Journeys Unknown

In this post I'd like to talk about some of the challenges, decisions and research which have led me to refocus and refine the project. In the 2025 summer break, between second and third year, I started working on what would become 'Journeys Unknown'. I started working on the concepts, planned the arrangements and themes, and created a mood board to help inspire and remind me of the direction of the music. Initially, it was a longer project, with more tracks, closer to an album, but it soon dawned on me that if I was going to get my other assignments finished on time and be able to complete this project, I would need to reduce the scale and break it into more manageable chunks. I settled on 5 tracks instead of 9 and reduced the amount and type of equipment I was planning to make. I had originally planned to make a colour box, an E-bow, and spring and plate reverbs along with the pieces seen in previous posts. I started to write some music and got a demo of 'Sleeping Wit...

It's taken me a while to gather everything needed for this instalment of the blog, everything from the daily grind and the extra rainy British weather, to balancing uni and work has meant that getting out and making a mess has been tricky recently. Anyway...  In this post I will show you how I made a couple of easy microphones and a fake drum room, that can be used to enhance and add flavour to lots of different recordings. basic soldering skills and use of hand tools is necessary for these projects. Audio clips of these experiments are available at https://tomweber.bandcamp.com/ The tools needed for these projects are: a Drill, Soldering Iron, Solder and Flux, Saw, Hacksaw, Scissors, Pliers, Spanners, Hot Glue Gun, Screwdrivers, Thread lock, Tape. Soup Can Mic The first mic, and easiest to gather the parts for is the Soup Can Mic. This mic has a very vintage "old school radio" flavour to it, which gives a fun lo-fi texture to vocals and acoustic instruments.   To make th...

Convolution Reverbs Following on from part one, the exploration into Impulse Responses continues with making Convolution Reverbs. A Convolution Reverb is a recording of a physical space, typically a room, or outdoor space such as a forest, which is then turned into an Impulse Response and used to give recordings the feeling of being recorded in the space the IR was taken. Making your own reverbs is a great way to add a personal and familiar touch to your own recordings.  See my Bandcamp  for examples of my experiments.  This process is almost identical to the one used to make hardware IRs and uses all the same software detailed in part one, but instead of passing a sine wave through some hardware, you play the sound into a space and record the reflections. To capture big spaces it is a good idea to use multiple mics and speakers to spread the sound over a wide area, Logic's IR Utility has a variety of options for stereo and surround sound setups.  To make these IRs, ...

Hardware Impulse Responses Throughout this project I will be creating a variety of my own effects and sounds. So far, I have captured Impulse Responses from a collection of my guitar effects pedals, these IR's can be used to create all kinds of weird and wonderful sounds by loading them into a convolution reverb plug in such as Logic's Space Designer or an IR loader such as 'Pulse' by Lancaster Audio. See my Bandcamp  for examples of my experiments To make the hardware IR's, I used Logic Pro's built in Impulse Response Utility software which can be found in the Space Designer reverb plug in, to send a sine wave sweep through the pedals, and then back into the IR Utility software, which then with a process called deconvolution, separates the sine wave from the recorded signal and leaves behind the finished IR.  I took various impulses from the Reverb, Flanger and Delay pedals, and by combining the pedals and moving the knobs I was able to manipulate the sound a...

  Journeys Unknown Origin An EP titled, 'Journeys Unknown' will be the outcome of the research conducted around the idea of de-canonizing the recording studio, a project in which, I will explore what makes recording studios special, and why some artists use them, while others do not.    What is studio magic?  I am exploring DIY recording techniques and equipment to better understand what makes recording studios special.  Below is a photo of my home recording setup, eight channels and a few toys housed in a 19" rack case for portability and storage (except for the compressor...). I will be using this setup to record the majority of the EP.  Personally, I believe that eight channels is enough to record almost all sources, except if you're recording orchestras, obviously...  The recordings I have made with my band have been made using the PreSonus interface, with drums being the only instrument to require all eight channels and I found that, at least f...

An Introduction Throughout my adventures into music I have always been recording. In the beginning, this was out of necessity more than anything else, just to get the ideas down and move on to the next song. My skills gradually improved from working on my own music with my bands. I started digging deeper into recording and decided to pursue an education in audio engineering and started studying at ICMP in 2023. As well as studying for a degree, I play guitar in a stonery, garage rock flavoured, doom metal band called, Killer of Kings. We are in the process of recording our first EP due for release sometime in 2026.  Visit www.killerofkings1.bandcamp.com/track/midnight-mass to hear our first single.