My 365

[TapeDeck]

I'm going to write and record one idea per day this year. It's my resolution. Let's see if I can pull it off. I'll post some of the more amusing (to me) ones on this thread.

It's an experiment to see how much a routine will impact my ideas, my familiarity with my DAW (Cubase) and hardware (Steinberg MR816CSX) etc, my on the fly engineering and production, etc. Generally... there will be a lot of suck. I'm also going to use this experiment to force myself to learn how to sing with decent tone. My pitch has never been a problem, but goodness, I sound lame.

I'll keep all of my nonsense in one thread. I won't post every song. Some of the ones I've done so far (started this last weekend) have sucked plenty. Some ended up nowhere close to song-like. And I'm not posting any of my singing until I work out how to sing a lil better. Can't polish a turd (unless you watch Mythbusters.)

Disclaimer: since I'll have anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours to both write and record tunes, they probably won't be very refined. Programming drums takes time... writing lyrics takes time. Getting halfway decent takes--takes time.

First one I'll share...

I was asked to make a Flamenco style Mario theme song, but to change it enough so as to not get the company a cease and desist order. So I put it in Phrygian Dominant and omitted a few parts, and wrote things around the melody, as opposed to using all of the normal harmony in that tune. I actually had a time deadline for this thing... I was told about the podcast they were doing... that they were recording that afternoon and releasing that evening. So I did this in about 90 minutes.

$100 Cort Nylon string. 2 Octava MC012 mics.
Yes, I used a pick for most of this. I didn't want to have to put in more than an hour recording this thing. The solo is just filler for fade-out. Sloppy and poor timing. But it wasn't going to be used, just faded, so it didn't matter.

No click track. Started with me thunking the guitar for about 3 minutes, and then it was rhythm guitar, then melody one, the claps, rhythm 2 (the pseudo bass) and melody 2 and a 3rd layer.

http://www.psomusic.com/365/01%20Ice...20Flamenco.mp3

Next one I'll share is the one I recorded tonight.

Roland Cube 60 direct. Cubase, MR816CSX. All effects are just Cubase stock plugins. Overused. Way silly. Far too many effects. No bass. My way of looking at this one was "if I write an instrumental I actually want to use, I'm going to be re-recording a more serious effort, with real amps, etc" so I didn't want to take the mix that seriously. The guitar is a Fernandes Monterrey Elite with the horrible Sustainer circuit pulled, and a DiMarzio something or other in the neck... maybe an Air Classic? I fergitt.

If you dislike shitty rock guitar instrumentals, don't bother listening.

http://www.psomusic.com/365/04%2004%2010_30_09.mp3

Thoughts are always welcome!

[jjb]

Remember to keep these early recordings, so you can compare your progress as the year progresses.

jjb

[TapeDeck]

Yeah, that's what I figured will be the most interesting part, and the most valuable part will be (if I achieve them) the goals of the project.

Here's tonight's. Very short and simple, as a result of a brutal, brutal day of physical work. My arms feel like beef jerky.

Major noise problem tonight, which I hope to explore and solve tomorrow. Seems to be a ground issue. I tried to gate it out, but the tracks are legato in feel, so it's there. Sort of sounds like snare rattle, when you have a band rehearsal in a room with extra drums, and no one bothers turning off the snares...

One serious clunker, but it's all 1 takes.

Temporary drums. I like this one, and I think I'll probably re-visit it at another time and write a full song out of it, and get rid of my silly guitar leads. All fingers this time, going for a Beck-style attack to the lead guitar notes.

Happy Birthday Tom

[TapeDeck]

This was a vocal tune that I came up with while driving up to the shop after watching "Visioneers" tonight (interesting movie ...not great... but worth a lazy Sunday night... but I don't want to get more in depth on it, because I hate spoilers)

So I came up with lyrics and vocal melodies on the way up here, and I'm too wiped to record them. Plus, I wouldn't have shown it to you guys had I sung on it. Not ready for that sort of horror show right now.

Kill the Thing You Love

This differs from the last few, in that it is actual amp. It's the JTM45 Brown Eye. No care was taken in miking. Just threw a 57 on the cab, threw my jacket over the mic and cab, and bam. I'm okay with miking a V30 (Port City OS 1X12 this time) from enough setup and teardown, but it's inappropriate to just throw a mic out there and record. When you care, anyway. Anderson with an Arcane humbucker in the bridge. Drop D. $100 bass guitar with 15 year old strings.

I bounced the drums and did a quick mix on them, and you can hear how much MASSIVELY better they sound. I knew that was the case, but I've been lazy because after you bounce, you will need at least a few minutes to set up some basic EQs and compression/gating etc, and then 15 or so mixing, even with no automation being used.

[TapeDeck]

Song 8 is my fav so far.

Only because the acoustic solo was 1 take and no punches, so that makes me feel like there's hope for me yet.

7 Days

Guitars: Santa Cruz Tony Rice for all acoustics. Oktava MC012s for the mics. I used Dunlop .73 Nylons for all the acoustic rhythm stuff. I love my Red Bears and Jazz III's but they don't sound nearly as good when strumming, and they DON'T sound like Tortoise for strumming. They sound GREAT for single notes (the solo) and sound a lot like tortoise for that stuff. I compared with an actual tortoise pick, which was better on the strumming stuff, but the nylon picks were better still.

Electrics are my Heritage H575. Got very Metheny sounding (like American Garage tone) which cracked me up, because I don't play anything like Metheny, as much as I love the guy.

There's a part that needs more layers. I hear it too.

Same crap $100 bass. Bounced the Superior Drums again, which I will do from now on, since it's that much better. I didn't spend nearly as much time mixing this time, though. I can already make this one sound a lot better, but it's 3:AM and I've been doing this for about 4 1/2 hours. This is frickin' hard work. I don't mean to bitch, but man, it gets brutal!