The Great RPM Challenge Mixing Marathon is officially underway.
I was thinking this song was going to be the winner this year. Unfortunately my vocal performance was less than adequate, and the lead guitars are extra lame. I feel like I let the song down.
The chorus is in 4/4 time the rest of the song is in 7/8 time though, so that’s fun. It’s also pleasantly hyperactive and you can’t beat that, right?
Tracking is done, tracking is done, thank the flying spaghetti monster, tracking is done.
I put leads onto 10 songs today. I did the first three this morning and I was feeling pretty good. Then I came back to it after dinner and my finger tips were killing me. I couldn’t play to save my life. It was terrible. I was actually starting to panic a little for the first time all month. It was bad.
It’s RPM though so I had to push through. Fortunately after a couple of bad songs I started warming up a little and things got better. My finger tips even stopped hurting, though I wonder if that’s a sign of permanent nerve damage or something (no I don’t, just being #sarcastic).
I mixed a couple of songs today too and I was thinking to myself that there only maybe two songs that were better than mediocre, and those two weren’t better by much. Then I was plowing through leads tonight and I came to the realization that the last three songs I started off this month are the best three. I sort of expect them to be the first three songs on the final album. That made me feel a smidge better.
Okay, vote time. Which of these three pictures should I use as the album cover?
#1:
#2:
Or #3:
Also, if you’re keeping track, two of those pictures are very similar to an RPM Challenge album cover from the past (2013, to be exact). I don’t care.
Here’s song number six for this year’s RPM Challenge. I seem to be finishing them off in the same order as I started them. Weird. Usually the good ones sort of bubble up to the top of the queue. I think this might mean that there aren’t any good ones this year. That’s too bad.
This one has guitarmonies and a drum solo though, so based on that alone it sort of rules.
This weekend is going to be an RPM Challenge weekend for the ages. Or something like that.
At the start of business today I had five songs finished and 15 songs unfinished. There were five songs ready to mix, the last step in the process, and 10 songs that needed some form of lead guitar before they would be ready to mix.
I had a bunch of things to do around the house this morning too. I did all but two of those, then I took a break and picked up the guitar. I put leads onto three songs and then had to get back to the errands. Once the last errands are done I am going to play until my fingers bleed and then mix until my ears fall off.
I’m getting to 20 songs this year even if it kills me.
There are two wah-wah pedals in the second photo. The gold one is a Dunlop Gary Clark, Jr signature Crybaby. It’s pretty good. I like it a lot. It’s not my favorite Crybaby model, but it’s definitely up there. The black one, the one that’s actually plugged in, is a Real McCoy Custom RMC10. I bought it based on YouTube reviews, like ya do, and my first impression was that I wasn’t sure if I was going to love it as much as the high price tag requires. I just wasn’t bonding with it, you know?
That was then, this is now. I don’t know what I’m doing different, but I am loving this little sucker right now. The quack is just killer.
Okay. There’s a floor to mop and it’s calling me. There will be more musical goofiness later, I promise.
Check it out, a new song.
Kinda like this one. It’s going on the A list for sure. (A list is songs that definitely make the final album, B list is songs that might make the final album, C list is songs that suck so bad I want to forget they exist)
I have four songs mixed, six songs ready to mix, 10 songs that only need lead guitar, and boy am I going to be brain fried by the end of the month.
Wheeeeeeeee!
One note from today’s RPM Challenge music haul.
I really over did it with the guitar playing yesterday. My finger tips were torn up nicely.
Today I learned that such guitar related injuries take more than one day to heal.
Ouch, babie. Ouch.
Ouch-town, population you (me), bro.
I worked on 13 songs today. Thirteen songs.
That’s significant progress on 13 out of 20 songs. My ears are exhausted, my finger tips are torn up, and my brain has turned to mush.
I now have three songs ready for vocals, so car music in the morning, babie.
Rock on.
Hey Rob, did you play at all tonight?
Oh yeah, I sure did.
I have spent maybe three hours working on guitar parts today. I put rhythm guitars on three songs (song numbers 16-18 if you’re keeping track, and I know you are not), started a new song (titled song number 19 for now), and put leads onto three songs (titled song number 2 through 4).
I did all of the rhythm tracks first, then the leads. I was okay when I started working on leads. The first song went well. While working on the second song I was thinking I might be needing a break. The third song was totally overdoing it.
After all of that time my hands and my ears and my brain all feel like a fuzzy mush. I definitely need a break. I think I’ll watch an episode or two of Disenchantment, then make dinner for the love of my life, then we’ll see what happens. I still have to do all of my exercise, and there is an episode of a certain zombie show airing at 9:00pm. I need to be ready for that.
(Insert the sound of a zombie hissing here. Unless you’re not a Walking Dead fan, in which case insert the sound of a more Romero style zombie moaning here instead)
I had to break for lunch, but once the bathroom was cleaned and the laundry put away, I started doing stuff.
Inside the Red Head's Head 