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June 17, 2007
Tuneage!
The playing is mediocre at best, the mix is crap, I have no idea how to use my production software, it's got no chorus, no hook, four chords, a scratch vocal track, and it sounds a bit like early Yanni. But: it's the first thing I've actually recorded and turned into an .MP3 since I plunked down a billion dollars on my studio over two years ago, so I'm pretty damn happy about that. I've got 18,000 drum loops on order (really), and I'm hoping to use some of that as a foundation for tunes that aren't for robots, so much. No, that is not a contradiction. Real drum bits recorded by real session drummers, artfully arranged, will beat the chips out of the Korg Karma's rhythm section any day.
You can listen to "Limerence (Falls In Waves)" right here, if you dare. Probably best listened to through headphones, as I don't know how to do any of the stuff I'm supposed to do it make it sound less like crap through speakers. It also sounds better louder, which is another consequence of my utter lack of mixing skilz.
August 06, 2007
Where Am I?
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.
August 08, 2007
Warble GAK *thud*
Some nights you got it. Some nights you really, really don't.
I've got a bit at the very end of the track I'm recording that is at the absolute top of my vocal range and, try as I might, I couldn't...quite...hit it, either as Roger Daltry or as Axl Rose. My head voice just isn't working very well tonight. Annoying, because the vocals on the rest of the tune are OK. I like most of the version I laid down a couple of days ago but, unfortunately, I recorded it too hot, so it's all distorted and clipped and I can't use it. I think I'm going to have to give my throat a day of rest and then wade back into the mix. The solo's not quite coming together, either...I haven't found the right patch yet, and I'm using a weird tuning on the guitar, so my fingers haven't got the scales locked in on the keyboard.
Ah, well. It'll keep. At least I spent some time in front of the mic.
Writing and music are creative pursuits that I'm comfortable with. I can flail around a bit, and still have some vague sense of where I'm headed, and know that I'll get there eventually. Acting, on the other hand, is a foreign creativity. I don't have the language for it, really, so when I'm off the mark, as I usually am, I don't know where to go or how to describe what I'm trying to do. After class last night, Tony suggest that this discomfort may, in fact, be where I need to go, acting-wise. But I'm so unaccustomed to the discipline that I only half-understood what he meant.
I'm pretty fearless when it comes to such things, and I'm willing to go anywhere with the acting. There's no part I won't try, no character I won't attempt. Moving through this unfamiliar territory is good for me, but it is uncomfortable. That's kind of the point. Get out there and do it despite the fear and the chest pangs.
Actors, as a crowd, are different than writers or musicians. I haven't quite put my finger on it yet and, for all I know, it could just be me: I'm a writer, and a musician, but I don't really feel like I can lay claim to the actor label just yet. Maybe it's because I haven't really been on stage much, and what little work I've done was over a decade ago.
I've got a few more classes left, and then I'll see whether I feel like it's something I need to continue spending money on.
Right now, I'm going to put my Bluebird back in its box, read a bit, and sleep. Tomorrow, instead of hacking into the microphone, I'll finish up chapter four and send it off to the group.
A regular renny-sance man, that's me.
August 11, 2007
Warble GAK *thud* II: Attack of the Nasopharynx
Man, this singing business is complicated.
I mean, I've sung off and on for a large part of my life, usually with a guitar, hardly ever into a microphone of any kind, and never in a "Creative Output" type situation. By that I mean for a project, a specific piece of work, where I have to stand in front of a popscreened mic and actually produce something with a certain sound, quality level, and all the right notes in it.
As it turns out, the notes weren't the problem last night. It was the tone. Again, a head voice issue: I couldn't get the singing out of my chest and the middle of my throat. There's a certain resonance in my skull that I can feel when my head voice is in play, and it took me three takes to figure out that it wasn't.
It's a bit of a pain to record vocals in the apartment. I've got a real microphone, a sensitive, a large-diaphragm cardioid condenser. It hears everything. So, before I record, I have to close the windows, turn off the ceiling fan, the refrigerator, and the air filter, take my shoes off so that I don't toe-tap on the floor while I'm singing, and throw Bob into the bedroom. Even then, the room itself isn't the best, acoustically. The bare walls (one of which is entirely covered with mirrors) and pergo floors create a tight reverb, almost like a plate. Which actually sounds kind of cool, but it means that I don't have clean vocals to start with, so any processing I do is always plate reverb + whatever else I'm adding.
If I got much longer mic and headphone cords, I could record in the bedroom, which has carpeting. But I know from a previous neighbor that sound carries well through one wall of the room, and I wouldn't want to subject anyone to that. The other alternative is to use the closet. For now, I think I'll just deal with the reverb.
Chapter four is done and out to the group, all 2,000 meandering words of it. It's an interesting process. I think everyone else in the group has a significant chunk of their project written, between 100-200 pages, or even a full manuscript. I'm writing live, without a net, a brand-new chunk every week, with a minimum of polish or revision. I've decided to treat it like a magazine serial, with a very small readership. Dickens wrote his stuff that way...and I don't really like Dickens all that much, so it's kind of ironic that I've adopted his method. Of course, he actually was writing magazine serials, and got paid to do it by the word. I'm just trying to keep people interested from week to week and remain coherent, plotwise. I'll see what the verdict is this Sunday. I'm a little concerned that I'm starting to flounder a bit. Plus, it's always somewhat more nerve-wracking to submit things that aren't polished, that lack grace notes and eyebrows. But if there's a solid structure in place, I can add the filigree later.
Now, I need to...do things with my Saturday. Must...spend...money...on storage unit.
September 23, 2007
More Tuneage!
[Click here to listen to "Ba-Bow." -RB]
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