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I've been writing/recording my next album for the past 10 years. My first album had the greatest songs I'd ever written. Which means this next album has to contain all new songs. And that's been a bit of a pain in my rear end. Share your progress! Have you got the songs picked out? Are you going into a studio, or are you doing the home-studio thing? Or a mix of both? So far, I've recorded my next album four times. Not happy with any of them, not happy enough to make public. SO NOW, I'm starting all over again, writing all new songs. What are YOU doing with YOUR life?
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Sep 20, 2017 03:21
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Being serious? 10 years? I've written and recorded my first album over the course of this year, and I'm waiting on the producer/engineer/whatever to finish mixing it. It'll be pretty good. Well that's my story. e: Why don't you tell us more about your album(s) first. It sounds like you've put a lot of work into your music. LargeHadron fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 16:32
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LargeHadron posted:Being serious? 10 years? I've written and recorded my first album over the course of this year, and I'm waiting on the producer/engineer/whatever to finish mixing it. It'll be pretty good. Well that's my story. My first album took maybe 6 months to record, another 6 months until the CD release party. And, even though EVERYONE said don't book the release party til you're holding the box full of CDs in your hand, I just KNEW my CD was the exception to that rule. I was wrong. I've sold enough CDs for it to go plastic. I recorded it in a great recording studio in Atlanta, after sharing some of my demos with them. They offered me a deal, they'd go in with me on the CD, share profits and if I got a record deal out of it, they'd get points. I had it mastered by Rodney Mills, who mastered a TON of albums, (while I was there he talked about mastering Back In Black, he had a version that wasn't brickwalled, and I was dying to get a copy, he never shared it). This might be my favorite from the CD. That's the fifth, or fiftieth guitar solo (3:15) I recorded and the engineer refused to let me do it over again. Wisely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1seBLLuXht4 I never got a record deal, so basically I got a TON of studio time in a great studio for super cheap. I've got friends/fans who'll shoot me a message that they still have the CD in their player in their car, or it pops up on Pandora or Spotify, but for the most part, the CD never went anywhere, due entirely to my own lack of commitment. My goal was always to just remain a local artist, playing gigs when/where I wanted, (family, day job was first priority). So overall, the experience was fantastic. The CD itself sounds drat good to me. I should have done a lot more to promote it, should've taken myself more seriously. Unfortunately, I started having a lot more fun with open bar tabs and nose candy. I don't regret it, but I'm not too motivated to get out there and do it again - despite wanting to do another CD just because I loved the experience of the first one. Didn't mean to talk so much about my own crap, honest. More interested in other musician's recording stories.
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Sep 20, 2017 18:35
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Nice, that's really cool. Has a bit of a Mike Patton vibe (sort of). Somewhat off-topic, but how'd you get the YouTube image to look that way (small cover art, big cover art in the background, song/album titles)? I see albums like that fairly often and I don't know how it's done.
LargeHadron fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Oct 30, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 22:21
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Our album/EP (over 40 minutes so it's kind of an album?) was released a few minutes ago! Spotify link I joined up about six months ago after the last bassist got kicked out for fun drama stuff. These songs came together really well, and one more is ready to go for the next album already. We recorded this in a barn converted to a studio/rehearsal space, which was pretty sweet.  Tracks 1/3/5 were recorded on my Clement 5 string with four year old La Bella black nylon tapewounds, the other tracks are my G&L Tribute SB-2 with new La Bella white nylon tapewounds. Yes, tapewounds are the poo poo.
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Sep 29, 2017 06:25
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The Science Goy posted:Our album/EP (over 40 minutes so it's kind of an album?) was released a few minutes ago! Spotify link Holy poo poo that studio is nice. Gonna go check out the record now.
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Sep 29, 2017 13:21
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It's literally in a barn in the countryside... there is a horse pasture just outside about 20 yards away. We had the windows open during breaks, and we forgot to close them when the guitarist ran some takes of the reverb-y thing at the end of Guarded. One of the takes had to be tossed out due to a noticeable horse snort... I kinda wanted to keep it but we swapped it for a clean take.
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Sep 29, 2017 14:39
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The Science Goy posted:Our album/EP (over 40 minutes so it's kind of an album?) was released a few minutes ago! Spotify link Nice - solid sound and good production
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Sep 29, 2017 15:14
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Morning Bell fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Feb 10, 2021 |
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Oct 17, 2017 00:35
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Morning Bell posted:here is a pedalboard
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Oct 17, 2017 16:12
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Hi, I guess I'm doing something resembling writing an album, but my recording/producing situation is somewhat laughable. All I have are MIDI renders of what songs 'should' sound like, at the moment. I don't know if anyone would be game to hear those.
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Oct 24, 2017 23:53
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Helping a friend (drums) write/record an album. He wrote 11 songs while he's been working from home. Brought another friend (guitar/bass) and myself (keys/guitar) to help him flesh it out and make it real. He has a pretty good idea in his head of what he wants it to sound like, but decoding that into actual chords and notes is not his strong suit. It's definitely a different experience. It's nice having material already semi-written, as opposed to everyone jamming for 45 minutes, saying "I liked that" and promptly forgetting it leading to songs never being written. Also a bit frustrating finding out where the creative control/artistic license line is. Some songs are fully fleshed out in his head and he really wants us to adhere to that vision. Some are very open, he says it could go anywhere, didn't have anything specific in mind but likes this/that. We're almost to the point where we have the songs solid enough to start recording. The big thing is recording the drums. My friend is hesitant to go to a studio. He feels like he'd be under pressure to record when renting out time, and is uncomfortable recording with a stranger there. Otherwise, between the bassist and myself we have the equipment to record the drums, but finding the space and time to set up/breakdown is the big holdup there. We have out options, just a matter of debate and deliberation. As a whole it's a new way of doing stuff for me. I don't hate it. But it's really awesome to be doing the music thing again.
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Oct 25, 2017 15:06
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For real OP, how did you get the YouTube video image to look that way? Did you have to create the still image in Photoshop and then do some MovieMaker BS to play audio over it? I ask because I've seen a lot of audio-only videos that look the same way, and I figured there must be a service that lets you upload album art and metadata then creates the video for you. At least I'm hoping there is.
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Oct 25, 2017 16:01
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LargeHadron posted:For real OP, how did you get the YouTube video image to look that way? Did you have to create the still image in Photoshop and then do some MovieMaker BS to play audio over it? I ask because I've seen a lot of audio-only videos that look the same way, and I figured there must be a service that lets you upload album art and metadata then creates the video for you. At least I'm hoping there is. Those videos are generated automatically by YouTube on the Artist - Topic channels.
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Oct 25, 2017 16:57
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LargeHadron posted:For real OP, how did you get the YouTube video image to look that way? Did you have to create the still image in Photoshop and then do some MovieMaker BS to play audio over it? I ask because I've seen a lot of audio-only videos that look the same way, and I figured there must be a service that lets you upload album art and metadata then creates the video for you. At least I'm hoping there is. If you make a DistroKid account, they will put all your albums on YouTube for you. There's a few different paid models. I think my band pays something like $30 a year for DistroKid to put all our music on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, etc.
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Oct 30, 2017 20:11
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silencekit posted:If you make a DistroKid account, they will put all your albums on YouTube for you. There's a few different paid models. I think my band pays something like $30 a year for DistroKid to put all our music on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, etc. Thanks. That sounds like a cool service. Would you recommend it?
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Oct 30, 2017 20:23
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LargeHadron posted:Thanks. That sounds like a cool service. Would you recommend it? Absolutely. It's way, way easier to convince people to click on a Spotify link or embedded YouTube video than it is to get them to go to your Bandcamp. edit: I think CDBaby provides an equivalent service. I haven't done any research comparing them, but you may want to.
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Oct 30, 2017 20:48
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Sorry - never saw this post. I have no idea how they did it - it's through CD Baby, I think?
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Oct 31, 2017 16:34
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I just finished recording this psychedelic electronic/acoustic album, I'd definitely be interested in hearing opinions. The other producer and myself tried a lot of different recording/mixing techniques, lots of analog gear. I'm currently working on another album that is entirely instrumental and more electronic/synth based. It's fun to make something that's entirely different than anything you've made before.
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Oct 31, 2017 18:50
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ricecult posted:I just finished recording this psychedelic electronic/acoustic album, I'd definitely be interested in hearing opinions. The other producer and myself tried a lot of different recording/mixing techniques, lots of analog gear. I listened to the whole thing, which means I did better than like 99% of the people who liked it and offered a quick "congrats!" when you posted it on Facebook. Sorry, am I projecting a bit? It's a solid album. I like the general sound of the music as well as the production quality. Onto critiques... It's hard to critique an album after the first listen, so most of what I'm saying is probably more of knee-jerk reactions than well thought-out constructive criticism. The most memorable and possibly my favorite track was "Birthcake". There was a lot of good ugliness to that one that was only hinted at in other tracks. However, in the context of the album I would say that the successive instrumental tracks "Hurricane Season" and "Birthcake" are the lowest point of the album as a whole. It's weird IMO to put the only two instrumental tracks back-to-back like that, in the middle of the album. I could see an argument that they're meant to provide a kind of interlude between the two meatier "halves" of the album, but it doesn't come off that way to me. I don't get a sense of dramatic arc that would justify a lengthy interlude - sorry I can't elaborate more on that without listening more. Another thought I had was that I didn't get a great sense of unity to the album - like there isn't something I can point to and think "that's the way this sounds". Not necessarily a problem, of course, more just an observation. If I heard another song by you that wasn't on this album, I doubt I'd recognize it's you. Some albums just take longer (or more attention from the listener) to stick - this might be one of those, for me.
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Oct 31, 2017 22:21
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LargeHadron posted:I listened to the whole thing, which means I did better than like 99% of the people who liked it and offered a quick "congrats!" when you posted it on Facebook. Sorry, am I projecting a bit? It's a solid album. I like the general sound of the music as well as the production quality. Onto critiques... Seriously wondering who this is from my tiny facebook world... Yeah, I hear that, tracklisting had a lot of thought go into it, but ultimately you're right, the album doesn't have one "sound" you can point to, but was a little bit of the point of it (the name "Seams," the cover...). I'd like to think you could go as far as to put it on shuffle and listen to it differently each time. There's also a lot of subject matter about splits in reality, jumps in subject matter, very stretched metaphors, sounds that stick out, polyrhythms, etc, but I can see how that is not an obvious intention.
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Nov 1, 2017 02:09
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ricecult posted:Seriously wondering who this is from my tiny facebook world... We aren't friends on Facebook, as far as I know. I was describing an experience I've had many times, and one which I assumed was universal. You put months of hard work into something, and even your friends and family can't be arsed to click on it. Making art is rough on the ego sometimes. I hear what you're saying about all of thought that went into your album. That's great that you have a clear artistic vision - my reaction was from the point of view of someone who threw it on while working rather than someone who was giving it the attention it deserves. It sounds like there's a lot more to be experienced upon further listens and I think that's a sign it might be a great album. I'm going to leave one more thought though, which is just something to think about and not necessarily something that even applies here. I had a teacher tell me once that I should be as obvious as I can be, because I'll never be as obvious as I think I'm being. Are you a fan of John Zorn?
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Nov 1, 2017 14:11
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On the subject of appreciation, I always thought the various mediums had varying pros and cons to being an amateur in search of recognition. Visual art is great because you can appreciate it instantly, you don't need to hook someone in and keep their attention for three minutes or however long. The other thing is that visual art and literature are generally mediums where the score is the same thing as the final piece, this isn't generally the case in music so it can be more hit and miss for laypeople to understand the work required and intricacies. It is very soul crushing indeed, or it can be if you let apathy get to you like I sometimes do.
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Nov 1, 2017 17:20
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LargeHadron posted:We aren't friends on Facebook, as far as I know. I was describing an experience I've had many times, and one which I assumed was universal. You put months of hard work into something, and even your friends and family can't be arsed to click on it. Making art is rough on the ego sometimes. Oh ok, I keep a very minimal FB presence so I was confused, but intrigued that I had a secret goon friend  Your teacher's advice is great advice, which I'll be keeping in mind. And I haven't really listened to John Zorn, but I'll check him out. Where's a good place to start?
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Nov 1, 2017 18:12
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ricecult posted:And I haven't really listened to John Zorn, but I'll check him out. Where's a good place to start? That's a tough question cuz he has such a diverse (and huuugely prolific) output. I was asking about him because of your interest in polystylism. One thing he's known for, in some of his projects, is creating a musical framework of jump-cuts. You can hear that in his Naked City project, a kind of grindcore/free jazz/surf rock thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZSw73DLq-0 Some easy listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7rU6LPAauE And postmodern New Music™: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AabrlJo2HYs I saw him a few years ago accepting an honorary doctorate from New England Conservatory (plus a concert of his music performed by NEC students). He wore baggy camo pants and a T-shirt with his own band name on it, and gave a short speech about how academic musical education is BS. Interesting guy. I feel like I've listened to a lot of his music, but I've still only barely scratched the surface. edit: Apologies for the YouTube thumbnail image. I don't know how to hide it.
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Nov 1, 2017 18:43
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One man home-studio project... I kinda "finished" writing an album last year. I had most of the instruments recorded by February. I've been taking singing lessons for a while now so I figured it was time to do my own vocals. Since I'm a coward when it comes to vocals, I gave myself the year to write the melodies, lyrics and record the vocals. I didn't want to just slap words on top and go "Eh, that'll do". I wanted them to be as good as my guitar playing (for better or worse...) I'm also using an Axe-FX and I reamp everything. So while I've been working on lyrics\vocals, whenever I make a good jump in terms of guitar tone quality, I re-amp and re-mix what I've got (done that twice now...will be doing it once more then calling it "done" because I'm chasing my tail a bit here) I've also written about 8 or so other songs for another project, and 3 or 4 for a blues side-gig I want to work on, because I have no idea how I'm gonna do this "main" album live. I've also re-written one of the songs 3 times until I got a version of it I liked. Which then changed the song-order on the album because I'm doing that very wanky fade-one-song-into-the-other trick for about 4 of them. To be honest, it's become a bit of a thorn in my side, but I've been sitting at 75% complete for about a year now. I've got lyrics written for 5 of the 10 songs (1 more I've got the idea for), but I'm pretty poo poo at writing lyrics. Also since I've discovered that singing is 50% of a mind game, if I think the lyrics are poo poo, then I won't have any confidence in the delivery so those 5 that I'm happy with is a better step than I give myself credit for, even though pretty much everybody else would look at them and go: "You cheesy bastard" as if the string sections didn't already give that away. Overall, I have to admit to being a bit over this and wish I could dump it all on somebody else to do all the re-amping for me so that I could just hammer out the vocals but since I've come this far, it feels a bit lame to do that. Full time jobs get in the way a bit too.
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Nov 12, 2017 13:54
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I'm over halfway through recording my first album (I released my debut EP in May). I'm nobody's idea of a talented musician, and I mostly started recording out of a lack of any other hobbies, but I've been really happy with my sloppy, ultra lo-fi results. here's one of the album demos, to give you an idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnPDkxfOkpI china bot fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Nov 14, 2017 |
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Nov 14, 2017 22:26
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china bot posted:I'm over halfway through recording my first album (I released my debut EP in May). I'm nobody's idea of a talented musician, and I mostly started recording out of a lack of any other hobbies, but I've been really happy with my sloppy, ultra lo-fi results. I listened to both the video and the EP. I wouldn't call it sloppy or particularly lo-fi, and you're absolutely a talented musician even if the music doesn't sound like anything that's currently popular. I really dig "Killer of Children", which sounds very different from the album. I'm at a place where I appreciate clearly-understood vocals and candid lyrics. It reminds me a little of Parquet Courts in that regard. On the album, my favorite track was Puna Pau thanks to the 80s post-hardcore influence. The album didn't work for me as a whole, for similar reasons to what I told ricecult above about unity. It sounds more like a mixtape to me. Might work for others - I could certainly be a minority here. I wish it had all been in the direction of "Killer of Children". On a different note, I know Chicago is a big place but I've got a group of friends there I could totally see you being "in" with musically. Do you happen to know the synth band Iverson?
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Nov 14, 2017 23:21
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LargeHadron posted:I listened to both the video and the EP. I wouldn't call it sloppy or particularly lo-fi, and you're absolutely a talented musician even if the music doesn't sound like anything that's currently popular. I've never heard of Iverson, but I'm completely ignorant of the Chicago music scene in general. I'll give 'em a listen! Also, thanks for your notes! The EP basically is a mixtape - the end result of a two-day recording session, my first time recording any music in over a decade, where the end goal was to prove I could make an EP longer than the Minutemen's debut EP while working out some ideas I got during a trip to Easter Island. So yeah, I can't argue with it lacking unity. I feel like the album already has a much more consistent sound than the EP, but it's something I'll try to be mindful of. Killer of Children and Puna Pau are the two tracks I'm proudest of, so I'm glad to hear you liked those!
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Nov 15, 2017 01:02
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china bot posted:I've never heard of Iverson, but I'm completely ignorant of the Chicago music scene in general. I'll give 'em a listen! I'm not good at Bandcamp, so PM me when your album drops if you remember. I'd like to hear it. e. Oh and if you do check out Iverson, definitely give "Chosen Ones" a spin. That song is ridiculously good and it's a shame they don't get more exposure. I wouldn't say Iverson itself is in line with your music so much, but I know the tastes of the individual members and they'd like your stuff. Ah what the hell, I'll just post that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHXjZ5ur-Y LargeHadron fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Nov 15, 2017 |
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Nov 15, 2017 02:10
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Oh hey, lucky to have just discovered the thread before we go into the studio this weekend to record what will, almost certainly, be our final album. I will use this opportunity to document the experience, in hopes that it will one day serve as a warning to others. I have already promised the only sane member of my band that my posts will be "the Hammer of the Gods of cries for help."
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Nov 15, 2017 06:36
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A tiny caterpillar has come into the studio with us... I can only imagine the genetic damage we caused before it was released back into the wild. May the chrysalis bring no dreams.
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Nov 18, 2017 19:32
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You've created a corrupted, dark butterfly whose spawn will inevitably rule the world.
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Nov 18, 2017 19:36
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I've been working on a new solo album and it's been kind of a grind, but I'm finally landing on stuff I'm happy with. This is the first album I've ever made using bass/guitar/drum machine loops as a songwriting starting point, so the result is a lot of very drone-heavy, kraut-y guitar porn grooves. The textures have been really fun to shape, and I know mixing is gonna be a blast. Here's an unmixed rough bounce of one of the more complete songs, with scratch vocals and maybe one scratch guitar track: Archaeology And here's a picture of the chart that I always make myself when I start working on a new album:  I like hearing about other people's processes. Keep posting cool things, goons.
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Nov 18, 2017 22:02
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It's a good track, nice post-MBV dissonances in the guitar and nice vocals too (well, once they've been mixed properly). You missed out on a chance for interesting word-painting with the repetition of "grow" halfway through. Make it grow in some way (gradually building layers until it's just a mess of the word "grow" from every angle), or at least keep it going longer than you feel is appropriate. That's just my two cents.
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Nov 18, 2017 22:25
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LargeHadron posted:It's a good track, nice post-MBV dissonances in the guitar and nice vocals too (well, once they've been mixed properly). You missed out on a chance for interesting word-painting with the repetition of "grow" halfway through. Make it grow in some way (gradually building layers until it's just a mess of the word "grow" from every angle), or at least keep it going longer than you feel is appropriate. That's just my two cents. Yep, parameter word painting is on my list for sure for that moment. Like I said, vox are scratch, and I'm for sure holding off on pumping it full of fun effects until I have a real take. Thanks for the feedback!
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Nov 18, 2017 22:37
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silencekit posted:Yep, parameter word painting is on my list for sure for that moment. Like I said, vox are scratch, and I'm for sure holding off on pumping it full of fun effects until I have a real take. Thanks for the feedback! Oh ok, cool. Sorry to assume you hadn't thought of that, my bad. e. I just noticed you're the Wag guy. Keep it real, man. LargeHadron fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Nov 18, 2017 |
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Nov 18, 2017 23:09
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LargeHadron posted:Oh ok, cool. Sorry to assume you hadn't thought of that, my bad. No, not at all man! Totally didn't mean to come across as a dick. I just meant I had the same thought. Glad to hear you agreed! Consensus means it's probably a good idea.  Yup, Wag is alive and well. We'll have new music soon, too.
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Nov 19, 2017 20:16
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I released my album today - not too much to say about the experience of writing or recording it. It took a few months to write all of the songs, then I had it produced by a very talented multi-instrumentalist. I think it's fair to say he put more work into it than I did. He was incredibly patient with me as my vision for the album grew from a small acoustic project into what it eventually became. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJB_qEHZ3sg Or if you prefer to listen a different way: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0PgyEDLayzCnwwYBBYai35 Bandcamp: https://paulengland.bandcamp.com/releases
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Nov 25, 2017 00:27
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(One of) My metal band's first full album is finally getting finished up, after a long year. Hoping to get it wrapped in a bow in the next couple months. We put a tune on YT just to see what people thought, so... if it's your kinda thing, tell me what you think! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUzXRZsCcgY
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Dec 21, 2017 03:33
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