Me & The Fly - 260515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

So, I've gone and committed to a date. The ME & THE FLY EP will be released on 1 June 2015. Full details are on the relevant Facebook event page - https://www.facebook.com/events/842222109192252/.

And here's the graphic for the EP. I rather like it...

Further information closer to the day.

A bit excited - haven't done "the launch thing" in a while...;-).

Regards,

djp

You Have My Heart Scalded/Me & The Fly - 240515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

...SCALDED

One last tweak to the mix in CE5/AA3. Definitely using this mix...I hope...;-).

...FLY

Finally got down to designing the cover art. Had a bit of fun locating a suitable font, but eventually got one. I can highly recommend 1001freefonts.com if you're stuck for a font.

I also found a suitable image from Wikipedia. I know, "Creative Commons" and all that, but just because I used it in this instance doesn't mean I endorse it. You can't call me a hypocrite if I acknowledge it myself...;-).

I'm having a good old think about a suitable release date. Sometime within the next few weeks, that for sure.

Roadtrip for the next few days. See you later on in the week...

Regards,


djp

FCA Boots/Gomorrah/Is Everybody Happy Yet? - 220515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

FCA BOOTS

Sorted the glitch. Remixed/remastered in CE5/AA3. Sorted.

GOMORRAH

Had to do an emergency edit on the Ric bass/Squier Strat parts. Mixed/mastered in CE5/AA3. Three mixes. Taking the second.

IS EVERYBODY HAPPY YET?

What a nightmare of a track to mix. Had to edit the Squier Strat parts and do a huge amount of tweaking of the VST soft synth parts. Mixed/mastered in CE5/AA3/AA1.5. Not sure if I'm 100% happy with it. Made multiple mixes, too many to count. I picked the least worst one, if you follow me. I spent an awful lot of time on a track that won't actually feature on the finished album. Who'd be me, eh...?

In other news, my broadband was down all day. I was too busy to check it out during the day, but this evening I got on to my ISP. During the week, I'd ordered fibre broadband and was told that an engineer would be out in a few weeks to sort things out. However, it seems that they actually turned on my fiber broadband today and my router couldn't handle it, Luckily, I had a second router which could take fibre broadband, so I got on to the support guy and found that if I connected it to the test phone socket inside the master phone socket, everything worked fine. However, the support guy told me that this would disable my landline, so I had to disconnect my alarm, because it was beeping like mad.

Subsequently, I discovered that the landline could work if I connected it to the test socket through the filter. So it seems there may have been no need to disconnect the alarm at all. Tcheh! So now you know what I'll be up to for the rest of the evening.

Shtuff...

Regards,


djp

I Can Explain...Everything/You Have My Heart Scalded/FCA Boots - 210515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

A "window" opened for me today, and I mixed both of the tracks in CE5. Mastered in AA3. One mix of ...EVERYTHING and two mixes of ...SCALDED. I'll take the second mix, thank you very much...

There's a little fix I need to do for FCA BOOTS. There's a glitch that's noticeable over the headphones but not over the monitors. I'll have a look at this in the next few days.

That's good progress made this week. Only nine more tracks to mix/master.

More tomorrow.

Regards,


djp

FCA Boots/Tropes and Memes - 200515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

FCA BOOTS

Did 4 different mixes in CE5 and mastered in AA3. I think I'll go with the fourth mix, but I have an idea for an edit which might be interesting - we'll see. It'll be based on the fourth mix anyway, so it'll only take a few minutes to try it out.

Had to do an emergency edit of the Ric bass parts and programme a new synth part - the latter may not be necessary.

TROPES AND MEMES

Did one mix in CE5 and mastered in AA3. A simpler task, even though that track is more complex than FCA. Such is life.

I'm starting to run out of time here, so I'm going to do a blitz of mixing/mastering over the next few weeks. Some distractions along the way of course - a.k.a. shtuff.

More tomorrow.

Regards,


djp

Tracklisting - 100515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Even though I am not working off a complete set of mastered track as yet, I think I have the tracklisting for the album pretty much nailed for the moment. 19 tracks - over 80 minutes long - I know, I'm an insaniac...;-).

As was the case for HELLHOLE, I plan to create a full album mix for the album, to compensate for the fact that I cannot crossfade the tracks on Bandcamp. The full mix will be included as a bonus track on Bandcamp. This time out, I also intend to upload the full mix onto Mixcloud (and possibly Soundcloud) for streaming purposes.

In order to get my crossfades sorted "properly", my plan is to upload all the tracks as a multi-track session file in AA3 and then use metronome tracks, which I recorded today in CE5, to line the tracks up to the optimum effect. I've done this type of thing for previous releases, but only "by ear" (without the metronome tracks). This should make things so much easier - or not work at all...

I also have the tracklistings sorted for 3 EPs to promote the album. More will be revealed closer to the moment.

Big roadtrip planned for the next few days, so you probably won't hear from me until the weekend.

Phew, sez you...

Regards,


djp

Choking On Dry Bread (a.k.a. Flypaper)/Tracklisting/ You'll Never Miss Your Mother Till The Well Runs Dry - 080515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Spent the morning tweaking the edits and dubs in CE5. And I was happy enough with that, when a window emerged in the afternoon to mix/master the track properly. Which I did, except of course I did a further significant amount of additional tweaking along the way. I now think I've got it sounding as good as I can get it. If you like dub, then I think you'll like this.

I've decided to retitle the track as FLYPAPER, since the track has nothing to do with either choking or dry bread, but also there is a large lump of vocals from ...FLY, so it makes sense to change the title. That's it - no further discussion - executive decision.

In other news, I started putting together an initial tracklisting in AA3. So far, I've got 19 tracks and the running time is around 77 minutes. I'm trying to sequence the tracks in trios of fast/slow/ambient, but I know that the last track has to be ...MOTHER, so that idea doesn't hold all the way through. I need to check that I have not added EP tracks and that I have enough spare ambient tracks to go on the EPs (there will be three, FYI). I'll have another look at this over the weekend.

Making progress, bai...

Regards,


djp

Choking On Dry Bread - 070515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Great fun today! Got most of the dubbing-up done in CE5. Tracked a metronome part using the Behringer Xenyx 1202, which I may (or may not) use in various places through the track.

I just need to work on the vocal parts and a few other bits and pieces tomorrow.

While the levels will be similar to ...FLY, it looks like the mastering set-up may have to be somewhat different, so while I might have a go at mastering tomorrow, it will only be a provisional jobby.

Possibly inspired by this track? I'll admit to nothing...

Regards,

djp

Choking On Dry Bread/Me & The Fly - 060515

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Thought I might have a window to do some mixing/mastering this week, but I have a house full of students studying for exams, so that put the kibosh on that...

Instead, I started work editing CHOKING..., which essentially is a radical dub of ...FLY. The track is being extensively re-worked and will pretty much start at the middle section of ...FLY and everything will radiate from there, if you know what I mean,

The Ric bass and Squier Strat parts are pretty much sorted and MIDI soft synth parts are pretty OK too, but I might look at that aspect of the track again. Since the student "situation" is continuing for the rest of the week, I'll do some work on this tomorrow and possibly Friday. I'll look to see what use I can make of the existing vocal parts. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to start dubbing-up tomorrow.

As CHOKING... is working off the ...FLY CE5 project file, and as all the levels have been set for the ...FLY mix, I should, in theory, be able to mix/master CHOKING... using the ...FLY levels without having to use monitors for mixing. I'll give that a go. If it works, it'll save me a good bit of time.

CHOKING...will feature on the album, while ...FLY will not. Just want to clarify that.

Regards,


djp