Category: Recording

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.

2021 50/90 Day 1/90

Game on!

Today was a big opening day for this year’s 50/90 idiocy. At midnight I kicked off the first song idea. Hooray! I don’t know if I’ve ever stayed up until midnight for one of these before but now I have.

As bed time on day one approaches a quick look at the Trello board shows me five songs underway. All have drums and bass and the full song form. Two have rhythm guitars. Crazy! That’s a lot to get done on the first day. It totally helps when day one is a Sunday and you are trapped at your parents’ house and can’t leave and can’t do pretty much anything else.

Day two tomorrow will hopefully give us the rhythm guitar parts for the other three songs and maybe a new song idea or two. And maybe if time allows… a lyric or two? That’s just crazy talk.

50 songs in 90 days.

Game on!

5090 is Underway

When the clock struck midnight on July 4th I opened up my MacBook and launched GarageBand and noodled out the first idea. At the time I was awake and feeling all right. Now, 25 minutes later, I can’t keep my eyes open. I also have a two and a half minute long bass and drum track.

Game on, folks!

The Summer Rig

Okay, I’ve got the guitar rig for the summer in place. Welcome back to my sweet little 15 watt Fender Bassbreaker.

Dusting faux tweed is hard.

Just add a shiny new Les Paul and we are on our way.

Addendum: My iPhone autocorrected “on our” to “In-N-Out”. WTF, I ask you. W. T. F?

The Last June Song (Probably)

50/90 starts next weekend so I probably shouldn’t be using up new song ideas now. Oh well.

Written on Saturday, recorded on Saturday and Sunday, and mixed before work on Monday. Not a bad little weekend tune.

Sort of a New Song, Kind Of

I think I already wrote a bit about this. The first song I worked on this month was based on a guitar riff I came up with back in May. On the day I recorded the vocals I started work on another song and, accidentally and totally without realizing it, used almost exactly the same guitar riff. It was slower by quite a bit, but for the most part it was the same thing.

Oops.

Now the question is, which song is better? Here’s Part One:

Now here is Part Two:

I am leaning toward part two, but that might just be because I’ve been listening to it all day.

Its a Music Kinda Day

I did vocals for two songs first thing this morning, and now I put leads on those songs too. Tracking is done for both. I’m trying to make myself love the Blues Breaker clone pedal. I used it as a boost yesterday and as a light drive pushing a huge Klon Klone boost today. I like it. It’s just not… I don’t know. It’s not love. It makes me sad, though why? It’s just a friggin’ guitar pedal, right? Stupid red head.

Car Music Happened

I did some car music today. It went much better, gear wise, than last time. I had three songs ready to go and I got to two of them, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. Also, it was super hot in that car and the MacBook Pro was actually almost too hot to touch so… yeah. Call it.

The digital drop out problem was sort of addressed. At least I attempted to address it. I changed the USB cable and the USB to USB-C adapter. I had some problems early on that lead me to believe the mic cable might be the source of the fails. Next time I’ll use a different cable. I am really hoping it’s not the mic or the interface itself because those kids are expensive.

I did both of the songs that I started working on in the last week. I hope to put leads on them today and then mix them while I’m Nana Sitting tonight. That would mean one song was started on Saturday night and finished on Sunday night. 24 hours from the first idea to the finished mix. Cool.

In closing, here’s the obligatory “I drove through the center of town” pic. This time it has a groovy old timey filter because… why the hell not, yeah?

Patience is a Virtue or Something

The 50/90 challenge starts in about a week. It’s probably not the best idea to try and force out a song this close to the starting point. A song that had it waited a week would have been one of the (hopefully) 50 but now cannot be. You know.

Maybe a little patience is warranted on the musical front right now?

Screw that, I need this.

I took out my new guitar again and told myself that the first thing I play is going to be worked into a song. Welp, here we are a little while later and there aren’t any lyrics and there isn’t a melody, but the song structure is there and the rhythm guitars, bass, and drum parts are all down.

Good boy.

I need to come up with lyrics for this one and the one from the other day so that I can do some car music in the morning. Tomorrow is my last chance this month… I think. Schedules are screwy, you know?

Want some unrelated good news?

Harry’s paying us a visit tonight. WOOHOO! Harry time!

June Song Again

I wrote last night that my hearthis.at account had run out of upload space and that I would get around to creating a second account. I don’t remember doing this, but it turns out I already made a second account. Did I time travel back from the future and do it so that it would be there when I needed it? Am I Marty McFly? Am I one of The Avengers?

No and no.

Here’s the crappy song.