[alohachris]

Mahalo Doug,

Doug, I've been sharing live music with people for half a century. I've never wanted to really do much more musically than just play for folks LIVE. I've tried to keep the business-end away, & from spoiling playing music for me. For most of my playing career, I've thought that recording was only about money. And I haven't cared about it that much - until the last few years!

I have a strange love-hate w/ recording. It goes back a long time & was honed in many studio's over time. I much prefer the connection-sharing aspect of live acoustic music - in real-time, rather than the one-way interaction street of recording.

I also rarely loved my earlier recorded music or the results all that much. So I've been in & out of it Of late, I got back into recording to play with the potential of computer-based home recording. If my hands cooperate, maybe I'll share some with friends. That's all I want out of it. However, the results must also satisfy my ears.

By always keeping a low live performance profile, always gigging on the periphery, I never attached myself to the local "scene" or any single genre, preferring solo performing. It gave me a lot of freedom in choosing when/where I wanted to play live - & for whom. I just follow that muse at its discretion.

I have always had a full-time day career. Music helps me balance that stress off. It sustains me too much spiritually to mix it up with things like sales & distribution. See? And until computer-based recording recently came online, recording my own stuff to my ears' satisfaction was simply too expensive & inconvenient.

At this stage, in the last year, I've cut back almost completely on live regular gigging. For myself & other giggers, there's been much less audience connection these past few years. And I never played live for any other reason. It's different now. I can let it go.

Now, I prefer to play alone at home, out in nature or at special parties & occasions, as I did when I first started playing - full circle. Guess it's just where I'm at this of my life now - nearly 65 y.o.. Time for the cave & more time in the ocean, Ha! It's been a big change from just a few years ago when I played out all the time, almost nightly.

Recording, & admittedly, the fun of learning about, chasing & moving through great gear, has become a solitary balancing endeavour for me now - the way gigging & other things did earlier in my life. Now, I just like to screw around with it at my leisure. It keeps me learning new stuff, good for an aging brain. So Doug, I just love going far into "alohaland" with no other intent for my recordings than just doing them. Ha!

Mostly, in my old studio, I would work at refining & experimenting with tracks. I truly believe that for me, sharing my recordings is NOT really that important. It's the playing/creation aspects that wholly embraces my soul - even if the only audience is me. Like you & everyone else on this site, a stereo recording of the pure, unprocessed sound of a well-mic'ed acoustic guitar just makes sense - on so many levels. It's basic to us.

Certainly, learning about & using great gear, & achieving that nice, natural acoustic sound on my guitars occasionally is reason enough to, well, to just do it, right?

As I try to encourage others on this site, there are lots of ways to approach recording, just as there are many different reasons for doing so.

Thank you for your generous offer(s) to help w/ my tracks, Doug. Maybe when I get fired up in a studio again, I'll give it try. Your recordings always provide a lot of inspiration to me. I trust your ears, which is rare. So has your open, above-the-call assistance to so many with their recordings. Bravo!

Mahalo a Nui, Doug!

alohachris