Come Together

Hey, it's been a while. I've made a little progress you know.
All songs are now recorded and completely mixed (save one). I spent a little time at my brother's place going through each song and tweaking (no nipples involved) here and there. My brother has a critical pair of ears and is not burdened by such extravagances as tact, so his comments were forthright and pretty constructive actually. He did suggest that the album needs an 'upbeat' song as it was sounding too depressing (does he not even know me?!) which initially I chaffed at. However, on reflection there was a need for a change of pace so I decided to resurrect a 'dance' song I had half-completed about a year ago. When I say 'dance,' it's really more Screamadelica inspired than influenced by the current flux of gym music. Anyway, this has led me to drop Into the Night from the album, as its overall feel is too similar to Acres and does drag the pace a little. I'm sure it will live on in another format though.

I've decided to send the tracks off to a mastering company, as I kept reading that mastering is an art of its own and as much as I have loved developing my production and mixing techniques over the last couple of years, I really don't have the patience to start again. The company I've gone with are an online outfit called www.audiomaster.co.uk and the process seems simple and reasonably priced. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm also in the middle of creating the artwork for the album. I'm using Photoshop Elements 9 (trial!) and it's quite frustrating as this software is FAR from intuitive for me. I shall persevere.

Laters Gators.

Where to begin to end?

So they're are about four tracks that in my head are more or less complete (see this evidence). I say more or less, as it's been drawn to my attention that a couple of these could do with some humanised drums to bring out more dynamics. They're finished in as much as the melody and majority of the elements what do make a song are there. Now what do I do?

I have 6 songs left to complete, that are in various stages of development/refining:

Tides - this is one of the oldest (see Lights Out and Glacier). My first encounter with recording in Logic and by 'eck does it show. Lots of overdone effects and the bridge/solo thing that is waaaaaaayyyy too long (and also a bit rubbish). It needs to be sliced and diced (maybe I can use this?). Having said that, I think it has one of the strongest melodies and the outro is pretty darn good if I say so myself (which I did in actual fact)


The Safest Place to Be - I have the music recorded for this which I'm pretty happy about. Needs the vocals recorded and some guitar parts, but not much more. It's turned into a little pop rock song, which is quite nice.

Switchback - the most recent song i've written. Needs major tidying up. The chorus is good though.

Into the Night - this is almost complete but need to tidy bits up here and there and possibly re-do the vocals as they do sound a bit 'strained' (no potty humour please)

Acres - by far the one with the most work needed. Just can't get my head around how to arrange it. Its a 'pretty' song I guess but can't quite get it to where I want it yet.

Glacier - this is a pretty old song. I have a completed version of this but I've picked up on things that need changing and the vocals need a do-over too.

Looking at the above, it seems I have a lot of work. The hardest part though is writing and arranging the songs, so in that context most of them are done (except Acres). I was a bit premature thinking about Album artwork though wasn't I?

My senses lied to keep hope alive...

Now adding some finishing touches to Nothing is Lost. Trying to arpeggiate the strings at certain points to give a different feel. Think I need to also add some percussion to give it a bit of flavour. However, it is intended to be a simple song so I don't want to lose that by over-flavouring, if you will (yah yah yah).
It's meant to be a hopeful ballad (did I just just use that word? urgh..). I think it might read as a straight break up song, and I guess it is a break up song sort of, in that it is a song of mourning.
But the straight up breakup song on the album is definitely Switchback.
And there's a straight-up love song on the album too, called Acres. Acres will be the last one I get to, so I hope I'm not too exhausted with this whole process to do it justice.

I need ideas for the album cover. Help?

Aaaaagggggghhhh ("isn't there a St Aaaarrgggh's in Cornwall?")

I'm down to the last couple of songs now, being Switchback and Acres. Some of these songs seem to have been written or recorded in pairs, Tides/Lights Out, Subterranean/Nothing is Lost etc, it seems to work to the benefit of the songs if you have another one to jump on and work with. But I digress.

Switchback started first as nothing but a title and a concept. The concept being a song that was not overly long, was a bit rockier to balance out the album's mix and one which would start with a verse and end with a verse. The latter conceit hasn't quite come off.
I'm deep in the midst of refining this one, (and not polishing the proverbial poo, I hope). It's a toughy though as I'm using more programmed drums (as opposed to loops) as a conscious effort for diversity (the quality, not the hip new dance troupe) and it's a steep learning curve. In fact, it's kind of doing my head in.
I'm also struggling to record this song with guitar tones that sound unique, not too processed and, you know, good.
I'm pretty much there with the song structure I think (verse 1 - chorus - verse 2 - chorus - middle 8 - chorus) as it works well for this kind of song, short and to the point. It's not coming easily this one though, so it's a similar effort to Into the Night, where a decent song was born out of an iterative process of chipping/remoulding/peeling the onion and any other bad metaphors you care to add.

I'm not sure why I've left Acres to last. I think it's a fairly decent "ballad" with a nice guitar chord refrain. I'm worried it's going to sound too similar to Subterranean as it appears to capture that same mood or atmosphere. But It's only a demo I have in place thus far, just something as a template for structure, so it's early days. Once Acres is done it's on to re-recording Tides and Safest Place to Be. Both of which need a decent middle 8.

On another note, I believe I have finally settled on a vocal mic that works in my humble bedroom studio set up. The winner being the Shure SM7B. A dynamic mic originally purposed to be a broadcasting mic, but which provides vocal clarity to LOUD singing without picking up bad room sound. Perfect for me really. Here's a pic -

Nice.

And here's a pick of me using it Bono stylie -


Byeeeeee