Two Hour Track Sunday Track originally (submitted here)[http://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/2HTS363#entry-17685].
I was learning Shreddage 3 Jupiter, which I had upgraded to after not using Shreddage 2 in about 8 years. There's a bit of a learning curve - it has a lot of articulations and so forth that I didn't manage to get into so the guitars don't really sound real, but that's what happens when you do a compo.
I've been kind of slow on music projects recently. I got caught up in learning a DAW for Windows (Studio One 5 trial, so far) and I'm learning some voice (still a beginner, so no real recordings yet) and am writing more on my blog.
15:50 - 17:50. I can't even begin to say how long I spent making this because I've had so many interruptions. I think I got set up, then got interrupted for 10 minutes, then I had to go downstairs to watch food and then I was back up, then I had to go back down again and it kept on happening, so I suspect that I've spent under an hour actually making the song and recording it.
Total time: Who knows
Sunday, Dec 10, 15:50.
Bill, a local musician, suggested that I run my guitar through the modular to see what comes out. I don't know if a lot will, because I don't have a ton of audio effects in my modular but who know?
Also, I decided to update software on my main computer for music thinking it would take only a few minutes. I was wrong. Almost an hour later I still haven't started my music, so I moved some of my gear and went to my laptop, so now I have a random assortment of instruments to use: a guitar, my modular, and the Meeblip Triode.
The irony is that as soon as I started typing this up, the installation ended up completing. Screw it, I'm settled in, I'm going to start.
Technical notes:
- Computer with two MIDI channels: one is going into the Meeblip, which is playing the bassline.
- The other MIDI channel is playing the drums and the drone simultaneously. The guitar triggers also a midrange synth that you can barely hear.
- Guitar playing the lead.
The weirdness of this song is more of a consequence of its construction (like it's dumb that I used a single MIDI channel to control both my drums and my pads) than anything else.
Sunday, October 15. I started by making a patch on the modular. I want to get some S&H action going now that I read through the Intellijel Noise Tools manual.
14:20 - 16:50. I really lazy-produced this track and lazy-composed it. It's pretty noodly but kind of has this avant-garde feel to it.
Sunday, October 8.
16:00 - 16:20: Warm-up and scale practice.
16:20 - 18:05: Song finished. Not too many notes.
This was a bit of a lazy entry. I did a lot of practice trying to play E minor on various parts of the neck using one of the pentatonic shapes as a guide, so it's not exactly a song of intense passion - mostly just scale-based noodling, lots of layering, and repeating chords.
In some respect WeeklyMusic has become "guitar practice" but I guess that's not really a bad thing…
Total time: 1h 45m
Pseudo-epic-trying guitar ballad.
Notes: I tried to steal chords from pop songs, but it was too hard to figure out how they were supposed to sound good together.
Starting in earnest:
16:35 - 18:50. 2h 15m
Really? It sure felt longer than that.
Saturday, Sept 16: I started this on Saturday, but I didn't keep a time log. I maybe spent 30 minutes on this doing a drum loop, some bass, and a few chords.
Sunday, Sept 17: 16:05 - 18:30.
This turned out to be a pretty normal rock song with some synthpop elements to it.
It was mostly a good opportunity to practice more guitar playing. I realized that my guitar goes out of tune a LOT, I tuned it three times because it was drifting out of tune while I was making the song. Maybe this is normal though and I didn't really realize it.
I spent a modicum more time on the drum design this week than normal - as the song developed I swapped out a lot of the 808/909 samples I had for more traditional rock samples, but I do have a few synth samples there.
Total time: Probably 3h?
Instruments: Software drums, 3 tracks of real guitar (lead/rhythm/backing chords), two Nord Lead tracks (pads and bass), one modular synth (background countermelody)
Sunday, Sept 10.
Learning objectives:
- Improve rhythm guitar timing and tuning
- Use synth chords
- Use synth lead countermelody contrasting with guitar
13:00 - 13:20: Noodling and exploration. In 20 minutes, I laid down initial stab chords, a beat, and some bass.
16:50 - 18:55: I resumed this. It's…. really dancey-like. I think I spent a little longer than average on production, but still not that long. Older versions had bad timbre + level matching between the guitar and synth leads so I fixed that up a bit. The song itself is really really simple and predictable, so if I wanted to work on this it would actually need to be on the composition to draw interest. I didn't actually add a whole lot of rhytm guitar to this.
Total time: 2h 25m
Instruments:
- Guitar
- Nord Lead 2x
- Future Retro 777
- My modular synth
- MASCHINE 2 (for drums)
Various software effects
SPLATFEST COVER TIME!
Sunday, Sept 3, 16:15
It's streak.club time, but I also noticed that PRC356 has a Splatoon 2 remix this week and since I'm a Splatoon fan, I thought I'd give this a shot.
Here's the link: http://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/PRC356
16:15: First, learn the song. Chords, key, scales. There's a bit of note-borrowing going on from other scales here (something that I am pretty bad at - I stick to the scale tones a LOT).
17:30: Okay it took me like 30 minutes to get a 4-bar riff. At this rate I'm not going to finish before streak.club's deadline.
19:30: "Done". Only because I'm out of time - the parts all need to be redone so it's more solid. It's kind of outside of my ability but now that I've laid down the song it means that I can practice… and with time…
All of the parts (4 guitar tracks, 1 bass track) are played live (over many takes) except for the drums, which is a computerized drummer.
I guess it's awesome that I managed to do a remix in a few hours that's recognizable as the original.
Total time: 3h 15m
The world is filled with bright lights. Heaven sees them too.
Sunday, July 30. 17:20 - 19:00.
Feeling tired today, so I want to explore a few simple chord progressions and lay down a basic synthpop song. I kind of wanted to try to combine rock/synth a little in this song.
The timing needed work, I ran out of time to work on this.
Total time: 1h 40m.
Summertime hot dogs and burgers.
I started this song in about 1.5 hours for OHC (I submitted it late). I got some encouragement to finish it, so I'll aim for that during WeeklyMusic.
Sunday, July 23, 2017. 11:15 - 12:30. Going to do this song over again and work on the performance parts. Re-recorded most of the rhythm guitar and redid some bass and added an ending.
I started again around 2-3 PM maybe? I forgot to record the new start time.
Including OHC time, I probably spent about 3h 45m on this, with a lot of it recording takes of the guitar parts. My guitar playing is still not that solid but recording it at least reinforces what I need to look at.
My cat passed away this week, so my ability to concentrate is a little shot. I really loved Timmy, he was a beautiful affectionate creature. RIP Timmy.
I received some direct feedback on the last piece, so I'm going to be a little more careful this time. Live guitar parts, live bass parts, fake drum parts.
Chords: Am Em F C / C Dm G F
Time: 16:00 - 17:45. Total time: 1h 45m
Sunday July 9: Guitar practice/jamming.
I kind of lazied out this week, but some practice is better than no practice.
Total time: about 1.5 hours.
Sunday, June 18, 14:40 - 17:00. Let's try to create more video game boss music in 16-bit style.
Okay, this was less 16-bit and more EDM… but I guess it has some fakebit chip elements. I didn't really concentrate too much on production outside of mixing and some light effects.
I guess it works? I was initially going to find some 16-bit like sampled guitar, but since I actually know how to play guitar, I cheated and just played real guitar instead. (Besides, I need an excuse to play the guitar, I haven't played in months). It's kind of messy at the end... maybe less is more?
Total time: 2h 20m
