THREE EXPERIMENTS TO SEEK BALANCE. LISTEN ON AUDIO AT END OF BLOG.

BACK IN SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR I PUT THE INSTRUMENTAL AUDIO PROGRESSIONS OF THIS SONG TOGETHER ON THIS BLOG BELOW. I REMEMBER THINKING I SHOULD REVISIT AND COMPLETE WITH THE VOCALS FINALLY DONE.

SO I ADDED TWO EXTRA TRACKS THIS AFTERNOON TO COMPLETE A PROCESS. NOT YET COMPLETE THOUGH BECAUSE THE NEW TASCAM MODEL 12 MIXER (DOWN BELOW AT END OF BLOG) CAN NOW BE USED TO REALLY TRY OUT THE SOUND, EQ AND FINAL MIXING BEING DONE PROPERLY.

THE ORIGINAL BLOG HERE:

This process? It’s no where near songwriting as I know and love it. It’s creating a simple overlay on overlay on overlay. Choosing a separate track, setting up the sound required and playing the electric guitar over the acoustic base track from the other day. Jamming with myself I suppose.

When writing a song, there is a process of hearing ideas alongside others and weaving them in and out with what your fellow band members play. Strong point instrument wise, for myself, is the bass guitar. Because that is what I play. I don’t play 6 string electric guitars, keyboards, percussion, etc. I actually am clueless to create and weave the sounds in my head with my limited skills. No bass played on this one as yet.

It’s not actually frustrating presenting one’s own limitations using other instruments and not creating an ounce of dynamics. You know others will find the answers for you. They pick up their instruments and the sky’s the limit.

But it came to realisation that it was nice capturing little ideas and getting them down for future consideration. If I was asking the brass section in the Team 23 if they could play some tune I had in my head and La La La sang it. They would pick it up, run with it, make it their own and bish bash bosh, all nice and sorted. Drummer, guitarist, keyboard player……all just cruised along in the writing of songs.

I don’t cruise instrumentally on my playing music anymore. Not with current expectations. I have a different dynamic. See what this Apple and GarageBand combination has to offer. I am in the infancy of learning. When I get others sitting in The Den, I can at least now show them the way forward. The basics of capturing sound now.

It’s quite a journey.

Decent speakers are the next step for mixing tracks to songs. Then ongoing to achieve the overall sound. Headphones are essential to eliminate outside noise whilst recording the instruments. Also, for general listening. If I listen back on the iPad or Studio Display screen monitor speakers……a very weak identification to the true sound. The Beyerdynamic headphones bring clarity to individual instruments. So the levels of loud/soft/quiet can be sorted out to some extent. But good speakers are the ultimate desire.

Anyways………. 3 naive flick guitar chords/licks added to what I had the other day.

First up, a crazy synthesiser guitar sound on one of the guitar parts. I knew I could change this anytime. Included it on here this morning to show the experiment with this particular track. Then went ahead and changed it to a cleaner guitar sound. Same guitar recording being played on this small riff. Didn’t have to play it again.

ADDED THIS AFTERNOON.

Vocals seem to be okay for now. But the progress up to final mix needs doing properly. The whole business of this instrumental sound control and mixing is based on trying to control a ‘mouse arrow’ and manipulate dials, faders, EQ settings, etc. on the monitor screen. So frustrating. So bought this Tascam mixer.