Concept-thingy Recording Time

Yo! Just a quick update after a looooong time without posting. My big project at the time is this concept-album-thing I’ve been working on for the last year (or thereaboutz), i did some demoing last summer (2013) and fleshed out some major parts, but didn’t really finish anything. Since then I’ve been focusing on 2-3 parts/sections/songs that I now know are ready to be recorded and done with. so that’s what I’m going to do next week (Feb 17. to the 23.)

 

I’ll do my best to film a whole lot and try to be as in-depth as possible concerning gear, sounds, mics and all that good stuff.

‘Tis Time For A Concept Thingy!

So, I’m writing this concept piece/thingy! The plan is a 20 min epic with EVERYTHING! acoustic stuff, electric stuff, heavy stuff, quiet stuff, solos, vocals and maybe even some choral music!! I’m in the middle of fleshing stuff out, arranging and demo’ing everything. I WILL FILM SOMETHING THIS TIME!! Hopefully I’ll start recording in June, playing everything myself and maybe get some guest vocalists on board. hopefully I’ll have some small snippet of film for ya soon!

Christmas Project: Here it is!!

I’m done!

It’s been an interesting journey with lots of frustration, not knowing where to take things, figuring out chords and melodies, making it interesting enough and so on. It’s not perfect, but that was part of the plan. I wanted something a little more raw and old school. Usually i favor more of a”polished” production style (TOTO/Steely Dan-ish) and i had the urge to sweeten things, brighten this, compress that, but NOT THIS TIME. I think i achieved that somewhat. i listened to certain artists to get ideas, like Bill Withers, D’Angelo, Bernhoft. This also marks my one year on this blog, if you remember, my first post was last year’s Christmas project

So, i hope you all enjoy and comment if you like

Christmas Project: Mixing Time!

Yesterday was the last day of recording, everything is done and now comes that glorious last part of the process which is mixing! hopefully I’ll get it done today.

And so, as the sun shines through my bedroom window on this cloudless winter day

let mixing commence!!

Christmas Project: Brass and Bass

Some nice people came and recorded some fine brass parts last week. It was my first time recording and miking brass, so i just kinda put up a mike and hoped for the best. and thankfully, the tracks sound good! i was relieved to take away those awful midi-patches and replace with the real deal. success!!

Mr Bassman came ’round the next day to lay down some bottom end, got most of it done too. the last day of recording is next Monday (10 Dec), in which the remaining vox and bass will be tackled. It’s strange how plans shift and evolve. I wrote earlier that i either wanted to have a “band” sort of lineup, same people singing and playing or go full out with different vocalists and so on. In the end i ended up having just one vocalist, a vocalist who i firstly brought along as a “co-arranger” or a fresh pair of ears if you will. I never considered him singing at all, but he has done a great job thus far! So, all that is left is vocals on two more songs and some fretless bass.

Then mixing and releasing!

As for video, i have filmed a great deal, but it will most likely be one long clip instead of many shorter ones. There will be something at least!

 

Christmas Project: Arranging and head scratching

So, I’m hoping to get the arrangement done today (Sunday, Nov 4). I have demoed all the sections, and now it’s time to piece it all together.

Cue head scratching!

Well, the head scratching period is actually coming to an end. I’ve been struggling for some time now to find ways to transition from song to song,  and i think i got it finally! As i said, nearly all the songs are in different tempos and keys, so i had to have sections speeding up and changing keys (and trying not to make it too obvious!) going into a new section. As I’m typing, i still have some loose ends, mostly the overall order/arrangement and dynamically, when should things pick up, where’s the big climax etc.

hopefully i’ll get some video for ya soon!

New Christmas Project

I’m really bad at updating this blog, But that’s changing now that I’m gearing up for this year’s Christmas project!

In case you missed the last one

This year, I’m planning on recording a medley of 3-4 Christmas carols (and i bet there’s going to be a lot of head scratching considering the demos thus far are in different tempos and keys). My plan is to have a more soul/funk vibe, something i have little experience with! I’m really a rocker/progger, i like things to be melodic with a full, lush sound-scape, so this may prove to be a challenge. My first impulse is always to lay down some heavy guitars and sprinkle everything with lush synths, not this time! It may also feature less people, I’m torn between having a more “compact” band sound (essentially one vocalist, bass, drums, guitar, keys) or full band, horns and a choir!

Thus far, I have a couple snippets figured out, since all are based on classical/psalm-y harmony and usually played on organ, i find it hard to fit some of then into a new genre and sound. On almost every one i have worked on so far, i seem to want to thicken the chords more and make it sound more like Neo-gospel (contemporary gospel, really). I’ve noticed that i have always favored more lush and “complex” chords than straight major/minor chords, and as far as i can tell, that is very prominent in neo-gospel. The sound instrumentally is also pretty big and thick, with organ, keyboards/piano, guitars, horns etc. It’s based more on jazz than classical theory, so they often make crazy turns and go all over the place, but still having nice melodies (meaning not too “out there”) and a strong groove.

So my intention is to take these nice, quiet carols and take them to new places, change chords, tweak melodies and hopefully make something interesting!

I’ll try to film some of the arranging/recording process and upload as things progress!

5 Days = 5 Songs Challenge DAY 5

And so I’m finished, the final day was yesterday and the final song was done. It’s good to be done and nice to see a batch of songs completed, the best part is forgetting how some of the songs even go! I can see myself doing this more regularly, and maybe have other goals as well such as making a studio quality track in three days  or an EP in a week.

I would definitely recommend doing this if you’re stuck or want to write songs more often. You really see just what you can create when you’re on the clock with a deadline, and how you manage time. Even if the songs are all pretty basic and you feel you have heard them all before,  you get familiar with the process and as you progress, so will the songs. And they are not set in stone, you could take the verse from one, mix it with the chorus from another and so forth, possibly creating a killer new song!

Give it a try, i say!

5 Days = 5 Songs Challenge DAY 4

Only one more to go! Today’s song came out great and i didn’t use forever to come up with stuff! This one was more along the lines of what i wanted to make yesterday: more mellow, synthy and melodic. If i had to compare it to something i guess mid-80’s TOTO and in the chorus, Nik Kershaw, there’s a synth melody that reminds me a bit of The Riddle. The verses are kind of sad, minor-sounding, which is somewhat different from what I’d normally write, I usually like to keep things more upbeat and happy……ish. It actually worked out great and because of the minor feel, the vocal melody also became interesting and sorta fresh.

 

I’m beginning to see that the process of making and recording a good quality track doesn’t necessarily have to take months, maybe just a week or three days. The problem isn’t getting things tight and grooving, it’s getting parts and melodies that I’m happy with and that i think sound fresh and exiting. In the past I’ve had songs that i worked on for months without finding the right chords for the chorus or something and then found the perfect chorus maybe a year later! Finding the “perfect” chorus, for instance, for the song in just a few days or a week, that’s the challenge and being done when the song is done, instead of waiting for the ultimate chorus that you may spend months or years on discovering. I’ve come to realize that that’s a waste of time, it may benefit some times, if you hate what you’ve got, but having a deadline and setting limits is the way to go.

Now i just have to implement it myself….

5 Days = 5 Songs Challenge DAY 1

My brother gave me a challenge: to write and record 5 songs in 5 days, one song each day, starting Monday, ending Friday. Challenge may be the wrong word, It’s more like a songwriting exercise to speed up the process (normally i write, record and mix 1 song in anywhere from 6 month to one frickin’ year!)

The idea is to just make music without thinking about is so much, not being critical or over-analyzing it. The purpose is not to make the most polished, perfect sounding and most ingenious material ever, but rather to practice the songwriting process starting completely from scratch and ending up with a recorded song at the end of the day.

This is the end of day 1 (Monday) and I indeed have a song to show for, which is nice.

It’s an acoustic guitar-driven piece which i initially wanted to sound like a mixture of

Rascall Flatts and Steve Earle (I Ain’t Ever Satisfied comes to mind in the chorus). It ended up a little different, It’s like introspective acoustic pop in the verses and feel-good country in the choruses. One can only wonder what kind of fresh hell I’ll serve up tomorrow, only time will tell…