14 Apr 2008
by madeleinein bread crumbs, In the Studio, ramblings Tags: beats, flugelhorn, flute, mp3, music, recording studio
I’ve been flat out for a whole week. After just having recovered from a cold I managed to get the flu, too. It came as the whole package: fever, chills, aching all over, extreme weakness… you name it. I sincerely hope that I’m done with being sick for this year. Especially since I’ve basically been coughing now for a month and that’s not exactly good for my vocal chords or my lungs. Definitely no singing yet and then I first have to practise again before I can record any vocals.
While I was sick I seriously started worrying I might not be able to finish the album before I have to get a job again. Panicking doesn’t help though. Just kills all creativity. It’s not that I have a specific deadline, but time is certainly running out. So I used the time to think up ways out in case… and maybe a little pressure might help me become even more productive. At least that’s the way it seemed this weekend.
In the last two days I’ve resumed work on ‘In Unison’. I’ve done 10 hours of work alone yesterday… I’ve had a real blast. It was almost as if it all happened by itself. I’ve automated the panning of the beats so they’re bouncing all over the place. I’ve played around with the flute I recorded and made some additional nice little bits out of it. I also added a flugelhorn as a counterpart to the flute. Had lots of fun creating and tweaking sounds. I start with some sound and in the end I’ve got heaps of great new sound gems. Quite often I don’t really know how I did it afterwards. And last, but not least I did the mix, some more automation to certain sounds, went through all the tracks and sounds seperately and polished everything so that the song shines and sparkles. The only thing that’s still missing is the outro. I guess it’ll come round all by itself once I can sing again.
And to make up for the time of non-blogging a sneak peek of ‘In Unison’:
[audio http://boxstr.com/files/1707953_cijpp/inunisonbit.mp3]
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03 Apr 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio, ramblings Tags: beats, external harddrive, music, recording studio
Still working on ‘In Unison’ and I really like the way it’s going. I spruced up the beats, all done now I guess apart from some panning and effects fun. They’re almost drum’n'bassey except the sounds I used are softer. I also took care of quite a few little details that might not change the overall sound, but add nice touches to the song. The rough mix is done, too. I’m definitely gonna be able to finish the song this weekend (minus final vocals and mix). Might post a snippet of it tomorrow.
Today I got my spanking new external harddrive. I decided to get a Seagate FreeAgent Pro with 500 GB. Should be plenty. It’s nicely quiet and even looks really great. The DVD burner in my desktop has been broken for quite a while. Each time I wanted to backup or burn anything on a CD I had to build up the network between my Windows XP and my Macbook Pro. What a procedure! It took me a bit to figure out how the FreeAgent should be formatted so I can use it for both XP and OS X. No more scooping things from one partition to the next because I’m running low on disk space. Just my musical programmes and plugins take up more 50 GB already. And did I mention that I love getting new gadgets?
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11 Mar 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio, ramblings Tags: beats, music, recording studio, strings
I’m gonna have to keep it short tonight. Seriously have to go to bed now. Early appointment tomorrow and apparently I have to walk for almost 40 minutes to get there because of this damn BVG strike. Here’s a picture to prove it:
One hour less to make music. I wonder if I should try to get a refund for my monthly ticket.
More work on ‘Hearts first’. I still don’t know if the beats are good. They’re great on their own and they’ve giving me heaps of ideas for the string arrangement. So even if they don’t make the cut in the end it wasn’t wasted time. I could even use them to make a remix.
Lots of small bits and pieces that I’ve done today still need to be pulled together properly so they make sense. That’ll hopefully happen tomorrow. Maybe a little mp3 snippet then, too.
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27 Feb 2008
by madeleinein bread crumbs, In the Studio Tags: bass, beats, field recording, mic, mp3, recording studio, rhodes, vocals
Took me a while to get going today. I felt like I was coming down with a cold, but no, it’s just my body thinking it’s being attacked by vicious tree pollen. So I’ve been coughing and wheezing. It’s no excuse though. I can’t just do nothing for weeks only because I drag myself around sneezing in the morning. I sure hope my voice gets used to it.
More work on ‘Webs’ today. I’ve sorted out the general arrangement. I had the feeling that something was off when I listened to it for the first time today. As it turns out it was pretty easy to solve. The bass line needed some adjustments and I’ve fiddled around with some effects for the rhodes. Together they already create a beat of some sorts now – sounds like a CD skipping. That’s what happens if you don’t cut a sound at zero. Usually this clicking sound is considered to be bad, but I like it.
My condensator mic got a bit tortured to get a sound for the bass drum. I tried to think of anything one does in the morning that provides a sound for that, but at least I prefer it rather relaxed just after getting up without any banging around. Hence the hitting the mic. Recorded the first attempts to the vocals to see if everything works the way I want it. Also recorded more little bits that will hopefully find their perfect place in time.
I need to find some clocks to record the ticking. I don’t have one that tick-tocks anymore. The grandfather clock at my parents’ would be perfect. Maybe next time I get there. I might ask around who’s got one or go to a shop…
This is the tiny snippet that inspired this song (sounds completely different already though):
[audio http://boxstr.com/files/1167684_wvdwi/websidea.mp3]
26 Feb 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio Tags: bass, beats, field recording, music, recording studio, rhodes
So I began the new song called ‘Webs’ today. Like a breath of fresh air. Back in the flow of things. No sign of writer’s block. Ha!
The lyrics are taken from a short story written by my best friend that he probably doesn’t even remember writing. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind anyway. Just nicked some very poetic sounding phrases, translated them and reworked everything. It’s about the time when you wake up and are kind of still caught up in a dream, but have to get into the hustle and bustle of everyday life again. Funny, now I’ve got a morning song and a good night song (‘Scaredy Cat’s Lullaby’). I wonder if it’ll affect the naming of the whole album and the order of the songs… we’ll see.
Some Rhodes playing and recording today, nice and simple sine wave bass line. I also had fun recording lots of stuff one does in the morning just after getting up… yawning, brushing of teeth, getting dressed (zipper sounded best), sipping coffee and so on. For beats. And some basic beat programming. Me likey! Some ah and uh vocals to use as fills, too. It’s a good song to play around with loads of sounds and just enjoy the whole recording process again. Really looking forward to more of this tomorrow.
Bed now. G’night!
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