Chris Price Records His Debut Album Using… His iPhone
Spending no more than ten bucks to record an album? This is totally possible as Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Chris Price just released his debut album Homesick using iPhone as the recording device.
The album consists of 12 tracks and can be downloaded for free. The high quality and integrity of the album makes it difficult to tell if it is produced by iPhone or in those professional studios that cost hundreds of thousands.
After getting his iPhone, Price started explore with its features. He used the phone to film himself singing a song and posted on YouTube and was astounded both by the clip's sonic fidelity and by the phone's quality as a recording device.
"It has a fantastic mic," he says, "It's not necessarily the best mic suited to record every instrument, but if you know a little something about mic placement then you can pretty much do whatever you need."
Price says that he wants to make a record "the way they did it back in '64--with four tracks, no overdubs, no punching in and with complete takes." Hence, he downloaded a digital 4-Track recording app to start the experiment.
According to the album's website, Price enjoyed iPhone's ability to capture the spontaneity of a musical moment, in the moment. "I could record a vocal on the top of a mountain if I wanted to,” he says.
"To prove it, Price ventured to landmark Los Angeles locations like the Griffith Park Observatory, the Nuart Theatre, the Getty Center and the stage of the famed Greek Theatre (which he'd hopped a fence to access) to cut the tracks on Homesick," states the album's press release.
Some of the songs from this album have their music videos on YouTube now. These videos are made by director Kyle Safieh, who is also Price's friend. And of course, these music videos were shot by iPhone, too.
And guess what, Price recently got an iPad. We could only expect him conducting more amazing musical experiments with his new device.
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Xiaomeng Li earned her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, with Honors in Mass Communication and Fine Arts at Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA. She is now a Master of Arts candidate for New Arts Journalism program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Born in Wuhan, China, Li came to the United States in 2007. Her passion lies in popular culture, cross-cultural communication, and the relationship between the Chinese government, mass media and the civil society. Li is also an aspiring photographer who likes portraiture and the traditional darkroom experience.