Tag: 50/90

Song Number 24 of 50 (I Hope)

I mixed three songs tonight. Hot Damn! My brain feels like mush now, so I am going to bed.

My mother was asleep when I checked on her a minute ago, but she was still up. Explain? Okay. She’s sitting up on the edge of her bed, slumped over to one side asleep. I woke her up and told her she should lie down. She said she will and then went back to sleep without moving. Her back is going to be searing agony tomorrow. It’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes, except you can usually get pissed off when people act like that. I can’t get pissed off now. I don’t think she can actually process that she’s doing anything that will have a negative consequence.

It’s pretty friggin’ frustrating.

Song Number 23 of 50 (I hope)

I’m on a bit of a mixing roll right now. Only partly because my mother is having a rough night. She had all of her discretionary meds. If she doesn’t fall asleep soon I don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s quiet in her bedroom right now, and she hasn’t come a-wandering out in a little while. After I post this I will go check on her.

The song is nothing special, but I kinda like it. The rhythm guitars sounded like crap so I had to EQ them. I always feel like a failure when I have to EQ guitars. I should be a talented enough recording engineer to actually capture my own friggin’ instrument correctly. I’m only being partly sarcastic when I say that, but rest assured I am being sarcastic.

On the up side, my father was flipping back and forth between the Red Sox game (that’s good) and a little league fucking world series game (oh, that is so not good). The little league game is over. Thank the baseball gods for that.

Song Number 22 of 50 (I hope)

I have been playing games with gear of late. There are two overdrive pedals on the rhythm guitar tracks. Both have their gain control on zero and their volume control maxed. The amp is a low wattage tube amp, and pushing in a crap load of input signal is enough to push the tubes into overdrive. There are a couple of songs coming that added a third overdrive pedal set the same way and it’s a really sweet distorted sound. It’s almost like I know what I’m doing.

I Think I’m Done

The second round of guitar playing didn’t last quite as long as the first, and I’ve reached the point where my hands just won’t do it anymore. I think I’m done for the day.

The progress tally is five songs got all of the rhythm guitar tracks, four got their lead guitar tracks, and one got both. I am leaving things with five songs ready for vocals (car vocals in the morning, maybe?) and four ready to mix. There are seven songs still waiting for rhythm guitar, and one that doesn’t have a song form yet. All of that on top of the 21 that are already mixed and uploaded and counted on the 50/90 site. That puts my current total at 38 out of 50 with a couple of days less than half the project still to go.

Yikes!

I’m going to go make dinner and then play some World of Warcraft with my Bride.

And on an unrelated note, I just read that Don Everly died. Rest in peace, Everly Brother.

Finally Some Progress

I did some singing in the car today and while I am still a terrible singer and still don’t particularly enjoy singing, I feel a lot better than I did yesterday.

I had three songs ready for vocals and four (I said three in my post last night but it was actually four) that had lyrics but no guitars. I finished the three that were ready and one of the ones that wasn’t quite ready. It didn’t go well, but it is good progress and I haven’t made any real progress in a full week. Sigh of relief.

I go to my parents house tonight and I will be there all day tomorrow so no guitar until Sunday. I need to make some serious time for it on Sunday. It’s important. Yesterday was the half way point of the 50/90 project and while I am doing well (38 in the pipeline, 21 of which are finished), I was hoping I would be further along. I am afraid I am losing steam.

I did not, however, take a picture on the way home so… I guess this car music post is finished.

Planning for Tomorrow

I did some 50/90 work tonight. I wrote lyrics to a couple of songs and generally tried to set myself up for some car singing tomorrow. I have three songs that are ready for vocals, meaning they have rhythm guitars tracked and melodies and lyrics written. There are three other songs that don’t have rhythm guitars but do have melodies and lyrics. I added some awful sounding midi guitar tracks to use as guides so I can add vocals out of order.

Now I just have to wake up early tomorrow morning and do it… and it’s 11:33 right now so with each passing moment the chances of getting up early tomorrow get slimmer and slimmer.

So why am I typing this?

20 Songs Down, 30 to Go

20 songs down. 40% of the project is complete.

I told you I was going to mix a song tonight.

Here it is:

I still have five minutes of “exercise” to do, and then maybe I’ll try to sleep. It’s 11:06 and all is quiet on the parental front. Fingers crossed.

Lunch Time

I have nothing to write about at this particular lunch break.

With two whole days at my parents, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I started watching The Orville again last week and last night I finished the first season. If things go bad I could make a dent in season two. I started watching The White Lotus on HBO when it premiered but I haven’t watched the latest episode. Why? Because the show kinda sucks. Is it a comedy? Because it’s not funny. Is it a drama? Because most of the characters are beyond annoying. It’s just not good. I know it’s only something like six episodes, so I am half way through, I think, but it’s just not good. Oh well.

Music! I can do music! I have two songs to mix. There are six songs that need lyrics, I can handle all of that. Maybe I can start some new songs as well. I wanted to be further along than this before my 48 hour sentence started, but what can you do?

Mostly what I will do while I am stuck over there is miss Jen and Harry. I should be home with them, but I won’t be. That sucks more than I am capable to put into words.

I have 99 minutes left in my shortened work day. I just wanted to mention that because I could.

Looking forward to watching What If? with Harry and Jen tonight.

Song Number 17

Today’s 50/90 progress was impressive (to no one on Earth but me). Four vocals, one rhythm guitar, five lead guitars, and one mix…

Today was the listening party for the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month thing. I forgot to submit a song back in June, and I forgot again for July. Sorry. This song here was written and recorded entirely in August so that means I am still up to date on R.E.M. even though I haven’t submitted a couple of times. I have written and recorded at least one song each month since the challenge started in March.

As for 50/90, 17 songs down and 33 to go.