Zen Luck Tricks mp3s

• Strange Trains
• Lines
• Can’t Wait

Just in case those links are down, here are the songs hosted at 4 shared:

• Strange Trains
• Lines
• Can’t Wait
  

back again

Hello. A rainy Sunday June afternoon in New York City. Watching “In the Line of Fire” after making waffles. And, natch, catching back up with music. Work and the new graduate program I started last fall pulled me away for most of the past seven months. Zen Luck Ticks is now mastered. I’ll post it shortly. I’m reading up on the Creative Commons licensing, which I plan to use for the first time, and I’ve begun on the next EP.

The next one’s tentatively called “Jinx.” It consists of two tracks. It was reinforced to me last summer that I should be realistic about how much time it takes to record. One was written in the spring of ‘06 and slated to be on Zen Luck Tricks. I characterize it as a dreamy, happy folk tune. No vocals, just some instrumental twists and sound effects. I’m imagining a cinematic quality. The second song was written a couple of years ago. Let’s see how I’d describe it…I’d say it’s a rock, R&B-ish inspired groove. The chords, which I’ve very recently decided on (like, this morning), is Brazilian to well too. Overall, it’s a minor blues, really.

I’ll launch into my Brazilian fascination another time. I noticed with ZLT, and even more so now, that I retrun often to the basics. When I was in music school, I seemingly wanted to overturn the conventions every way I could. Looking back I guess that was healthy. There’s also much less singing on Jinx. The minor blues has a repeating chorus. I’m inspired here by some acid jazz and Santana. The second track is purely instrumental with influences from psychedelic folk and Chick Corea.

I’m happy to be locked back in.

finals are sitting on my computer– awaiting mastering software

Seems like it’s been a while since I’ve published anything! I’ve been quite busy in other areas of life. I have finals for ZLT, and I’m waiting now on Bias Peak to arrive (turns out it was backordered).

I don’t anticipate a lot of work for mastering. This project has been mixed to death. I might add in some EQ though. I’ve noticed the speakers I use for monitoring are boomy when I compare ZLT to other recordings. So I probably don’t want to roll off too much of that low end. I might roll off a little though. Other than that it’s pretty much just a process of conforming volume levels to the Red Book. I outsourced my last mastering project for my first album Exotic Threads. I’ll have to post ET. Actually, I get inspired from time to time to remix the whole thing. But I want to move onto something new before going back.

That new thing is taking shape ever so slowly. I plan to pull in two very good musical friends of mine on two tracks that are being developed because each suits one of their personalities. The other track or two will be mine. But I likely won’t be alone on it either.

I’ll be posting here to explain what the whole thing means as it unfolds. And some day I’m going to have to explain what the hurry gain is too, and who the heck I am. But I figure it does little to drone on about myself and not have some music to put to the face. Priorities, you know?

singing makes me dizzy

I’m getting the vocal parts down for Lines. I suspected a while back that I’d have to create backing vocals too. Yeah, I’m doing my own backing vocals– maybe that’s lame, maybe it’s not! It is pretty fun to record them, and it does require breath control and some, you know, technique. I plan to pull some singer friends of mine into the next project. But I gotta say I’m having more fun with the vox than I thought I would.

 I also put a time limit of sorts on this project. By next Sunday…it’s finished! In other words, whatever is recorded then is what ZLT will be. I’m about a month and a half behind schedule. But more importantly I’m happy with what I have, and I’ve learned quite a bit, and I can salvage a lot of it and apply it to the next project.

I’m starting to look ahead, put together a set list. The first thing I’ll do is record a guitar track to send a buddy of mine who’s an accomplished singer/songwriter in Nashville. But first I gotta put the finale stamp onto Zen Luck Tricks…

lead guitar– finito!

bellisimo! molto bouno!

And so forth…

All guitar is now done for Zen Luck Tricks. I’m moving on to record the final vocal takes, but before I do that, I’m going to spend time this week going over some of the original production ideas I had for the project last winter– before the songs took shape, and took over, frankly. These ideas mostly center on instrument sounds, ways of shaping the overall sonic experience (…huh…yeah, OK!) I call these “flourishes.” Yes, the EP could live without them. But why should it??

I’ve also been researching mastering options, and, being the DYI guy that I am, I’ve decided to do mastering myself. This could easily tack on another couple of weeks to the release of ZLT, but I’m thinking learning the skill is really what I’m after here. And if I were that worried about the release schedule…let’s just say I’d be very worried at the moment. But what’s more important than getting done is getting done with something that makes you happy. And, furthermore, to set yourself back on track for doing more and more of these projects in the future.

And on that point, I am a believer, once again.

slide guitar

I woke up last Saturday and it became suddenly clear that the lead part of Can’t Wait should be played with a slide. I finding I have to really tease the recording, though, as the harmonics overdrive the levels. At least, I think that’s what’s happening. I like the texture the slide creates though. And it adds another roots element to this project for me. I went through a blues phase, as a lot of guitarists do I assume, and I got really into slide. Even though you don’t have all the note choices, those limitations sometimes can lead to very creative applications. And one of the primary features of the slide is sustain, which is actually a slightly unusal quality for guitar. Slide was originally used to emulate vocals. It’s definitely a sound I’m going to use in the future.

back at it

Final lead parts to Can’t Wait are currently being recording. Vocals this weekend. Then ZLT is on to mastering!

Back with more to talk about soon, but right now work and this project are dominating my time…

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.