Started 133 days ago (2024-12-30T05:00:00Z).
Ends 230 days from now (2025-12-29T05:00:00Z).
Compose and produce a new piece of music each week. Your submission is due every Monday at 04:59 UTC (Sunday 11:59EST). You should aim for at least one minute of music, and should be created that week.
Late submissions: Late submissions are open. If you miss a deadline you can still submit by clicking the week on the calendar to the right. If you submit late, your post will get a big Late tag, but it will still count for your streak.
(Description lifted from Leafo's 2017 description--thanks, Leafo!)
Have a question for this streak?Ask a question...My working methods on this track have been consistent with the last few years--I like the immediacy of plugging in, the tonal variety of fingers on strings, and the ability to concentrate on melody, harmony, and rhythm. That said, I'm looking for opportunities to vary my playing here.
Given my limited time this week, there's not too much of a change...but there's more elasticity in a few sections, as I went with more intuitive timing, rather than click-driven timing. There are a few of these intuitively timed sections, and the piece is a full beat shorter than it would have been if I'd followed the click. This week's track required three short sessions: late Friday night, and two Saturday. Editing this one Sunday turned out to require more effort to make these intuitive pauses work.
This one's a bit late for the Weekly Beats UTC 0:00 cutoff, but at Streak Club, I'm treating 0:00 Eastern as the cutoff.
While I tracked a few bits with the Wardenclyffe, going for the effect of switching it in and out for emphasis...those sections became more of a distraction from the flow, so I took them out. As a result, there are no inline effects here, and only a bit of convolution reverb and multiband compression/eq.
The title comes from a little village in the Lake District, which is reached by the A593 road.
i used the exact same set of instruments as the track i transcribed this week (except for vocals) and just tried to see how i could make something different from the same components. i totally shifted genre, which wasn't my initial intention but made perfect sense to me. 5 hours is seeming to be the sweet spot in terms of getting enough detail that it is interesting to me and worth the effort, but it's also very achievable in a week. i guess if you factor in transcription time, there was probably about 5 hours of extra preparation time.
i had so much fun writing this!!! i massively struggled to write something of a similar genre last year, so this is pretty huge for me. i am definitely stretching the definitions of 'chamber prog' - the string ensemble is more cinematic/orchestral. but i would say despite that and despite it being inevitably a little rough around the edges given the timescale... i'm pretty happy with it all in all 👍
I had some fun playing drones from Arkhis, Pharlight, Straylight. It lacks structure a tad too much but it was good changing my workflow.
i was SO CLOSE to not submitting this week because i have been sick. literally threw this together tonight but i actually love this. i have been transcribing again which literally helps so much and i always forget. i think for future tracks, if i manage to keep up the transcriptions, i'd really like to make more tracks 'based' on the things i learned from whatever i transcribed. 🤔
This piece started from exploring the Hungry Robot Wardenclyffe Deluxe pedal--a lofi dirty-up-your-sound pedal, which gets easily into noisy realms. It's a bit harder to make it sound pretty, but not impossible. This one stays more to the subtle end of the spectrum. Guitar: PureSalem Mendiola, three tracks. Recording was fairly efficient, but whittling it down into a structure took rather longer.
The Wardenclyffe is the only inline effect, and is just on one track (panned center). Mostly manifesting as a shimmery chorus or light vibrato. There's some convolution reverb send on each of the three tracks, and light multiband compression/eq.
The title comes from Altar near Schull, Ireland, which is on the scenic road 592.
Time for some light hearted doodle. I did a simple little beat on the drums, which to be honest would benefit from being improved a lot. But it was a better learning experience than just using a sample.
I played some guitar riffs here and there, added some arps. The last part with the distorted synth "solo" was birthed by just the fact that i pulled a big midi keyboard that I had bought 20 years ago, put it on a stand next to my computer, and just having this tool made it fun to play some random solo. I am definitely not a keyboard player but i really enjoyed playing instead of programming!
More playing, less programming, this may be a theme for this year. I'm enjoying it.
This one goes back to the Univox hollowbody in modified Fahey tuning (Bb F Bb F Bb C). In a busy weekend, I recorded the first theme late Friday night, interrupted by a power outage. Saturday was a show, so I didn't write the rest until this morning. It's kind of a hypnotic wistful state--with everything going on, I've just needed some drifting.
The title comes from the Mizen peninsula, which is traversed in part by the R591.
this is called déjà vu because i have a really bad memory for freer flowing jazz music so i very earnestly have no idea if i have accidentally ripped someone else off with these hooks. i wrote it on midi sax/brass then realised i cannot be BOTHERED to tweak all of the articulations to make them sound real. so then i just used a bunch of synth presets instead.
A track inspired by watching the introduction of the game Clair Obscur Expedition 33. The atmosphere and the music are really inspiring. I was listening to the soundtrack and tried to study how some of it was made, learn a couple of lessons and try to make a track based on a similar approach.
All the sounds in this are from the old Amiga ST-xx samples discs, some a bit too much Supermassive.
This one came together in a couple quick tracking sessions with the PureSalem Mendiola. Notably some parts in tracking just seemed to stretch on for a while, as ideas kept appearing. There's a middle section that is a bit more in the direction of the spacious thing I'd been thinking of.
No inline effects, but some convolution reverb send and the usual compression/eq on the stereo out.
The title comes from Newtown, near the A590.
This track was an exercise on doing beach music, inspired by a youtube video by 8bit music. So it's very bossa nova inspired, and I had to dig deep into marimba, flutes, steel drums, etc. And yet I could not really make it sound like beach music.
It's the "goths hiding in the shadows while at the beach music", as it just cannot fully leave the slightly nostalgic territory. But that was a fun exercise all the same.
the neighbours cat left a killed mole in our yard
This one was tracked in a few short sessions in and among life responsibilities, back on the just intonation Tele Deluxe. Once again, I went in thinking I'd do something more sparse, but ended up filling in the spaces. As it came out, there are waves of more-busy and less-busy, moving between assured and wistful. Some of the measures flowed more naturally when truncated by a beat, or allowing the next measure to start earlier.
There's the usual signal chain: no hardware effects, just guitar into UA Volt with the convolution reverb send on each of three channels. There's also the usual stereo compression/eq.
The title comes from the town of Morecambe, where the A589 road leads to the shore.
The K.O. II got a big OS upgrade this week, and this is the beat I came up with to test the new song mode. It's pretty simple but I'm happy with the result. I was going to record punch-in FX too but never got a take where I liked what I'd done, so we get the beat as-is. :shrug emoji:
This is a track that is at a stage of development where it would benefit from taking a rest and getting a fresh listen to at a later time. I think there are a few good ideas, but the execution is not great and there is still much that would need to be worked on. But it's Sunday night on my side of the planet, time to submit.
it's been a rough one, and again no headphones. so. noodling on the piano time
i have been having some ear problems which is literally the worst thing for a weekly music challenge!! so, this week i just wanted to write/arrange some stuff and not worry too much about sound design or mixing since i couldn't wear headphones for long. here is an extremely midi arrangement of a little melody i have had in my head for a while. now i can set it free. lol
Picking back up after being sick last week, I kept things pretty simple. I started witha simple melody and added some drums to accompany it. I then filled out the rest. Finally I added the ZOIA to the mix and really liked the way that Loop Forest helped give the whole thing some texture. I saved it for the second half of the song to help it feel like it evolves a little bit.
Major props to the Rhodes preset that came out for the OP-XY last week, too.
Each week I think I'm going to do something very minimal and spacious, and each week I end up filling the rests with notes. This one's no exception, but given the busy tax-preparation weekend, I'll take what music shows up in the ether.
For this one, I impulsively did something I haven't done in five years: changed strings on the PureSalem Mendiola. Admittedly, I like the sound and feel of old strings, though this old set had a layer of oxidation and a ding in one of the plain steel strings, so it was time. While I did that, the neck wasn't under tension for a while, and it bowed back just a little...so there's some additional fret buzz in there. (I've loosened the truss rod a little; getting closer to ideal.)
The vibe here is contemplative, with some resolve. I'll take it.
The usual no-effects inline, though there's convolution reverb send from each track, and compression/eq on the stereo out.
The title comes from the Irish town of Clonakitty, which is at the end of R588.
walking alone, its cold outside - sunny windy
I am quite happy with this week. Not necessarily about the final product but more about the process. I usually am the person who uses only the default presets in plugins but I spent some time working on the bass sound using different effects in Guitar Rig 6, aiming for a heavy bass sound a la Muse. This was inspired by getting to see Iggy Pop in concert this week. The bass tone was nasty! in a good way.
And also inspired by Iggy Pop were the horns and keys, hence I added some there.
Another thing that was a good exercise was working on programming drums that sound realistic instead of relying solely on loops. I think the result is not bad and should get better as I continue to practice.
Overall, a good exercise for a good aggressive punk rock track.
More modular this week, VCVrack as always as I'm not made of money.
w broken voice
I was sick this week, so I wasn't making music, but will be uploading a song as soon as I have one ready
