My New One-Take-Wonder Ghost Hunting Tool

I’ve entered 2022 with the new goal of putting out a live album that is something that’s worth the investment of time and the money to put towards a good run of vinyl duplication and independent digital distribution.

I think what I like most about the vinyl record as a music medium is the coffee-table book quality it has. It’s a product you consume when you are relaxing and enjoying some leisure time and you want to get lost in a different world. Though they are very expensive to make and the end result may never appeal to a shopper with its hefty price-point, I think the limitation, quality and furniture-like value it adds to your home is what makes it special.

My journey began in February 2022 after going through the process of capturing, cutting and putting out “Big Story Friday Night” which was a somewhat reckless attempt to put out some material. I think that it all turned out really good - meaning the entire project. It helped take on one of the issues I have struggled with in terms of booking my show, which was not having the material needed by a venue or a promoter to make a good decision to book a show.

You’d think that I would have started recording my shows earlier but I never took the time to do so aside posting some really crappy makeshift streams on social media that I think actually hurt my promotion more than it helped.

I don’t have a backing band, my instrumentation is limited to acoustic looping, vocal and harmonica - basically 2-channels on the sound board. So, why not until now? Mainly, I didn’t have the tools or drive to record my stuff.

I think “Big Story Friday Night” and getting accepted into the 2022 NPR Tiny Desk Competition gave me the confidence to start moving forward with a recording project.

I also discovered some secret-sauce items that really help pull everything together. When you are performing to a live audience that is focused on listening to your performance there’s a certain amount of tension in the air from both the audience and the performer. The performer doesn’t want to mess up and the audience is getting to know you; they are not sure if it’s worth their time. After the ice has been broken during the performance there is a magic entity in the room that isn’t the performer or the audience - it’s the energy and spirit of the collective experience. I am calling this entity “The Ghost.” That energy does not live in a dark recording booth.

After deciding to move forward in recording all of my upcoming shows I invested into some gear that will help ensure I can capture the performances in the highest of quality. I’ve always been a fan of Zoom audio recorders and the company just came out with a really cool field recorder that has 2-SLR inputs!

This device, the new Zoom F3, might just do the trick and will potentially be the tool I need to capture all upcoming shows and put together a body of work for release later this year or in 2023. I’m really looking forward to getting it in mid-March (hopefully if there isn’t supply chain issues). I’m going to be able to record directly out from my stage pre-mixer. It almost looks like something you’d see in a ghost hunting expedition!

I’ve got three shows this spring in Bend at some great venues, Campfire Hotel, River’s Place and Silvermoon Brewing. These gems will help keep the ball rolling as I work to produce “The Ghost of Brian Craig.”