June 2021 - DJ Chimney Sparrow

Smoke and Mirrors

This morning, I woke up around 6:30am. Anxiety levels were high, and I found worries of the future drifting through my brain. My sleep, as far as the morning was concerned anyway, was finished.

Fears like this can be the worst, because they can paralyze you, while screaming that you have to act, to do something to save yourself.

That may sound dramatic, but as someone who suffers from chronic anxiety, I can tell you, it’s quite appropriate.

Want Some Humble Pie With ‘dem Samples?

I’ve recently come out of a bit of a rough patch – sky-high anxiety levels, low energy, all that fun stuff. This put me behind on my writing, so I thought I’d quickly share what I learned from the experience.

So, I’m a big fan of fantasy – was raised on the Dragonlance series growing up – and a big D&D enthusiast. So I figured, hey, I can make some fantasy music, and combine it with the dance-y tracks I’ve been making!

And since I’ve been adverse to using samples or presets, I thought I could learn to create the orchestral sounds from scratch, and learn more about sound design in the bargain.

Well, that may have been biting off a teensy bit more than I could chew.

So… I Might Have F**ked Up

Man, it’s been a hard week.

My latest track, “Steam-Powered Knight”, has been kicking my a**. Lots of new instruments to learn how to reproduce and arrange, and sometimes the inspiration just hasn’t been there.

I’m coming out the other end, thankfully, and just finished my first fully productive day since my mood dipped. What I wanted to share however, was a few things I learned hearing about the struggles of another dancer and blogger, The Girl With the Tree Tattoo. You can check out her article here.

What hit me wasn’t what she was going through, and it wasn’t even how she got through it. It was why she wrote it, and her concerns about doing so. And it’s made me take a hard look at myself.

If You Think You Hear It, It’s Enough

Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.
Robert H. Schuller

I try to get my most creative work done first.

Later in the day, when I start getting tired, and/or my mood tips towards the melancholy, I tend to focus on broader strokes – making small arrangement changes, a fader here, a riser there.

But the process of making something new, or of fine-tuning a sound at the edge of my ability, is something I think we can only do when we are in a state of positivity and mental clarity. You might say it’s mood-dependent.

Things to Know When Buying a Microphone

Previously, I wrote an article talking about the preliminary research I conducted before purchasing my first mic, the Rode N1-USB.

Since then, I’ve done a LOT more research, trying to understand all the different parts of mics, how they work together, and – most usefully – what manufacturers mean when talking about terms like impedance, sound pressure levels, transient responses, and so on.

If you’re just wanting to know the basics, like the most common types of microphones and their polar patterns (read: how they pick up the sound around them), check that article above. But if you’re ready to take a deep dive into the nuts ‘n bolts of studio microphones, strap yourselves in!