In Heaven For A Conference/Whatever Happened To The Citizens Of My Abandoned Evony City? – 260511

Sponsored by the letters M, N, O and P.

Good day/bad day…

I finally worked out what was wrong with …HEAVEN. The signal going into the CE5 stereo output was too weak, so that when I mastered and normalised the track, there was too much normalisation required and everything got distorted. So I reckoned the only thing to do was to scrap the entire mix and start from the perspective of having adequate signal at the output. And this worked a charm. I got a very decent mix put together which  mastered nicely via Cubase VST/24 and AA3. And I even took the opportunity of adding in the Sawstrings 2 file which, for some reason, I’d omitted from the mix.

That having worked out nicely, I then got the mad notion of re-introducing the Ice Hall part in place of the Tabular Bells part and did an alternative mix. That worked out fine too. So now I have two different versions of the same track – which one will I put on the album?

Things didn’t go so well with …EVONY, though. Spend a lot time tweaking the mix and just when I thought I’d got it all sorted, I discovered some clipping in the X/Y/Z part, which seems to be have been due to some interference picked up by the Behringer mixer. I re-recorded the part, both through the Behringer, and even through the Tascam 2488. Not too sure if I’m happy with the results, and I ran out of time eventually, so I’ll have to have another go at this tomorrow.

Grrr…

Regards,

djp

More Modernista

Sponsored by the letters M, N, O and P.

Uploaded the relevant files on Reverbnation. They can be streamed from this link:- http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3326208.

Having a bit of a problem with making the tracks available for paid download from Reverbnation. I originally uploaded the tracks last night but they had not been “processed” by the time I checked them again this evening. I reckoned the problem was that the MP3 file for …LAZARUS was too big at 192 kbps, so I downsampled it to 128 kbps. Hopefully this will solve the problem. This issue should only arise in relation to Reverbnation, so if you’re fussy about your audio quality, you might wish to consider downloading from Bandcamp instead.

Can’t say you haven’t been warned…;-)

Regards,

djp

Future Plans For Yesterday/Flood Plain – 040511

Sponsored by the letters M, N, O and P.

Finished off all the edits this evening in CE5.

FUTURE… was tricky. I had recorded a synth voice (Juno-D – Power Slice) which was supposed to be in sync with the tempo of the track. Luckily, the part “loops” after 10 bars, so I took a 10-bar segment and was able to match the tempo (more or less). I then cut’n’paste that segment as required throughout the track. It’s not quite  in sync at all times, but the slight tempo drifts +/- add a certain frailty to the track. I also had to re-do audio cleanup on all the synth parts, which I did using Cool Edit Pro.

FLOOD… was a lot easier. I just had to slide two synth parts around to get them in sync with the tempo. Not a clear-cut thing, as the parts had different degrees of attack. But again, the drift adds to the track I think.

Well, that’s another stage of the project completed. As I said, I’m going to spend the next few evenings doing up rough mixes for evaluation purposes, and I will start mixing and mastering on my return from NYC.

Enjoy my absence!

Regards,

djp

King Fidget – 260411

Sponsored by the letters M,N, O and P.

Edited the bass parts in CE5. It’s OK but needs a little bit more work. I may have to edit the beats to tie in better with the bass. We’ll see…

I also recorded a glitchy track to use throughout the track, using the Grungelizer VST effect.  I may or may not use this in the final mix.

This is going to be the opening track on the album, so I’m going to have to spend a good bit of time editing. First impressions are important, after all…

More tomorrow.

Regards,

djp

No Position To Argue/The Cop Car Hand Heel Wheel Turn – 190311

Sponsored by the letters M, N and O.

…ARGUE

There’s rather a lot going with the track guitar-wise, so I just programmed up a nice ambient-sounding part in CE5 using the Reaktor 5 VST plugin (SonntagsgeraeuchJAM), and left it at that.

…COP CAR…

Programmed a variety of different parts using the D-110 (Elec Organ 3). Not quite finished yet, and I may leave the final decision on these parts when I have all the guitar parts edited together, as there’s some tricky timing stuff with the guitar that I want to mirror in the organ parts. Do a bit more tomorrow, perhaps…

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

A secret session

Sponsored by the letters L and M.

I was very kindly asked by my good friend Peter Fitzpatrick if I might track some bass for a track he’s working on called Dirty Little Secret. Always happy to oblige Peter!

He wanted something in the vein of Mick Karn RIP.  Now, if I was ever asked to play bass in the style of any given musician, Karn would’ve been in the top three of bassists whose unique playing style I wouldn’t have an earthly hope of trying to reproduce. I’d have more hope of pushing an oil tanker into a dry dock with my backside than copying Karn. But I thought I’d be able to have a pop at doing a bit of muscular pub band funky bass, with the assistance of modern technology.

So I fired up the 4003 and the Bass Pod XT and spent three or four hours gamely attempting to follow in the thumbsnaps of the legendary Japan bassist.

Over 14 tracks of audio, I got most of the elements I think I need to edit together a decent bass line for the track. Of course, I’m not the client, so I’ll be giving Peter all the wavs so he can re-arrange the bass line as he sees fit.

It’ll take me a day or two to clean up the audio and then edits the various parts together. Hope Peter likes it…

Regards,

djp

A Truth You Can Happily Accept – 100111

Sponsored by the letters K, L and M.

Another new track, begad…

Ran up a rough rhythm track in CE5 using various rhythm kits from HALion One.

Recorded four different bass partson the Tascam 2488 using the Jazz Bass and the Bass Pod XT. The parts weren’t particularly difficult from a melodic point of view, but there were a lot of stops, and I’m not particularly tidy in me stops, so there was an awful lot of takes and retakes. What I have should edit out OK, (I hope…).

More bass work tomorrow, hopefully.

Regards,

djp