Tracklisting/The New Number Two - 040715

Spent the morning on AA3 re-jigging the tracklisting in the light of the decision to drop ...NUMBER TWO.

The transitions sound pretty good to me, and the total running time is down to 70.34, which can't be bad.

My ears are fairly shattered now, so I'll give 'em a rest for a day or two. I'll just check the transitions then, one last time, just to be sure.

Enjoy your weekend!

Regards,


djp

Tracklisting/A Plague On Both My Houses/Watching The News With The Sound Off/The New Number Two - 030715

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Another frustrating, and ultimately disappointing, day today...

Remixed/remastered ...PLAGUE and WATCHING... in CE5/AA3. Both sound fine and are keepers.

However, I spent practically the whole day trying to sort out ...NUMBER TWO, and having got to the 37th different mix, I decided that I can't do anything with it in its present state. I won't even begin to list all the hoops I tried to jump through to bring this track home, but ultimately I couldn't get it to work. It's a shame, because I really love the track. I gave it every chance to come through, but...

The problem lies in my choice of VST soft synths, I plumped for a couple of "distressed" sounds which seemed to occupy the same space EQ-wise. No amount of adjustment would make the various parts sit well together, so I have decided to drop the track from the album. I'll revisit it again in the future - I just don't have the time for it right now.

Of course, that now means I have to adjust the tracklisting. What larks! A job for next week, perhaps. Well, at least the album will be even shorter now...;-).

Enjoy the fine weather!

Regards,


djp

Tracklisting/Complications From A Fall/The New Number Two/A Plague On Both Your Houses/Watching The News With The Sound Off - 020715

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Another frustrating today, but maybe not as bad as yesterday.

Having reviewed the work I did yesterday, COMPLICATIONS... passed muster, the others didn't.

I spent much of the day remixing in CE5/AA3 - ...PLAGUE... is now fine. ...NUMBER proved very frustrating - I'm now up to Mix 29 and I'm still not sure if it's OK. The 29th mix is OK to sleep on overnight - if I'm not there, I'm nearly there. I didn't get around to WATCHING... at all.

Busy day tomorrow, I reckon...;-).

Regards,


djp

Tracklisting/Watching The News With The Sound Off/Complications From A Fall/The New Number Two/A Plague On Both My Houses - 010715

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Frustrating sort of day. I decided to go for a spin in the car to review the tracklisting over the stereo speakers. To do that, I enlisted the aid of my old iPod Shuffle, which I thought had packed it in a few years ago, but apparently was only resting between engagements...

Went off for a spin for an hour or more, out by Lough Derg and Terryglass and back by Borrisokane (as you do...). I reckon the "musical" tracks are fine, but some of the ambient tracks need to be tweaked,

I adjusted the EQs for WATCHING..., COMPLICATIONS... and ...PLAGUE, and they seem to be OK, but ...NUMBER TWO is giving me trouble. I couldn't tweak the EQ, so I had to do a quick remix of the track in CE5 and master in AA3. Not sure if that works so well. If I can't fix the track, I'll just have to drop it.

I'll check these four tracks again tomorrow and see where that leaves me.

Bummer...

Regards,

djp

Tracklisting/The New Number Two - 180615

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Organised a tracklisting (two actually) for the full album mix in AA3. This involved me using metronome audio set to the tempo of each individual track, and then lining-up consecutive tracks based on the metronome. I think it works pretty well for most of the transitions, but I suspect there will be several tweaks between now and the release date. There's been one already...;-). Running time has been reduced to about 74:40. Bit of an improvement on 90 minutes, wha'...?

The album in its Bandcamp/iTunes etc.versions won't have those transitions. The tracks will be standalone, as it were. The reason for this is that streaming doesn't like crossfading and downloaded crossfaded tracks sound crap. So you will have to download the full album mix via Bandcamp (or stream it off Mixcloud) to get the full effect.

As I was going through the masters, I found an unpleasant hiss on THE NEW NUMBER TWO. Now, I know there are people out there (you know who you are) who got to great lengths to add tape noise to their tracks to create an analogue effect on digital recordings. I am not one of those people...;-). So go it had to.

Road trip over the weekend, so I'll be back in harness on Monday.

Regards,


djp

Complications From A Fall/The New Number Two - 280514

Sponsored by "60s Music".

Mixed/mastered both tracks in CE5/AA3.

And who would've thought it would be so difficult to mix ambient tracks? Bass everywhere, lots of resonance(?), levels mis-matched between headphones and monitors. Bloody nightmare!

Had to do three mixes of COMPLICATION... and ten(!) mixes of ...NUMBER TWO before I was happy with them. That would have been a whole load of expensive analogue tape if I'd been working inna old-skool stylee.

I hope I won't be revisiting these mixes, but I suspect I might. Still, no worries - these mixes won't be seeing the late of day for a year yet, so plenty of time...;-).

Regards,


djp

The New Number Two - 140514

Sponsored by "Jason Mundok".

Quick session today, as the real world encroaches on the Gulag...

...programmed and edited a variety of MIDI parts in CE5 using the Roland Juno-D/Phonic Firefly/Minimogue VA sub bass/Reaktor 5 Mikro Prism Autobahn Pad/Majken's Chimera Static.

The track is ready to mix/master at some stage in the future. Time to move on.

Regards,


djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition/I Am A Shadow Of Your Former Self/The New Number Two - 240114

Sponsored by "20s Music".

Very busy day today!

UNWINNABLE...

Edited the Minimogue and MIDI drum parts in CE5. The track is ready to record some random bass (and possibly guitar) parts at some stage over the next few weeks.

I AM A SHADOW OF YOUR FORMER SELF/THE NEW NUMBER TWO

Two new tracks wherein I programmed a variety of VST plugins in CE5, using the Roland Juno-D and the Phonic Firefly.

I'm not exactly sure where SHADOW... is going, so I'll let it stew away for a while.

NUMBER TWO..., on the other hand, has a distinct Simple Minds vibe circa SONS AND FASCINATION. I can feel a Eurofunk groove coming on. Vaguely...

More work tomorrow, maybe...

Regards,


djp