Tag: Rpm2015

The Final RPM Post

Here’s one you’ve been waiting for. The Final Official RPM Challenge Post for 2015.

My project has been uploaded into the RPM Challenge Jukebox. The final step is complete!

My Jukebox Page

There are still listening parties and stuff like that, including one in second life that I’ve always been curious about visiting, and a Portsmouth radio station is going to spend a full day playing nothing but RPM music from all over the world. That will stream online here. It’s scheduled to start at 12am on March 29th and run right straight through to midnight on the 30th. 24 hours of RPM music. Insane! I might check that out too.

Other than those things though, the annual craziness that is RPM is now officially finished.

Post Office Adventure

I made plans to drive to Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon.  At the last minute those plans fell apart.  I made new plans to drive to Portsmouth on Sunday morning.  At the last minute those plans also fell apart.  I did some Googlin’ and there is a post office down the street from work that opens at 8:30.  Nice.  I can mail the disc by noon on Monday without having to sneak out of the office for a wicked early lunch.

I get to the post office a little early, address the envelope, take the obligatory picture of the addressed envelope, the clock hits 8:30 and inside I go.

I have to punch in at work at 9:00.  I’m seventh in line.

Ummm…

One counter open.  Dude in front of me has three huge boxes that are all going different places using different services.  Woman in front of him has a package going to the UK and doesn’t know how to fill out the customs forms.

Ummm…

Suddenly the whole mailing in the CD by noon on March 2nd is feeling like the most challenging part of the challenge.  Fortunately a second counter opens.  I watch the post mark go onto the little envelope.  I pay my less than three bucks.  I hop back into the car and drive to work.

And realize that I forgot my ID badge and my glasses.  I blame this on the couple of inches of snow we had over night.  I was thinking more about shoveling the little snow bank at the end of the driveway than I was about getting to work.  Oh yeah, I can’t open the door to the building without my ID badge.  I had to stand there like a chump waiting for someone else to walk up.  And with no glasses… I can read the monitor okay, but my eyes get really tired and I get huge headaches.

Happy Monday, everyone!

New RPM on the Bandcamp Page

I uploaded the new RPM music to bandcamp. Please don’t pay for this. If you want it you can get it at my alonetone site for nuttin. If you insist on shelling out some dough, I would ask you to donate it to rpmchallenge.com.

What Next Musicwise?

All of the music for the RPM Challenge is complete. I need to burn a cd. Do I have a cd? I need to find a cd, then burn a cd, and then print out the cover (front and back! Fancy!). This year my beloved wife, the love of my life and woman of my dreams (I will never get tired of calling her those things. Swooooon) and I are going to drive to headquarters in Portsmouth, NH and hand deliver.

That leads to the inevitable post February musical question: What next?

Well for starters, I’m not going to do an RPM a month for the rest of the year, like I did last year. I’m also probably not going to take part in 50/90 again, though the jury is still out on that. What I was thinking of doing next is a little more complicated. First and foremost, the band takes precedence from this point on. No more recording when I’m supposed to be practicing. That doesn’t mean I’m done recording, it just means I’ll do it after practicing is done.

Second, I think it’s time to upgrade from GarageBand to Logic Pro X. It’s expensive, but it just seems time for something new, and being a total Apple nerd, that’s where I want to go next.

Finally, is it time to collect the highlights from 8+ years of home recording and make a best of album? Maybe, but it has to be something different. I figure 15–20 songs. I’ll record them the way I normally do, with midi bass, drums, and keys, and simulated amplifiers, but those will be scratch tracks. After everything is arranged correctly I’d bring my Marshal amp home after practices and replace the guitars with actual amplified noise. Next, maybe it’s time to bring Mike the Bass Player into the fold and let him replace the midi bass parts with the real thing. Maybe I could do the same with Greg the Lizardfish Singer. That would leave drums. I’d like to have Kevin the Lizardfish drummer replace the midi parts, but recording real drums is an absolute bitch of a process, not to mention the overwhelming majority of drummers puke at the thought of overdubbing drums onto an existing track. Neil Peart does it all the time, but he’s part genius, part human metronome, and part god on Earth. He’s the exception to say the least. I’m not sure that I’m up to the challenge of live drums. Technologically I know I’m not right now because I don’t have enough microphones, and I’d probably need a bigger USB audio interface.

Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking about.

Originally published at robj2112.wordpress.com on February 28, 2015.

What Next

All of the music for RPM is complete (see the previous post).  I need to burn a cd.  Do I have a cd?  I need to find a cd, then burn a cd, and then print out the cover (front and back!  Fancy!).  This year my beloved wife, the love of my life and woman of my dreams (I will never get tired of calling her those things.  Swooooon) and I are going to drive to headquarters in Portsmouth, NH and hand deliver.  

That leads to the inevitable post February question:  What next?

Well for starters, I’m not going to do an RPM a month for the rest of the year.  I’m also probably not going to take part in 50/90 again, though the jury is still out on that.  What I was thinking of doing next is a little more complicated.  First and foremost, the band takes precedence from this point on.  No more recording when I’m supposed to be practicing.  That doesn’t mean I’m done recording, it just means I’ll do it after practicing is done.  

Second, I think it’s time to upgrade from GarageBand to Logic Pro X.  It’s expensive, but it just seems time for something new, and being a total Apple nerd, that’s where I want to go next.

Finally, is it time to collect the highlights from 8+ years of home recording and make a best of album?  Maybe, but it has to be something different.  I figure 15-20 songs.  I’ll record them the way I normally do, with midi bass, drums, and keys, and simulated amplifiers, but those will be scratch tracks.  After everything is arranged correctly I’d bring my Marshal amp home after practices and replace the guitars with actual amplified noise.  Next, maybe it’s time to bring Mike the Bass Player into the fold and let him replace the midi bass parts with the real thing.  Maybe I could do the same with Greg the Lizardfish Singer.  That would leave drums.  I’d like to have Kevin the Lizardfish drummer replace the midi parts, but recording real drums is an absolute bitch of a process, not to mention the overwhelming majority of drummers puke at the thought of overdubbing drums onto an existing track.  Neil Peart does it all the time, but he’s part genius, part human metronome, and part god on Earth.  He’s the exception to say the least.  I’m not sure that I’m up to the challenge of live drums.  Technologically I know I’m not right now because I don’t have enough microphones, and I’d probably need a bigger USB audio interface.

Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking about.

PS, we aren’t driving to Portsmouth.  I’m going to mail the cd like I always do.

The Last RPM Song!

That’s it kiddos, I’m done with RPM for another year! The last song has been mixed, the cover art is done and the running order is set. All I have left to do is burn a CD, print the cover, and drop it off at headquarters.

I’ll share a playlist with the final running order soon. Probably tomorrow. For now? Sleep!

2nd to Last Day

RPM ends tomorrow. What do I have left to do?

Mix one song.
Decide if I want to drop any songs from the playlist. I need 10, I have 15. There’s lots of wiggle room. One looks dropable, another is a gimmick so it’s probably dropable too. Plenty left to make up a decent running order.
Come up with a running order. There are four songs that suck less than the rest. Those will go first. After that? No idea.
Make up an insert. I used to use a make a cd cover website. I hope that’s still up. I also need to put my name on the picture I posted yesterday.
Either mail the thing out, or drive to Portsmouth and drop it off. I might drop it off this year. It depends on how my wife is feeling (she has a cold) and how much homework she has to do.

Then figure out what music project is next.