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

Mare Nostrum - 270415

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Tracked 9 vocal parts and 1 sleighbells part on the Gulag Mobile. Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5.

A lot of editing required. There are tuning...er...conflicts between the vocal parts and the pre-existing musical parts. I think I can work around them. but it may require a bit of ingenuity on my part. Should be fun.

One of the issues I have with this track is because I cannot work out the tempo of the track exactly, based as it is on a live drum track, I'll have to do my dub delays by ear. Should be fun (part deux).

This should be my penultimate tracking session for the album. I may have one more to do, but that won't be for weeks yet. In the meantime, I will edit MARE... and then crack on with the mixing/mastering. Should be fun (part drei).

More work 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

Gomorrah - 220415

Sponsored by "Music (random)".

Edited the vocal parts in CE5. Almost fully satisfied with them - more work to do tomorrow.

I had a lot of tech-y issues with my PC, which are basically because the damn thing is ancient. I am negotiating the process of upgrading my PC for future projects, although I have some concerns re. the compatibility of OS with CE5. But I may be able to get around that.

A thing for the future...

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

Watching The News With The Sound Off/You Have My Heart Scalded - 120415

Sponsored by "Dronescape".

WATCHING...

I'd tracked a couple of spoken word parts for this track a few weeks back, but when I checked them today for editing purposes, I discovered that there were artefacts from the audio cleanup process which I couldn't remove or "work around". So I was faced with the choice of tracking the parts again, or of scrapping them entirely. I chose the latter, as I have no guarantee that the problem won't occur again with new parts. Executive decision - get over it...

...SCALDED

Edited the various vocal parts in CE5. Almost fully sorted - tomorrow should complete that part of the process.

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 - 080415

Sponsored by "Delia Derbyshire".

Edited most of the vocal parts in CE5. Not 100% satisfied with them yet, but I'll work on them again tomorrow.

Also did a a spot of dubbing-up on some of the other parts. Sounding well.

Tomorrow should do it!

Regards,


djp

My Troubles Are As Nothing Compared To Yours - 300315

Sponsored by "Comedy".

After a little overnight road trip to Kilkenny last night (courtesy of Mrs P), I came home this afternoon, rather knackered but determined to do some work on the album.

I edited all the vocal parts in CE5. They needed significant tightening, and as a a result of my efforts, they now sound significantly tighter.

A lot more work to be done on this track tomorrow, so I'd better get a good night's sleep tonight then...;-).

Regards,


djp

Tropes & Memes/Mare Nostrum/Everybody Calls Me Darren/FCA Boots/Me & The Fly - 030315

Sponsored by "Andy Partridge".

TROPES/MARE/DARREN/FCA

Was getting ready to record vocalisations for these tracks, but real life intervened. I did manage to work up rough backing tracks and transferred them to the Gulag Mobile for future work.

ME & THE FLY

Found and downloaded a wonderful sound effect track of a fly (of course) from my old favourite site, The Sound Effect Library. Inserted into the relevant project file in CE5.

I also edited the vocal parts and started dubbing-up the rest of the track. Almost ready to mix/master, but I'll play around with it a bit more, I think.

Back to normality tomorrow. Bah...

Regards,


djp

I Choose Indecision/Iye/Stiltwalker In The Wind - 270215

Sponsored by "Alternative".

More tracking of "vocalisations" on the Gulag Mobile via the Sennheiser e855...

...INDECISION

- 2 parts

IYE

-3 parts

STILTWALKER...

- 8 parts, 7 of which are more by way of sound effects (you'll know what I mean when you eventually hear the track...).

Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5.

Much editing to do...

Taking a break for the weekend. More work on Monday.

Regards,


djp

Gomorrah - 170215

Sponsored by "80s Music".

Tracked 17 vocal parts on the Gulag Mobile via the Sennheiser e855 mic. Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5.

Sounds great so far. Some editing required.

Back to the real world tomorrow...

Regards,


djp

Me & The Fly - 160215

Sponsored by "70s Music".

Tracked 15 vocal parts on the Gulag Mobile using the Sennheiser e855 mic. Audio cleanup in AA3 and inserted into the relevant project file in CE5. Some editing required, but not a huge amount.

More work gomorrah...

Regards,


djp

It's not just a question of words...

Sponsored by "Motorhead".

According to my spreadsheet, I have 14 tracks that require "vocals". Some of these also need "lyrics", so I'm guessing that a few of these tracks are going to be "songs", while the rest of them will more appropriately be described as "instrumentals with singing". Or "talking". If you catch my drift...

In order to facilitate the lyric-writing/vocal-arranging process, I did rough mixes of the tracks in CE5. Over the next day or so, I'll convert the mixes to MP3s and transfer them on to my iPhone. I will then be able to "live with" the tracks for a while to see what emerges.

In the meantime, I have a few tracks that are ready to mix/master, so I'll do that towards the end of next week.

Great to have a plan, isn't it?

Regards,


djp