“Things change, rearrange, or so do I
It ain’t always for the better, dawg, I can’t lie
I get high ’cause the lows can be so cold
I might bend a little bit but I don’t fold”
– J. Cole on “Adolescence“
Earlier in the year, I set out five goals for 2018. I was pretty determined on achieving them, placing an emphasis on “just getting started.” I was like, the hardest part is getting started. Well, one thing I should have talked about is adjusting your plan if things don’t go your way. What exactly do you mean?
Well, before I get too far, let me first welcome you. Welcome to the Ajaxxx.com February 2018 Opinions Column! This is the place where I talk about whatever is on my mind. For those that’re new to the site, welcome and thanks for joining me. For those returning, welcome bizzack! In this Opinions Column, I wanna talk about the importance of not starting, but instead adjusting…and why it’s so important.
So one of the goals I set out this year was to make more videos and of course put out more music too. Ok, tight. So if you’ve been following my vlog on YouTube, I’ve been re-setting up my mic booth set up at the crib. I recently moved, so I’ve had to put together a new set up. I figured it’d be easy. I had foam pads for the wall, a good mic, and even a mic guard. Well, I got everything set up and ummmmm…the sound quality wasn’t what I was hoping it’d be. Basically, my voice was echoing in the room since it was pretty empty in there. And when I got all the equipment set up, I never did a mic check so I never checked to see what would happen.
At first, I was like damn. I’m thinking, “now what? I got a song to record.” Then I started thinking about the goals I set and wondering how I’m gonna get these things done. Then, I told myself “look bruh, this isn’t quite what you expected but it’s all good. Fix it.” And so I did. Instead of getting down about it or hitting the panic button, I applied more acoustic treatment to the room. I added foam to two more walls along with more bass pads. The result? The recording sounded BETTER. Is it perfect? Not quite. But it was good enough to record one song, which is below.
So what’s next? Well, I have to keep adjusting. I realized I could use even more acoustic foam and bass pads, which I’ll be ordering soon.
So two of the main takeaways from this was 1) the importance of doing and 2) you’ll never reach this point unless you started in the first place. If I had kept the idea of recording in my head, or the idea of “hey I should do a Black Panther movie rap review”, it would’ve been cool but I wouldn’t have learnt anything. However, by actually DOING something, I realized “yo, this doesn’t sound right and you can take steps to get it sounding better.” So yeah, stop aiming for perfection. Aim for SOMETHING. Anything. And then once you have something to work with, you can continue to improve it. And you know what’s even cooler? If you document the whole thing so we can all take this journey together lol.
I’ll continue to make adjustments as I continue to make music and videos this year. Next month, I’ll also update you on how my goals are going and what to look forward to.
Ok, that’ll do it for me for now. Check out some of my new stuff and I’ll see y’all later.
Stay up, stay safe, and hold ya head. Ajaxxx signing out, PEACEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
