Tag: Recording

It Lives!

The 12-string guitar… it lives!

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Three of the 14 songs had space reserved for acoustic guitar. One of those three was designed to have all of it’s rhythm guitar parts be acoustic (and it’s in drop D too!). Those parts are all finished now.

After I recorded the last piece I sort of felt like I was in the groove, ya know? So I kicked off two new songs. One is just a 12-bar blues but it’s in 7/8 time. Take that, establishment! The other is the second song inspired by something I read on the FAWM forum. Someone threw out a challenge to write a song using the “ice cream changes”. That refers to a chord progression that was used and reused extensively in the 1950s and early 60s. Basically, rock and roll pre-Beatles. It is, for the theory nerds in the audience, I – vi – IV – V. I actually used that progression once already, on song #14, but I transposed it to a minor key, making it i – VI – iv – v. (For the non-theory folks, a capital roman numeral refers to a major chord, and a lower case refers to a minor chord.) As I referenced with The Who song I posted yesterday, I am embracing the fact that all of my songs sound the same, and just not worrying about it this year. Given that, I used the ice cream changes again, only this time I kept it in a major key.

So if you do the math, I’m up to 16 songs now. No lyrics yet, and some of them don’t even have a song form yet. Still… 16 songs! WOOHOO

Go RPM Challenge!

Inventory

I took a little RPM inventory tonight and updated my trello board.  I have 14 songs in progress.  Seven have all of the rhythm guitar parts done and are in the ready for vocals list.  Three more have guitars recorded but still need to have the song forms worked out.  Four more still need more pieces to be written.  Tomorrow is the half way point of the month.  I’d say I’m in half decent shape.

Some, not All

I didn’t even come close to getting as much done as I’d hoped today, but RPM progress has been made. I am now up to nine songs with rhythm guitars recorded. Yay, eh? It’s almost time to break out the acoustic guitar. Be afraid!

I thought I was going to have two full work days with the house to myself. I was wrong. I will have one full work day with the house to myself. I will have to get as much vocalizin’ and socializin’* done on that day as possible, and then cram in the rest when I can get a free minute here and there. The double album plan is kaput.

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*That is a Bloom County reference. Death Tongue. Remember that? Before they sold out and went all corporate rock and changed their name to Billy and the Boingers? When Opus learned what Bono already knew? No words rhyme with Nicaragua? Remember? On the Death Tongue comic, Steve Dallas was listed as lead vocalising and socialising. One of the two spellings I’ve used on this post might be correct. Also, both of the spellings could be wrong.

Finally

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At long last, I have actually recorded guitar parts that are usable. Last Thursday I recorded the guitars for two songs but there was a lag issue between GarageBand for iPad and the Amplitube amp sim I was using and things sounded just a tiny, hair off. Other than that, there had been no actual instruments on any of my RPM songs to this point. It’s February 11th and I didn’t have a single guitar part recorded!

Today is my telecommute day though, and I was home from dropping off the kids by about 7:10. I spent the next hour and 40 minutes on guitars. I rerecorded the bad parts for those two songs from last week, and then cranked out two more songs. That’s four guitar parts down, nine to go, and I still need to add at least one more song.

My time management is pretty awful this year, but I will… I WILL… get everything done on time.

RPM Challenge – Day 9

This has been the weirdest RPM to date.  I have 13 songs in progress, but I don’t have a single recorded instrument track that is useable.  I’ve got a few guitar tracks down, but I want to replace all of them.  Everything I have so far is just built in GarageBand sounds.  Guitar, bass, and drums.  I have so much guitar to do that it’s starting to feel overwhelming.  Every day I come home and say, tonight I record guitars!  Then every night something comes up.  It’s getting frustrated.  I took a couple of days off from work next week to start vocals.  I need all of the rhythm guitars done before then, never mind adding real bass guitar.  

Like I said, weirdest RPM experience ever.

You Had a Music Recording Project?

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.

New Old Song

Written in pieces in 1994 and put together and finished off sometime in 1995 during my “arrangements too complicated for people to actually play” phase.

Recorded in January 2015 during my “Ancient History Revisited Volume 2” phase.

Mixed in September 2015 during my “I have songs ready to mix?” phase.

I’m not terribly pleased with this recording. I might remix it. I might scrap big chunks of it (I’m looking at you guitar solo and vocal harmonies). Probably not. It’s done and done.

Who Knew?

I’m trying (and so far failing) to turn this weekend into a recording music weekend.  I knew I had a bunch of unfinished noodles in GarageBand.  The plan was to try and finish one or two of them.

Little did I know but I have three songs finished and ready to mix.  One is an old song from last January.  The other two are brand new from a failed attempt at an album-in-a-day from the day the bathroom remodeling started.

Who new?

Music from this Past Weekend

I told you all that I played really poorly at this past weekend’s practice, and that the pain in my hand was significantly worse than ever before.

Did I also tell you that I recorded most of the practice and didn’t notice until we were done that one of the two mics on the drums was muted on the mixing board? Other than that the recording is almost okay. Next week I have to turn my vocal mic WAY up and maybe nudge the PA output up a smidgen. Also maybe turn up the guitar a bit. As for the drums, un-mute the right channel (you fat idiot), pull the low end up a little more (again) and maybe turn both channels down a hair so that the crash cymbals don’t blow your brains out when you’re listening with headphones on.

Oh yeah, and don’t play the guitar like a quadriplegic with the IQ of a salmon egg. That will help improve the quality as well.

Here are a few songs from Sunday. I picked the ones with the fewest colossal guitar screw ups, although the guitar is a touch out of tune on the Gaga tune.