Threaded - 003 (a very good place to start)

Well, forget all that crap about building a good foundation as the first step. Err, it'll come in handy in the future I'm sure, but for the moment it seemed wise to start over with a guitar track or two. Thought it might be nice to begin the song with a nice slow build that kind of set the scene for the main riff. Recorded my acoustic/electric, playing all the way through the song with a click track supplied by Reason. (oh, and i changed the tempo to 130bpm just to speed it up a bit) Here's what it sounded like:
Threaded003a: GuitarIntro(dry)


After that it seemed like it could use a second guitar, so I just set up another track and recorded using the exact same equipment:
Threaded003b: DualGuitarIntro(dry)

You'll notice that in order to make the sounds of both guitars distinct, I panned one to the left and one to the right a bit. Little interesting tidbit: a sound panned to one side or the other in a musical mix will sound louder than it actually is, like the directional sense of our auditory neurons picks out this irregularity and emphasizes it for us. So if you have some instrumental part that you want to sound louder or otherwise stand out, just pan it to one side a bit - you'll be surprised at how much more distinct it sounds without changing the volume one bit.

The song sounds like it should sort of be a rock song in a way, so i ran each guitar track through its own instance of Guitar Rig 2:

(For the left track I used the preset "Stevie's Rhythm" and for the right used something that I think was called "British Garage" or something.) Here are the two tracks together - i think that adding some amp simulation/distortion really makes it sound like a real song coming together, especially during the buildup.
Threaded003c: DualGuitarIntro(Wet)


Alright - tomorrow just gotta put together some bass/drums (or reuse the existing ones) and patch it all together. Maybe some atmospherics too. Vocals will come later.

Threaded - 002 (bass/drums)

Threaded002: 1st Verse - Bass/Drums

Building a song's like building a house. Good to start with the foundation. Actually, that's bullshit - sometimes I start with just a vocal and build a song around that, or just some keyboard loop or something. But on the whole, starting with bass and drums means that you have a solid rhythmic base on which to build things.

So this is just a basic bass and drum track for the first verse. It's all built in Reason 3.0:

Which is great because for a crappy drummer like me, I can program in the drums with mouseclicks (or play them on the keyboard and then adjust it all so it's quantized [oh, for those of you new to this, to quantize something means to adjust it so that it is rhythmically accurate. When playing something live, you might hit a snare drum just a few fractions of a second late, or your whole beat might not stay at the same tempo all the way through the song. Quantizing the notes means that they are right on the beats. Overquantizing can lead to a mechanical feel, so sometimes when adjusting things I only choose to quantize 75% of the notes in order to keep it somehow organic]) and then adjust the tempo later.

The song's starting at 120bpm, but I think i might speed it up a little bit before recording actual guitar or vocals or other audio.

If you're interested, I'm at the moment using the "FreshB MX" drumkit from the Reason Drum Kits refill, and the bass is the "Macca Beatle Bass" instrument in the Reason Factory Sound Bank.

Well, it's simple, but it's the beginnings of the song. Gotta start somewhere.

Threaded - 001 (idea)

This song idea sort of occurred to me on Sunday morning, and I thought it might be interesting to post the evolution of the song from idea to finished recording here on the old blog. So if all goes well, over the next week or two I'll post some updates with sounds and notes on how I'm creating them and putting it all together.

Anyway, here's the idea - just basic guitar and melody, it might change a lot by the end. But then again, it might not. I dunno. For the moment I'm calling the song Threaded, but don't know exactly why. That'll probably change too.

Threaded001: Idea

Good luck to you dear sir.

LawrenceMinute0035:

LawrenceNotes:
Something i stomped out in no time. Basically a lot of variations on one groove.

Oops!

LawrenceMinute0034:

LawrenceNotes:
Accidently deleted the post. Here it is again.

hopeful music for a gloomy day

JeffMinute026: Raindrops on the sidewalk

THE COMMONERS FINAL STAND!

LawrenceMinute0033:

LawrenceNotes:
So i thought today i would work on a minute that i could finish tomorrow. You know let JEFF do the work today IN TERms of the minutes to be made. This seemed like a plausible VIEW however i didn't like the minute i was working on. So i decided to get it over WITH and post it today. GO and listen to it so you can get it over with too. Well, I'm going to bed and OGLE at a beautiful woman in my deeply depraved dreams. Let the truth be heard! Power to the masses!

A minute's minute

LawrenceMinute0032:

LawrenceNotes:
Jeff asked me to make today's minute as he is not feeling very well this evening. I myself am really quite tired tonight so nothing elaborate today. Just another noisy experiment. Basically it's granular playback of the Fukuoka vulcano music with lots of modulation on every conceiveable parameter and the sum of that being routed into some crazy feedbacking resonators. Anyway... a minute has been made... now we can lose that haunted glint in our eyes... we can all lay ourselves to rest.

A Guest Minute!

From our good friend Azo...

GuestMinute001: La Premiere Minute, by Azo

jazz minute

Just a simple looped bassline, just trying to play with dynamics. Soft -> Louder -> Soft again.

JeffMinute025: a random walk

Hot excentric millionaire chick

LawrenceMinute0031:

LawrenceNotes:
Well, i was going for a song that would appeal to hot chicks. This is what came from it. My gut tells me there is still something missing from the second part. I dunno what though. Anyway i was going for something happy and hopeful just to remind us that there is a land of sushi waiting for us behind the rainbow. Is it maybe a little too happy? Well, whatever it may be i'm going to bed. If there are any hot excentric millionaire chicks that need my loveseed let me know.

LateNight

Couldn't be bothered to actually set up any microphones or anything - just recorded this directly into the little tiny built-in mic on the laptop. Hence the hiss of the CPU fan, brought to you directly through the motherboard. Sortof improvised this once, then rerecorded it a few times to get a take that sounded ok. Quiet melodica in the background.

JeffMinute024:Late Night Randomness

A weird weird minute

LawrenceMinute0030: aloofness abounds tonight

LawrenceNotes:
Here's a minute that takes no heed of your needs and desires as a listener or a human being. It is a minute that simply does not care. Beware... take care...

A track.

LawrenceMinute0029:

JKT023 - Exhaustion

This minute sort of longs for the lazy restful days that I'm nt getting all that many of lately. What do you hear in it?
JeffMinute023:

Celebration of autumn

LawrenceMinute0028:

LawrenceNotes:
Hmmm... i dunno if this track is suited for continuation. It's just a synthesizer hooked up to a sequencer and me farting around with it for a while. This kind of reminds me of a tree in fall releasing it's colorful leaves from its old rusty branches slowly into wind. It was done very quickly. Gotsta sleep!

My god.. Forgive me.

This is truly terrible. I can't keep my eyes open though, i'm falling asleep as i'm trying to make music. anyway, apologies.

JeffMinute022: so goddamn tired my fingers won't work for me

Da beatz of Jeff's heart

LawrenceMinute0027: Da beatz of Jeff's heart

LawrenceNotes:
God, i'm tired. I'm not sure if this is finished yet. I don't think so but let's wait and see if i feel inclined to work on it some more tomorrow. Now it's time to set this unit's system to hibernation mode for a while.

Anyway when i first heard the beat i had envisioned a different sound for it. Kind of hard, minimal and aggressive. Somewhere in the proces it inadvertently became mellowish. So then just to make it even more laidback i slowed it down just a tad. I like the title though.

The NEW guidelines

Right... the rules of the game have changed. Can i do this you dare to wonder? Yes, i can - now shut your goddamn trap before i come over there and tear you a second one. This week it will be done like this:

- On the uneven days we will both create a track which we will post here on the blog.
- On the even days we will make a minute using the track that the other supplied.

Yesterday's material will be used to craft today's minutes. Tomorrow i will decide what type of track needs to be made for Thursday's minutes.

To be sure: one can alter the supplied track to some extent. The only real rule here is: apply discretion.

Boat drinks everyone.

The beatz of my heart

A miscalculation led to this being 2 minutes long instead of 1... And crap, it's kinda boring compared to yours. But it's a beat!
JeffMinute021: Beatz 4 Lawrencio

Here come da beatzzzzzz

Cut around 1 minute.
LawrenceMinute0026: Chew on this for a while whydontcha?


Here's another version. Ya might prefer this one:
LawrenceMinute0026: Chew on this for a while whywontcha?

Video Experiment

Just a quickly thrown together bit of video as a test - can the right music make pretty much any moving image somehow evocative of a feeling or emotion? All footage chosen fairly randomly from archive.org .

Guidelines

This week is: 'do whatever you please week just make sure there's a minute awaiting every other day.'

The Crush of Normality Parts I to III

JeffMinute020: Parts I-III - I: Going to work, II: working, III: life begins anew. Or something like that.


I wish i had mixed those kids' voices in a bit better - they're a bit loud, i think they overwhelm the music in a way i didn't intend.. Oh well. Enjoy!

The Crush of Normality Parts I to III

LawrenceMinute0025: Part I through III - The Ogre chronicles

LawrenceNotes:
I started working on my minute around 3:00 am last night and to be honest i was half asleep when i was doing it. The result is pretty poor. If i feel like it and find the time i'll work on it some more.

The Crush of Normality - Parts I & II

Minute II = the struggle to succeed, methodical craft and workmanship involved in striving towards a dream. Building towards minute III, the great awakening of hope.

JeffMinute019: Hard at work -> the struggle for innovation

The Crush of Normality - Parts I & II

LawrenceMinute0024: Adding Part II - Our ogrish hero stands around and picks his nose

LawrenceNotes:
Jeff, i'm doing it all wrong! I'm glad i decided i would just continue my own stupid minute instead of butchering your minute. Anyhoo i don't think my minutes reflect this weeks theme at all.

You haven't stipulated how this adding procedure should be blog-a-fied. I simply 'forged forward' and posted the whole thing as it is right now (instead of only posting the second minute). This made sense particularly because i've made some changes to the first minute as well. The second part now makes more sense i think.

The Crush of Normality - Part I

Well, I briefly tried continuing Lawrence's minute, but found that my mood didn't quite suit the spirit of creating something vibrant. So here's my intro minute - dreary style.

JeffMinute18: going to your job deep in the sewers beneath a now lifeless city

The Crush Of Normality - Part I

LawrenceMinute0023: Part I - How the big fat ogre gently wept

LawrenceNotes:
It's getting late Jeff. No time to call you today - but i will tomorrow. In the meantime you can listen to this minute. I hope you didn't have a terrible evening. But hey... cheer up... grapes and toga's await!

ps. How do i label this?

The Crush Of Normality

Well, I'm back. Had an amazing time in Japan, it's gonna be a bit rough to find myself in the office tomorrow morning. Anyway, no sense in dwelling on that - a new week of minutes awaits! I think it's my turn to define the rules for the week, so here goes:

I could really use a lift, so that's what the minutes this week will be about - minutes that somehow lift us up out of the dreary realities that await us in our daily lives. Actually, how about a set of minutes that tell a sort of narrative? We've got six minutes to work with, so I propose this:

Minute 1 & 2 - Each of us creates a minute that expresses despair and hopelessness. The crushing monotony of everyday life.

Minutes 3 & 4 - We each create a minute that somehow expresses the struggle we experience while trying to rise above our situations and change our lives for the better.

Minutes 5 & 6 - We create minutes that lift us out of the dreariness and into the light of joyful self realization.

So 3 sets of minutes - depressing, struggling, uplifting! We'll each make one every other day, and the creator of minute 1 will be determined by the flip of a coin. Ready? Ok, Lawrence is heads, I'm tails. Ok... shit Lawrence, looks like you win - you cool with that? Making minutes on Monday Wednesday Friday?

-jeff

Jeff where art thou?

New minutes will come when you resurface Jeff. I cannot sail this ship alone. That much has become painfully apparent this week. I need your magic now, du. Can you make it work for me?

Japan-in-a-dishpan 4: the minute we must never mention again. ever.

LawrenceMinute0022:

LawrenceNotes:
Skip it. Seriously.

[Edit] Jeff urged me to listen to this again and hot-diggety-damn... it's actually a pretty nifty minute. I made this in half an hour by randomly tweaking some samples - with the sound off. The ending is really neat. Does it bring back memories of sweet Japan when you hear this?