Gotta Keep Pushing

Twice this week I was going to go out and do car music before work only to be screwed over by snow. On Tuesday I probably could have done it but today there was no chance. Damn it.

I did the same thing I did on Tuesday though. If I couldn’t go out and sing, I’d stay home and record some guitars. Last night I added a couple of noodles that are now song #15. I wanted to work on lyrics last night but 24 bars of bass guitar riffs was as far as I got. After finishing my faux running (yogging) and watching episode two of Star Trek Picard this morning I worked those little bass riffs into a song form and recorded the rhythm guitars. Then I put leads onto the only two songs that are currently ready for leads. Nothing special as far as playing is concerned, but both songs are now ready to mix. Just before I punched into work I added lyrics to song #9 as well. I now have five songs ready to sing and will get to as many as I can before work tomorrow. Assuming mother nature doesn’t kick me in the balls for a third time.

Obligatory pictures:

I took the Wren and Cuff Super Russian off the board and replaced it with the Way Huge Russian Pickle. Two different copies of the old Sovtek version of the Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal

The plan for tonight is to try and write lyrics. I currently have six songs that are ready for lyrics and one more that isn’t quite ready yet. I’m at 15 songs now when I only need 10. Two of the 15 are especially crappy and might go unfinished. We’ll have to see what happens over the next five days.

I will complete this project if it takes everything I have. I am not blowing my RPM Challenge success streak.

2023 RPM Challenge – Day 19 of 28

Again, posted to tumblr:

I failed to record any vocals today. I’ll try again tomorrow. I did write lyrics to two more songs (I have seven now) and I added two more songs, complete with rhythm guitars. One of the new songs is in 11/8 time, which is a first for this prog nerd.

Vocals in the car in the morning or die trying. Not literally, or course. We buried my mother last Tuesday, I don’t even want to think about death for a while.

And now for the obligatory Les Paul pics:

So the continuous auto focus zeroed in on the mic stand. Okay.

Making Progress

I have rhythm guitars on six songs now. I had two done the other day using real amplifiers. I’ve done four today with amp sims. The Amplitube sim of a Fender Deluxe Reverb costs $30. The sim of the Mesa Boogie California Tweed costs $40. I don’t see me moving beyond the free app any time soon. Sorry.

My fingers are killing me so I am taking a break. I am going to finish season two of The Mandalorian, eat some lunch, maybe have a protein bar, go grocery shopping, and then come back for some more guitar.

Sound like a plan?

Everything Works, Now Do Something

The signal path has been tested. I plugged in this morning and made sure the guitar was getting to both amps, and the mics on both amps are getting into the interface and from there into the computer. Check.

Now I just have to learn how to play the new songs and record them. The downside of not playing since November though is that it took about two seconds for my fingers to start hurting. It’s going to be rough over the next 18 days.

Random Lunchtime Stuff

Some random thoughts as my lunch break winds down…

I read a great article from Guitar World yesterday called 20 Ways to Improve Your Les Paul. The need to have my 1978 Les Paul Custom repaired/upgraded is never very far from my mind, but I don’t have the money to spend on it and I am nervous about trying to sell another guitar to pay for it because what if I am overwhelmed with sellers remorse? Worse, what if I sell it for a lot of money and then find out I didn’t sell it for nearly enough. Oh, the stress! Anyway, the article made me want to get on with it, even though most of the things it suggests are things I wouldn’t do. Fifties wiring and PAF clones are about all I have in mind. That and frets… yikes!

Speaking of Les Pauls, I haven’t played my new Les Paul, or any guitar for that matter, in weeks. I am starting to go through withdrawals again, and I have zero calluses left on my left hand. I am soft and smooth and in for a lot of pain and unpleasantness when I do start playing again. Crap.

Speaking of Les Pauls again, I just finished listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety in one sitting for the second time in a week. I don’t know for sure that Steve Hackett played all of his leads on a Les Paul, but it seems that way. There’s clearly a Stratocaster on the next Genesis album, but The Lamb and the three records he played on prior to that all sound like Les Pauls to me. I think he played through Hiwatt amps back then, but I don’t know that for sure. When I saw him in 2019 he was standing in front of a Marshall and a single 4×12 cabinet (he was also not playing a Gibson Les Paul at that show, but a Fernandez Les Paul copy. I think it’s the same (or similar) model I saw Robert Fripp play that same month). I wonder if it was a real Plexi, or even cooler, and old JTM45. Oh, to go back in time with a pile of cash.

I need to go grocery shopping tonight, and I want to get an oil change for the Mazda, which is about to be Bellana’s Mazda. I want the car to be all up to date with everything when we “sell” it to her. I also want to go back to the store that sold me the jacket yesterday and get them to take off the damn security tag. I am pretty ticked off about that. I hope to see my parents this weekend if possible, but it really doesn’t seem like I am going to have the time. There are too many things going on right now, only some of which are related to the imminent xmas. I am hoping I can throw the wife and step kids into the car at some point over the weekend so we can all go out and look at xmas lights. I want that to include a visit to Boston too, but I know it won’t. I wonder if New Years Eve in the city is a possibility? The last time we did that it was followed a couple of months later by a global pandemic, so maybe it’s bad luck? Who knows.

Okay, lunch is over. Time to go be productive for a couple of hours before calling it a work week. HoHoHo, Merry weekend.

Catching Up

Right then. The turkey is in the oven, the first round of dishes are in the dishwasher, I finished Bellana’s laundry, I took out the trash and the recycling, and the camera batteries are all charged up. That means I can post the pics I would have posted in the last post.

My first stop on the film shootin’ journey today was Walnut Grove Cemetery. It looks something like this:

My second stop was Greycourt Park which looks a little something like this:

My third stop was the guitar nook which you’ve already seen in the last post, but this time the pic is from my DSLR because I’m a total fucking snob:

Now, in honor of The Great Black and White Film Experiment of 2022, which was the reason for the first of the two stops this morning, here are the same three digital pictures in black and white:

Film vs Digital Exercise

I did this recently and today I did it again, while suffering through stomach pain because I don’t know how to eat food anymore.

I put my DSLR onto the tripod, set the ISO to as close as I could get to the new roll of film, zoomed in to a point that is similar to the lens currently on Dad’s camera, used the light meter on my iPhone and set the aperture and shutter speed manually, manually focused while basically laying on the ground (I’m tall), and took a picture.

Then I put the DSLR away and did all of the same steps with Dad’s film camera. Assuming I didn’t mangle the film while struggling to load the camera earlier today, then I have one picture down and 35 to go.

Some day in the distant future I will get this new roll developed and then I will compare the results. the focal length won’t be the same because the lenses don’t match up exactly, and the ISO on the film is 100 and my DSLR only goes down to 200 so really the two pics won’t have much of anything to do with each other… but so what.

I did notice that even with the aperture set the same, the depth of field was massively different. I couldn’t get the guitar and the amp both into focus with Dad’s camera so I focused on the guitar. We’ll see if it comes out… someday.

Also, just to note, I had to move my guitar nook to the other side of my office because of something to do with work that I don’t want to mention. This is how it looks now.

Digital vs Film

I did a little comparison experiment today. Just cause.

I took this picture of me gitter using my DSLR. I set the ISO as low as it goes, put the camera on my broken tripod (it doesn’t tilt) with the legs closed all the way because otherwise I would have had a picture of the wall above the top of me gitter. I then used the light meter on my iPhone to figure out the aperture and shutter speed, used the auto focus and snapped.

I then put Dad’s film camera on the tripod and did the same. The ISO of the film in the camera is 100, which is lower than the DSLR goes so it’s not an exact duplicate test. I did set the aperture the same on both cameras but the shutter speed was a smidge lower on the film version. I manually focused and compared the light meter in the camera to the app and they were very similar. I then snapped the pic. The shutter was open for one second but it felt like 15 years.

Someday I will get the roll of film developed and in theory I will compare the two images. I say in theory because I can pretty much guarantee I’ll forget all about this by then and will never compare them at all. Oh well. I have a photo for the photo a day thing though, so that’s good.

Pain Pain and More Pain

I put leads on four songs before work this morning. It was a bad experience in three ways. First, I am so rusty it’s embarrassing. Second, the interface problems left me on the verge of screaming in fury and frustration the whole time. Third, I have no callusses on my finger tips anymore and I am in searing, burning agony right now. I played for about 45 minutes and oh my god the finger tip pain.

Fun.

I have four songs to mix by the end of the day. I don’t have an album-in-a-month for September, but maybe I have an EP in a month? At the very least I’ll have my first RPM Challenge Record Every Month song since RPM ended in February. That’s nice. The four songs I have to pick from are AWFUL and the guitar playing is AWFUL and the singing is AWFULAWFULAWFUL, but at least they exist. I guess.

My iPad has a USB C input. I am thinking of trying to use one of my USB interfaces with the iPad to see if the same problems with lagging will happen on that machine. If not, then I can keep writing and recording without wanting to punch holes in the wall in furious angry anger as the input signal drops out for a fraction of a second and fucks up a solid take… again and again and again and again. That would be nice. If the iPad work around doesn’t work… I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll need to upgrade to a faster USB interface but I most definitely do not have any money for that. Two kids in college, you know? Urgh.

Pics…

Together at Last

I haven’t had my breakfast yet, but I did play guitar for an hour. I put rhythm parts onto two faux 50/90 songs.

For the first time ever, my new favorite guitar played through my favorite amp and it was glorious.

Well… the second song was glorious. The playing was sloppy as hell but the tone was epic. The first song… I might want to try that one again. It’s sounds good, but I think I can get it to sound better.

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