The Eternal Exhaust MySpace profile often features the new recording efforts of myself, a lone musician working to establish a solid sound and create songs that I can personally be proud of. Many other people share a similar aspiration. Of the thousands of fans that are on this MySpace profile, I would make a guess to say that more than half of them are unaware that when they hear a song from Eternal Exhaust, every single musical portion is created by a single person. This means that on songs with various string instruments, drums, guitars, and vocal elements – are all done by one person, and that person is me.

But how do I do it? Obviously I’m not sitting there and playing all of the musical instruments at once, and obviously I am mixing together separately recorded elements. But there is another part of it that might also be a bit more puzzling – virtually every single portion is recorded with an early 1990’s computer microphone, not designed to output anything near studio quality. Yet, some of my songs sound fully polished, mixed, mastered, as if they belonged on a commercially bought compact disc.

My first secret is my software. I use Adobe Audition 2.0, an audio program that allows you to mix more than 50 audio tracks simultaneously, apply effects like delay and chorus, and do live digital recording. This program was famous among internet users prior to its release from Adobe Systems Inc. when it was known as Cool Edit Pro. Adobe Audition is not the only great piece of software to use, however, another great program that I would recommend is ProTools from Digidesign.

To get a sense for what the song creation, recording, and post-recording process is like, I’ll explain a tiny bit about my musical background. For one thing – I have none. That is, I have no official background of having been trained by a music teacher or music school. In fact, between my ability to play guitar, drums & percussion, my limited singing ability, and my luck with a piano – I’ve not ever had a single music lesson for any of it from anyone!

The great thing about music is that since the start of its existence it has always been a natural thing for a human being to take part in. You are born with the elements necessary to make music. The terminology, the ability to communicate skills and other processes, however, does take some instruction and time. I began learning how to play the drums when I was just 10 years old, where for a year or two before I even sat down to play at all I had been watching my brother play. Purely from watching him and taking a hint or two here and there I learned the essentials of rhythm.

And rhythm is the first step in the creation of any song at all. During my time living in limited living spaces, I was not able to set up my entire drum kit to record it live. So I had to improvise. I use a piece of software called Reason, from a company called Propellerhead. Reason is a music generation program, but it allows you to use a sequencer to create drum licks that sound totally natural, and there are also studio quality. I would not recommend going straight to software to put drums into your songs if you’re a serious musician, because when you leave it to software to fit drums into a musical composition, you can run into serious problems.

To record the drums live, you have a number of options. If you are recording everything with a single microphone, then the first thing to mic is snare drum. The microphone needs to be facing the snare drum itself, but be positioned at a slight distance of about a foot and a half or two feet from the snare and high hat. This single mic is capturing what will most likely be your most important drum elements – snare and high hat. You record your first portion, playing the same pattern again and again without silence or interruption. Separately, you will want to record a mic that is right next to the bass drum.

The real secret to doing great sounding drums in a recording with a single microphone is to record small bits and pieces separately, then take a single lick and put it into a loop with your software. You want to add the different portions into the loop to get the recording sounding more refined and multi-dimensional. You then re-encode to get your final, polished drum loop. If you do not want to do loops, you can do the same process for each individual beat, but if that is your course of action I hope you have plenty of time to spare!

Often times, since I do not have a band to play different portions, I will practically write the song as I’m recording it. In a sense, it’s like having a jam session with myself. A rough version of a song will come out in recording, and then if the song has potential, it goes into individual practice sessions by myself where it will later be re-recorded and re-polished.

After I have drums and rhythm to work with(always recorded using a metronome, by the way), I then move onto getting some solid guitar riffs into the work. I will sometimes do more than 50 takes for my first guitar riff, primarily because your opening riff is something you want to play with a lot. If the song is intricate, I will start with something simple and then slowly add more and more in as I play an evolving riff or verse, over and over again, recording it to the drums, being played through headphones, each time. Each guitar portion is recorded twice, then doubletracked. One take of the guitar being played can be heard in the left speaker, a different take of the exact same thing can be heard in the right speaker. The result is a symphonic, depth filled tone and sound for the guitars and their distortion/crunch.

Piece by piece, a song is made. If I had a bass, the bass would then be recorded to the guitar, with the same basic process. An intro, chorus, verse, another chorus, another verse, and a possible outro are all recorded more than once. The final, finishing touch, always, is the vocals. Vocals are also the most challenging. In my article, Getting Started as a Singer or Vocalist, I talk about some things you can do to get started. Vocals recorded into a mix are challenging. After you have recorded everything, you will then want to adjust decibel levels, equalize frequencies, and make other tweaks/adjustments.

Singing itself is a strong proposition. You have a lot to tackle when you one day wake up and decide, “I’m going to become a singer!” Unfortunately for most of us, the decision in contrast with the final result can be a bit drastic if you’d like the sound coming out of your vox to be anything other than at least mildly terrible. Now, I have said before, in both Sublimation Through Music & The Science of Music, and The Power of Music, that music itself is inherently often an instinctual sort of thing. On the other hand, that is speaking on evolutionary terms. If we want to go ourselves into the depth of modern music, modern digital recording, and the wealth of new options that are suddenly appearing for the amateur to develop their skills from home – it just might take something a little more than instinct. Hopefully what you can gather here will be some of the beginning elements you will need to tackle the world of progressive vocalization. There are indeed a few first steps. But before I get into this entire thing I also want to point out that singing is not something I have a wealth of experience in, but I feel that I can share some of the tips and techniques that I have seen that have worked in getting me started on the right path. Music itself is a powerful thing, and singing itself can perhaps be one of the single best ways to express your self creatively and emotionally.

Step number one – get a microphone. The music I have recorded for Eternal Exhaust was created using a microphone that was purchased in either ‘92 or ‘93, made solely for the computer. It’s the kind of thing you would use with voice over IP, or chatting with someone over an instant messenger client. It is NOT designed for recording singing, yet that is what it is being used for with some success. So basically, I do not think it matters what kind of microphone you get, how much it costs, just get one to start off with. In addition, you will also need something to record with, like a tape player, or preferably, a decent home computer with some great software.

Digital music software 101 – there are now dozens of different really great digital music programs. Personally, I use Adobe Audition 2.0, because of its ease of use, its versatility, and its excellent continuous design structure that allows Adobe to constantly improve upon the program itself. The other powerful tool that exists, however far more complex, would be Digidesign’s ProTools. Either piece of software would be something that I would highly recommend, however, I should say that while I haven’t done much with ProTools I feel that Audition has a simpler interface for live recording.

Being a modern singer means knowing what you’re talking about, and knowing what you’re doing. Having said that, you may have noticed that I have already laid down a lot of talk in regards to digital recording and equipment. To me, I do not think there should be any way of getting around it, the modern musician must know what they’re doing these days, and musicians do indeed include singers in my book.

The place every singer should start is the lessons of Roger Kain. Are you a soprano? Roger Kain has an attitude of, “who cares?” Roger Kain is the author of The Complete Vocal Workout: A Step-by Step Guide to Tough Vocals. Out of any resource I have been able to lay my hands on short of a well qualified vocal instructor, Roger Kain’s book and practice CD’s have aided me in getting started better than any blog, article, website, book, or other source. If you cannot afford the lessons of a vocal instructor(or even if you can), I would recommend picking this up as a definitive resource for any singer, new or old.

Learn to feel the “crystal” synchronization you’ll hear when you’re in harmony. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, and many singers who try to teach other people how to sing tend to leave this one out. If you cannot hear when you’re in harmony or cannot learn how to get your voice to match a tone, you’ve missed the first step of good vocals. The real key to starting off your journey as a good singer right is to learn how to hear the ‘crystal’ sort of tingling that happens when you’re in harmony with another tone or note, as well as when you’re either slightly out of harmony. If you’re totally off key, you will not feel or hear anything. For me, vocal harmonization is one of the most soothing activities I have ever experienced in music, and it is something that other people outside of you will not experience – you are the only one who can get the real physical sensation of the relaxation harmonies induce.

Higher pitch is higher volume, deeper pitch is lower volume. Many new singers, myself included, have had the problem of starting out completely monotone in their singing. The real way to break out of this starting habit is to experiment with your voice’s volume. You probably know how it sounds to talk to someone when you need to be quieter rather than louder, and how it may sound when you have to shout over an amplified crowd. Learn the differences between these as a fundamental place to start, because volume in relation to pitch in singing is one of the most important aspects you’ll ever learn.

Learn to sing all different kinds of music, not just the kind you want to sing. This one can be a tough one for the teenager in their garage band wanting to become a rock star, or the wanna-be opera singer who has no desire for anything different. But the value of learning to sing multiple kinds of songs is imperative, because it reinforces a number of fundamental vocal ideas in your brain. One of those ideas it that you can harmonize with anything, no matter what the voice is, no matter what the music. Another idea would be that no matter what kind of song you’re singing, it is still just musical notes and tones, nothing more, nothing less. For those who have no respect for the abilities of vocalists like Jonathan Davis of Korn or even Scott Stapp of Creed – see how long it might take you to reproduce their sounds the way they do them. You’ll likely find immediately that they make it sound a lot easier than it really may be. Similarly, you may find out some songs are recorded to sound well but sung live by a single voice rather than two doubletracked will allow you to hear the differences in real talent between singers. A doubletracked voice might be good to strengthen the feeling behind a chorus or particular verse, but some songs doubletrack the entire way through simply to cover the lack of ability of the singer singing it. Doubletracking is a process often done in studio recording where two voices are recorded singing in harmony to produce more depth to the sound.

If you’ve got the time or money, invest either into learning to play a musical instrument. Playing a musical instrument is not a necessity for a singer, but like singing multiple kinds of music, this is a simple tip that can aid you in more ways than I can probably count. Myself, I play drums and guitar, two skills which allow me to practice all of timing, rhythm, pitch, harmonies, and tone – sometimes all at the same time.