Category: Music

Car Music Morning

I put vocals on three songs this morning. I think I am going to be able to do some more tomorrow. I had six ready to go when I started today, and hopefully I will add some more to the list at some point today.

No signal drop out issues. I changed the USB cable last time and changed the mic and the mic cable this time. Next time (tomorrow?) I will use the old mic with the new cable because I am really hoping the cable was the problem and not the mic because the mic is both expensive and the one I use with the band. I don’t want to replace it. It’s like an old friend, you know?

I normally use a Shure SM58 for vocals and today I used a Shure SM57. The mics are almost identical except the SM58 has a better pop filter on the end. That means any time I sang a syllable that contained a “p” sound it probably sounds something like nuc testing on bikini island (slight exaggeration). Oh well.

I am off work today so hopefully there will be time for a good chunk of guitar tracking. I want to mow the front lawn if the weather holds (it probably won’t because New England is now Atlantis) and I have to pick up my glasses at Lens Crafters (WOOHOO!) and I have to check on the water situation in the cellar (I’m a little afraid of that one) and I have a lot of laundry to do and I might want to sneak in a smidge of work at some point too.

Wow. This might turn into a really busy vacation day. When it comes to it I’ll probably just sit in my room eating cheese doodles and watching super hero TV shows and shit. Whatever.

Wait… I can’t do car music tomorrow because I will be working in the office. Fuck. So more car music on Saturday then. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

On a totally unrelated note, I fucking hate the wordpress.com block editor. Fucking hate it.

Okay, talk to you all later. Good day.

Once We Got Home

We went out tonight. It was terrifying and wonderful at the same time. That’s not what this post is about though.

I put rhythm guitar onto two songs and leads onto another. I now have two songs ready to mix. Sweet.

50/90 Update

I was going to do these daily, but naw. One week into the project and here’s where I stand.

12 songs in progress.
No mixes yet.
One song has all of the tracking done and is ready to mix.
One has vocals and is ready for lead guitar.
Five have rhythm guitars and lyrics and melody written and are ready for vocals (car music in the morning, maybe?).
Five have their song format and the bass and drums finished and are ready for rhythm guitars.

Not bad for the first week. I don’t know how this pace compares to the other two times I finished 50 songs. Who knows.

And now for the obligatory guitar pics.

Things Not to Do Tomorrow

I have four songs ready for vocals. I should do car music tomorrow! I am working from home and not going to my parents until around dinner time. Tomorrow’s the perfect day!

Except for that whole tropical storm that’s supposed to hit us in the morning.

Yeah, I am not going to do car music in the middle of Elsa the Tropical Storm.

<prepare yourself for Robert your Narrator to make a Dad Joke that I am positive everyone on the Eastern coast of the United States of America has already made. Sorry… can’t resist this one>

Elsa just needs to let it go.

<GET IT??????>

I need mental help. Get me on Prozac, STAT! Is Prozac even still a thing?

So I was working on a little ditty in GarageBand just now and the cat jumped up on my desk and somehow manage, with one swipe of her paw on the trackpad, shuffle around two segments of the song and also paste a couple of new notes into the bass line.

Really, cat?

2021 5090 – Day 3/90

Two vocals, one melody/lyric, and one new song idea started.

Not too bad for a work day.

I made a works in progress playlist on hearthis.at. I know it won’t play from wordpress.com, but I’m posting it anyway because why the hell not. None of this matters anyway so why should I give a flying fuck at a rolling donut?

The naming scheme is year-project-counter-device the file originated on. Look at me being all assembly line efficient and shit. Yippee.

The First 50/90 Car Music

I just came home from my first car music of the 50/90 season. I had three songs to do. I did two of them. The mic was dropping out and distorting and sounding awful again. I had to do everything over and over again because of it. I’m about 95% sure it’s the mic cable. I will test that the next time I do a car music. I am Nana Sitting tonight which means I can’t do it tomorrow. Thursday or Friday maybe? Probably more like Sunday. We’ll see.

2021 5090 – Day 2/90

There should be car music tomorrow. We will see how I feel in the morning.

How’d we do today? One new song under way for a total of six. All have rhythm guitars and three have lyrics. Not bad for day two.

I usually don’t stress over melodies. These shitty songs are lucky they get any melody at all. Tonight though I found myself trashing something. I was working over a riff that has some really weird syncopation and I was playing a pretty simple melody. Shortly after wrapping up the phrase it started feeling familiar. I eventually placed it… it was a song from this year’s RPM Challenge.

Stupid melody. Stupid, stupid melody.

Take a Holiday

Yesterday was the 4th of July. Independence Day in the USofA. Today is the 5th of July which, thanks to the 4th falling on a Sunday, is the day we celebrate the holiday and have a day off from work. Amen to that, brothers and sisters in the American workforce.

I haven’t really done anything. I unclogged a drain in the bathroom sink. I finished watching Black Summer. I put guitars onto a couple of new song ideas. I’m up to six songs now.

I haven’t spent much time with heavier “rawk!” sounds with the new guitar. That changed today. I had some crunchy goodness going on. The bridge pickup on the new guitar is kind of in love with the Bassbreaker 15. The neck pickup is jealous of that love and therefore kinda bitchy. They aren’t playing all that nicely together. I’ll work it out. If not there will be a new pickup. Something swanky and boutique. Probably not until the kids are done with college though. Money? What’s that?

How about a little love for leather guitar straps. I’ve never owned one before but when the new guitar came (I still can’t believe Jen bought me a Les Paul for my birthday. Best birthday gift ever) I needed a new strap and I found a reasonably priced one on amazon.

One thing I learned, the cloth straps I’ve been using since day one back in 1987 play nicely with clothing. Meaning that when I need to adjust the strap’s position relative to my shoulder, it will slide around easily and not try to bunch up my shirt. Not so with the leather strap. The leather strap grabs hold of my shirt and drags it along with it everywhere it goes. I never thought of that before. No one was more surprised than me.

Anyway, are you having a happy long weekend? I am having a happy long weekend.

On a sadder note, Mary Weinrib passed away at the age of 95. Who is Mary Weinrib? Well pop culturally speaking, she’s Geddy Lee’s mother. Now giving birth and raising the greatest bass player in history and the frontman for the greatest rock band in history is a legendary accomplishment. That’s great. It’s also not the most amazing thing she’d ever done. Mrs Weirib, as a young woman, survived the Holocaust. She survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, among others. Rest in peace Mary Weinrib. Your kid done good.

I should also mention that I did not mention when Neil Peart’s father passed away a couple of weeks ago. Sorry about that.