Tag: Recording

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.

Not Going to Share

I finally did it last night at band practice.

I set up mics on the drums, on the bass amp, and on the guitar amp, and ran a line out from the PA, all into my Mackie board, then into my Lexicon USB interface, and then into GarageBand in stereo. It worked!

But I ain’t sharing any of it. Not this time at least.

The bass guitar is UBER loud (although the tone has a nice snap to it). The drums are really, really quiet and have no bottom end at all. The guitar is a little low compared to the vocals. Kevin’s voice is a touch on the loud side but not too bad. My voice is WAY low in the mix (just how I like it!) and needs to come up.

In other words, the mix is all but unlistenable. I knew that would happen though. I will make some adjustments on the board next week and see how it sounds, and then repeat the process the following week until I have a mix I can live with. I don’t want to take time out of practice to adjust things, so I will just do it week to week based on what sounds bad on each successive tape.

Also, I don’t think we were terribly good last night. After the last two practices being really great. I am pretty disappointed in myself. Listening to a nice clean recording just makes my shitty playing all the more obvious.

Next week I hope to have something to share. Maybe.

What to Do

Our bathroom remodeling is scheduled to start on Tuesday.  We are trying to fudge our work schedules so that at least one of us will be home each daY the work proceeds.  I get one telecommute day per week, and I can probably sneak in another.  Jen, my beautiful bride, can probably sneak in a couple as well.  In an attempt to not over do the extra TCing, I decided to take my last available (for now) vacation day on Tuesday.

That means I’ll be home all day with nothing to do while the work is happening.  What should I do with the day?

Last night before bed an idea came to me.  A musical idea.  I’ve done all of the Internet album in a month challenges, but I’ve never done one of the album in a day deals.  When Jen, my beloved wife, goes to sleep on Monday I’ll bring up GarageBand.  I’ll goof for an hour or so and then go to bed.  When she gets up at around 5:00 am I will get up as well and start cranking.  I’ll go to bed on Tuesday at the same time I started playing on Monday night.  Hopefully at that time I’ll have about 30 minutes worth of new songs.

I’m such a nerd, and there’s no way I’ll manage this… But it’s fun to consider it.