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

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

FCA Boots - 250415

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

In the spirit of yesterday's posting, I did a blitz on FCA BOOTS, editing and dubbing-up in CE5.

There isn't a huge amount of space in the track, so there wasn't a huge amount of dubbing-up I could do (some of it will be lost in the mix, which rather defeats the purpose of dubbing-up, I suppose) but it's done and I'm happy with it. Had to tweak some of the Ric bass/Squier Strat parts, but it's sounding great now and ready to mix/master.

More work (possibly) tomorrow...

Regards,


djp

Gomorrah/Mare Nostrum/FCA Boots/Tropes and Memes/Everybody Calls Me Darren - 240415

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

GOMORRAH

Edited/dubbed-up the vocal/Squier Strat/MIDI drum parts in CE5. Everything goes so much more smoothly when the PC decides to behave itself - just sayin'...

The track is ready to mix/master and it's HUGE!!!. You're going to love it - or absolutely hate it...;-).

The track bears a very passing resemblance to this...

As for the other tracks, I've had to make a few executive decisions. I'm kinda running out of time and I have a lot of tracks to work on.The next few months could be a little difficult what with business travel, holidays and such, so I have to be realistic about what I can achieve.

So here goes...

• MARE NOSTRUM - I will record choral vocal parts for this track next week - definitely. I have a "window" which I plan to exploit to the full, and this track is window-shaped...
• FCA BOOTS - I'm not going to bother with vocals on this - just go straight to mix/master stage
• TROPES AND MEMES - ditto
• EVERYBODY CALLS ME DARREN - I'm going to abandon this track. It's a silly idea that doesn't actually add any value to the album. In fact, possibly quite the reverse..

So that leaves me with three tracks to work on over the next month. I plan to release an EP at some stage in June, so I will concentrate on the tracks for that initially. Stay tooned for further news...

Regards,


djp

Gomorrah - 230415

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Pretty much finished editing/dubbing-up the vocal parts in CE5. Some small tweaks required, but nothing major.

Also edited the Squier Strat parts and started dubbing them up. Should be finished tomorrow.

Lots of trouble with the PC. I had fantasies of taking a sledgehammer to it when the new PC is in place and bedded down.

Must dream on for a while yet, though...;-).

Regards,


djp

You'll Never Miss Your Mother Till The Well Runs Dry - 140415

Sponsored by "Deezer".

Edited/dubbed-up the Squier Strat parts in CE5. Also did some editing of the Ric bass parts. Things sound pretty tight now.

According to previous blog posts, I had planned to track some choral-type vocal parts and according to my progress spreadsheet, I actually had tracked them. But I can't find the wavs anywhere, so I suspect that I didn't track them, but mistakenly noted that I had. D'ye follow me?

At this stage, I can't really see how adding vocals will do anything other than muck up the arrangement, so I'll forget about the vocals. And on the basis of such accidents, artistic choices are made...;-).

That being the case, the track is ready to mix/master. Time to move on...

Regards,


djp

This Is Going To Take, Like, Forever - 100415

Sponsored by "Disco".

Edited/dubbed-up the vocal parts in CE5. Came together rather easily. I used some "wild" vocal parts to form an outro. Sounds intriguing.

Also discovered some Squier Strat parts which I'd tracked but hadn't edited. Had a poke around to see what was useful, but only kept a few little snippets.

I think I'm going to have to do an emergency edit on the Ric bass parts. They're not quite as tight as I'd like 'em. I'll have a go at that over the weekend.

Regards,


djp

Stiltwalker In The Wind - 090415

Sponsored by "Depeche Mode".

Finished off editing/dubbing-up in CE5. I had to tweak one of the Squier Strat parts too - sounds much better now.

I had a lot of issues with my PC today. I think one of VST delay plugins is very "needy" memory-wise and it caused CE5 to freeze, almost invariably after I'd made some change without saving it. Changing the plugin sorted that out, although the alternative plugin doesn't quite have the character of the original. But it'll do...

The track is now ready to mix/master.

More work tomorrow. Time to move on...

Regards,


djp

Stiltwalker In The Wind - 060415

Sponsored by "David Gerard".

Spent the morning dubbing-up the Squier Strat and MIDI drum parts in CE5.

Found it hard to concentrate today for some reason. The dub delays are not quite as tight as I would like them to be, but they're probably fine. Sounds like a spot of "human intervention". That's the spin I'll put on it anyway.

Work (as in paid employment) tomorrow, but I'll be back working on the album on Wednesday (hopefully...).

Regards,


djp

Never Had It To Lose It - 290115

Sponsored by "Neil Young etc."

Mixed/mastered the track in CE5/AA3.

Had a lot of "fun" trying to get the Ric bass parts and the drum parts to sit well together. Much faffing about with EQs and the like, but got there eventually. One or two little edits required for the Squier Strat parts also.

The track sounds fine, but I'm still not sure about its place on the album - it feels more like an EP track at this stage, but we'll see when all the other tracks are done.

More work tomorrow.

Regards,


djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition/Accents - 190115

Sponsored by "Miles Davis".

UNWINNABLE...

Eleven months to the very day since I lasted worked on the track, I starting dubbing it up in CE5. I concentrated mostly on the Squier Strat parts, and experimented with clearing out some of the other material. Getting there, but quite a bit to go yet. I should have it sorted tomorrow, I reckon.

I also started playing around with the mix. It's going to be tricky, but the track is shaping up nicely, so all the effort will be worth it.

ACCENTS

Mixed/mastered in CE5 and AA3. Sounds huge. Another one in the can...

This is the fun bit!

Regards,


djp

Helicopter Shots Of The City - 050115

Sponsored by "Luke Haines etc.".

Finished off me dub-up work in CE5, concentrating mostly on the Squier Strat and 4Front Rhode parts. Luckily I was able to mask most of the deficiencies in my guitar/bass playing. I could have stayed at it forever, but I think 5 hours is quite enough, thank you very much!

It's probably not 100% perfect, and I'm sure a proper pro dub mixer would have done a different (and much better) job, but it sounds fine to me. Ready to mix/master.

Time to move on.

Regards,


djp

Never Had It To Lose It - 261214

Sponsored by "John T. Baker".

Finished off editing the Squier Strat parts in CE5. Did quite a clear out of parts and there's a lot more "room" in the mix now. Feeling more optimistic about the track. Needs a good "dub-up" and a careful mix and then we're away...

Time to move on.

Regards,


djp

Never Had It To Lose It - 231214

Sponsored by "John Fogerty etc.".

Started work on editing the Squier Strat parts in CE5. A lot of work to do. Not sure if it's going to make the cut as an album track, to be honest, but I'll keep plugging away at it, 'cos that's how I roll...;-).

This is my last session on the project before Christmas, and I'll be doing my usual Facebook blanket blackout from tomorrow p.m., so I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your attention and interest. See you all after the festivities!

Regards,


djp

Iye - 111214

Sponsored by "I Heard Something In The Distance".

Finished off editing the Squier Strat parts in CE5. One or two technical glitches with the PC, but nothing major.

The track is in pretty good shape for the moment. Time to move on...

Regards,


djp

Iye - 101214

Sponsored by "Holger Czukay".

The day started well, with a quick flit up the M7 to Dublin where my Roland Juno-D had just has its contacts replaced. It can see wonderfully well now, all thanks to James Killilea of Sonic Repair Services.

In the afternoon, I thought I'd be able to start editing the Squier Strat parts for IYE in CE5. However, my PC decided that this was the day to get a dose of the scutters. It took numerous attempts (followed by equally-numerous hard reboots. And a kick) to get CE5 to open and run properly. I did manage to go through each of the six separate parts and at least identify those elements that I won't be using.

So I'll have another go at it tomorrow and see what I can come up with. Like ...INDECISION yesterday, the edit won't really be complete until the vocals are in place and I see (or hear, to be more accurate) what's what...

Til tomorrow.

Regards,


djp

I Choose Indecision - 091214

Sponsored by "Hawkwind".

Finished off editing the Squier Strat parts in CE5. Stripped them pretty much to the bone, but as I said yesterday, there may be scope for further editing when the vocals are tracked.

I also tracked audio for the various MIDI VST plugin synth parts using the Behringer Xenyx 1202, as I need to do some drop-outs on the synth parts, and it's as handy to do them in audio as against VST. But maybe that's just me.

The track is pretty much done for the moment. I have a road trip to Dublin tomorrow, to collect the Roland Juno-D from the vet, but if I have enough time in the afternoon, I might be able to do some editing on another track. At least I have a choice in the matter...;-).

Regards,


djp

I Choose Indecision - 071214

Sponsored by "Harry Nilsson".

Did a lot of work on the Squier Strat parts in CE5. I have more work to do tomorrow, but I suspect that I won't be finished editing these parts until such time as I have some vocals to work against. Which won't be for a while yet...;-).

Regards,


djp

I Can Explain...Everything - 201114

Sponsored by "Dub etc.".

Finished off editing the Squier Strat parts in CE5, Also edited the Stylophone parts and had another cut at the Ric bass parts. In pretty good nick now, but I'm sure there will be more edits when it comes time to dub it up.

Sounding like potential EP material. Something has to be EP material.

Off on a road-trip for the next few days, so I won't be working on the album for a while. Such is life...

Regards,


djp

I Can Explain...Everything- 111114

Sponsored by "Daniel Prendiville". Self-praise is no praise, so they say...;-)

Edited the Ric bass part and most of the Squier Strat parts in CE5. Less about cutting and pasting and more about muting the parts inna dub stylee.

More work to do,but I won't be doing it tomorrow, because I'm on a road trip...

Regards,


djp