I Was an Atomic Retro Zombie

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:20:35 GMT

I'm at about the mid-point of the mandolin part for my new song, which really means that I'm almost done. There's one bit to work out where the song shifts from a space march to a swingy dance hall number for a handful of measures, then the rest is just repetitions of earlier parts. I'm eager to work in a part for my new tenor uke, but I really should move to the melody next. Once the bottleneck guitar part is written, I'll have a much better sense of what I need in the way of fills and boosts.

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:42:01 GMT

Spend most of the weekend programming (I work for fun, go figure), but I did work out the hardest part of my sci-fi song. I wanted to write in a part where the song switches scenes to a dance hall. Then the monster attacks in a bit of clashing themes, and the song stabilizes and returns to just the silly ambling monster rhythm.

Clearly, I listen to Ives a bit too much for a starting composer...

Music nerdery follows:

Anyway, the song is in Em and I realized that I could leverage the Am chord of the key to switch to the key of C (Am and C have the same number of sharps and flats. None.), and the G chord of that to switch to the key of G for the dance hall. Since the C chord is in G, I can introduce the main theme's Am part during the dance hall's C.

This is gonna be hella fun. :D

A Meme I Can Get Behind

Wed, 13 May 2009 18:07:58 GMT

A (very small) collage based on my listed interests.

Create your own! By ga_woo using Web Services by Yahoo!

Tue, 12 May 2009 19:57:06 GMT

I had a good night with the uke last night. I need to spend more time with my stringed pretties. I still haven't finished the rhythm part of my next song, but I did write the uke tabs for most of what is there. I have to finish a noodly bit and then just drop in repetitions of earlier phrases. It should clock in right around two minutes, which frankly fits right into the ethos of Ukubilly that I've been developing...

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:27:34 GMT

I've discovered that "Beep Beep" is a fantastic warm-up for ukulele. It only uses two strings, but you need to use a minimum of 7 frets and it speeds up every time through.

My uke went plink, plink, plink (plink! plink!)

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:16:49 GMT

Picked up a small booklet on using slides for guitars. There were a few decent tips just flipping through it, so that was good enough for a purchase. Also got a book with chord progressions for different uke types in different styles. Not essential, but at the price a handy enough reference.

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:00:47 GMT

The music store across from my office is having a sale.

I wish I needed something, as opposed to merely wanting things. Maybe I'll see if they have the Warren Zevon songbook. That's arguably a necessity.

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:28:28 GMT

Turns out the song I'm actually working on is an instro. I plan to use my VeeWee with a bottle-neck slide and see how far I can distort it. With luck it'll sound vaguely like a theriman, but I don't expect that will be the case. Should be fun, though.

Also, I need to finish a script for Nate this month.

Also part two, I need to finish a "special project" for Mr. Lehnerer.

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:53:38 GMT

Today I began to sift through stacks
Of statements, receipts and stuff
So that we can calculate our tax
And see if we've paid enough

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:20:34 GMT

Wyeth saw the vet
For yearly shots and exam
He hates us today

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:22:31 GMT

Worked from home today
My wife was not feeling well
I got a lot done

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:09:22 GMT

I'm currently battering a number of songs until one of them resembles a shape. I hope to be recording again by spring. The likeliest candidates are a stream-of-consciousness autobiographical punk song or a skiffle version of a traditional folk song with new lyrics about my cat throwing up.

I'm not aiming for the Top 40 market. :)

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:50:51 GMT

I would just like to say "The Former President G.W. Bush".

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:27:42 GMT

A chat with Nate tonight convinced me that my focus right now should be on writing Furry Widdle Bunny #2. We've talked about doing it for quite a while, and gosh darn it it's time!

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:09:27 GMT

I've been playing around with some jazzy rhythm lines for my Christmas song. It's a lot of fun, and I'm getting closer to something that should work. That's good, because I should really work on the melody sometime....

And I'm getting distracted because I want to write a musical play. I don't know why, since I don't know any stage directors or producers. Or how to format a play. I just think it would be a lot of fun.

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:01:20 GMT

"Ray Milland" is off to the US Copyright Office, and it's back to the grindstone for me. I've got an idea for a rather faster project. Also, it's less time critical so I'll be able to get back to the long-neglected projects of Big Damn Spider podcasts and Franz's World strips. Yay!

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:06:04 GMT

I've officially fooled around long enough. "Ray Milland" needs to be done by Thanksgiving (US), and I've fussed over the instrument tracks and inserted sound clips and adjusted levels and... and everything except actually record the lyrics. So tonight I'll record some vocal demos to see what I actually have to work with, and hopefully by the weekend I'll have a plan for how to record the vocals in a manner that's at least fittingly awful.

I sounded good in the shower this morning, but I still haven't figured out how to hook my ears into the Mac...

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:40:43 GMT

This morning I played around a little on my baritone uke, applying some tips about rhythm from my instructor. (This is for the alien Christmas song I'm writing, not the song about Ray Milland that's in production.) I'm moving away from a standard play-the-chord-in-a-pattern approach to more of a mixed chord and single note style with some bends, and it's sounding wicked. I'll be messing around with the ideas for a while yet, but it's a lot of fun and very encouraging.

Also, I now have only one mandolin track to fix from the production disaster on "Ray Milland" the other night. Yay me, I guess. I'll start practicing the vocals after I get that fixed and maybe be ready to record them later next week. In the meantime I need to start searching through movies for sound clips and balancing the existing tracks...

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:26:35 GMT

Last night was a learning experience...

I discovered that certain edits become non-undoable in GarageBand after you save. As I'm a compulsive saver from my days writing a novel on SEs in the UM Fish Bowl, I discovered this in an extremely unfortunate way. Several seconds near the beginning of "Ray Milland" are hopelessly munged now. Fortunately I still have most of the original takes for the instrument tracks involved, and all of the segments concerned are repeated later in the song, so it's a recoverable mistake. It's just a blow to have been so close to moving on to actual mixing and have to devote time to regaining ground.

On the plus side, I've discovered that the automatic blending of overlapping clips works very nicely. There were a few jarring transitions in the ukulele track that are now smooth as a freshly shaved baby's behind.

What? You don't shave baby butts? You people are weird.

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:13:37 GMT

In laying down the MIDI vocal guide to practice against, I noticed that there are still inconsistencies between tracks where the beat is concerned. I'm trying to ignore it, but I may have to do some more tweaks dangit.

In general, it's starting to sound pretty good. I can't wait to really start on the production work - levels, mixing, etc. Hopefully this weekend I'll be doing the last recording, so it looks as though my goal of a Thanksgiving release is still viable.

I may even be able to work in those clips of Ray Milland dialog that I wanted to put in. :)

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:56:47 GMT

I just tried out Audio Hijack Pro from Rogue Amoeba Software. It lets you record audio from any application on your Mac without having to hook your lineout into your linein. This is huge for me, because one reason that my podcast languishes between episodes is the hassle of switching my entire sound setup around so that I can capture the audio clips. Now I can snag clips as I do the initial viewing of the movie with no trouble whatsoever.

So, as soon as I'm done recording and mixing the "Ray Milland" song, I'll be moving on to my long delayed podcast review of "Sugar Hill". :)

Now if I can find an application that allows me to watch region 2 DVDs...

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:10:30 GMT

I need a piece of sacrificial metal for my desk. Something to discharge on before touching my keyboard...

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:30:11 GMT

This is Halloween

I guess it was a good vacation, since I wanted more of it. I've got a lot of work to do this week, aside from catching up at the job. There's the costume to finish as well as attempting to squeeze in some more recording around helping get the house in order. I absolutely have to get this song ready by Thanksgiving, and I still have to handle the copyrights and registrations. Geh. I could really use more vacation. :)

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:04:31 GMT

I've started doing the production work for my first song, piecing together takes of the ukulele rhythm track. I now understand why so many producers seem to be crazed. Listening to the same thing over and over to see to if one tiny difference is an improvement is a lot like being consigned to the hell of the eternal eye exam...

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:05:24 GMT

I've been practicing the lead mandolin part for the song I wrote. I've gotten so that I've memorized it to the point where I can stumblingly correct mistakes for everything except for the end bit. I was about to start working on that when Wyeth declared that it was time to lurve the kitty. He did this by trying to destroy my mandolin. I decided to preserve the instrument by considering his request.

I dropped some cash on a 1G DDR chip to give my PC a 512M boost. This should keep it happier for awhile.

Oh yes. And yesterday I posted another Franz's World.