Tag: Rpm Challenge

Amp Sim

I just put two tracks of rhythm guitar onto RPM song #3. I used a third party amp sim. Amplitube 5, the free version. I’ve used amplitube mobile apps before, but this is the first time I’ve used the Mac version, and the first time I’ve used a third party amp sim in GarageBand for Mac.

Amplitube has a Fender amp version that costs money. If I’m going back to sims for this year’s project I could really go for a 4×10 Tweed Bassman. The version I installed yesterday has a bunch of in-app purchase options for simulations of real amps. I saw a Mesa Boogie Cali Tweed and I really want to buy it. I really want to buy a real Cali Tweed but I don’t want to spend the small fortune that would require.

Amps are fun.

Week 41 Weigh In

I am pleasantly surprised and rather pleased. I mentioned before that I have been eating a lot more than usual. I’ve been eating things that aren’t necessarily good for me too. I’ve been handling it all okay for the most part, though the couple of ounces of peanuts I tried to eat last night gave me the worst bought of nausea I’ve experienced since the start of this whole thing.

I expected minimal weight loss at best, and realistically with all the stress eating and difficulties of the last week I expected to gain a little weight. I did not. I lost 1.8 pounds, which under the circumstances feels like a ton. I now weight 222 even. My BMI dropped 0.2 points to 27 even. I’m inching closer to that mythical, magical 25 mark. My weight loss since the surgery is now at 209.4, and my weight loss since the first check in moved the 10’s column and reached 230.4.

At the wake Monday night I lost track of the number of times someone came through the receiving line and didn’t recognize me. While it was life affirming every single time, I also got a little tired of it. I get it, I am thinner. Can we focus on the topic at hand please? I don’t know. I felt guilty about feeling good about my health while my mother was 10 feet away in a casket.

On an unrelated note, I am watching the last few minutes of The Mandalorian season two, episode six. I just watched Boba Fett kick the crap out of a drop ship full of stormtroopers. If only the Book of Boba Fett season had followed suit. Oh well. I think I am going to include that show in my Mandalorian pre-season three prep binge anyway. It was good, it just wasn’t great. Except for the episodes with Mando and Baby Yoda, of course. Those episodes were stellar.

On another unrelated note, I took today off to recover from the wake and the funeral. It might be the best move I’ve ever made, career wise. I need a decompression day. Jen is working though so I am not going to play guitar through an amp all day. I am going to play guitar through an amp sim though. I have eight songs to put rhythm guitars on before I sleep tonight. I will get The RPM Challenge on track today, even if it kills me.

Mad and Annoyed and Frustrated and Mad

I finally did some real recording tonight and now I am pissed off.

I got through two songs without issue. Two amps, two mics, two tracks in GarageBand. No problems.

On the third song, the track from the mic on my Deluxe Reverb started getting all sorts of weird, staticy noise. When I took the headphones off it sounded fine to me. No issues. Put the headphones back on and horrible, awful, disgusting noise. I changed the channel on the interface, changed the mic cable, changed the mic. Nothing fixed it. I shut everything off and took a minor hissy fit and went back upstairs to watch TV with my beloved Jennifer.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

164/365
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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.

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.

Sunday Morning

It’s 7:13am on a Sunday morning in January. What’s going on?

Tons. I’m going to have a busy day, I think.

My exercise is done for the day, as well as over 60% of my calorie goal. Nice. I am going to visit my father today and take him to visit my mother. I’m not going to have a ton of time to spend visiting though. I have to work today. I have a ton of paperwork to do that should have been done over the last week but got pushed aside due to some super hot customer issues. I’ll get as much of it done today as possible and get to the rest of it tomorrow. I’ll have it all done on time, but it’s going to make today suck a little.

What about the new cat? She started under the bed. We took one of the little covered cat bed/house things we got for Patches last year and put it into the bedroom. We also brought the cat tree we got for the cellar remodel and put that in the bedroom too. We sat in the room with her for a while but eventually just left her alone. Jen snuck back in to check on her and found her sitting in the cat bed/house. She called to me to come and see and when I called back the cat got spooked and ran into the bathroom and hid under the vanity. Sorry, kitty. She stayed there for hours, even when we left her alone again.

When we started getting ready for bed she was in the bed/house thing again. She stayed there the whole time. We thought that was an improvement. Around 2:30am Jen got up for something and managed to coax her out. She was purring like a porche and rubbing against our legs and just being super friendly. We got her to jump up onto the bed so we could pet the crap out of her. She seemed to love it. When we tried to lay down though she jumped off and tried to hide behind the cat tree. After a minute or so she ran out of the room and down the hall. I found her in the other bathroom crouching behind the door. When I moved the door a little she ran back to the bedroom and went back into the bed/house.

While she was walking around in the middle of the night, Jen was able to show her where the food and water and litter box are. We had all of it in the bedroom because we wanted them close so she could find them if she needed them. I am a little worried because I don’t see any signs that she’s eaten anything yet. We had dry food and lots of treats and we put them out for her, but I also went to a pet store to buy some toys (Patches didn’t really go for cat toys so we didn’t have any) and some wet food. I am going to put some of the wet food out this morning and see if she goes for it. We were told that she had surgery on Friday (she was spayed) so she might not have an appetite as she recovers. I just want to give her all the options we can though.

What else is going on? Music. Have I played the guitar at all this weekend? No, no I haven’t. Asshole. I am starting to think about recording ideas for RPM, even if I haven’t had a single musical thought. I am considering going with two amps at a time again. I have my Fender Deluxe Reverb here so that amp is going to be used like crazy. I might bring out my Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 and use it and the Deluxe Reverb together through the AB/Y splitter. It’s going to be pretty loud down here if I go this route, so I might try it to start with and then change my mind. The amps will be in a corner of the cellar that is as far away from the living room as I can get, and it’s reasonably far away from Jen’s office so hopefully it will be okay. If I bother her at all though, I’ll turn off the 18/30 and just go with the Deluxe. I have a speaker soak for the Deluxe so I can turn up the volume knob without getting obscenely loud. As for the guitar I want to use, it will be the Les Paul Standard again. I freakin’ adore that guitar. I will wait until either next weekend or the actual start of February before I put new strings on the guitar, but I really need to play at least a little bit every day to try and get my fingers into something that resembles playing shape.

Okay, I think that’s the gist of today. It’s time to start waking up for real and get something to eat. Happy Sunday, folks!

Practice, You

The RPM Challenge starts in 11 days and I haven’t touched my guitar in ages. I need to practice my ass off in the time remaining to get myself into playing shape. I swapped an overdrive pedal on my board today in the hopes it would trick me into playing tonight. It didn’t work.

I just read about another music guy who apparently passed away. I didn’t catch when. It wasn’t someone particularly famous, but he owned Boston’s best recoding studio, Fort Apache, and he produced some of my favorite records by some of my favorite bands, House Tornado by Throwing Muses and Surfer Rosa by The Pixies, and he managed some of my favorite bands, Belly and Juliana Hatfield. His name was Gary Smith and it sucks that he’s gone.