I worked closely with a solo singer-songwriter Erica McLachlan (aka Hello Time Travel) to produce, record, and perform on her independent CD release. I also provided photography, video and layout services. The CD included a music video that I shot, directed, and edited.

A happy accident occurred on our first recording session. For Erica’s first song (and single) Underground, I accidentally had my Apex 430 microphone pointing backwards (i.e. the back was facing the singer). Frankly, with some of these large-diaphragm condenser mics, they look almost identical on the front and the back. Here’s both sides of my Apex 430:

Which side is the front? Unless you know what those little icons mean, it’s hard to tell. The front side has a cardioid microphone pattern on it, indicating that on this side, the mic picks up sound in this pattern. On the back, the icon indicates that it rejects sound from this side. This is hard to tell for a beginner. Since then, I’ve put a piece of coloured tape on the front, just in case.

I didn’t figure out why her vocal sounded a little distant and weird until after the recording session was over. I told Erica we had to re-record the vocals, but as it turned out, she actually liked the lo-fi sound of the “improper” recording. We decided to go with it and turned the whole track lo-fi, including the video.

Listen to the album

Check out the graphics

Watch the music video