Well, looks like I might receive some shame this month, however, rather than let the deadline deter me from making music, it motivates me to continue working on stuff!
__________________
twitch.tv/suprshady trying to stream REAPER stuff.. more than twice a year
Thanks for all these inspiring words. The problems with loops, is I ôften seem to get the timing wrong, even after glueing so it invariably turns out a bit uneven, hence I usually end up discarding the loop and recording the track in the old fashion way, and then doing several takes!
Already did some vocal edits and I like how that turned out. Finally got the guitar solo sounding somewhere close where I want it and did some ok tweaks to the bass tracks.
I have a full day in the studio ahead of me today. Going to replace some ReaEQ stuff with ReEQ (a wonderful jsfx plugin made by a forum member) and see where that goes. Also hope to finish the vocal editing today.
Ok, lets say it's done. Made with my mutant surfcaster and using a couple of samples off freesound.org (recording of some guy tuning his tanpura and a neat tabla loop):
Youtube video on the way, coz the guitar looks kinda cool and it's not on youtube yet for some reason. Just need to make it presentable, crop my fat head out and so on.
__________________
AM bient, rund funk and heavy meteo
my bandcamp+youtubings
Inventing the title is extra hard if your work has no message.
I find that to be the easiest thing in the world, personally. I just write the first random thing that pops into my head. I once titled a song Shrimp Foetus El Scampi...
On the other hand, this track is goshdarn impressive. Nice work. I particularly like the way the drums and bass groove.
I have a text file on my phone where I collect all the words and phrases I thought of to use for titles. The problem is they usually turn out to be rather common pun (used for 6 thousand songs on discogs already) or something very pretentious sounding. I'm not good enough to get away with being pretentious.
I took "Rearward Effort" from one of those spam emails with gibberish section used to fool antispam filters. It's my favourite. Though I don't see those gibber emails anymore
__________________
AM bient, rund funk and heavy meteo
my bandcamp+youtubings
OK, so that day in the studio didn't quite work out the way I hoped; I was editing out some noises in the vocals (breaths and stuff like that) and didn't notice right away that the cuts where replicated in all the midi-tracks as well (actually in ALL the tracks, period). That was one hell of a mess to deal with afterward. Found the setting that says to cut ALL tracks if nothing is selected... why the hell would anyone want that ?!
Never mind, sorted it all out in a few extra hours work and I'm still on track to get it done in time for the deadline here
OK, so that day in the studio didn't quite work out the way I hoped...I'm still on track to get it done in time for the deadline here
Never do in the studio what you can do in a cafe.... Sorry, speaking of pretentious, no one asked for my advice eh? Heheh, I've recorded a track once that I didn't like any of my vox on and edited out everything but the breaths, which created a kind of interesting rhythmic effect.
I guess I'm a bit spoiled, since I only have to wait for my roommates to go to work for my house to become a studio. But the con of that is my house is also full of other distractions, so it's still very easy to procrastinate.
I've been working a few different things this month, but still haven't picked on e to "finish." So you're doing a lot better than me at this point. I think I have a strong contender, but yea, I have commitment issues.
I guess I'm a bit spoiled, since I only have to wait for my roommates to go to work for my house to become a studio. But the con of that is my house is also full of other distractions, so it's still very easy to procrastinate.
My studio is in my company building because I had a nice space available there. Basically the same problem as yours; a lot of other things around that can grab my attention. I try to set specific days as 'studio only' days..... it sometimes works
Ok, lets say it's done. Made with my mutant surfcaster and using a couple of samples off freesound.org (recording of some guy tuning his tanpura and a neat tabla loop):
Youtube video on the way, coz the guitar looks kinda cool and it's not on youtube yet for some reason. Just need to make it presentable, crop my fat head out and so on.
Allrighty, some additional headless youtube content,as planned
__________________
AM bient, rund funk and heavy meteo
my bandcamp+youtubings
Jeez. It would take me a month just to memorize all those parts. I guess you must have some theoretical knowledge because some of those chords shapes look completely new to me... What the heck is that thing you do at 3:00? Looks like you hit the whammy a little, but it changes the tone of the chord afterward. Really cool.
Nah, I'm a moron musically, just trying the most uncomfortable finger shapes and seeing which sounds passable. Just strung together a few sections of stuff than came out from noodling and that's it(took a few days).
And that's just ol wangbar sproing, I really like the effect. Sounds extra interesting if you accidentally sproing some noise like harmonic.
__________________
AM bient, rund funk and heavy meteo
my bandcamp+youtubings
OK, close but close enough.... I finished the track
It's a late eighties/early nineties kinda symphonic rock-ish track. I went for that vibe specifically and I think I got pretty close. It does remind me of something but I can't name anything specific.
I could work some more on the guitar solo, it's not completely where I wanted to get it but is has to do for now. I'm going to release the track later on soundcloud or youtube or such, but for now I've put it google drive so anyone here can download it as proof for my timely finish
Link will be valid for a few days at least, I will remove it somewhere next week.
The light of a sincere spirit always shines through. I kinda like the guitar [synth?] solo as well, suits the mood and that's the main thing. Cool track, cheers.
Pretty damn epic. Sounds like one of those big prog bands in their reverby 80s transitional period (Saga, Genesis or whatnot).
Thanks for the compliment. That was pretty much the sound I was aiming for, as I have just about all Saga and Genesis in my CD collection
Quote:
Originally Posted by morgon
The light of a sincere spirit always shines through. I kinda like the guitar [synth?] solo as well, suits the mood and that's the main thing. Cool track, cheers.
Thank you, glad you liked the guitar solo. You're right about the solo, no guitars where harmed for this track. All guitar stuff is a little freeware virtual guitar plugin called Revitar. Takes a serious guitar-FX stack to get it to this level though, and it's not yet quite where I want it but I had to finish the track in time
I failed. My project was glitching out too much and I waited too long, but I did make progress and I think that counts for something. Gonna try again for next month...failure is the path to mastery, eh?
Nice track technogremlin! I liked the early bridge or whatchamacallit with the beat changeup.
I failed. My project was glitching out too much and I waited too long, but I did make progress and I think that counts for something.
My project was a close finish as well. Just last friday I discovered that the rendered out version was seriously different with the version playing from reaper. I had several plugins running with oversampling and somehow that didn't translate correctly to the 44.1 Khz output rendering. Switched the whole project to 88.2, switched off all oversampling inside plugins and found that my complete mix was pretty much fubar. Also, my de-esser didn't work at all at that setting. Did a final remix friday afternoon to get it where it is now
Another lesson learned. Will be working in 88.2 always from now on. Guitar amp sims sound a lot better at that resolution anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxAsteria
Nice track technogremlin! I liked the early bridge or whatchamacallit with the beat changeup.
Thanks. I like how it turned out as well. And to think this track was the first again after at least 2 years of not composing and tracking/mixing etc.
I failed. My project was glitching out too much and I waited too long, but I did make progress and I think that counts for something. Gonna try again for next month...failure is the path to mastery, eh?
Nice track technogremlin! I liked the early bridge or whatchamacallit with the beat changeup.
I'm waiting on a fret kit since I found the intonation issues were insurmountable without a full fret replacement.
Doesn't show up all that much on the song I posted in this thread though the gtr generally is prolly a few cents sharp on fretted notes and a few cents flat on open stgs. That other track I posted in collab a while back shows it bad bc there's chords with both.
Fox, I suggest an amendment to the thread title -
The one excuse per month club where if we can't think of a good excuse then just post a finished song instead.
Soooo, having failed, I now propose three of my tracks for this next month [or one to three more failures] It's like that gambling theory i.e keep betting more and more until the losses are recouped. Tbh I've got entire albums of tracks *on the brink of completion* so this thread can help get them done, unless lightning strikes my house and takes out my DAW or maybe the neighbour's dog mangles the external drives or something..[there's the next two months covered at least, no matter what]
The three tracks - 1. Smile Today 2. Been A Long Time Comin 3. Care Factor Zero
[plus that last one, Caught in the Middle of Your Fire]
Heheh, well good excuses are just part of the procrastinasty package, eh? I'm also in that boat though...terabytes of *almost done* tracks. Why I started the thread.
I'll put you on for next month but hafta say, biting off more than you can chew is kind of a built in excuse...
No life to speak of and 92 projects in "in progress" folder (and 114 closed). Earliest unfinished ones have files from late 2007, must've been early Reaper 2. I probably should start deleting at this point, but hey those sounded kinda promising in 2007.
__________________
AM bient, rund funk and heavy meteo
my bandcamp+youtubings
Digging up old projects can be inspiring though. Have a few laying around (much older than 2007, surely pre-reaper) that I definitely want to revisit with today's technology
I probably should start deleting at this point, but hey those sounded kinda promising in 2007.
Well what I did and am trying to maintain is I spent a couple weeks just going through every project, fixing any missing file issues and then making mp3 mixdowns of everything in it's current state. It's convenient with Reaper since you can batch render later when you're away from the computer or whatever.
I ended up with over 1000 mixdowns but it's a lot more manageable to go through them that way. I can rate and organize them and it shows me exactly what's worth finishing or not (even though I can almost never actually delete them). I can even compare versions.
Hell, sometimes I'll just cherry pick sounds and phrases from old projects that aren't really worth working on and just use them in a new project or rebuilding it around the best part.
It's like sampling from my younger self, which is a mixed bag because my younger self was really really bad at recording and mixing. I was all about making stuff sound weird as possible back then.
I could have called this one Cheesey Grin [or maybe The Slightly Sarcastic Song]
It's from a bunch of *novelty songs* that I had never finished but it's got diminished triads n stuff..
@Technogremlin - I think this one features the Revitar vst you mentioned, it was rendered and removed a while back so I'm not totally certain, you can hear it in the bridge later on in the track.
@Technogremlin - I think this one features the Revitar vst you mentioned, it was rendered and removed a while back so I'm not totally certain, you can hear it in the bridge later on in the track.
I can't really make out if it is Revitar, but if it is then that's a good thing of course
@morgon - how about a friendly wager to spice things up before the thread dies from the overwhelming forces of procrastination? I too am prematurely excited to have multiple songs finishable this month (two of which were previous failures).
I think I can finish 2, possibly 3 songs this month, so if you end up finishing more than me, I'll let you change the thread title to whatever you want.
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Update: My lungs are still playing up, so yesterday`s session ended up being two tracks only, one worked out OK & then the second one - a ballad - my voice just fucked up totally. At least we got a great backing down. Which is pretty amazing since none of the players had even heard the song before & I hadn`t played it anywhere but at home!
The song has a fair few unexpected chord changes, but after a fifteen minute run through, my lovely players took it all in stride. We are doing the song at a gig tomorrow night with my regular bass & keyboard, who couldn`t make the session so it could be great or it could be a trainwreck.
so much for "song in a month" This one won`t even be a song in a day!
I also have to get three or four more songs finished before next week. Pressure????
The way things are going I may well have the 12 tracks I was aiming for by Xmas after all!
Just hope my lungs hold out.
I should explain that I had a massive gap from mid July because we had to do 3 weeks in France working, followed by another session in hospital because I apparently have a heart problem now as well! and then we went to Canada & Michigan for two weeks visiting music friends... I know its not a song a month but July to October is... er um 3 months & I already have 6 song recorded & in the bag. Must count for something?
@morgon - how about a friendly wager to spice things up before the thread dies from the overwhelming forces of procrastination? I too am prematurely excited to have multiple songs finishable this month (two of which were previous failures).
I think I can finish 2, possibly 3 songs this month, so if you end up finishing more than me, I'll let you change the thread title to whatever you want.
Okay, but if we get that many songs done, the "One Excuse per Month" idea is definitely out the window.
---------
@technogremlin - The consensus here was the vocal could be a tad louder on The Final Wave, or the pad synth a touch softer to let the vocal through more. Everyone really likes the song but wants to hear the words more easily.
------------
So Ivan's got songs done and some 1st rate excuses going forward. But I think the unwritten rule is you have to post the songs Ivan, or I could for example change the thread title to "one very credible but informal claim per month club" [after I make maybe a less credible informal claim in order to gain the right to change the thread title]
@technogremlin - The consensus here was the vocal could be a tad louder on The Final Wave, or the pad synth a touch softer to let the vocal through more. Everyone really likes the song but wants to hear the words more easily.
I don't disagree with that actually. There are certainly some minor mixing issues with the vocals that I want to revisit. The point for me currently is that I've put so many time into mixing this that I'm trying to stay away from this track for at least a little while. Not sure that's going to work though
Another thing is, I always seem to hear my own vocals louder then other people do. It seems that some kind of bias is going on there. Anyone recognizes that? It certainly makes the case for someone else to have mix your stuff. But, and this is a biggy for me, when I compare to reference tracks the vocals seem to sit in the mix pretty well, so it is also hard to correct from that starting point.
Yea I couldn't ever really tell if Ivansc was trying to participate or not. Well I went ahead and put him on the list this time, but yea...links or it didn't happen...rule number 2.
Another thing is, I always seem to hear my own vocals louder then other people do. It seems that some kind of bias is going on there. Anyone recognizes that?
Yea I just keep turning them down until eventually they're muted and don't bother me anymore.
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxAsteria
Yea I couldn't ever really tell if Ivansc was trying to participate or not. Well I went ahead and put him on the list this time, but yea...links or it didn't happen...rule number 2.
Sorry but the engineer/studio manager is up to his eyeballs & I cant even get rough mixes at this stage. Frustrating. There IS a tiny snippet of the Doowat Song on Youtube or FB - I will try to sort out a link to it & post. Give you all an idea of the studio, too.
Yea, no offense but I'm not detecting any procrastination issues there...
This thread is for us folks who have a chronically hard time finishing things and our attempts to commit to self-imposed deadlines without bad habits getting in the way.
But if you want to try for a month from now and be accountable if you don't finish, lemme know and I'll sign you up.