How I came to be stuck in audio mixdown limbo – Part 2

I recorded an album on the 4-track, called “Four Track Mind” (I know, I know. I thought it was clever at the time, apparently so did every other schmuck sitting in his bedroom with writers block and a 4-track recorder in front of him). I converted the tape to mp3 a while ago and I might post it somewhere on the web for documentary evidence, but it’s pretty hard to listen to. The sonic palette is quite limited: an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar with the distortion pedal in the on position AND an electric guitar with the distortion pedal in the off position, vocals through an instrument mic (SM 57) and ersatz percussion noises from things like me banging on a Quaker Oats can with a wooden spoon. The recording quality is atrocious (cassette tape is a horrible recording medium AND I had no idea about what I was doing) but by the end of it I had accomplished my main goal: to learn about overdubbing and parts – how to write them and how to play them, how to leave space and fill space.

However, I was kind of unsatisfied with what I could accomplish with just guitars, so I bought a Roland midi keyboard with 128 built in voices. I spent some time getting the rust off of my piano skills and listening to the various sounds that the Roland could make - "ooh, a Japanese Koto?!?!" plus stupid sound effects like the sounds of rain/static and breaking glass. But undeterred, I dialed in the "Piano 2" sound and recorded another album on the 4-track, adding the Roland to the basic setup from “Four Track Mind”.