second lesson: don’t put too much reverb on a bass part because bass and reverb are meant to flirt, not hook up.
There is a trick I like to try every so often with the Zoia and grooveboxes. Since the Zoia only has a stereo input and the groovebox, in this case the Model:Cycles, only has a stereo output, I can pan the parts hard left and right and run two effects chains through the Zoia. Here I had the drums panned and sent through some overdrive. I tried bit crushing too, but it was painfully noisy, so I dropped that. The bass, arps, and lead went through a chain that had a ping-pong delay and reverb.
I also tried playing the lead part live because I always feel a little bad when I perform, but am just turning parts on and off. This wasn’t much of a performance, more some noodling down the scale, but whatever, I did it.
Last thought: My Sony NEX-6 is great for still photography. It really isn’t as good for video. In terms of my current capacity, I think my iPad Pro actually does the best job filming. Someday I’ll upgrade to a better video setup.
