Floaty Floaty - 060115

FLOATY FLOATY features on the new WE ARE ALL GHOSTS compilation "...ENDING THE YEAR ON A HIGH 2014", which you can download from Bandcamp. All proceeds from the sale of the album will be donated to Hospice UK.
 

Not sure what implications this will have for the track. I may leave it as being exclusive to the album, or I may include it in an EP. I'll have to bend my brain about this issue for a while. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the track...;-).

Regards,


djp

Never Had It To Lose It - 060115

Sponsored by "Magazine".

Dubbed-up the track in CE5. Much clearing-out of "muck", which wasn't easy, but I persisted with it, and the track sounds a lot better now than when I started working on it. Mixing/mastering should be challenging in terms of sorting out frequencies and that...

Not sure if this is going to make it on the album. Halfway through this session, EP obscurity seemed to be the track's fate, but now I'm not so convinced of that. Nice problem to have, I suppose.

The real world intervenes tomorrow and then I'm off on my travels all next week, so I'll see how much more I can do this month. Good progress so far...

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

Accents/Helicopter Shots Of The City - 040115

Sponsored by "Last Played 2015".

Well, that was enjoyable! My roadtrip was postponed until the afternoon, which gave me a few hours to play around with.

ACCENTS

Solved the problem with the trailing decay. It was caused by putting the HALion Synstrings part through a long pre-fader reverb. Tracking the part (and the reverb) to audio in CE5, using the Phonic Firefly/Behringer Xenyx 1202 solved that problem and I can edit the audio to end exactly where I want it.

The track is now ready to mix/master.

HELICOPTER...

Had great fun "dubbing-up" the MIDI drum parts. Much trial and error was required, but I got there in the end. I realised that I need to set up a separate set of FX for each drum part, as sharing FX  between parts didn't work out for me. I wonder is there a limit to the number of FX channels I can have in CE5? Guess I'll find out tomorrow...;-)

Regards,


djp

Accents - 030115

Sponsored by "Last Played 2014".

Programmed dub delays on the vocal and percussion parts in CE5. Much trial and error and back and forth, but the track sounds in pretty good shape now.

I have an issue with trailing decays on some of the VST plugin synths, but I'll sort that by tracking them to audio and fading them out at the appropriate time. That'll be on Monday, as I have a mini roadtrip tomorrow.

Because of the source material for the vocal parts (sampled 78s), I reckon I'm going to put this as a hidden bonus track on the Bandcamp download, which means it won't be available on the CD Baby/iTunes/whatever version of the album. So you'll know where to go when you want to download the album, eh?

Regards,


djp

D(O)UB(T) status report

So, I've reached the New Year, which is always a crucial time in my view when considering the progress (and general "health") of an album project. Whatever is in good nick at the turn of the year gets worked on to completion - whatever isn't in good shape gets dropped.

So, what's the story with D(O)UB(T), then?

According to the spreadsheet that I've used to log progress on the album, I've started work on a total of 28 tracks. That's way too much for an album. I have no idea of what the current total running time would be for those tracks, but I'd say we're talking north of 90 mins. So, in reality, I have plenty of tracks to spare for inclusion as non-album tracks in a number of promotional EPs. At this stage, there will be at least two EPs - possibly even three. I may also keep a few tracks back for inclusion on netlabel submissions, should I be asked for material.

Still, 28 tracks, eh? What's the story with them?

A total of 8 tracks have been mixed and mastered and are considered complete. These are mostly, but not exclusively, ambient/experimental electronic tracks. The really good tracks will feature on the album - I plan to sequence tracks in triplets - fast/slow/ambient-y - lather/rinse/repeat. Those that aren't quite up to snuff will feature ether as EPs tracks or compilation tracks.

The tracks in question are:-

• A ACCIDENT
• A PLAGUE ON BOTH MY HOUSES
• COMPLICATIONS FROM A FALL
• I AM A SHADOW OF YOUR FORMER SELF
• THE BOOK OF PASSWORDS
• THE NEW NUMBER TWO
• WATCHING THE NEWS WITH THE SOUND OFF
• FLOATY FLOATY

I need to "dub-up" 4 tracks. By "dub-up", I mean I need to program/automate various dub effects. Once that has been done, the tracks will be ready to mix/master

These tracks are:-

• ACCENTS
• HELICOPTER SHOTS OF THE CITY
• NEVER HAD IT TO LOSE IT
• UNWINNABLE CAPTION COMPETITION

ACCENTS will probably feature on an EP, but the others should make the album. We'll see... I'll start work on these tracks over the next few days and I hope to have them finished by the end of this month, taking account of a lengthy roadtrip I have planned in a few weeks time.

The remainder of the tracks need a bit more work, including (variously) writing and recording lyrics/vocals, tracking some additional audio and the almost-inevitable "dub-up". One or two of the tracks will probably not make the album, but should feature elsewhere.

These tracks are:-

• CHOKING ON DRY BREAD
• ME AND THE FLY
• EVERYBODY CALLS ME DARREN
• FCA BOOTS
• I CAN EXPLAIN...EVERYTHING
• I CHOOSE INDECISION
• IS EVERYBODY HAPPY YET?
• IYE
• MARE NOSTRUM
• MY TROUBLES ARE AS NOTHING COMPARED TO YOURS
• STILTWALKER IN THE WIND
• THIS IS GOING TO TAKE, LIKE, FOREVER
• TROPES AND MEMES
• YOU HAVE MY HEART SCALDED
• YOU'LL NEVER MISS YOUR MOTHER TILL THE WELL RUNS DRY
• GOMORRAH

(Phew - that makes 28 tracks in total - I can count...).

So, on that basis, I have 20 tracks to finish between now and the summer. As I said above, I'll do the "dub-up" tracks first, and then I'll work on ME AND THE FLY, which will be the lead track on the first EP. The track itself won't feature on the album, but the dub version of it, CHOKING ON DRY BREAD, will.

I have set myself a bit of a challenge, but it's all very do-able within the timescale.

In relation to which tracks actually make the final cut, I am conscious of the fact that some tracks may be very similar to each other. I certainly don't want to feature two such tracks in close proximity to each other, and the plan is that one would go on the album and the other would go on an EP or compilation.

I'd better get cracking on this so...;-).

Regards,


djp

FCA Boots - 020115

Sponsored by "Last Played 2012" and "Last Played 2013".

Programmed/edited a number of MIDI VST plugin parts in CE5 using the Roland Juno-D/Phonic Firefly/HALion One/ JP Analogue Stringpad. Not sure if I'm going to use all the parts, but I'll certainly use most of them.

I also took the opportunity to tweak some of the Ric bass parts and the MIDI drum parts. All is well now.

The track is bloody awesome as it is, but there's more to do on it at a later stage.

Check in later on when I will give an overview of the project status. Could be mildly interesting...;-).

Regards,


djp