Tag: Music

Car Music: 2023 Edition

I did it today. I went out and recorded some vocal tracks. Three songs. I got out of bed around 5:40, did my exercise for the day from 6:00-6:40, jumped into the car a few minutes before 7:00, drove to the movie theater parking lot, and recorded vocals for three songs. I was hoping to get to more, but I wanted to get home in time to shower and have breakfast before work.

I did song #’s 1, 2, and 4. I skipped #3 because I hate it more than all of the others and therefore have not written lyrics or melody yet. I still have four songs that are ready to sing, so there should be another car music tomorrow.

There was a new gear hiccup. Isn’t there always? I started getting lag. Where the hell did that come from? I’ve been doing this process for YEARS now and I have never once had an issue with lag. It started mid-way through the first song. I saved everything, killed off the Garageband session, restarted it, and everything was fine. It happened on the second song too and the same steps cleared it. It didn’t happen again. It’s yet another thing that can go wrong these days that never went wrong before. Annoying, but not debilitating.

Want to see my studio? How’s it look…

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Nice, huh?

So tomorrow I hope to do more car music. Wednesday I won’t be able to because Wednesday is a work-from-the-office day and I won’t have time. Thursday and Friday… one of those two days I need to go to Lowell General Hospital and get some labs done. They open at 5:00am, so maybe I can do that and then do car music for an hour, and then do my exercise after work? The faux jogging (“yogging”) is currently taking about 40 minutes. I think I can hack that after work once.

I am up to 12 songs now. Remember when I used to do FAWM and my goal was 14 songs? Maybe my goal is once again to get to 14 songs. I know there’s one I want to drop before I submit the project to the RPM Challenge folks, 14 songs just gives me more options. Adding two more songs will also give me more guitar playing that can act as a warm up before I start recording leads… now that I have three songs that are ready for leads.

We’ll see how it goes. Shit loads of work left to do and only eight days to do it. I’m not panicking yet, but I am gettin’ there.

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:

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

2023 RPM Challenge – Day 18 of 28

I just put this on the dumb tumblr RPM Challenge page…

I told myself I needed to get four or five songs worth of lyrics written today. I did four. I also fixed a screwed up bass track and added percussion to one song.

Not my most productive day, but I am good shape for tomorrow. There will be some singing in the car in the morning. Car Music, 2023 Edition.

Really I am only posting this because wordpress.com’s block quote function seems to be working when it wasn’t working before. That’s nice, huh?

Another Day, Another Negative Test

That’s three days post-Covid exposure with a negative test. Let’s keep up the good work, shall we?

I ate a lot last night. I was kinda shocked at how I couldn’t stop myself. Today I had what is becoming a normal breakfast, a chicken patty and a supplemental protein bar, but I already had 50% of my liquid goal for the day before 8:00am. Is that bad? I don’t know. I hope to spread the second half of the goal out more as the day rolls on.

Music… there was no car music this morning. I have lyrics written for one song. I need at least three before driving to the movie theater parking lot is worth the effort. I hope to get to at least half of the 10 songs today so that I have a lot to do tomorrow. I want to have them all written and recorded by Tuesday. That will give me a week for leads and mixing.

As stated yesterday, the goal for today is to clean the hell out of the kitchen. Also, we put out some little catnip filled toys for the cats. I need to find them all and remove them from play. The two cats do not handle their drugs well. They get super aggressive toward each other when they are high on the ‘nip. That must be curtailed.

That’s the plan, kids. I believe today’s goals are achievable. Let’s see how it goes. Also, let’s try to watch Wakanda Forever, shall we? Yeah, happy Saturday.

More Guitars

My fingers are killing me.

I took the four songs that I had recorded on Wednesday using an amp sim and redid them using a real amp. Tube amps, babie. You can’t beat ’em.

I also played with my new camera. I used the self timer and continuous autofocus to see if I could get a selfie while playing… because I am a content whore, don’tcha know.

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Projects for the Weekend

Given that Jen and I have both had a couple of possible covid exposures over the last few days, I doubt we’re going to be going out on the town at all. What should I do to keep my locked down self occupied?

Music. The plan is to redo the four songs worth of guitar parts that were recorded with an amplifier simulator the other day. Yeah, I am a tube amp snob. I want to do that after dinner tonight. I want to use the same rig I used last night, but swap the Blooze Maker pedal with the Rat clone I got for the one heavy-ish song. Then I want to start writing lyrics so that I can have something do sing tomorrow morning when Car Music (2023 edition) kicks off. I probably won’t be able to finish 10 songs over two car music sessions this weekend, but I will do my best. That means I have to write a lot of lyrics in a short amount of time. I can do it. They are all going to suck, but I can get them done. Something is better than nothing, right?

Clean. The house is a mess after being neglected for a few weeks. I started cleaning a little yesterday. The big goal is the kitchen. It’s not good right now. I want to make it presentable again.

Television? I finished The Book of Boba Fett before work this morning so I can get back to Poker Face and Extraordinary (which I have been watching with Jen) and rewatching The Last of Us over and over again.

What else? I haven’t watched a hockey game in ages. The Bruins play on Saturday at 5:00pm. Does UMass Lowell play this weekend? I feel like I’ve been following along with both teams (not a lot with UMass Lowell, but some) but I haven’t been watching and I want to. The Bruins are having an absolutely legendary, epic season and I am missing it.

What else? You know what I need to not do this weekend? I need to not go on Facebook. Ever since my mother went back into the hospital I have been visiting Facebook a couple of times a day again. Mostly because I was sitting in the hospital just waiting for something to happen and I would go there to distract myself for a while. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Nikon Mirrorless groups, and a couple of bariatric surgery groups, and guitar gear groups… and I feel like a junky who fell off the wagon. I need to stop using Facebook again. Enough already.

What else? I don’t know. Spend time with the love of my life. Pet the two new kitties. Maybe watch Wakanda Forever as I haven’t seen it yet and as of today there are now two Marvel flicks I haven’t seen (Ant Man 3 is out today). That needs to stop. Maybe start rewatching Andor? I don’t know. Maybe just veg in front of youtube some more. I don’t know. Also, how about we cut down on the between meal snacking a little?

Okay. That’s a lot to think about. I am five hours and six minutes away from the start of the weekend. I’ll figure it all out as I go.

Rewatch Sleep

I watched season one episode five of The Book of Boba Fett tonight. You know which episode that is? Damn right, it’s The Mandalorian season 2.5 baby. Episode five catches up with Mando, episode six catches up with Grogu, and then episode seven brings them together to help Boba Fett wrap up his shit.

When I started watching tonight I was on episode four. I was getting to the credits when it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen the ridiculously bad scooter bike chase scene. Apparently I fell asleep watching the end of episode three last night. After I finished the Mando episode I went back and watched the end of episode three. Was it a waste of time? Yes. Do I care? No, not really.

Did I mention I swapped a pedal off the pedal board tonight? I used the Keeley Super Phat Mod after the Klon KTR on the first six songs, but it rubbed me the wrong way on song number six so I removed it. I put my Bluesbreaker clone on in its place. It’s the Chicago Stompworks Blooze Maker. There’s a lot of talk about the kind folks at Marshall reissuing the original Bluesbreaker pedal. Is it real? Is it a hoax? Do I care? No, not really. I’m happy with the clone I already have, thanks.

Okay, time for bed. Maybe tomorrow I’ll re-record the four songs I recorded through the amp sim and use the Deluxe Reverb like I did tonight. I should probably write lyrics instead.

10 Songs

I recorded rhythm guitar tracks for four more songs tonight. I now have 10 songs ready for lyrics. The guitar gear all played nicely together, including my Deluxe Reverb, which was really wonky last time.

Of course, the MIDI bass decided to pitch shift itself on song number 10. Friggin prick.

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2023 RPM Challenge – Day 16 of 28

I just posted the following on that stupid music project tumblr thing that I almost never post to…

It’s been a rough few weeks. My mother went into hospice and passed away on the 5th. We held her wake on the 13th and buried her on the 14th. As a result, RPM has been way in the back of my mind all month.

I haven’t blown it off though. It’s still a big enough deal for me that I have been making time where I can. I have 10 songs in progress. There’s a little noodle of an 11th idea too, but I don’t know if anything will become of that. All 10 songs have the full structure. About half have melodies already. Six have rhythm guitars. I ran a rig with two amps on the first two songs, but switched to an amp sim for the rest. I sort of expect to go the sims route for the rest of the project, but we’ll have to see.

I haven’t written any lyrics yet and there are no vocals, obviously. Twelve days left. Ironically, I haven’t failed an RPM Challenge since 2012. Fitting, eh? I don’t plan to fail this year, but I am sort of resigned to the possibility.

We’ll see how the next 12 days go.

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?

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