Tag: Recording

Eight Months

Eight months ago today I turned 50 and my wife got me an amazing birthday present. She bought me a Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s and I absolutely love it. I adore it. It gets me and I get it and we’re besties now and everything is perfect.

I haven’t played any other guitar since that day, even though I own a small but growing army of electric guitars (five, and my teenage self is in awe).

Well… I just broke the streak. I’ve been thinking of a gimmick for the RPM Challenge. Instead of just double tracking all of the rhythm guitar parts (which I always do), why not double track with different guitars? Maybe even different amplifiers? Sure it will make mixing more complicated, but it could be fun. If I do this, I expect the two guitars to be the new Les Paul and the SG Standard that I bought myself in 2018. Unless of course I finally brave the Covid and go somewhere to trade in my Fender Stratocaster for a Les Paul Junior, in which case the Junior would be the other guitar. That’s not likely to happen though, so it will be Les Paul in one ear and SG in the other.

Tonight I decided to break out the SG and use it on a Record Every Month song for January. I’ve got two songs going right now. They both kinda suck, but I’ll finish them. Now the song that has the working title of REM JAN 01 Mac has SGs where everything else since May has Les Pauls.

Music Nook Number One Lives

I was too loud playing in the cellar so I moved back upstairs (for now) where it’s further away from my wife’s office, has a heavier door (our bedroom used to be the garage), and a slightly quieter amplifier.

The bedroom music nook is alive and well. I took the new vibe pedal with me but not the wah, only because I didn’t have any wah friendly tunes to work on.

I redid some guitars on a re-recording while I was in the cellar, and then added rhythm guitars to two more songs once I was back upstairs. I still have one song that I hope to get to tonight, and then I have to write lyrics and melodies for two of them. If I can get that done tonight then there are a whopping seven songs lined up for car music in the morning. Yikes!

Nook Number 2 Fail

I’ve been playing in music nook #2 and it’s bugging the Mrs as she works. Right then, moving back to music nook #1 in the bedroom.

I was afraid of this. I can’t really get the big Bassbreaker any quieter. The Vox might be okay but I’ll try that next time.

For now, it’s back upstairs.

The Kids are Here

The kids got here a couple of hours ago. That makes me very happy.

Lots going on at work. Changes coming. Small, low level reorganization. Good things on the way. I just can’t talk about it, not that I would say anything outside of the most vague references the English language will allow anyway.

The Book of Boba Fett is on tonight. I don’t know if anyone will want to watch it with me. I liked the first episode, but I think I might have been the only one in the house who did. A co-worker said the second episode is excellent. Fingers crossed. Hopefully it has Han Solo coming around for some pay back, you Boba Bitch. A boy can dream, right?

I did some music before work this morning. I put a MIDI bass part onto one of the two new January song ideas. No melody yet. Nothing to sing. I have a few re-records ready for vocals, but I want to have something new to sing before I go for the drive again.

The Bruins won last night. They are 3-0 since coming back from the Covid shut down. They play Minnesota tomorrow. Keep the streak going.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a speech on the investigation into last year’s treasonous terrorist insurrection at the US Capital. Remember that? When a bunch of trump cult maga terrorists tried to violently overturn the 2020 presidential election? The speech boils down to this: We’re working on it. That’s all I wanted to hear, Merrick. Well… maybe that and you’re planning on picking up the pace. Fascist heads need to roll.

17 minutes until the end of the work day. I’m ready.

Guitar Pain

I hid away in the cellar tonight playing the guitar. I came up with something new for the Record Every Month thing for January. I came up with something last night but tonight’s is probably a little better. I’ll probably finish them both. The thing I worked out tonight was really hurting my left hand. Lots of cramping (arthritis, maybe?) painful pain.

Next I worked on a re-recording. I hadn’t done anything accept setup the GarageBand file. It’s the same file I used when I wrote the song last February. I pulled apart the mix and left one rhythm guitar track and one vocal track as guides. Normally I replace the MIDI tracks, drums and bass, before I replace the guitars, but this time I started with guitar. Why? Because I just didn’t want to stop recording tonight, that’s all.

I probably should have picked something easier because this particular re-recording took my already hurting left hand and amplified the pain by a factor of 50. Damn, was I hurting. I got through everything, though I am not entirely sure I’m happy with it. I’ll have to live with it for a few days before I decide if I want to do it again.

My hand is still a little sore, but mostly I am feeling better. It was really hurting tonight. I don’t like when that happens. I don’t like it at all.

For the record, here is the already super messy desk I’ve been using, complete with the Bruins game (second intermission, leading 3-2 over New Jersey) on my iPad.

Everything Works

I have used the cellar music nook. I put rhythm tracks on two songs, leads on one, and started noodling some changes for one more.

The new wah and vibe pedals are awesome.

I only used the big Fender amp and only on the lower watt channel, but the only thing that wasn’t sounding sweet was the ugly paneling on the walls, babie.

What Will Go Wrong?

The kids are coming over today.
There’s a new Star Wars show premiering today, The Book of Boba Fett.
We are going to have the Christmas dinner we were supposed to have on Christmas but didn’t.
It’s not too cold out (forecast calls for mid to high 30s).
I got a pretty good night’s sleep last night.
I put down all of the midi tracks for two songs this morning before work.

That’s a lot of good stuff for a Wednesday, don’t you think?

I wonder what’s going to come along and blow the happy vibes?

Hang in there, kids. Only two more work days until New Years Eve.

Music Nerd/TV Nerd

I haven’t recorded anything in a couple of weeks now and my mental state is starting to show it. I know what the next few songs to re-record are going to be and today I actually started monkeying with the MIDI on one of them. Time to get back into it, I think.

I am considering setting up a second guitar playing/recording nook in the cellar and I don’t know why. I want to use my big amp and my big pedal board and I don’t really have the room for either of them in the bedroom nook. I’m also thinking about going back to two amps for the 2022 (2020 too) RPM Challenge and that’s just easier to do down cellar. There’s also the fact that the cellar is 90% empty and not being used for anything other than laundry and I just want it to feel useful. I’m still undecided, but it could happen.

For TV, I started watching Wheel of Time last night on Amazon Prime. I have heard so many good reviews that I wanted to check it out. I got 15 minutes into episode one and turned it off. I can’t say it’s good or bad or anything, I just don’t know if I have another sword and sorcery story in me right now. I think Game of Thrones might have broken that part of my brain. I still haven’t watched the Hobbit movies either, so maybe it was Lord of the Rings that broke my brain and Game of Thrones was just the last gasp? I don’t know. I picked episode one up again this morning but didn’t have time to finish it. Maybe I’ll just power through.

Also, The Book of Boba Fett starts tomorrow. Have I mentioned that?