I haven’t been able to record for a while since upgrading my computer. Today I had enough of my dry spell and set up my laptop to record this little track. All in all I spent about 20 minutes on this song and it was pretty fun to record.
Although my gear is limited, I like how this little guy turned out. When my gear is back up and running I won’t be recording on such a limited capacity.
The sun is filling my room, the weather is amazing and I just had to.
Go outside and enjoy the weather!
I’ve been working on a secret project inspired by We Are Not Special. Details to come in 2013.
A new way of listening to things.
Change the angles and begin again.
I made my mouth into a river.
Always been a huge fan of Metric. They were the first “real band” I listened to as a 13-year-old girl playing Sim City in my bunk bed. I thought I was so cool.
They’ve changed over the years, and my fave albums are still from pre 2010 but this album is their best in an album or two in my opinion. Nothing beats Old World, Underground, but I’m glad the music has changed with the age of the audience; always a good thing.
Gross. Well, here is an example of what not to do. Last week I decided I was going to make a more electronic based song. At first I was having a lot of fun, experimenting and playing with different sounds. The more I accomplished, the more walls I ran into. My old school imac has 1gig of RAM and is just not havin’ all my messin’ around. I can’t really bring a sequencer into Pro Tools without having it crash, so I think it is time to problem solve.
I have a Macbook pro that is way more of a work horse, but I find the smaller screen and crappy mouse annoying to deal with for long periods of time, especially working in Protools. I know, I know, wah wah, first world problems.
Regardless, I think I’ve come to a few conclusions based on this epic failure.
- I’m not sure electronic stuff is for me… maybe I just need to keep working at it, but man, do I suck….
- Don’t do the drums by hand on a micro korg midi interface…. yikes
- Quit while you’re ahead… or behind?
- I need to take more time to trouble shoot, rather than taking the quick or easier option
- Ewwwww
So anyways, enough self pity. It’s my fault. I spent too much time beating a dead horse and it just didn’t work out. I decided to cut my losses and move on.
I guess what I’m struggling with is maybe a bit of ego or insecurity, or the fine line between both. I actually have a surprising amount of half written songs, riffs, and other ideas, but I actually need the time to execute them, or the resources. I don’t know whether I should go all out, try and make full songs that sound as good as possible, or to treat it like a sketchbook. I’m also wondering how to show or track progression.
Either way, I realize I need to take way more time and focus. Busting out songs on a whim, and messing around with stuff I don’t know is either a waste of time, or leads to an embarrassing track. I can continue to work on electronic songs, and other experimental things on the side, and perhaps share them when I feel comfortable or as I perfect them. In the meantime, I need to stick with my guitar and try and grow as a song writer. And work on that dang voice of mine.
Anyways, maybe I’m revealing too much, or not enough. At the end of the day I love music, I absolutely positively love it. I miss the rush of being on stage. I miss the electric feel of spinning around into a universe of sound and passion in the dimly lit and sweat filled venues of my past. I ache to be able to find that place again. Who knows where things will go.
Time to get down to business. Too many excuses.
Yikes. First time being late for Music Monday. I did successfully paint my parents kitchen for some cash, so that’ sweet, haha.
This week I wanted to try some new stuff. First off I tried a more bass driven song, and messed around with effects on the bass. I like the sort of Death From Above sound going on. I still could have mixed it in better, but hey, I’m learning.
Vocally I wanted to get out of the box of softer folk singing, and wanted to push my voice a bit. I’m not sure if I like the tone, I think it might be a bit whiny. When I was in bands back in the day, pushing my voice was all-out screaming. I want to find that balance where I have some fire in my voice, but I’m not killing myself. But one improvement I see is that I’m comfortable enough to post it and I can identify what I like and what I don’t. I think I’m getting a little bit better at staying in key as well haha. A little bit.
A song like this really makes me wish I had some drums. I could program them (which I’m still teaching myself), but it just isn’t the same as a solid drummer.
I really didn’t do much with the mix this time, just pretty much left it as is. Maybe that shows, or maybe it sounds find. It is have to be objective with your own recordings sometimes.
I also noticed that soundcloud kills the volume of my tracks a bit, maybe it’s a streaming thing.
I don’t really know if anyone actually reads the writing I put with these songs, but I guess it helps me to sort of journal my progress, and take note of things.
One thing I really want to explore is my lyric writing/singing style. I find that sometimes I fill up verses and choruses way too much. I have this weird need to fill the empty space. Maybe other vocalists will know what I am talking about. Maybe next week I’ll try and be more thoughtful about how I write those parts.
On to the next one.
Week 14.
I really have been in a bad habit of recording instrumentals and then leaving vocals to the last minute. It is sort of counterproductive considering I should probably spend the most time on vocals, as I consider that to be my weak area.
Sometimes I miss the comfort of just being able to scream at the top of your lungs. It was as if the more you made it ugly and dirty and off, the better it was. I’m a few months in and I still have trouble coming to terms with melodic vocals, and harmonies and all that jazz….
I need to dedicate more time to vocals, and less time to instruments. I also need to give myself more of a head start on some of these songs.
Excuses, excuses. Either way, there are always positive things to look at and things to learn. I’m proud I’ve made it this far, but I have a long way to go.
Side note - I hate my bass tone and sound haha… I really need to figure out how to mix/record it better. Maybe I have myself a new goal.
And as stated previously, I have been working on a lot of electric stuff, hopefully going to roll that out soon!
Sabrina:
We did a cover for this week’s Music Monday song, and both of us sing in it, which is nerve-racking to me. It scares the poop out of me to have my singing public, but that’s what this project is all about. Getting the shit scared out of us.
Just kidding! It’s really about doing new things and not letting fear or any apprehensions get in the way, so that brings us to this week’s song!
We covered Queens of the Stone Age’ ‘Make it Wit Chu’, which Shawn just taught me was a band that not a lot of people like or necessarily respect, which is bizarre to me. I’ve never disliked a single song. I think they’re very underrated, but anyways!
Have a listen and let us know what you think!
