vacation

I’ll be out and away from music– at least away from my ax and computer– for a couple of weeks. When I return, the final push! Peace.

mixing down rhythm tracks

I started to record lead parts last night, and ran into system resources limitations. So the scattered tracks that had comprised the Trains rhythm guitar part were mixed into one. I did extensive experimenting to come out with a final I liked, which involved adjusting out levels a few times (re-mixing once) and apllying various effects. I ended up using a band pass filter, which essentially tightened up the dynamic range, and in particular took some off the bottom so as not to compete with the bass.

Tonight, I’m going to mix the rhythm track for Lines. I went for a different tonal feel for the backing guitar on Lines, so I may need to play around with effects again. But seeing as there’s only one guitar part, I won’t have to spend a lot of time on levels. I also want to bang out as much of the Lines solo parts as I can. The basic riff from Lines was written a few years ago when I played in a few rock bands here in NYC. I had gotten my rock legs back under me, and decided to find a talented singer with some material to play and help develop it. The Lines riff is Zep inspired, for sure. The orignial contained quite a bit of dissonance too– Page wasn’t afraid to write a theme around a dissonant interval. He used the tritone at times like Four Sticks in a decidedly blues-jazz manner.

I find it interesting how much I go back to blues and rock in this project. Those are the standards after all, and I never wanted the eletronic production to overwhelm the songwriting. I shoot for any of my songs to be playable by a bunch of 14 year-olds in a garage. The Lines riff(s) will have a lot of the same feel as the Trains ones, I imagine, seeing as how they’re being developed at the same points in time. My guitar rig is completely untouched through all of this, on purpose, so I can capture the same sonic characteristics.

I’m also becoming aware of the challenges of a good rock solo. I did some free jamming on Trains last night, recording each take to see what if anything was usable. And I didn’t keep any of it, although I did find the register and basic patterns I think I’ll use. I really love how Gibson guitars sound in the upper registers. They’re almost horn-like. It’s also fascinating how the guitarist can find so many variations as he works his way down the neck– there’s a real growl in the mid-registers, and then the clangy, clanky brashness of the open ones. Lines was written down there. But now, it’s kind of all over the neck.

in deep with Strange Trains

Having put down vocals for all three songs, I turned to lead guitar over the weekend. I ran into a situation similar to the one below with riffs– I was just jamming over top the other tracks when I started to feel the need for through-composed parts. I want to keep some spontaneity, somehow. But I found the guitar clashing too much, both because there are already melodic backing instruments and there are vocals this time, which differs from my first recording, Exotic Threads.

Like I said earlier, vocals really command the attention in a way that even a screaming electric guitar doesn’t. Right now, I’m really tacking arrangment and instrumentation issues. When does the lead guitar occur? In the intro, an then it comps until the solo? Or should it fill in, being more active in a blues way? I’m tending towards the latter at least for Strange Trains. Trains is after all a blues song. Maybe the others will cry out for different attention.

So, this week I plan to carry out some experiments. I found the melodic pocket for Trains– basically, F#m over the Bm-D section, then G and F# over G-F#, all pentatonics. I like the note choices the F#m pentatonic gives me, and along with the turnaround, it keeps Trains in that dark, bluesy groove. The chorus to Trains actually does some strange and beautiful things tonally. I’m not sure how to approach this yet; there won’t be a solo per se in any place, but I haven’t settled on whether I’ll play any fills. 

As for the others, my guess right now is Can’t Wait won’t take a whole lot of notes. Instead, I hear textures for that one. Lines goes by fast, tempo-wise. I think this will dictate that fills during the vocals would be mostly pointless. But Lines has built in breaks for guitar solos.

It’s been critical to keep the eyes of a producer for this project. And there’s so much to learn when you look at everything from that height.

Lines

I re-recorded Lines last night in the key of Dm. New submix and rhythm guitar parts took two hours, so I wasn’t able to add new vocals. And, damn, I wanted to sing! I want to sing! And dance!

No, not really dance…

I fascinated how a half-step modulation can open up creative possibilities. I upped the key to create more bottom room for the final note of the first verse phrases. The seemingly small key change led to a new chorus melody idea, one that I’m in love with and certainly using. Even the verse phrasing changed slightly. I should say was able to change.  I don’t know why. It’s one of those mysteries about music.

I’ve decided to follow an “accidental” arrangement of Can’t Wait. It’s a re-org of the pieces that should make for a nice contrast with the other songs, as far as layouts from beginning to end go. Sometimes when you’re so close to a project, it’s difficult to see things from a new angle unless it’s by accident. So, we’ll see. I think it’s going to work out just fine though.

vocals

I’ve spent the last two days on vocals, and all I can say is “wow.” I didn’t know beforehand just how much vocals would key this project. I decided last year at about this time to sing for this project. I hadn’t sung much of anything for the past 10 years or more. I kind of assumed I still had the chops– and I still think that I do, basically. But I needed to buckle down on articulation and phrasing and breathing. There’s much more sustain to singing than speaking.

All in all, I did somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 takes, along with tweaking effects and various technical settings. And I’m not finished yet. I believe I’m going to have to re-mix down Lines to transpose it from C#m to Dm. I learned this because I decided I had to drop my Sunday takes an octave lower in my register. This was a weird discovery. I thought I had nailed multiple takes over passionate, focused efforts…but when I went back and listened, I felt like I was just too thin, too exposed, whereas by dropping an octave I not only blend into the mix but I feel better! It’s smoother and not as strained.

I was also surprised by how much singing presented this virgin territory. I used to take singing somewhat seriously, as in I would sing because I had a guitar in hand and it was fun enough. I never thought about staking out a career, and in fact ran in the other direction when the singer-songwriter path opened up before me. I found playing to be more sublime. I know that could sound condescending, but those were my thoughts at 19, and continuing to, well, last year.

Vocals have so much more gravity than other instruments– and I mean all others. This must be due to the psychology of hearing tones produced by the human voice is more impactful. I’m sure there are scientific reasons behind it. I actually experienced it, seemingly for the first time, or for the first time again, just yesterday. I became discouraged at points, too, because I felt the whole thing was lacking. But then (smartly, I might add) I thought: this is my voice. And just like on guitar or bass or sax how you can’t hide behind other phrasings for long before either you’re exposed or you make the breakthrough yourself, I started to become happy with the results.

Vocals are still very much a work in progress. I’ll work on them off and on this week, and try to settle on something by the end of the weekend. Then, back to guitar for the lead parts, which is, along with the songwriting, is the true art of the project. By the end of the week, I may just add singing to that too.

songs within songs

Writing a riff comes down to jamming. I doubt my preconceived notions would have gotten very far. I basically have two guitar parts written for Can’t Wait now. Rhythm track one is Jimmy Page via John McLaughlin (circa Que Alegria– one of my favorites ever). The other track is a page out of modern rock.

This, I suppose, is my fusion.

guitar

I have the submixes sitting inside my computer now. Yes! And I dig how they turned out. As I turn my attention to guitar parts, I’m realizing that I have quite a bit of work to still do– I think. It’s been a little while since I’ve revisited the various musical scraps I have for guitar.

I was listening to Can’t Wait yesterday, and I started to worry that the bridge was going to be difficult to find the right guitar part for. Actually, the whole tune presents somewhat of a challenge, because it ended up taking its own direction. Now, I love the direction things went. I wasn’t at all freaked out that the song was morphing into something I written earlier (!) When it came time for guitar, I noticed the chords had changed, because the melodic nature of the bass lines (what I wrote about all last week) implied certain other harmonic movements. It’s possible to just stick the old chords on top of the new bass in most places– and that’s exactly what I plan to do in most places. Never the less, some new composition will be necessary.

hmmmm

And what the songs needs are riffs. I love those, of course, as a guitarist, riffs come as second nature. Lines has its own riff already, written specifically for Lines back in the days I was cowriting and playing small gigs around the city. Strange Trains will need a riff too, I think. I came up with quite a few parts for Trains just by jamming. Oh, and I’ve decided to nix the rhythm part on Can’t Wait (yes, even after 96 takes).

So I’m back in songwriting mode, feeling a bit of pressure from the schedule, but internalizing a lot of how this works and how it feels. My next EP project, pharma-cynical, should speak more clearly to me about what’s needed.

I also came across a Wired article on forgetting about Facebook and the other social networks and using blogs and various Web toolie widgets to create an open version of that same thing. It reminded me that I have to build this site out, and describe myself more.

But for the next couple of weeks, it’s nothing but riffs…

art of the mix

There are some technicalities to mixing– many, probably– such as rolling of the kick and bass below 50Hz, but I think a lot of it is a matter of taste. A friend tells me he aims for a smooth mix, as if he’s planing a piece of wood to make furniture. Picking up on competing frequencies is the first thing I try to do. Optimally, each instrument should be distinct, adding its unique qualities to the overall song. Much of this is accomplished by moving the levels. How the frequency range is divvied up is somewhat mysterious, although I’ve learned the value of parametric and regular band EQ-ing. Some of the instruments in Strange Trains are actually samples tweaked out by the para EQ.

Mixing also forces you to look at details that might go overlooked, such as panning. I have the kick and the bass dead on center; the snare is 7 to the left, and the hats are 10 to the left. I’m imagining how a drum kit would be played, even though, I suppose, the drum could flatten out in the master. It’s still a starting point– and it seems to work well.

So I should be able to mix the three tunes down this weekend. The fourth one, Fits and Starts, is waiting for some attention. The song actually gets its name from waiting! F&S may end up being kicked onto next year’s release, because I’m already a little behind the schedule I invented.

As much as I want to record songs, and have them listened to and dug, I’ve always thought that making a process is the equal goal. In my busy life, I’d like to be able to get musical ideas into the computer as fast and easily as possible. I’m not even worrying about the new songs at this point (I do have a great melody for one though!) I think it was the jazz bassist Steve Swallow who said, “I’m dedicated to my fragments.” That’s how I feel. Get a whole bunch of motifs and then see how they fit together, like refrigerator magnet poetry.

getting to like Live…even more

My affection for Live continues to deepen after arranging submixes last night. The latest feature I got turned onto is Live’s mapping capability. Mapping essentially means turning over control of the mouse to the keyboard or to an external MIDI controller. The simplicity with which Live achieves this makes me believe even more so that musicians are firmly established in the product design process over at Ableton.

Hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts are nothing new to computer users. External contollers aren’t novel to digital audio sequencers either. The innovation with Live here is in how effortless this mapping is to first set up, then to delete or re-program.

I’m concerned with this for very practical reasons. Creating the submix requires triggering different clips to play at different times. It becomes confusing– not to mention very difficult to pull off– when multiple clips needs triggered at the same moment. Think about clicking with your mouse in three different places on your screen at once. Impossible? Exactly.

So I set up the intro to play when I press the “1″ key; and the verse in to play on the “2″ key. Furthermore, there’s a snare variation that occurs throughout the whole song that I chose not to hard code into a snare clip itself. I could have done that, but if it’s this easy to toggle between parts– and it is– then stretching the snare’s variation to match the overall arrangement is unnecessary. It also means that I can create variations of variations. The songs as they’ll finally be heard, in other words, aren’t “done” at this time. Moreover, I don’t even know how exactly they’ll sound.

The jazz musician in me loves this element of surprise. The electronic musician appreciates how it’s possible to economize using Live, reusing musical ideas and varying them in real time. Submixing is beginning to look a lot like performing.

What would be interesting some day is to broadcast these Live musings online, even hone them into professional sets that, say, any party or club could stream.

But first thing’s first– Zen Luck Tricks has been in the works for years, and it screams to be finished. And I need to get back up on that horse.