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.

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.

A simple Sunday track.

I've been thinking of different approaches to the weekly music composition project, though a head cold this weekend left me less time and energy to work on it, so...new approaches will be for other weeks. This one has a little difference, though: I'd started with three tracks of unaffected PureSalem Mendiola, and put together a piece...which I then started whacking away at: removing notes in the first iteration, and supplementing on a fourth track with little gestures and sounds from one of the clips in that section. So it's sparse, but not as sparse as it would have been otherwise.

There's the usual convolution reverb, though this one gets two channels of reverb send. Then the usual compression/eq on the stereo.

The title comes from a road that's part of Maryland route 615.

I played a cyberpunk game this week and of course had to make a synthwave track. Here we go.

I am happy with the progress I'm doing with drums programming. Taking drums lesson has been really the key to get a feel of how drums can propulse a song. I'm still very much in the early days of learning but it's really good to feel progress.

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.

I did wing this one a little (again). I played a couple of minutes on some good old Ninja Turtle game and was inspired to make a beat em up music track. And somehow a sheep sample made its way into the track. It sounded very appropriate to put it there. So i kept it there and decided that it's then not about Ninja Turtles but actually Ninja Sheeps.

Ok Ninja Sheeps does sound absurd. But when you really think carefully about the physionomy, and the basic skill set of the animal, I would argue it is not more absurd than Ninja Turtles. I am of course happy to debate it this topic in a civilized manner.

chimes

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.

A good old arp, some koto lines, massive to make some atmosphere, and a programmed drums. There are also some samples of Japanese percussion.