With the holiday weekend unfolding, I opted to keep the same typical schedule for this week's composition: two or three short sessions, and then an editing/arranging session. This one's got a slightly faster tempo than last week, but is a bit more sparse. Guitar this time is the Res-O-Glas Belmont I built in 2015.

I'd had the thought of doing more DAW processing here--I'd dropped in and then deleted some instances of Ableton's new Tremolo-enabled auto-pan. The Lace Alumitones on this guitar seemed a bit harsh in the bridge position, so I put that track through Ableton's Roar plugin to give it a bit of compression and clipping. There's also the latest version of Valhalla's Supermassive, with a long reverb based on the new Sirius model. (And, as usual, some multiband compression/eq on the stereo.)

The title comes from Mount Sarakura, which has a summit elevation of 622 m.

This is one of those "well, I got something done" tracks--some of the melodic and harmonic elements work well, though I don't know if it works in aggregate. Three tracks of hollowbody Univox in Bb F C tuning, no external effects, but in-Ableton convolution reverb and compression/eq on the stereo mix.

Initially I was going for something sparser, but my reflex in playing was to do something more dense. Some sparse sections did emerge, though, so the next one may focus more on those.

The title comes from Cold Fell in the northern Pennines, a mountain with an elevation of 621 m.

This past week brought the usual Monday night livestream performance, two releases (one from the previous week, and the Monday performance), a deep clean of the office/studio (for the better!), and a number of other busy-life things. Still, I got late night Friday and late night Saturday recording sessions in, along with editing on Sunday. This one is slow, in something of a contrast to all that other activity.

$60 Univox hollowbody in modified Fahey tuning, three tracks, two sends to convolution reverbs, and the stereo mix multiband compression/eq.

The result...is kind of calm, with a sense of determination.

The title comes from the 620 m elevation of Sentinel Rock in Sentinel Rock State Park.

My schedule's been extremely busy of late, and for this weekend, I chose to add some time for recharging. This led to just one late-night Saturday session for recording this piece. This one uses the microtonal Tele Deluxe, though it emphasizes low-integer ratios and consonance. There's a wistful, finding-the-center vibe to this. Rather than record as much as possible and try to work it all in, this one was a little simpler to put together.

Straight into the converter, and just some convolution reverb send and multiband compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from the Irish road R619's route near Oldcastle.

My initial thought with this week's composition was to start with a longer chord progression (12 beats, broken up over a couple appearances), and respond to it sparsely in two other tracks. It kind of works.

Three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola, standard tuning. No inline effects, just convolution reverb send and the usual compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from the quasar TON 618.

This one came together quickly in two late-night sessions on Friday and Saturday, starting with some partial chords (center channel) and then filling out responses. Rather than trade the "lead" line between tracks, I tended to keep each one to its role throughout, as an experiment. Three channels of PureSalem Mendiola, no inline effects. Some convolution reverb send on each channel, and multiband compression/eq. There's kind of a vibe.

The title comes from 617 Patroclus, part of a binary asteroid system, which is kind of interesting.

This past week I took the neck off the bass to tighten the truss rod nut, and after some service (graphite lubricant, tightening truss rod, then cleaning frets, then restringing), I found the bass was much more fun to play. So this one uses two tracks of bass (one P pickup, one J pickup) and two tracks of PureSalem Mendiola guitar (bridge pickup and neck pickup).

The writing process started with bass, and then finding a way of integrating guitar over that. There's a chordal change in the middle that I'm fond of.

No inline effects, but the usual convolution reverb and compression/eq on the mix.

The title comes from Col du Noyer in the French Alps, which has an elevation gain of 616m.

For this one, I'd had the thought of following what I was hearing intuitively. It turns out that what I was hearing was some sections of 4/4 against 7/4, some all-4/4, and some all-7/4. I recorded these in a couple quick sessions Friday and Saturday evenings, and it just hung together. (Admittedly I recorded a lot of false starts and sections I ended a beat too soon, which I threw out. One has to keep count.) This one exhibits my safe-space of chugging along on some barre chords, but one is allowed to have some safe space.

Guitar: PureSalem Mendiola, back to three tracks of just guitar. Some convolution reverb send from each track, and the multiband eq/compression on the stereo.

The title comes from a town near the A614. Not directly adjacent, but it's a better name than, like, Wormley Hill.

A short Saturday night session with the microtonal Tele Deluxe gives us this piece. In the Monday ambient improv with this guitar, I happened on a pattern with harmonics, thinking to record it later for the weekly piece. That led to some accompanying harmonic patterns, and filling in with some arpeggios, a few chords, and baritone-range lines.

No pedals, but the usual convolution reverb send and compression/eq on the stereo bus.

Title comes from the asteroid 613 Ginevra.

This week's piece makes some intentional changes to see what kind of music would result. Departing from the all-one-guitar approach, I started this one with bass. Not just one bass, though: two channels of bass (80s Epiphone), playing off each other, mostly separated by high-on-the-neck vs. lower-on-the-neck. In response to these, I tracked two channels of guitar (PureSalem Mendiola, neck and bridge pickup, one on each channel). So it's still a budget approach, but with a wider set of frequencies.

Bass got a couple different presets of Ableton's Glue compressor, while guitar was uncompressed. Each track got a bit of send to a convolution reverb, a studio-sized space. And the stereo mix got multiband compression/eq.

The title comes from a lake in Italy, at 612 ft. elevation.

My initial thought was to leave more space and experiment with more effects in this one, but the motives that emerged this week were strong enough that I didn't want to get in the way.

Recorded in one Saturday and one Sunday session with the $60 Univox in dropped Fahey tuning (Bb F Bb F Bb C). Direct to UA Volt, and then two convolution reverbs: one a church-sized space, and one using the Harpole Cistern. There's also the usual compression/eq on the stereo.

The title comes from a stream crossed by PA-611.

A vibey little piece in modified Fahey tuning. Wednesday night I had a thought to collect some weekly pieces to release for Bandcamp Friday, pulling together 10 pieces from earlier this year. Most of these are on the PureSalem, but I was drawn to the feeling of the Univox hollowbody in Bb F C tuning, and decided to use that this week.

I'd had a thought of using a lot of processing on this one, but in actually tracking, the music just...appeared, and it didn't seem right to mess it all up. A few of these measures are short, and timing is a bit elastic in places, but it flows.

No inline effects, just some convolution reverb send, and multiband compression/eq on the stereo out.

The title comes from the port town of Passage West, on Ireland's R610 road.

This one's later than usual, but still within the bounds of this year. Anticipating a weekend of traveling for a family event, I tracked some solo guitar Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, figuring I could assemble the piece Sunday. Complications: some of these sections weren't reflecting a strong idea...and the stronger ones (from Friday) were in a different key than the previous parts. But...I did it.

This one's using home-built Res-O-Glas (heavy strings, so tough to bend, but the Bigsby floats nicely). No inline effects, but convolution reverb sends and a light compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from the town of Notus, Idaho, which had a population of 609 in the 2020 census.

Another short piece with three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola. I wasn't sure where this was going to go, but it ended up using chords compatible with last week's piece. Once I'd reached the theme that emerges around 0:40, I knew this one was going to work; it was just a matter of balancing the other parts. Clean guitar, no effects, but some convolution reverb send.

The title comes from the river Nura in Kazakhstan, which is 608 miles long.

Out of an even-busier-than-usual weekend (attending two plays and two family reunion events), I shook loose a little time to get a composition together. Given the compressed time frame, the fingerpicking three-track/no-effects approach seemed to be the most manageable. This one's PureSalem Mendiola in standard tuning, with the usual convolution reverb send, and compression/eq on the mix.

The title comes from a mountain near PA-607.

An even busier weekend this time, though I did commit to doing an hour-long performance Saturday morning as part of the GSG's Sturgeon Moon (raid) Train on Twitch. For events like this, performers sign up and claim one or more slots for a cascade of performances that lasts 24 hours or more. A few days after the announcement, I saw there were only a few available times left, including the last one on Saturday morning. So Saturday morning it would be!

The signal chain here is pedal steel guitar in E9 tuning, played with eBow and ebony slide, into a Reuss Effects RF-01 Repeater Fuzz, Vox Wah, Hungry Robot Wardenclyffe Deluxe, and Moyo volume pedal, into an eight-delay Max/MSP patch I've been playing with the last several years. The patch is mainly eight delay lines, though also features a VST for tone-shaping (here AudioThing Reels), FFT pitch shift, a tremolo on the input, and a convolution reverb.

The title this week is chosen for a river in Ontario, crossed by Highway 606, and not far from some rivers and streams known for sturgeon.

A departure from the just-a-bit-of-reverb approach. Having avoided obvious effects for a while, why not some echo? And instead of just three tracks, why not four? Of the four tracks, two of them have some sends to Ableton's Echo plugin, while the other half...don't. This one came together over three sessions: late Friday, late Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. Back on PureSalem Mendiola, one track for bridge pickup (with echo), one for neck (no echo), and two for both pickups (one of each).

The result...seems surprisingly hopeful, despite how the world is going. There's my usual practice of leaving some breathing space at the end of phrases, and a few phrases seem a touch familiar--maybe I'm ripping myself off a bit. Notably, some solo sections stretch out and go for the emotional expression, which feels less like an indulgence than it used to. (Some harmonies...seem a bit dissonant in places due to two scales in play, but...you know what, it seems right.)

The title comes from a little hamlet at the end of England's A605, though this does feel like the beginning of an outward expansion.

In keeping the weekly composition commitment, sometimes the composition and recording have to bend to fit the rest of life. This one started with a quick session late Friday, another late Saturday, and a few snippets recorded Sunday afternoon.

The composition process is essentially similar to what I'd been doing: record something, respond to it in two other channels, mute two, record two others, mute the first, record a third, etc. This tends to maintain an identity of an idea, and a piece can kind of flow from it. For this one, I let myself stretch out in a couple sections, and let a melodic thought continue for a while.

Lately I've been getting the sense that the Res-O-Glas guitar I'd built ten years ago wanted to speak more. Its neck is very comfortable, and (since I wired in a Varitone for the tone capacitor), there's a wide range of bassy tonal options. Sometimes, though, these can appear muffled, and a few parts could have used less rolloff.

No inline effects, but there are sends to a convolution reverb. (I'm getting the feeling to play with delays again, so next week might be a little more shoegazy.) And the multiband compression/eq on the stereo.

The title comes from British Columbia's Sea-to-Sky Corridor, in area code 604.

After a week concentrating on Max (studies for a performance), it's back to the guitar--in this case, one I'd built ten years ago, a Res-O-Glas Belmont body with an Eastwood neck and Lace Alumitone pickups. Slow fingerpicking, and a lazy bittersweet summer vibe.

There's nothing particularly special about the production--the usual convolution reverb sends, no inline boxes, concentrating on the fingers-on-guitar...but I can see that I need to get more practice in with this neck. (The width is great for fingerpicking.)

The title comes from the highest peak of the Huron mountains, which has a height of 603m.

This is a study for a performance I'll be doing in a few hours, at the 2025 PRFBBQ. This is all Max/MSP, using the Jaap-Vink-inspired feedback patch I've been working on for a while. To the Jaap Vink topology, I've added another ring modulator (on the output), another delay, high- and low-pass filters, two pitch shifters (one inline, one on output), convolution reverb, and yet another delay on the output. I've also made this into four channels, so it can be an arrangement of feedback. That's a lot of controls. Let's see how it goes.

This one doesn't use all of those filtering options, but it's both one of the shorter and more engaging of the studies.

The title comes from the IBM 602 Calculating Punch.