1) i don't play violin. there's a number of string parts in my various recordings. it states very clearly in the liner notes that those parts are played by a computer.
2) i have had access to various live drum kits for parts of my life. my father sometimes had a kit, sarah had a kit available to her from time to time (although i only ever had partial access to it.... i think her father technically owned it....) and my old friend greg had a kit in his basement, which gets sampled in a handful of tracks. however, i am not and never have been a drummer, and most of the drums in my recordings are constructed using various electronic tactics. i generally take a kitchen sink approach to drums - i'll use live parts, samples, machines, sequences, whatever i can get my hands on. the very minimal, bottom of the line kit i have in my possession was purchased in 2007 with microsoft severance money (it's worth maybe $300) and has appeared on a handful of tracks, but it's purpose is primarily for recording. you couldn't do much with it besides basic kick-snare punk or new wave, and i wouldn't see any use in getting a live drummer to perform something in that style. i need an exceedingly talented, intricate jazz drummer to do the kinds of parts i'm thinking of, which is a part of the reason i've held off on recording some of them - the drums i need are simply too complicated to be able to do on a five piece electronic kit.
that said, these are some examples of pieces i've recorded with the electronic kit:
1) this was done in my old apartment in ottawa:
2) this was done in the previous basement in windsor:
everything else - i think without exception - has percussion done in a different manner. most of it is done with drum machines.
while my use of the electronic kit has been relatively minimal, it is a necessary part of the studio. remember: i'm a recording artist, i'm not a performing artist. the performing part is a necessary evil, and something i'd actually rather mostly avoid. but, you kind of have to at least try to play things live, if you can. even if i think it's mostly going through the motions and sort of pointless...
so, i need to have the kit, even if i only use it every couple of years. and, no, the costs of it are not important, and i don't have an interest in making money from it, just because i don't use it every day. there's gear in some studios that hasn't been touched in 20 years. i can't say that.
i can continue to try to explain that i'm a recording artist, and a composer, and therefore need access to a fully built studio, but i need people to try to make some attempt to understand it. if you continue to try to judge me via the perceptions of a performing artist, you're going to continue to get confused.
i mean, i keep telling you that i'm a composer and i don't want to be a rock star, and you keep criticizing me for not being a rock star. that's right, you fucking dipshits - i'm not a rock star. i'm a classical guitarist and a written composer. i don't even like rock music...
