Sadkin

The technical ramblings of a home recordist —

Sadkin was born out of a passion to write, arrange, record & produce music in my own personal space.

It amazes me to say but It’s become much more. And that astounds me. 😌✨

Yet, as I explore further with the recording aspect of this pursuit, I’ve grown aware of a technical arc. I’m still recording to a Mac but new, preferred methods are becoming apparent.

When I first re-emerged in this pursuit .. around 2012, there was much hoopla and excitement in the recording industry with the promise of software that was modeling coveted and pricey studio hardware pieces. At the time it was exciting. With just a computer and software one could, in theory, record a clean and sterile source then manipulate its tone to closer match what our ears, collectively, had grown attuned to - something resembling high-end analog warmth using this ‘modeling software’

I bought in.

Even if the software, far more afforadable, was only matching 88% (give or take) of the actual hardware piece, it was still enticing; especially because the coding would invariably get better with time.

And it has.

But even as it has, I slowly became convinced that as the software improved and the coveted ‘analog-sounding’ color & flavors of the software grew closer to its real world counterpart’s, there was still something ‘flat’ about it.

I berated myself for a very long time - clearly: user error. Had to be. “I’ll get there, I’ll correctly crack the code .. someday”.

‘Dimension’ - It’s a subtle thing but I could hear it - I swore that I could hear it, but also suss out when it WASN’T there. After all, I was pretty sure that I heard ‘it’ on my horrible demos made on an analog cassette 4-track from when I was a kid.

Flash forward back to the present — I’ve wanted there to be a greater depth. For Sadkin songs to have a raised texture, as if, in a way - embossed. I know, a strange descriptor 🤷🏻‍♂️ .. but that is what my very favorite albums have in the way that they sound.

Towards the end of working on Carrera (10.27.23), still struggling and dissatisfied, I experimented routing audio mixes out of my Mac and into a single piece of analog hardware that I had, and then routing it back in.

Many people do this, I am not remotely the first, I just took forever to try it. There are a lot of technical things that can go wrong with this if one isn’t careful - using reasonably good cables, managing software settings and using decent enough analog hardware to justify the effort, among critical factors.

It turns out these little experimets sounded pretty good. It was breathing whispers of dimension which I was endlessly chasing — I seemed to be onto something. Plus, as I manipulated the real gear, exploring tonal options, I was realizing the joy in tailoring sound with my hands (sorry Apple mouse).

Over the last two years I’ve slowly developed a hybrid setup - one piece of analog hardware at a time — connected to my Mac via interface. The new Sadkin songs will be my ‘canary in a coal mine’ for this effort.

Recording and mixing has never been more creative and exciting.

I’m routing out stereo mixes, instrument groups and individual tracks of songs from my Mac into everything from crusty old guitar pedals to higher-end equalizers and compressors - each of the latter picked for their reputed ‘vibe’ and character; each offering that little bit of depth that I spent over a decade trying to achieve using software — singularly.

Now, I’m not saying the software doesn’t have its place and usefulness - it definitely does. But the combination has been clutch for me. I’m arriving now with new songs sounding closer to how I think they should, from ‘my minds eye’, as I near the finish line with the first of the batch for this third album.

It’s a process.