Tag: Recording

Attempting to Guilt Myself Into Making Progress

I made a playlist on hearthis.at with everything I have for the 2023 RPM Challenge so far. It’s all just midi tracks. No real life musical instruments. It’s 10 songs though and it runs about 40 minutes, so if I finish everything I have so far I can call this year’s challenge a win. I just need to find time to record guitars, write lyrics and finish writing melodies, record vocals, record more guitars, and mix. Yikes.

https://hearthis.at/rpm-works-in-progress/set/2023-rpm-wip/

So why is this not embedding the playlist? That used to work from hearthis.at, didn’t it? It didn’t work well, but at least it did something. I wonder what changed? Anyway, the link is there so I can get it when I need it, right? This weekend will require me to make a massive push, assuming time and family responsibilities and mental health allow. Ugh, so much to do.

Planning

My mother passed away on Sunday. On Monday, my brother and sister and I met with the funeral director. He gave us a packet of homework. We need to pick readings and music and some other things related to the funeral service. I didn’t do much on Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ve had some discussions on things over text but nothing concrete from me. I am getting back into the swing of it tonight. We bought a suit for my father on Monday. We’re (Jen and I) going to him tonight to let him try it on. It’s probably not going to fit very well, but hopefully it’s close enough. After that, we’re having a meeting to go over the homework. Speaking as an Atheist, I don’t have a lot of interest in the readings that happen during the mass. I’ll give my $0.02 but I might have more input on the music. There is one song that was played at my grandmother’s funeral that brought my mother to tears. That one will be included. They played it at my Aunt’s funeral a few months ago as well, for exactly the same reason.

It might be a mildly long night tonight. We’ll see. I am working today and need to try and have actual food for dinner at some point. I’ve been so dependent on protein bars and supplements for the last few weeks that I expect my stomach to start rebelling at any moment. I just had eggs for breakfast and I hope to have some chicken for lunch. Dinner… we’ll see.

With all of this going on I am starting to think that my RPM Challenge success streak is in jeopardy. Not that that matters at all. I am, however, about to finish season one, episode three of Star Trek Picard. Maybe I should have been working on some recording instead of watching TV. Forgive me, I am a little screwed up right now. Working on Tuesday and Wednesday was a little tough but the normalcy felt pretty good after the insanity of the last couple of weeks. I’m working from home today and tomorrow and then taking three days of bereavement time on Monday through Wednesday next week. I am allowed to take five days, but I don’t want to. I was even hesitant about taking the third day, but I think it will come in handy, mental health wise.

Okay, it’s time to start getting ready for work. Wish me luck today.

2023 RPM Challenge – Day 7 of 28

I just put this onto that tumblr page that I almost never use but try to post to regularly when I’m doing the RPM Challenge…….

As usual I am totally dropping the ball on the daily updates thing. I have been working at least a little every day, but I just haven’t been getting around to posting. I have 10 songs in progress. I just put the arrangement together for song #10. No real instruments yet, just midi drums and bass and a guide midi guitar and a midi keyboard playing the melody. Pretty much everything is on the slower and quieter side. I think there is only one rocker at this point and that might be stretching it a little. It’s just sort of mindset I am in right now. I don’t know how far I am going to push it this year. I don’t think I have a double album in me this year, but I’d like to try to go a little beyond just the 10 song minimum. Also not sure when I am going to get around to adding guitar tracks, but hopefully soon.

2023 RPM Challenge – Day 1 of 28

I just posted this on the stupid little tumblr page I sometimes use to keep daily updates for internet based music writing and recording challenges.

It’s February 1st again and it’s time for another round of the RPM Challenge. There is a ton of stuff going on in the real world right now so finding time/energy/motivation is going to be difficult at best. I’m off to a respectable start though. There are two songs underway. They are just midi tracks, but there are guides for guitar parts, a melody, and sketches for bass, drums, and percussion. Not bad for a hectic and stressful day one.

2023 RPM Challenge

Get ready kids, the onslaught of RPM Challenge posts is coming. I just signed up for the 2023 run this February. Musically speaking I’ve been asleep at the wheel for months, but once February gets here… woah boy, it’s going to get obnoxious around here.

Bring it on, I’m ready.

Ah, the Weekend

Saturday… at last. Actually, I was convinced that Thursday was Saturday, and then further convinced that Friday was Monday. Man, Thanksgiving is the best but it messes up my internal calendar like crazy.

We need to buy a christmas tree today. The kids will be here tomorrow to do some decorating before they go back to school. I want to have a tree up in the living room before they get here, and I want to give it a little time to shake itself out too. Ideally I would have put it up a few days ago but say no to pre-Thanksgiving christmas stuff.

I also need to go out and buy myself a warm jacket that actually fits me, unlike the warm jacket I own now. Our Saturday in New York plan is still on for now. We haven’t chickened out yet. Jen actually booked a hotel room yesterday. It’s outside of the city but near a commuter train station. It’s going to be cold out there in the big city and I need to stay warm. You see, one unexpected side effect of losing a shit load of weight is that I am cold all the time. All of that built in insulation I used to have is gone and now I find that the world is a very cold place. Jen was teasing me about it yesterday. I was teasing myself too. Brrr, babie.

I’m down to five days left in November, including today. How’s the album in a month project going? Well, it’s going to fail, but other than that it’s going well. Eight songs, about 33 minutes. The goal for this project is 29:09. None of the songs have vocals yet and only two have melody and lyrics. See? I’m going to fail. I want to do car music tomorrow morning and get some singin’ in. I’m not sure what the forecast looks like so I don’t know if I’ll be singin’ in the rain or not (hardy har har). That means I have to crank out melodies and lyrics today. Once the lyrics are done (which will likely take two or three car music attempts) I will have to do leads. That should be terrible. First, I am grossly out of of practice and brutally drowning in rusty. Also, I have no calluses on my finger tips so the playing will also be painful. It’s sort of a lose lose, right? I might not get it done by December 1st, but I’ll finish these eight songs (and maybe add a couple of minutes of instrumental noodling to get myself over 35 minutes).

Okay, folks. It’s 7:08am. My exercise is done for the day. I’ve watched an episode of Pennyworth and a couple of youtube videos on photography. Now it’s time to get my shite together and start my day. Happy Saturday, everyone.

Busy Holiday Morning

It’s been a busy morning so far. Since my last post I showered and shaved and had a Covid scare and visited both of my parents and played a little guitar to relieve the stress from the Covid scare and from my mother being in a less than wonderful state. Ugh.

No more amp sims for NaSoAlMo. All eight songs have rhythm guitars played through a mic’d up amp. Good.

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Amp Fun

The guitar was played tonight. It was played through an amplifier, not through a digital amplifier simulation. It was glorious, as always.

I redid the rhythm guitar parts for three of the five NaSoAlMo songs that I did with sims over the weekend. In all honesty, the sims probably sound better than what I can get with my meager skills, but the real thing feels better when I am playing and that’s what really matters for me.

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Busy Morning

Sunday has been eventful so far and it’s not even 10:00am yet.

I got out of bed around 5:30, went to the cellar and took care of my exercise ring while watching the second to last episode of The Midnight Club. I still haven’t decided whether or not I like that show, but it looks like I am going to finish it. I then ate breakfast. Just a protein bar. When that was done the clock told me it was 6:30 and the Google told me the sunrise was at 6:42 so I put on a coat (it was 26 degrees out, yikes!), grabbed Dad’s camera and out the door I went. I took a few pics at the Walnut Grove Cemetery and the camera didn’t have any issues. Curse broken? I then went to Greycourt Park and took a few pics of the castle ruins. I was thinking of getting a couple of downtown pics too but it was so cold out I decided not to. I went to Market Basket instead. I walked in the door at 7:20 and it was mobbed. What? 20 minutes after opening on a Sunday morning and it’s mobbed? I guess everyone is doing Thanksgiving today? Crazy. After the shopping was home and put away I washed some dishes in preparation for our faux Thanksgiving and then retired to the cellar where I put rhythm guitars (with amp sims, sadly) onto two songs and then came up with a third song. That brings the NaSoAlMo pipeline up to eight songs, all of which have rhythm guitars (though only three used a real amp).

Now I’m sitting at my desk typing this masterpiece, waiting for Jen to call me upstairs to start cooking the five-day-early-feast.

It’s been a pretty decent morning so far, wouldn’t you say? I might need a nap today.

Oh, I’d post some guitar pictures, and a couple of quick point-and-shoot snaps I took at my two photo shoot destinations this morning, but both my DSLR and my point-and-shoot are on the charger. The DSLR was about to die and the point and shoot did die. I could use my iPhone but… aw, hell, I’ll take one with my iPhone…

The pedals are on, but the amp is not. Sad face.

Direct Input

I said in a post from earlier today that I was thinking about just saying screw it and recording some guitar tracks via direct input into Garageband so that I could play while people were sleeping… and then I did it. I added guitars to two NaSoAlMo songs. They sound okay. I am so rusty that the playing was just bad. Who knows, if I get a burst of energy at a time when I can make noise I might redo the tracks from today through the glory that is my Deluxe Reverb. Until then, this will do.

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