#Frail Autumn,, #GarageBand,, #music, #Retirement Projects, #songwriting

Old Man. The Process from 1 to 9.

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The Lovely Den. Where comfort is profound.

This is the 9 step process of the song called Old Man. The simplest song to find to give an example of how the recording process works.

So here is the audio process of it all in audio presentation. The photograph of the Screen Shot shows from 1 to 7 the choice of instrument progression.

All the instruments of vocals, guitar and keyboards are played by myself.

Drums and acoustic guitar. Mumbling background vocals heard for timing as to where I am in the song. Acoustic guitar played through the Echo Strum setting.
Added first vocal. Sung through the Echo Strum acoustic guitar microphone setting. I believe it was an experiment which turned out okay.
Added second vocal. Sung through a vocal setting on basic choice. No library choice vocal changes to enhance style used at all.
Keyboards starting. Dark Lo Fi piano
Keyboards again. 80’s Sine Synth
And again……Evolving Shades.
And…….again……Classic Rock Organ.

When the recording is done, listening to the levels of each instrument played or sung allows a balance to be made. This is #8.

Listen to the overall mix balance and tweak levels of each instrument for balance.

When the overall balance is done and happy vibes are there, the final tweak of how it sounds in the Big World is considered. #9.

#9 is the most difficult one of all. People nowadays listen on many different devices. This consideration? Still learning.

Consider sending it out to the World. So get the overall sound balanced for various device listening formats.

In virtually all songs the keyboards aren’t actually known until I get the guitar or guitar and vocals down. I listen through the headphones playing a chosen keyboard sound from the GarageBand library choices. There are thousands of them because the keyboards play all instruments. Not just piano or synthesiser sounds. So it could be a flute or cowbell or violin, etc. Then I just mess about with little tunes. Choose another keyboard sound and the process carries on. I just play another different melody. And then another. Etc…..

This completely different song here below, an instrumental, is basically drums first put down followed by layers of keyboard melodies. Three Guitar tracks, (electric, acoustic, bass), went on last.

TADA, the working title of this song here is a major experiment in keyboard weaving and interactions. Various processes currently are simply experimental.

Old Man was pretty straightforward. Simple catchy plinkety plonking type vibe. Tried to get it dancing with the guitar.

Here are the levels of the Old Man recordings. From drum with acoustic. To vocal #1. Vocal #2. Then a process of keyboard considerations. The photograph shows choices.

The actual 1 to 8 process as recorded. So each guitar, vocal and keyboard sound choice listed here. #9 is the Master level for overall sound to the finished listen to all out there.
The Master Track. The levels are changed with the dials seen.

13 thoughts on “Old Man. The Process from 1 to 9.”

    1. Cheers Sheila. It was fairly straightforward this one. It’s because I was fairly new to the learning of it all. Sometimes I don’t feel progression has been made at all over the months since this one was recorded. I think it was a rush to get ideas down that has been paramount really. Once I’d got the basic idea of putting a song together, I went with the songwriting flow.

      Thanks for replying. Your YouTube videos come up in my YouTube notifications site now. I follow lots of sport, music, etc. and they sit alongside all the recent other uploads. I can target your site on the following list and get your site in full. So a nice easy access without having to hunt particular ones down. Been listening to a few of yours and now need to go back again. Listen properly when I have an hour or two spare. And…..I forgot to give them a like on the thumbs up button. They are a great viewing experience Sheila. All the best.

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      1. Ah, I think you’re always making progress though, Gray. Even if it doesn’t sound like it. Everything you learn and do helps you make forward progress.

        Good to know about notifications on YouTube and that you like what you hear. We have been learning more about what we should and should not do on this AI tool, think copyright and the way the AI uses what we feed it.

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      2. Sometimes I can’t see the wood from the trees with this music and feel I’m caught in the whole experience and lost. Walking round in circles. Your AI comment and the way it uses your input is across the board with platforms nowadays. It shows in the way you can write, speak out loud or even think at times. You get hit with adverts, similar subject matter, etc. Alexa is the worse. Or your mobile phone. The AI situation and your use of the words ‘feed it’ sounds sinister too. I wonder if it can pick up on other areas within home systems in the same way Alexa and the phones do.

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      3. OMG, Gray! My daughter and I just had this happen last night! We are both playing Monopoly GO on our phones. As we were talking about the newest mini game within it, I showed her the one particular’sticker’ I had been requesting from the friends within the game and no one had the sticker! Next thing I know, I clicked something else within the game before setting the phone down and I won that exact sticker!!! It freaked both of us out!
        So, yes, I think the Siri, AI, all of this is listening to us! We have suspected the phones listening for a long time, but with AI I also think it’s accessing our hard drives etc.

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      4. Spooky times. Pinterest always sends me emails every day. Usually starts with ‘Gray, these ideas are so you’, ‘Gray, we think you’ll love this’, etc. I never look at Pinterest. Never open the app either. It has had subject images regarding my interests I write about here on WordPress. Or read others’ blogs too. Not the music yet. Or spirals. Vintage certainly. Hipster clothing, watercolour art, VW buses, walking/hiking, gardening, sketchbook drawing, etc. too.

        A few years ago my daughter showed us that Alexa had snippets of the family talking. She used her iPhone to tap into recordings and played them. Little soundbites of their chit chat. As soon as I make a small noise around Alexa in the kitchen, it ‘wakes up’. So, yes, Big Brother has been listening for quite a while. That Monopoly sticker story is very spooky.

        Interestingly, I have been reading a blog on AI use in describing ‘abstract’ art and its links to Zen, meditation, Dao, etc. The AI analysis is profound. Deep and insightful. When I supported Deaf students in further and higher education, lecturers would talk in similar fashion when describing artists and their paintings. I imagine AI accessing all these lecturer presentations or written papers and actually being able to ‘change and swap it all around’ by manipulating the plethora of choices. How else could they do this. Analysis and then feedback on such a high and speedy scale. Weird World it has become.

        Cheers Sheila.

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      5. Wow, Gray! Pinterest is luring you IN. Oh my gosh! You have never used it?!? So it just got your email address from your blog? Ah, bet so!
        I get sooo much spam.

        Your daughter is super smart to catch that chit chat recording (from Alexa)! We have never had alexa because of that. But had these iPhones, which have listened to us for years, so I get what you’re saying here, Gray.

        Spooky, odd, freaky times indeed! I’m using the word, weird, less and less after reading Michael LeFevre’s book, He Was Weird. I’m also removing the word, normal, from my vocabulary.

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      6. I used to have the Pinterest app ages ago. They have always sent through emails though. I may have a couple of photos on the site. So they should have no insights to my interests really. I know the algorithm follows clicks, etc. and just accept the follow through adverts and spam. I have had to change and update so much regarding specific wording when working in social services and nursing. Now I find I can’t keep up having retired. Cheers Sheila.

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  2. Thanks you for allowed us the opportunity to see inside the creative process. Sure I assumed it was a matter of “takes” recording the songs, but honestly I always thought it was a matter of getting the song down without making mistakes in the playing of the instrument.

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    1. Cheers Danny. I play each external track A to Z. These are vocals, acoustic guitars and percussion instruments like tambourines, hand drums, egg shakers, etc. into microphones basically. So can’t make mistakes when playing guitars, singing, etc. The keyboards from GarageBand internally taken from the library choices I can alter on the edit option. Actually, 99% of the time I play along against the external recorded guitars, vocals and percussion from start to finish. No mistakes. But! If I hit a bum note or three I can alter that note in ‘edit’. You simply click on the wrong note and lift or lower it to a different one.

      So basically I don’t play fragments of songs and loop them. You can hear that in the different dynamics of each instrument throughout a song. There are differences in the way I play. Nothing is copied and repetitive. Apart from the drums. So you’re spot on. I get the majority of the songs down and try not to make mistakes. If I mess up vocals or guitar? Start from scratch.

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    1. Thank you too Friedrich. Much appreciated. The opportunity to get back into playing music with intent in October 2023 eventually led to putting the Apple Mac home recording system together in April 2024. Between October and April it was basically learning to play the bass guitar again. Old songs from the 1970s. I last played my bass guitar in 1982. The intention, after a phone call to ask if I was interested, was to play a live gig in July 2024 with my old three piece band. We were asked to reform for a festival spot. But it never happened. Guitarist and drummer pulled out due to their busy life’s commitments. Hence thinking along different aims. That being recording some new songs.

      As a complete technophobe this GarageBand music app/platform experience has been a real struggle. So breaking down the reality like this may help others not to be as fearful as myself. Still have an awfully long way to go in this journey. But it shows you can present at any stage and simply have no concerns of being judged harshly. We are all on continual learning curves when we seek to get involved within life’s presentations aren’t we.

      I wrote Old Man when I was about 16 years of age. Different arrangement back then. But the four piece band we put together back then played it live at a couple of community gigs. All our friends in the audience dancing politely. Rather akin to this home recording journey, those were the infancy days too. All the best Friedrich.

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