In Heaven For A Conference – 250511

Sponsored by the letter J.

What an awful day that was!

You’d think a track with two synth parts, a guitar, a bass and a stereo rhythm track would be a piece of cake to mix and master. How wrong you’d be…

The day started off badly with my having a mild but annoying headache. It quickly got worse…

I had to do an emergency re-edit of the guitar parts. I’d cut and paste a few loops throughout the track, but they didn’t sync up properly, so I had to redo that. Then I found a glitch in the bass parts which seems to have been a bit of bleed from my headphones on to the 4003′s pickup. EQ sorted that. I was pretty much ready to rock’n'roll after that and took a bit of time getting a decent mix together. But when I went to master the pre-master track, the JV880 Ice Hall part kept distorting. I had to do a number of different mixes to get the distortion off the monitors, but no matter how I tried, the distortion was still present in the headphones – NBG.

I adjusted levels and adjusted EQs. All to no avail. I then decided that the thing to do was to re-record the Ice Hall parts, but more cleanly – take out all the effect that were present by default on the part in the JV880. For some reason, I couldn’t record MIDI in CE5 for an hour or so. Then the software sat down on me completely – not before I had a repeat of the missing transport bar problem I’ve mentioned before.

When I finally got that sorted, I had to try and edit the Ice Hall part on the JV880. Not an easy task – it would be easier (and more logical) for an amoeba to give birth to an elephant, However, I prevailed and finally edited the part to my heart’s consent. When I finally got that sorted, I recorded the part to CE5 using the Behringer mixer and the Phonic Firely – only to find that the part still sounded crap.

At that stage, I made the fateful decision to find an alternative to the Ice Hall part. I decided to try out a few VST instruments and, after much trial and rather a lot of error, I stumbled upon the Tabular Bells voice in Kore Player. A lovely voice, but it completely changes the mood of the track and it exposed a certain clash between the MIDI part and my bass part. I had no choice but to edit the MIDI part to fit the bass.

Things sound much better (if rather different now), but I still haven’t mixed and mastered it. A job for tomorrow…

16 bloody mixes and all of them crap. Grrr!!!

Regards,

djp

On The Lake Beneath The Shoreline/King Fidget/Modernista – 280411

Sponsored by the letter S.

Edited the bass parts in CE5. Considering the parts are relatively simple, there was rather a lot of editing required. But it got sorted eventually. I’m reluctant to mess around with the EQ on the bass, as I seem to have captured a fairly accurate facsimile of Roger Glover’s Rickenbacker 4003 bass tone from the classic Deep Purple Mk. II lineup…

…which is all the more remarkable when you consider that Glover’s Ric apparently had Fender Jazz Bass pickups…

I have now decided that the track will not feature on the finished album (no surprise…), but I plan to release a version of KING FIDGET as a promo EP, and I will use …LAKE…as one of the tracks. So you will get to hear it, folks.

I also plan to release some non-album material very shortly under the title MODERNISTA, as a kind of taster for the album. Details shortly…

Regards,

djp

Braille For The Feet – 140411

Sponsored by the letter A.

So I cheated a little bit, and last night programmed up a synth bass line in CE5, using the Native Instruments Kore Player (Evolving Bass). Not quite as fancy as the bass line I’d done with the 4003, but better all round.

This morning, edited the Les Paul parts. Things sounded a lot better than I’d remembered, particularly the 4 parts that make up the guitar solo which sounds really rather good (by my low standards at least). Spent a long time experimenting with moving the various parts around. I think I have it pretty much sussed now.

Time to move on…

Regards,

djp

Yes, it’s another session…

Sponsored by the letter C.

A second cut at a bass line for Peter Fitzpatrick’s song, Dirty Little Secret

Recorded 15 bass parts on the Tascam 2488, using the 4003 and Bass Pod XT.

Unusually for me, I played the bass with the fingers (actually, one finger…) rather than with a plec. Got a nice “borpy” bass sound, verging somewhat towards the sound of Free’s Andy Fraser on All Right Now. But nowhere near as good.

I need to do some audio cleanup of the wavs tomorrow and then I’ll Soundcloud ‘em for Peter. Hope he likes the work.

Regards,

djp

Another Yet Still Further Session Already – 220311

Sponsored by the letters U and W.

Spent a lot of the day recording a bass line for Peter Fitzpatrick for a song entitled Through The Lens. I recorded 10 different parts on the Tascam 2488 using the 4003 and the Bass Pod XT.

An interesting blend of styles:- Jah Wobble in the verses and Bruce Foxton in the choruses. I was going to do something fancy for the middle 8, but I chickened out and went for a plain vanilla line.

I’ll spend a bit of time doing audio cleanup and such, and then put it up on Soundcloud for Peter. Hopefully he’ll like it.

I have another session to do for him, which I hope to nail during the course of the week. And then who knows…?

Regards,

djp

More another session

Peter Fitzpatrick decided to do a tighter version of the song we’re working on in memory of Paul Culnane, so I spent a few hours last night recording new parts on the 4003.

The original version of the song was based on guitars, while the new version is based on a lovely electric piano tone. This new tone suggested some changes to the bass line I’d already recorded – it’s more restrained than the original bass line, which is probably no bad thing.

This afternoon, I cleaned up the various bass wavs in Cool Edit Pro and comp’d together a bass line which sounds pretty good to me. Some editing issues, but Peter’s a good engineer so I’ve no doubt that he’ll do an excellent job on this, as always.

I’ll be popping into Peter’s studio in Dublin on Saturday to (try and) do some backing vocals. Should be fun!

Regards,

djp

Another session

Sponsored by the letters L, M and N.

I mentioned the death of Paul Culnane during the week.

Peter Fitzpatrick and I thought it might be a nice thing to write and record a song as a tribute to our deceased friend. Peter sent me down a rough demo and asked me to put some bass on it.

Which is what I spent this afternoon doing. 9 parts of 4003 in what vaguely approximates to a Maccaeqsue bass line. Hopefully it fits the bill.

Peter and I have been ping-ponging each other (oo, er) in relation to lyrics, as is our wont. Shaping up quite nicely. And there’s room for other contributors also. Should be a blast when it’s done!

Back to mine own humble efforts tomorrow…

Regards,

djp

In Heaven For A Conference/Whatever Happened To The Citizens Of My Abandoned Evony City?/The Tree Of Idleness/On The Lake Beneath The Shoreline – 180211

Sponsored by the letter J.

…HEAVEN…

I’d planned to track bass parts with the Jazz Bass, but for some reason I couldn’t get it tuned properly. The action is pretty high on it, so it probably needs to be set up (the casualty list is growing…). I decided to bring in the 4003 from the subs’ bench, which is a rather nice option to have, don’t you think?

Quickly recorded 10 parts on the Tascam 2488 using the Bass Pod XT. Hopefully this should edit out nicely…

…EVONY…/…IDLENESS…/…LAKE…

Threw together some rough mixes in CE5 for guitar tracking next week.  Where …IDLENESS… was concerned, I had to record some MIDI parts as audio before making the rough mix (D110 - Warm Pad/JV880 – Dig Rhodes 2). …IDLENESS… is sounding particularly fine even thought there’s a need for some heavy editing of the bass parts. …LAKE…still sounds rather odd, but not as odd as it used to sound before I tracked the bass parts.

Time to introduce a new weapon from my musical arsenal. All will be revealed on Monday (hopefully…).

Regards,

djp

On The Lake Beneath The Shoreline – 070211

Sponsored by the letter A.

Recorded 5 bass parts on the Tascam 2488 using the 4003 and the Bass Pod XT. A rather insistent plodding bass line for a plod-along rock track.  I wonder what will happen when I start tracking 6-string on it?

That’s it – I can now confirm that bass tracking for the album is complete. I’d be aiming to have the 6-string tracking done by the end of March, were it not for this damn trip abroad starting tomorrow. At this rate it won’t be finished by April – who knows exactly? Plenty of things to do in the meantime, thankfully – I won’t be idle.

Try not to mess up the country in my absence, k?

Regards,

djp

The Cop Car Hand Heel Wheel Turn/On The Lake Beneath The Shoreline – 040211

Sponsored by the letters U and V.

COP CAR…

Came up with a mad set of HALi0n One beats (3/4 time – 150 bpm) and recorded 7 bass parts on the Tascam 2488 using the 4003 and the Bass Pod XT. Having some serious issues relating to feedback on the bass, but I got it sorted in the end. This could turn out to be an interesting track…

Remember how I said today would be my last day for tracking bass? Well, I was wrong… turns out I have to record bass for LAKE also. And when I looked at the relevant CE5 project file, I found I also had to program some rhythm too. So I programmed up a “real” kit using Kore Player. This will need to be edited over the weekend, so I’ll be able to track the bass on Monday.

Not fully convinced that this track will make the final cut, but I’ll stick with it for another while longer. Maybe I’ll find some inspiration somewhere…

Regards,

djp