I just got a new computer. My older one bit the dust during the big blizzard here in athens. I discovered this when coming home after 5 days without power and turning everything on again for the first time. Fortunately I have a back-up hard drive so I didn't really lose any important data. But I did have to reinstall all of software and periphories and see if they work under the dreaded Vista 64.
Well not everything is perfect, but I was able to install FL, tracktion and most of my plugins. Here are the results of my test run. It's an unfinished little sketch. I like it though, and will probably use it for something. Here I'm trying to get the usual retro sounds with my amp simulator. In all the early 70s rock, they low-passed the hack out of all the instrument parts. I guess they just liked it better that way.
This is a song that I haven't finished yet. Right now it is a bit repetative to me, when I started this my goal was to make a song with several different unique and interesting parts. Right now it has a few different sections but it mainly repeats 1 theme. I'm not quite sure about the instrumentation, I might change some of the sounds in a later version. I ran into the obstacle erf described in his last post: I found myself constantly tweaking minor details before the song was even finished. I have learned to compose an entire song and then worry about instrumentation and variation. Let me know if you have any ideas to make this better.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Davie, FL, visiting South Florida this week for Spring Break with Joe (who I went with to Biloxi, MS where "6 Hands" was recorded), which has unfortunately precluded me from creating a St. Patrick's Day themed Hella Gem, sadly. I recorded this track last Thursday morning after missing my 9am class, spending a couple of hours working on this before my 12pm Habitable Planet class. Save for the lack of cohesive lyrics within the improvised vocals, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.
As has been the usual case, I recorded this song using the Ableton Live 8 Beta. The harpsichord sounding patch that comes in during the "chorus" bits is a patch from the new Collision instrument. The song was mostly written using that patch after a rudimentary 909 beat was made. I recorded the vocals, then a patch from an FM8 synth, then the acoustic guitar, then the bass. After I was done recording all of the parts I removed bits of different tracks to create the dynamics I wanted. I find it easier to figure out the trajectory of songs like these after all of the parts are recorded rather than try to figure it out while composing... it just bogs me down and keeps me from actually finishing the song. This to me is the biggest obstacle using Ableton Live, this tendency to play with the texture of the song too much before I actually finish writing the damn thing.
Also, there is a certain degree of faith involved. No, not the religious type. It is more of having faith in one's own abilities to the point that you continue working on something even when the internal critic is barking away, especially when the song is still in rough shape and is still being formed. I have found this has gotten easier doing these Hella Gems, actually. I mean... I actually did this one way before it was actually due!
The only word that sticks out for me in the meandering vocal is "fingertips" at the start of the 2nd verse, so that's what I'm going to call this for now. Enjoy.
