Two very late, very short tracking sessions of three tracks of PureSalem Mendiola. Still similar working methods, but a slightly different harmonic/melodic approach in places. (Still with the barre chords, not that that's a bad thing.)

Convolution reverb and the Ableton Wide & Warm compression/eq setting on the stereo bus.

The title comes from Carthaginian navigator Himilco, who apparently reached the northwestern coast of Europe from the Mediterranean in 490 BCE.

A three-guitar thing presented itself for this weekend, and here it is. Same PureSalem, minimal processing, touch of convolution reverb, wide&warm compression/eq audio effect rack.

The title comes from the southern terminus of PA 481, which is on the Old National Pike (where it merges with the National Pike).

This week continues the guitar-only approach: three tracks of guitar (though there's a fourth channel I used to cover note tails for smoother edits). Guitar was PureSalem Mendiola, straight into the Focusrite, with no inline processing of the different channels, but everything had some convolution reverb (same concert-hall-sized impulse). There's the Wide&Warm preset for multiband compression.

Title comes from the 95th Section of Swedenborg's The Worlds in Space, in which he describes that as a representation of the inhabitants of Mars.

Here's one I recorded in a few quick, improvisatory sessions, but it needed a bit of attention to edit together. My initial thought was to emphasize toms and kick, avoiding the snare if I could, and then respond to that. (There's a snare rimshot sound every so often, but no overt snare hits.)

Recording the guitar went quickly, though once I'd settled on which key I preferred, I did need to go back and record a bit more. With bass, I'd recorded a bunch of parts, and ended up throwing most of them out, going instead with lines I tracked last in arrangement view.

Guitar: PureSalem Mendiola straight into the Focusrite. (Each channel got inline Auto-Filter for drive/coloration). Bass: 80s Epiphone Embassy II (neck pickup only). EQ-8 for some low-end rolloff. Drums: Ableton 64 Pad Kit Special, with Max Humanizer.

Sends: Valhalla Supermassive, Ableton Delay, convolution reverb with Auto-Filter to roll off lows.

Title comes from the lenticular galaxy NGC 74.

Once again, I only devoted time to this one very late in the week, with the syncopated drum and percussion lines. I'd had a thought of emphasizing bass, and having the guitars be more of a background wash...and a number of things claimed time during the weekend, so what I'd had tracked...had to fit together somehow, so here we are.

Drums: Ableton 64 Pad Kit Jazz, Ableton Percussion drum rack. Bass: Epiphone P-J with EQ-8 low-end rolloff. Guitars: PureSalem Mendiola through Balls Effects KWB for some grit, and also through high-pass Auto-Filter. There's one track of bridge pickup, one of neck pickup (output to send only), and another track of output to send only. Some clips are reversed.

Sends: one convolution reverb, one Valhalla Supermassive, and one delay. There's another convolution reverb I almost used--a large space--but it ended up sounding too mechanical on drums here.

Title from M58, a barred spiral galaxy.

A very intuitive piece--I cobbled together three drum kits with syncopated rhythms, and composed a keyboard line...which I threw out after I picked up the Fahey-tuned Univox hollow body. There are three tracks of that, with varying degrees of fuzz. Not a bad hook...though very simple.

Sends: convo reverb and a delay; full-chain master on the master, and drum buss on the drums.

Title from the derivation of this week's element, platinum.