Okay, this year's NaSoAlMo album did not go at all as planned. AT ALL. And since I didn't keep a journal of my progress, I really have no idea how I did it.
My biggest regret is that I didn't discover vocal compression until the last week of recording, and even then, I didn't always remember to use it. I think I had tried to use it a couple of years ago, but that was before I had a good mic. I had bought a couple of Audio Technica "BITE" mics off of eBay because they were "supposed" to be comparable to a Shure SM-57. They were quite possibly the worst mics I've ever owned (Yes, I'm counting the $10 mics from Wal-mart.), but maybe it was just because I didn't know what I was doing. Not that I know anymore now.
Anyway, on to the songs:
Intro - I came up with the idea early on that I would have an intro, intermission, and outro that would "match"...sort of to tie the album together in case I had wildly varying song styles. That didn't happen. I came up with the idea for this skit, and recorded the "british" parts, but I had planned to have an actual song written for the false start, and then the real song would happen after this skit. The only real song I wrote was "Sundown", which was supposed to be a sort of sequel to last year's "Sunrise". I had most of the lyrics nailed down, but couldn't come up with music that I really liked. The rest of the skit was recorded on the last day, and I cheated and used the auto accompaniment on my keyboard. The lyrics were originally part of another song that I didn't finish. I do like the narration at the beginning. It reminds me of an audiobook.
No Talent - This was originally part of a longer song where I planned a verse for several instruments that I can't play. There was supposed to be a verse that incorporated percussion including Pringles cans (that I had been saving for months and finally threw away last week), a packet of salt, and a rolled up newspaper.
Election - This was the first song that I finished recording. I wrote each section separately and then pasted it all together. I used Sound Forge for all the pitch shifting, so there was a lot of saving and sending back and forth from Audition. I ended up with a gazillion wav files, which would have taken forever to transfer to the external drive, so I didn't save the project file. That's unfortunate since the mixing is awful, and I hadn't yet discovered vocal compression.
Loopy Martians - I used splices of audio from the leftover Election instrument tracks and made some quick loops in Sound Forge. I mixed them together in Audition, and added some audio from a speech reader program. Then I layered some synths over that. I think I spent an hour on this.
David Duchovny (Bree Sharp cover) - This was recorded on the last day in only a few hours. I had actually never heard the song before. I had watched a DD interview the night before, and the song was mentioned. When I begged Kim to help me pick a cover song, she suggested it. It seemed like fate. I looked up the guitar tabs to get the names of the chords, then I looked up how to play the chords on keyboard on another site since I can't read music. My keyboard was flaking out that day, and half of the keys on the higher end wouldn't play, so I had to play it really low. Then I couldn't figure out how to transpose it. I didn't have much time to learn the song, and it was a little out of my singing range, so I chipmunked it up a bit.
NaSoAlMo Sucks - When I was writing the music for this one, I recorded some dummy lyrics to help me come up with a melody, and I just ended up using most of them. I had intended it to be a full length song and have a chorus later that was like a hillbilly sing-a-long, but I didn't have time for all that.
Guitar Track A - Er...I really have no idea what to say about this one. Except that I used a AA battery as a slide. I double-tracked the horrendous guitar playing, added synths and percussion afterward.
Too Slow - I recorded the guitar first. I had to copy/paste the intro to make it long enough. I added harmonica, synths, and played my snare drum with brushes. Sadly, I think this ended up being one of my best vocals.
Screwed - I think I recorded this on the last day, too. I don't think the "british" accent matches up in any of the skits.
Tribe - I recorded the tom first using an old bass drum beater. Then I recorded hitting my nylon brushes together. Then I shook a little bamboo owl windchime thing that my granny ordered from Fingerhut years ago. I added the navajo flute last. I couldn't get the turtle positioned exactly right over the hole, so it kept squealing. Wishy was barking at something outside. I tacked "My Heart Will Go On" at the end to prove that I could actually play something. (I can also sorta play "Smoke On The Water".)
Burnt Up - I thought it would be funny if I did a rap. Originally, it was going to have a minimalist music track with cheesy synth sounds, and I was going to pitch shift to get the voices of my "crew", but then I came up with the Eminem parody intro idea. The bass drum key on my keyboard wasn't working, and I didn't think to try using a different key and transposing it down. I used Roland Virtual Sound Canvas for the drum track.
Dear Todd - Also recorded on the last day. I had recorded a track of my granny's old manual typewriter, thinking I would use it as percussion a la Dolly Parton's 9 to 5. Then on the last day, I tried to think of something I could use it for that would be quick to record. This is what I came up with. Wishy wouldn't bark on cue, so I copied the barking from another recording.
Running Behind - This was the last thing I recorded within the last hour. I was going to use several short instrumentals that I did earlier in the month and just have the characters talk about how much they sucked or if they had potential, but I just couldn't think of anything to say, and I was having trouble getting into character. The instrumental at the end sounds like a Michelle Cross song, which is funny because I had abandoned another song after realizing that the melody was from a Michelle Cross song.
Judges - I don't know how this idea came about. I think Randy and Simon turned out decent, but Paula's just kinda stupid.
So that's it. Maybe I'll do better next year. Unless I've completely given up songwriting by then.
You can find the complete "album" on my NaSoAlMo page.
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