Unwinnable Caption Competition - 300115

Sponsored by "Never Played".

Mixed/mastered the track in CE5/AA3. Again, a lot of the heavy lifting had been done in the dubbing-up process, so the mixing itself was pretty smooth. However, my itchy editing finger got busy and I made a few changes which I hope will have enhanced the track.

I also decided to mess around with the actual master, flipping the channels and other nonsense.

The track sounds big and beaty and I think you'll like it!

The weather early next week should be reasonably favourable, which is a good thing, as I plan to do some field recording on Monday or Tuesday, so I'll need to do some preparatory work for that. In the meantime, I'll be giving some thought to lyrics and other vocalisations.

See you in the funny papers...

Regards,


djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition - 200115

Sponsored by "Charles Mingus".

Finished work on the track. More editing that dubbing-up per se, and I probably could keep at it forever, but ya gots ta stop sometime.

Delighted with the track - it's a cracker! It's got a Can vibe with a Wobblesque bass line. What's not to like?

Time to move on. Hope to sneak in some work at the weekend.

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

Unwinnable Caption Competition/Watching The News With The Sound Off - 190214

Sponsored by "arseblog.com".

Busy day today...

UNWINNABLE...

Tracked audio for the Prologue Forum Romanum and the Majken's Chimera Wide Pad VST plugins in CE5, via the Phonic Firefly and the Behringer mixer. I also played around with the Squier Strat and Ric parts and edited the Minimogue VA audio part.

The track is in pretty good shape and ready to dub up at some stage in the future.

WATCHING...

The Wide Pad part, isolated, is actually a (n unintentionally) nice piece of ambient music in its own right, so I'm going to use it, pretty much as is, as a new track (Watching The News With The Sound Off). Now that's being efficient and economical...

Regards,


djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition - 180214

Sponsored by "Andy Partridge".

Finished off editing the Ric bass parts and started/pretty much finished editing the Squier Strat parts in CE5.

I had to take some extraneous buzzing out of the Strat parts, using AA3 - not entirely successful, but hey, it's dub, innit? One can get away with a certain amount of murder in that genre...

The situation now is that all the parts are in place, but I need to edit "between" the parts to help create the dub effect. I can leave that to mixing time, perhaps.

One thing I need to do is track audio for some of the VST plugin parts. I'll do that tomorrow.

Not sure if the Ebow parts will be used - at this stage I have way too much going on in the track. I'll sleep on it and see what I can do tomorrow.

Regards,


djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition - 170214

Sponsored by "Amon Duul I and II".

Back in the saddle after a brief work-related trip abroad last week. And I'm still not over my recent bout of illness, so I'm wasn't feeling particularly inspired to start something new today.

Instead, I decided to have a go at editing the Ric bass parts in CE5. I have the main bass line sorted, which is Wobble-esque in its repetitiveness, but with some variations chucked in. Not finished yet, but not far off it.

On the basis that I'll be similarly uninspired tomorrow, I'll try and finish the bass parts then and move on to the Squier Strat parts.

And that's how we keep plugging away at a project. Bit by tedious bit...;-).

Regards,


djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition - 040214

Sponsored by "Added 2008".

Tracked 7 Squier Strat parts on the Tascam 2488 using the Pod 2.0. Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5.

Actually, I thought I'd recorded 8 parts, but unfortunately, I hadn't pressed the record button on one of the channels. Only found out after the session. Silly bugger.

Two of the parts were recorded using an Ebow. Just for a bit of different, doncha know. I will attempt to blend them together. Somehow...

An Ebow named Simon...

I took the same approach as yesterday, jammed straight through. This lead to one of the shortest guitar tracking sessions ever - barely an hour...

Must do some editing of something tomorrow. Plenty of material to work on, that's for sure...;-)

Regards,

djp

Unwinnable Caption Competition - 030214

Sponsored by "Added 2007".

Tracked 6 Ric bass parts on the Tascam 2488 via the Line 6 Bass Pod XT. Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5.

The different bass parts are repetitive in themselves, and, unusually for me, I recorded them straight through, not in 8-bar sections. Effectively, I was jamming with myself. There should be fun editing these parts.  I reckon I know which part will be the main part, so the others will be occasional variations.

I hope to track some guitar parts tomorrow, although you never know with me...;-).

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

A Accident/Unwinnable Caption Competion - 160114

Sponsored by "Rollercoaster"

I've been suffering from a heavy bout of manflu since the weekend, and here's the mug of Lemsip to illustrate that fact...

A mug of Lemsip, today...

The last few days at work have been a tough old slog for me, and while I know I should have been tracking guitar for GOMORRAH today, I just didn't have the energy to set up the hardware'n'stuff...

So today I thought I'd try a few electronic tracks that I could just program up in CE5 using various VST plugins.

The first piece to escape from my addled brain was A ACCIDENT, which is meant to be an abstract piece of electronica (whatever that means) with some vocal elements and a lot of heavy-duty hard editing a la Holger Czukay. Essentially, what I have is an audio recording (via the Behringer Xenyx 1202 mixer) of 3 and a half minutes of the Sun Ra plugin ("Sun arriving to Earth"). The plugin starts without touching a keyboard, so I just recorded it on the fly. Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5. I can edit to taste. Seemples.

I also started work on UNWINNABLE CAPTION COMPETITION. This started off with two MIDI parts (STS-86 Double Pad) programmed in CE5, using the Roland Juno-D and the Phonic Firefly. I then took the MIDI parts and applied them to an arpeggiated tone from the Minimogue VA plugin (simsynth3). Had to record this to audio via the Behringer mixer (usual audio cleanup/insertion routine). I then programmed up some basic drum parts in HALion One (Electrokit 1). On reflection, and for various technical reasons, the Minmogue parts didn't work with the STS parts, so I muted the latter and went on to program two different (but similar) "floaty" synth parts in Prologue (Forum Romanum) and Majken's Chimera. The track works a lot better now and barring some tidying-up, there is nothing to add to the track. It certainly doesn't need bass or guitar.

So that was it. Can't wait to get better. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, but I'll definitely do something...

Regards,

djp