There's apparently still some life in the three-track/one-guitar approach. I did all the tracking on Saturday in a couple sessions, afternoon and night. The first melodic motif came out in waltz time, so I went with that. There's the usual convolution reverb send and audio effect rack with multi band compression/eq on the stereo out, but otherwise no funny stuff.
The title comes from the historical fact of Shaolin Monastery being founded on Mount Song in 477 CE.
A three-guitar thing presented itself for this weekend, and here it is. Same PureSalem, minimal processing, touch of convolution reverb, wide&warm compression/eq audio effect rack.
The title comes from the southern terminus of PA 481, which is on the Old National Pike (where it merges with the National Pike).
Still on the three-tracks/one-guitar approach, though this one is a bit quieter, with more partial chords and fewer barre chords. One channel's bridge, one neck, and one both, There's some convolution reverb on all of them, and the usual Wide&Warm multi-band compression/eq on the stereo mix.
The title comes from the route of Ohio's I-480, which goes through several "Heights" towns on its way around Cleveland.
Three tracks of guitar again, but this time with the home-built Res-O-Glas. The Lace Alumitones have a kind of Danelectro-lipstick quality to them. There's a slightly larger reverb (with less send) and the usual Wide&Warm multi band compression/eq on the stereo mix.
The title comes from the former highway 479 in Pittsburgh, Crosstown Boulevard. (It was renumbered a couple times, finally becoming 579.)
The guitar-only approach is still speaking to me. For this one, I'd started with a sparse intro, and responded to it intuitively. There's a lot of space in it, a number of pauses...but emotion as well.
Guitar: PureSalem Mendiola, three tracks (bridge, neck, both). Convolution reverb. The usual Wide&Warm audio effect rack preset.
The title comes from a chain of association starting with the formation of the Delian League in 478 BCE. Delos is an historical site, and according to wikipedia, this is the name of the harbo(u)r.
Stepping out of the recent guitar-only restriction. This one needed some bass for focus and grounding. Guitar is the usual PureSalem Mendiola--three tracks. The neck pickup needed some high-pass filter with drive, but otherwise it's straight into the box.
Bass got the usual EQ-8, though I experimented with the preset. Instead of rolling off -12dB below 120 the way I usually do, this one uses the "vintage bass" preset.
Everything gets a bit of convolution reverb. And there's the usual Audio Effect Rack with the Wide&Warm compression/eq on the stereo.
Much of this I tracked as snippets against other snippets in Session View, but in editing, some parts clashed a bit, so I took them out and tracked into the gaps in Arrangement View. In some cases, there's a bit too much elasticity in the guitar playing...but it pays off in the middle, I think.
The title comes from the route of EuroNight 476, from Budapest to Warsaw.
It looks like there's still some seam material left in the three-tracks-of-one-guitar approach. I started this one Friday night and wrapped it up in a second session Saturday night. Three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola: both pickups, one bridge, and one neck. There's some large-room convolution reverb on them, and the usual audio effect rack on the Wide & Warm preset for compression/light EQ.
This one's named after a tiny Pennsylvania town near PA-475.
This week's track started out of an impulse to do something sparse and improvisatory like the last couple of Talk Talk records, but inevitably I made it denser. I'd started with a sparse syncopated drum line that didn't make it to the final mix, but the guitar parts are in response to that.
Saturday brought us the awful news of Tom Verlaine's passing, so one of the guitar parts has a heavy vibrato in tribute. (Tom's playing is a fundamental influence for me; I've been a listener and fan for decades, and I've been fortunate to attend several performances over the years as well.) RIP, Tom.
Guitar: inevitably, it had to be the Jazzmaster-shaped PureSalem Mendiola.
No inline effects, but there's a room-sized convolution reverb on everything, and the usual Wide & Warm audio effect rack for compression/eq.
The title comes from the galaxy NGC 474, which has dramatic glowing shells that might be tidal tails.
This one's an example of what happens when I'm not feeling as though there were ideas, and then finding at arrangement/mixdown that there are musical ideas here.
I'd started late Friday night by tracking some bass, which...didn't work. Saturday night, I tracked three different tracks of baritone guitar parts (bridge pickup, neck pickup, both pickups) and wasn't sure how they were working--the 6/4 meter seemed good, but there's a pause at the end of some phrases, and some parts played with that start/stop quality, coming in at different beats, rather than regularly.
Listening back to it all just now...it kind of works. So I'm going with it. It's kind of an unexpected gift from the process of sitting there and tracking.
The title comes from the Ōmiya district of Saitama, where Hikawa Shrine was founded in 473 BCE.
For this week, I'd thought of doing something with bass and percussion to switch things up a bit. Having put down some MIDI drums and tabla, the bass parts were suggestive of some guitar parts...so I added two tracks of PureSalem Mendiola for something more fully arranged than recent pieces.
There's EQ-8 on the bass to roll off low end, and a touch of M4L humanizer and M4L velocity randomizer on drums. Everything gets a bit of send to convolution reverbs, and there's the usual Wide&Warm preset for compression/eq on the stereo.
The title comes from Octoraro Lake, over which PA-472 travels.
First track of the new streak! Welcome, everyone!
This one continues the one-guitar approach from last year: this past week and weekend have been rather busy, and a one-guitar approach helps me finish a track. For this one, I tried a faster click tempo, and on initial recordings used a pick. I used to play with a pick exclusively, but I've come to dislike the tone of them with my recordings, so much of this is fingerpicked. (Though the pick is audible on some sections.) The guitar is my very comfortable PureSalem Mendiola in standard tuning, with a track for the bridge pickup only, one for both pickups, and one the neck pickup only.
There are no inline effects on the guitar lines, but I've used a convolution reverb as a send, and multiband compression (via Ableton's audio effect racks) on the stereo mix.
The title comes from the venerable 741 op amp.
Post a comment
The slow strumming feels like the music is breathing. You have a warm tone here. That's a very relaxing track. The simplicity and sparsity work very well.