Why piano sketches still matters
The trick, if there is one, is to leave plenty of room for slip-ups. Room sound is free reverb, if the room is kind to you. Limitations make decisions for you, and that is a gift. Mixing tired is how good songs get ruined.
What did not work
A condenser microphone helps, but it is not the point. Tape adds just plenty of unpredictability to keep things alive. A field recorder helps, but it is not the point.
There is no single right way to approach mixing late at night, but some ways are kinder than others.
Why it matters
The small things matter less than the practice of paying attention. I keep a short list of things to try next; mixing late at night is near the top. I recorded the birds by accident and kept them in the mix. Between mixing late at night and writing on piano, the second one taught me more. For a long time I treated mixing as an afterthought.
Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years.
A few details
Most of the record was tracked in the spare room with the window open. Here is what altered, and what stayed exactly the same. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. It is not glamorous, but it holds up.
The demo had something the final version never quite recaptured. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. I altered my mind about field recordings twice while writing this.
In practice
I wrote most of this on a hushed Wednesday morning. I would rather do one thing carefully than five things fast. The result is not perfect, but it is truthful. Good field recordings is mostly a series of small, unglamorous decisions. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works.
This is less a primer and more a record of what worked for me. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about demos. I attempted the warm version first. It did not last.
For a long time I treated piano sketches as an afterthought. Every spring I revisit the same questions about drones. Somewhere between the forest at dawn and home, the notion finally made sense. I wrote most of this on a hushed Saturday morning.
I keep coming back to piano sketches, mostly because it rewards a steady hand.
Looking back, the lo-fi approach was the right call.