This one's something of a salvage job. I'd had multiple notions this week, each of which increased this track's level of difficulty, and ultimately threw out both the strongest motif, and the initial thought behind the track. Does it work anyway? As a mood piece, it works better than the original idea.

I'd read a piece this week arguing that tempo consistency is a problem in contemporary music; while that may or may not be true, it's interesting that hits of the classic analog recording era had notable variations in tempo--not accidentally, but in response to the feel of the music. (A drummer might slow down slightly before accelerating into a dramatic chorus, for example.) So my thought had been to allow tempo variations, which led to variations in time signature, and which led to pieces that...sounded like they all belonged to different songs.

Adding to the complexity, I decided to use the microtonal guitar, so the idea of "key" became more complicated. Not only is this instrument microtonal, but it's also fretted in just intonation intervals, 24 to the 2/1. So the notes are a lot closer together, and chords are much more difficult than on a 12TET guitar.

Collaging the sections together with the different tempi just ended up sounding wrong, so I normalized to a reasonable sounding 90 bpm (though this is kind of a half-time piece, so it's more like 45 bpm). Then I added a fourth track to fill in gaps. Finally, I had to punt on the strongest theme, a 76 bpm fingerpicking exercise in 9/8. That'll have to go somewhere else, eventually, as it didn't fit at all with the rest of this piece.

Signal chain: microtonal Tele Deluxe into UA Volt (with a little clipping here and there), Ableton Live's Roar plugin on the neck-pickup-only track, some convolution reverb, and multiband compression/eq on the mix.

The title comes from the elevation of the summit of Scotland's Mount Scaraben, 626 meters.

A bit of a speedtrash for the final track of the year. Thank you to Rain25 for the tip about automating a low filter pass - I tried that and I like the result.

For this final track, I wanted to capture the feeling of a chaotic flight, running away from something, form someone, maybe from oneself.

It was a fun weekly streak 2025. For those who join, see you on Weekly Beats 2026!

A few days ago I'd had a plan for approaching a track differently, though in the actual playing, things went in a more up-tempo rock direction with a few propulsive themes. It kind of works, I think. Three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola, no external effects, but some convolution reverb send, multiband compression/eq on the stereo mix, and a touch of mix automation: a fade on the main channel, and a little increase on the reverb sends during the fade.

The title comes from the former Kinzua Viaduct, which had a length of 625 m.

A simple cyber synthwave track with random samples. I had fun making this simple one.

my dream has happened. people are releasing 'music' at only 1 minute long. i can soon call myself a real artist according to the new standard. so i can keep making 1 minute songs. the stuff i enjoy writing yaaaayyy

a tribut to FGs arthouseplace :)))))

This one started with some Freddy Green chordal shapes, and a deliberate choice to stay away from the arpeggiated fingerpicking thing I'd been doing a lot of. The tempo was a little faster, as well, leading to some unexpected places: some of these sections are more rhythmic than I'd been doing, and the different sections interact with the tempo a bit differently, giving a sense of flow--pushing forward, then pausing to contemplate.

Guitar: the PureSalem Mendiola, with a bit of Ableton's Roar plugin on the left and right channels to add a bit of grit. There's a bit of convolution reverb send on each channel to give a "room" sense, and the usual compression/eq on the stereo mix.

The title comes from a nature preserve outside of Manchester, off of the A624.

A simple track. Actually I spent more time trying to figure out how to use davinci resolve to make a music video than for this track. But a track is a track so here we go.

While life has been quite busy (with studio rearrangement) , there's a chance that the next few weeks will allow for a little more compositional time. This one was from a couple late-night sessions Friday and Saturday, with some arrangement time on Sunday. This is in keeping with the clean three-guitar approach, though this also has me thinking of working toward more abstract melodies, and harmonizing around them.

The guitar here is the standard-tuned PureSalem Mendiola into Ableton Live, with no effects other than a touch of send to a convolution reverb.

The title comes from New Hampshire's Temple Mountain, which has an elevation of 623 m.

I was not specially inspired this week so I decited to listen to Tower of Power, and also the sountrack to marvel vs capcom 2 to work on my funk tracks. It did not fully gel so added a couple of guitar tracks. It always feels good playing without planning too much. Not super clean but the feeling is there.

finally in time
fieldrecordings, bass, floot aboot chord

It wasn't my intention to do something that ended up sounding like mid-90s Funkstorung, but there you go.

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.

A synthwave/electro/arp cyberpunk track. How original.

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 is my 300th week in a row. It feels more like a nod on the way than an achievement in itself. The reward is to keep going, through the ups and downs, and trying to take it all in.

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.

It's been a while. I have been at my lowest ebb creatively for some years and really not felt able to complete anything, so I didn't push it, built up a hunger.

Just finished building a new PC and have spent the last couple of weeks getting it up and running with all my favourite software including VCVrack, and here's the first one off the new computer, basically more ambient because that's what I'm really feeling a need to make these days.

Anamnesia - recovering one's memories that were so lost you never knew they existed.

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.

Another cyberpunk-like track

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 video about funky game soundtracks inspired the track this week. I am still far from that level but this is an exciting goal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2QO6VdxUWQ

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.

A short track, season appropriate.