Desperate Measures

Post-NaSoAlMo Wrap-Up

2008-12-09T22:08:00.002-06:00

Well, it's...uh...um...

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.

So far...

2008-11-09T10:02:00.002-06:00

I'm not doing so well on NaSoAlMo. Last year, I didn't have a song finished until the 15th. It looks like the way this year is going, too. I thing my chances of finishing are getting pretty slim.

At the moment, I'm working on a mini-musical about the election. It's not very musical, really. I broke it up into more manageable chunks. I just need music for the last part, and then I can start recording. What's bad is that I've spent so much time on it, but it isn't very long.

After I get this one done, I'll have to speed up considerably. I have one other song near written (both music and lyrics), and a couple of stray ideas, but I really think I'll have to scrap those. I can't make the music fit the lyrics. It's gotta be MUSIC FIRST.

I Should Have Watched Poltergeist Instead.

2008-11-01T02:29:00.002-05:00

Well, this isn't going well.

I goofed off watching Xena videos on YouTube instead of cleaning off my desk. After a year of having a Sprint Mobile Broadband card, broadband coverage has suddenly and suspiciously reached my area. I'm used to slower-than-dialup speeds, and just today I noticed, "Hey, these pages sure are loading fast..." Don't get me wrong...I'm grateful, but it's another distraction to keep me from working on nasowhatchamacallit.

And my sister is spending the night at her friend's house, which means my dog, Wishbone, thinks she has to be curled up in my lap because "Hey, we're supposed to be sleeping now!"

And...I'm HUNGRY. All I've had to eat today are chips and dips and beef jerky. Granted, I had a large quantity of chips and dips and beef jerky, but that doesn't change the fact that there is nothing snackable in the house. At all. And the milk expired on the 22nd.

I did write a short piano...uh...thingy. I started another piece with bongos and steel drums, but I just wasn't feelin' that. I think I'll take one more crack at writing...maybe something with a string ensemble or this drumbeat that I've had in my head all day. Or both. Or...neither.

Or I could watch Poltergeist.

The Final Countdown

2008-10-31T19:52:00.003-05:00

Just a few more hours until NaSoAlMo starts. Am I ready? Heck, no!

My computer is more or less ready. I just have to clean up the hard drive a tad. Also, I want to rip a few cds and change the songs on my mp3 player so I'm not listening to the same songs for another month.

I still need to clean up my desk. I haven't found my pop filter yet, but I know the general vicinity of its whereabouts. If nothing else, I can just use panty hose. I bought a couple of cheapo audio cables. Hopefully, they'll do the trick.

I finished my Halloween-themed song that I was working on. I would have liked to have spent a bit more time making the vocals better and adding some flourishes to the music, but I can always do that later.

Hallow's Eve (MP3)

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to end up doing for NaSoAlMo. I'm sure something will come to me....even if it's absolute crap. I'm totally okay with crap at this point.

Not Much Longer

2008-10-14T20:19:00.000-05:00

I still haven't decided how I'm going to go about NaSoAlMo. I'm supposed to be working on a Halloween-themed song for a songwriting group, but I haven't had the time to work on any music.

A while back, I went through a bunch of data cds and transferred 40 or 50 gigs of files to my computer to sort through and save to an external drive. I'm still wading through them. I make some progress, but then I lose my place and forget what I've already copied. Hopefully, I'll finish that by this weekend so I can work on a song.

My audio/midi interface stopped responding, so I have to find the disc and reinstall the drivers.

I downloaded some VST instruments a while back that were cool to play around with, but my computer's too slow, so there's quite a bit of latency. I'll probably still use them some for the odd background noise.'

I'm a little worried about my laptop. I feel like it's old and feeble and I'm not sure how it's going to hold up. I replaced the hard drive in January, so I've got quite a bit more space, but I'm always worried that something else is going to quit working.

My Yamaha keyboard has seen better days as well. None of the F# or G keys work, and there's a high A that doesn't work. Sometimes they start working again after an hour or so. Sometimes not. So it'll be interesting to see how I work around that.

I do have a few ideas of things I want to try, and I have a Session expansion board in the JV-880 with a lot of sounds that I haven't tapped yet.

Still, I'm not going to have much privacy, and I'm not going to have much time. I don't see me staying up until one or two in the morning like last year and being able to work.

So, it'll be a challenge, but I'm still looking forward to it.

Sister Act 3

2008-09-03T22:54:00.002-05:00

Last night, I dreamed that they made a third Sister Act movie...only it starred Reba McEntire instead of Whoopi Goldberg as a honkytonk singer/waitress who witnesses some kind of crime and has to be stowed away in the convent.

David Duchovny also starred as a guitar-playing cop.

Now I'm bummed because I really want to see this movie!

It'll be here before I know it.

2008-08-19T22:51:00.002-05:00

NaSoAlMo is just under two and a half months away. I've been waiting all year...especially since I blew my New Year's Resolution to record one original song and one cover song per month. That lasted through February.

I'm trying not to think too much about it ahead of time, other than to just be prepared...have my computer ready to go and have some ideas for recording techniques I want to try.

I don't have a theme. I'm not sure I could adhere to one if I did. I did have any idea last year that I wanted to incorporate a lot of soundbytes into the music like machinery or nature sounds, but I ended up not following through. I think I might want to take a second shot at that.

Also, I want to try to use as much live percussion (or homemade loops) as possible. The rule is that I'm not allowed to buy any new instruments, so whatever I use will have to be something I already have. Pots and pans...windchimes...spoons...parts from my old drum set...stomps and claps...that sort of thing.

I want to keep it as fresh as possible and not get bogged down in finding the right chord or choosing the right lyrics.

We'll see.