August 06, 2007

I am off musicking, that’s where. It’s an interesting process, well-suited to my obsessive tendencies. I’ve not done much since my freshman effort in June, but once I figured out how to do the drum loop thing, I fell into the late-night sweaty-browed pale-skinned marathon o’ computational music-making. First there was a drum loop that I finally got to play properly. Then I thought, “Well, let’s lay down a scratch guitar part, and see how it sounds.” Then I decided to futz around with some fills, to change up the drums a bit. After that, it seemed like a good idea to add a bass track using this great Steinberg bass patch I found on the Karma. Then I wrote lyrics. I decided it might be interesting to take the acoustic guitar track, copy it, and apply distortion to the duplicated track. While listening to the rough mix on my iPod, I heard a string section. It wasn’t actually in the mix, but I could hear it, in between the rest of the stuff, which is a pretty good indication that it ought to be there. So I put it in. I hear some background yelps, too, so I’m going to put them in as well. I still have to record vocals and backing vocals. There’s a solo that needs doing as well, but I’m still searching for the right synth lead. I may press my long-suffering Kurzweil into service for that task, so it can earn its keep.

I've listened to the rough mixes a hundred times or more, using the repeat function on the iPod. Hours at a time, over and over, so if you do the math, that’s about twenty times an hour for a three minute piece, and I’ve probably gone over it for at least five hours by this point.

It’s a shame that such obsession has yet to produce a work of amazing genius, but then, you need talent for that sort of thing. I do enjoy it, though. It reminds me of my late teens, when I was able to sit in front of my Casio 3000 and program musical pieces into the machine’s step sequencer one note at a time, using its tiny LCD display.

It’s gotten a lot more complicated since then. But when it all comes together, it’s a wonderful thing, in a way that writing isn’t. With writing, it’s just me, and it’s always me, and no one will mistake it for anything else. With the music, it’s like I get to turn myself into a band. There’s a drummer, a guitarist or two, a bass player, a keyboard player, a singer, and some violinists. I become an ensemble, and make a big, godawful noise! I love that.

I shall inflict the cacophonous results upon you anon.

UPDATE:

Good lord this fun.