I pretty much forgot about this, but I had actually started a recording project back in March. Whoops. The idea was to take a bunch of songs from old projects and redo them with real bass guitar and real amplified electric guitar. Yeah.
So here are the first 8 songs I worked on. Now I just have to re-record every single sound you hear except for the drums… and even then I’m not so sure.
The other complete song from the failed album-in-a-day. I was almost liking this one until I realized the bass line is Mitzi Dupree by Deep Purple. Oh well.
Here’s a song from the aborted album in a day I tried on the day that the bathroom remodeling project started. I mixed it with ear buds so I’m sure it sounds like dung.
I don’t like the lyrics and I don’t like the melody in the verses. What do you think, is the rest of it worthy of bringing to the band? I’m undecided.
That’s it kiddos, I’m done with RPM for another year! The last song has been mixed, the cover art is done and the running order is set. All I have left to do is burn a CD, print the cover, and drop it off at headquarters.
I’ll share a playlist with the final running order soon. Probably tomorrow. For now? Sleep!
Song #11. I started this one last night, after I had already sketched out song #14, with 14 songs being the goal. So this is sort of overkill, but I like it more than most of the other songs so it’s a keeper.
That’s 10 songs kids, I can call RPM done! Now I’ve got five more to mix and then FAWM will be done plus one.
Let’s take stock of the ol’ RPM Challenge, shall we?
The goal is 10 songs or 35 minutes of music. Right.
I currently stand at 9 songs and 34:41.
SONOFA!! 19 seconds short!
I have four more songs in progress. None of which have lyrics yet. That’s the sticking point right there now isn’t it.
I’ll have before work time on Tuesday. On Wednesday I took a vacation day, but the kids are on school vacation so I will only have a couple of hours in the morning before I go get them at their dads. Thursday is telecommute day, but the kids will be home. If I can’t get the rest of the songs tracked (including one more that hasn’t even been started yet) by the early afternoon on Wednesday then FAWM is a bust. I need 14 songs to finish that one. RPM looks good. One more lyric/vocal and it’s done, and I can do that Tuesday morning. After getting the kids on Wednesday the plan will be to mix whatever is left. I suppose if I’m close to 14 I could always sit in the car and sing. Maybe drive to some empty parking lot somewhere.
I started noodling out this little rocker this morning after going grocery shopping. The lyrics were recorded while sitting in the car outside of my step son’s guitar lesson. Later, after going to my nephew’s 4th birthday party, I recorded the guitars. Then after a break for some TV time I mixed it.
Not that good, but it’s there.
Yesterday was a bad day. A very bad day. Water leaking through the picture window, a carbon monoxide detector went off (the device was malfunctioning, but I didn’t know that when the beeping first started), I also had a brief period of feeling really sick just as a little cherry on top.
Somehow in between all of that crap and the related heart attack stress level I managed to have a very productive RPM Challenge day. It was probably that or just go raving mad, screaming at the walls. I recorded three vocals, used a trick to finish the one drum part I had to program, and mixed one song. I lost my ability to make up lyrics about nothing on the spot so for this one I had to find a topic. I found a blog about New England Folklore, and one of the posts was about the ghost that haunts the Mt Washington Hotel. Turns out she was married to the guy who built the building, so she’s not a scary ghost. She knows that would be bad for business.
So if you take a four bar segment of GarageBand’s drummer, cut it into four individual pieces, and set the fill to maximum, you can almost trick garageband into giving you a drum solo. Almost.
A song about being depressed about winter. Sort of the anthem for all Bostonians these days.
Inside the Red Head's Head 