04 Aug 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio Tags: beats, brass, glitch, guitar, mix, music, piano, recording studio, songs
Alright, it’s sooo time for an update.
The three days on Usedom were great. Got some sun (and quite some freckles), hit the waves and relaxed. Three days without my music to gain some perspective seems a good recipe.
In the last week I’ve gone over the songs that still needed some work. The chart was really helpful to determine what and when. It was also nice to tick off boxes after finishing stuff. Very motivating! First up was ‘Euphoria’ which was nice before, but who wants nice. Much better now. I finished the beats which now feature the sound of an arriving S-Bahn train in the chorus. Sounds like big drums. Refined the sound, put in variations and automated all the beats. Played with tape stops, reversing, shuffling and retriggering the melody I’d made out of an recorded glass harp. Really love the glitchy results. Very electronic sounding, I love it. Put in some small other details after tweaking sounds so much they became something completely new. And then of course mixed the song.
Next up was ‘Zero Tolerance’. Again refined and automated the beats, put in more circuit-bent breaks and noises. Messed around with the brass I’d recorded before, but didn’t like too much. It’s still in there although no one would recognise it as brass. It was so much fun kinda destroying things. It makes sense since the song needs to be gritty. Made some nice glitchy effects. Already have some great ideas how to treat the vocals once they’re done, too. For the last chorus I rocked out on my Les Paul and recorded some distorted guitar parts. And again did the music mix.
Also did some sound polishing on ‘The Tide’. Mainly EQing. ‘Hearts First’ needed some refined beats. Then I added a few more subtle cello bits. I went through all the tracks to make sure everything sits nicely in the mix and is necessary. I adjusted the levels and finished the mix.Last, but not least I made some changes in the brass arrangement for ‘Chaos & Order’ whenever the high notes sounded to bright and squeaky. Then recorded piano sprinkles in the verses to add a bit of extra colour.
Tomorrow I’ll start with more vocals. Finally the weather is right for them. It was so darn hot. If I’d done vocals I’d have gotten a heatstroke because the windows need to be shut for that. No way!
Sleep now, I haven’t gotten too much of that lately.
x
29 Feb 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio Tags: field recording, guitar, lyrics, music, recording studio, vocals
In the last two days I’ve continued working on ‘Webs’ although it might end up with a different title. I thought I had a refrain already, but it turned out to be much better suited as a bridge. So today I wrote lyrics and music for the chorus and recorded it. I also laid down some vocals. The rough structure of the song is all there and in the next days I will work on the refinements.
Yesterday I rummaged through my sound library of all the field recordings I made and was amazed to actually find a folder labelled ‘clocks’. So now I not only have a great sounding grandfather clock ticking away underneath but also a frantic little alarm clock that ticks twice as fast for bridge and refrain. I had to readjust the grandfather clock rhythm a bit. It was creating an odd limping rhythm that didn’t work. Did some EQing to get rid of some backgroud noise that I found distracting in the more quiet parts. The clock ticking is just perfect for this song. I absolutely love it. In the sound library I found sounds of toast popping and coffee brewing to be included as sounds for beats, too. It’s so good to actually realise that I didn’t spend a whole month for nothing when I recorded everything onto my computer, edited and filed it. Because quite often I end up recording sounds specifically for the song at hand.
Two nights ago I had the idea that some flageolet tones and other guitar bits could be fitting which were originally intended for ‘Chaos & Order’ but simply didn’t sound right and were therefore discarded. And they are. Gonna record some more though on my old battered classical guitar (the one I started with at the age of six, so we’ve got quite a history).
I really can’t complain at the moment. Things are going so well, I’m just sailing through the writing and recording of ‘Webs’. So much so that I haven’t started rehearsing for the little gig on Saturday. Definitely tomorrow however!
x
23 Feb 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio Tags: guitar, lyrics, music, recording studio
This song is really throwing me for a loop. I can’t figure out the lyrics for the chorus and that’s actually stalling the writing process for the chorus, too. I tend to have the lyrics more or less finished before I start with the music. Maybe that’s the whole problem here. I’ve got about a dozen variations on the lyrics for the refrain, but I can’t decide for one. Quite frustrating.
I’ve recorded tons of guitar parts today, begun the sifting through and editing. Going through approximately 40 minutes of guitar has made me tired. So I’m gonna call it a day. I’ll give it another go tomorrow, but if I don’t make any real progress I’m gonna move on to the next song. Maybe later it’ll all fall into place. And I’ll take my macbook to a little cosy café and try my luck with the lyrics there on monday. Perhaps the change of scenery will help?
Nighty night
20 Feb 2008
by madeleinein In the Studio, ramblings Tags: distortion, guitar, myspace
Today hasn’t been the most successful day. I’ve been trying to figure out how to go about the new song… which so far is still untitled, but that’s gonna change. I figured I might use my electric guitar again for this one. So I dusted it off, set up my amp and effects and while tuning the high E – actually thinking my Les Paul could use some new strings - it snapped. Luckily I have a music shop just around the corner so I treated my poor neglected guitar to a whole set of new strings and some shining up. Looks as good as new now. Played some riffs, but nothing stuck so far. I’ve got a rough idea, but haven’t gotten far with it. It’s gonna be pretty fast. Around 160 bpm I imagine. And loads of distortion. Eh, that’s about as far as I got. Good days, bad days. I tried to come up with a bass line which usually isn’t that hard for me… no luck in that department either.
There’s one thing that I find quite unsettling at the moment. There’s this one guy on myspace. Shortly after I put ‘Scaredy Cat’s Lullaby’ up he wrote me that he was working on a remix. I wasn’t too happy with him downloading or recording it even though this feature was disabled, but… A few days later he sent me the ‘remix’ as he called it. He had put some stumbling distorted-sounding beats on top, tried to sing along and made the mix all murky. That certainly wasn’t what I’d call a remix. It not only completely destroyed the song. What he did was like a dog pissing against a tree to cover another one’s scent, to mark his territory. I found it really difficult to listen to my song for a while after that. I told him that I didn’t like it, but now he’s done it again. He downloaded the new version of ‘Chaos & Order’ from this blog and it’s the whole thing all over. He’s also bombarding me with messages all the time, even if I don’t answer. I feel kind of stalked with this obsessive behaviour. It’s maddening how he manages to disrupt and stall my work flow. See, my songs are what I spend most of my time with. So, yes, I’m quite protective with them because I put a lot of hard work, time and love in them.
Sorry for rambling. I had to get this off my chest before I start losing sleep over it!
x
