Update: I just finish mixing the last song I had that was ready to mix. That’s 12 finished songs. Now I need to put lead guitars onto the last eight songs so I can mix those too. Harry is awake so I am in the clear.
However… I haven’t eaten anything in over 17 hours so I’m breaking for a much needed lunch.
Isn’t all of this so exciting to read about? Don’t you just love it?
I just finished mixing the 10th song for this year’s RPM Challenge. The goal is 10 songs or 35 minutes and right now I have 10 songs and 35 minutes. Actually, I’m at a smidge more than 45 minutes. There are still songs to go though. Double album or bust! I still have four more to go to finish FAWM too. I’m planning to work on mixes until Harry wakes up. Then I’ll start picking off the remaining guitar parts. Harry is 18 and it’s school vacation. I expect him to sleep until 1:00 PM at least. That’s a smidge more than an hour and a half from now.
I’ve mixed two songs this morning. One is pretty decent:
The other probably isn’t as good, but it’s still okay.
You can sing the title of this post to the tune of The Final Countdown if you want. I choose not to, but now that I’ve said it I probably will.
Saturday February 27, 2021. It’s the start of the final weekend of this year’s RPM Challenge. Eight songs need lead guitar. A total of 12 songs need to be mixed.
Can I do it?
I can do it.
Bring it on, oh my brothers and only friends.
ohmygodohmygodohmygod there are only two days left. oh no oh no oh no.
I mixed two songs tonight. That brings the total of completed songs up to eight. Interestingly enough, because I’ve been overdoing it with the length of each song this year, it puts me over the 35 minute mark. I’m at 37:50, to be exact. That means I officially qualify as a winner of the RPM Challenge. Remember, RPM defines an album as 10 songs or 35 minutes. Hooray, eh?
I didn’t record any guitars today though so that means I still have a whopping eight songs left to finish, and then I need to mix those eight and another four that already have their lead guitars finished. By the time I pack it in on Sunday night my ears are going to be reduced to mush.
Here are the songs I mixed tonight. This one is okay. I don’t think I will drop this one from the final album:
This one isn’t terrible, but it’s definately in danger of being dropped:
Day 25 is coming to a close. There are only three days left. Am I panicking?
In word…
YES.
I got a nice bit of work done tonight, but it’s nowhere near enough.
I put lead guitar onto five songs and mixed one song.
Right now I have six songs finished, six songs ready to mix, and eight songs still waiting on lead guitars.
Three days left… that’s it. Oh boy.
I made some good progress today but it wasn’t nearly enough. This morning before work I recorded the last four vocals. I’m all done with the singing! Can I get a hallelujah, people?
Tonight, after watching Avengers: Endgame with Jen and Harry, I mixed two songs.
That’s it. I have 13 songs that need lead guitars and I didn’t work on any of them.
As for the two mixes, this one seems okay and I kinda like the song:
For this one, I kinda like the song but the performance and the audio recording are just complete garbage. I have no idea how I let something that sounds this crappy slip through:
There are only four days left and I have so much guitar left to track. Tomorrow. Definitely.
The vocal tracks for the month are all done. Every last out of tune note has been sung. No more singing for this RPM Challenge, Babie!
This morning before work I wrote lyrics and melodies for two of the January songs. They both suck, hard.
After work I cooked dinner for my beloved bride, called my both of my parents, watched a little youtube to learn about remodeling kitchens, had a lovely Facetime call with my step daughter in Vermont, ate a little bowl of chocolate ice cream because stress, and then recorded the last two rhythm guitar parts and added leads to one other song. I then wrote the last two sets of lyrics and melodies.
All the rhythm guitars are recorded. All of the melodies are written. All of the lyrics are written. Tomorrow I am planning on pre-work car music to put vocals on the last four songs. Outside of that I have four songs ready to mix, and nine songs that are waiting for lead guitars (it will be 13 once the vocals are done).
Holy shit snacks, I have a lot of stuff left to do and only five days left to do it.
Uh oh.
On a sort of unrelated, but still very much related, note, the sound I got out of the Ryra The Klone overdrive pedal pushing the Wren and Cuff Super Russian fuzz pedal tonight was bordering on magical. I just hope the recording was able to capture it. I had the gain on the overdrive pedal all the way down and the gain on the fuzz down to about 9:00. It just worked. It was one of those fall in love with Big Muff style fuzz pedal moments. Sweet.
What did you have for lunch today?
One week to go. I did a lot of work today and most of it was dumb.
The smart work was putting lead guitar onto three songs. I still have eight to go.
The dumb work… As if finishing 14 songs isn’t enough, I stupidly added a ton of work for myself. With all of the vocals done I guess I got over confident. I had eight files in progress from January. None of them had any actual recording, they were just MIDI Garageband instruments. Three of the eight had the song form worked out. The other five didn’t. Like I moron, I brought most of those songs into this month’s project. First I took the three songs with the form worked out and redid everything. They were all just drums and bass, but they were recorded in January so I had to replace everything. After that was finished I went to work on the five that didn’t have the form. On two songs I replaced the bass and drums for the fragments I had and then finished off the form. Of the three remaining, one was too crappy to keep, one was just me humming into an audio track so I dumped that, and the other one was literally an empty file. There was nothing recorded on it at all.
So at this point I’m up to 19 songs. Well, 19 isn’t good enough. If I have 20 I’d be able to have two full RPM Challenge albums. So like a doofus I came up with a 20th song. Call it February #15. When I was last working on car music it was raining out. When I was finished for the day I took a couple of minutes and just pointed the microphone at the sun roof and recorded the sound of the rain for about two minutes. I used that as a background for the extra song. I am such a nerd.
Oh, and if all that isn’t dumb enough, while I was all setup to record lead guitars I decided to warm myself up by putting rhythm guitars on two of the January songs.
What an idiot. Now instead of the end being in site, I have a shit load more to do with only seven days to do it. Moron.
Inside the Red Head's Head 