We recently made our annual family pilgrimage to York Beach, Maine. While there, I recorded some music.
Sarah and I have been going since 2015. This year’s entourage included our dog Lilly. The trip is everyone’s favorite, and we all look forward to seeing our friend Adele.
Because I have no concept of what a vacation should be, I always head to the beach intending to record. Most years I fail to do so, because the beach is a lazy place and making things work is hard.
beach day 2026 mobile unit
This time I had a plan. I’d keep the gear simple, Macbook, Akai MPK Mini MIDI controller, M-Audio M-Track Duo interface, a ukulele, a regular condenser mic, and an omni-directional PZM mic for ambient ocean sounds.
The RadioShack 33-3041 is a wired desktop condenser microphone made for conference calls. I bought a couple of them about 30 years ago. They work great as cheap room mics, or in this case, beach mics.
song of circumstance
A technical hurdle helped shape the song. There was some MIDI latency which made it difficult to play with a click track. I worked around it, and ended up with a trippy little avant-garde tune.
The problem was likely caused by the laptop running on battery. Laptop power-save settings diminish performance by design.
The keys were MIDI, so no mic. I am sure passers-by enjoyed the sight of this weird little hippie plunking single keys in silence.
catching waves
I recorded two tracks of ocean sounds with the PZM mic, and panned them left/right. The desire to get a good recording of that sound was the impetus for the experiment.
I used an MXL 991 condenser mic for the ukulele tracks. I had to do a bit of tricky EQing to isolate the instrument from background sounds.
your moment of Zen
Our sand castle, aka The Alligator Lake Retirement Community.
Instruments and gear used in the production:
M-Audio M-Track Duo audio interface
Akai MPM Mini MK3 MIDI controller
Skullcandy Noise Cancelling Headphones
