Last Monday, May 16, 2011, I said, “What the heck” and I started a compact disc project. I hadn’t done a disc in a while and if I’m serious about recording in the past, I’m usually thinking about it in March and recording during April.
April recording makes way for May production and the disc is ready for Memorial Day sales. When Arnett Howard Creole Funk Band was around we followed this formula for Arnett Howard’s Rocket 88s and Kidding Around I.
I had gotten lazy in my retirement, but with appearances at Jimmy V’s in Westerville and Grandview in 2011, I am back in the mode of boosting my career. Although things have changed drastically since my salad days of the 1990s, I want to see what sales a new disc might generate for me in units and gigs.
Now, a compact disc is simply a business card that says that I, Arnett Howard, am a real professional musician. Most bands have their ways of doing a compact disc recording and I have my own. Bands record in a studio, using very expensive recording equipment and microphones and when they’re done, they might have invested $50,000 to $300,000.00 and all they have is a master; duplications are additional.
My latest disc was done on an eleven-year-old Roland VS-1680 Digital Workstation, using three good microphones, a Korg Triton Studio and Yamaha DGX-520 portable keyboard. I had Mike Roberts, saxophone, David Hampton, bass and Kraig Phillips, guitar, come in and add their instruments to my tracks. Nine days after I started, on May 25th, I had sixteen songs on a master disc and my out of pocket costs for recording were be less than $500.00. Duplications are additional; good Memorex CD-Rs at thirty cents each, jewel boxes for twenty-five cents and adhesive labels for twenty cents. I bought three used duplicators a while back for $100.00.
So, I hope you like my compact disc/business card and I hope it sells lost of units and generates many more gigs. The song With Grateful Heart I Thank You, Lord was written by Columbus composer Reverend Mary Kay Beale Carter.
