What to do with a song that has possibilities? Re-record or allow it to be tweaked into a better version of itself. Yes, I have asked this question of myself a fair few times, perused and written previous blogs on the conundrum. But answers are still to be found and rubber stamped as a definite aim. Roll the sleeves up and just get on with the decision made.

Distant Lands (Day or Night) is a song being worked on currently for newly begun lyrics and vocal melody to get attached. A glaring guitar mistake at 1 minute 24 seconds cannot be ironed out easily (by overlaying the right couple of notes) due to my lack of skills. Luckily the three separate guitar tracks means I can replay the whole of that ‘mistake’ guitar part start to finish. There are other guitar parts within it too that are just not sitting comfortably in my sense of ‘all okay’. Also I have a new chorus and bridge in my mind too, which have different chords. And that means re-recording the whole song. “Get on with it then”, you may well say. But as musicians know….therein lays the rub.

Can I reproduce that ‘vibe’ again. I am not a competent six string electric guitarist. I am also not a robot of being able in producing the same sound again and again. Emotions interplay with what I hear. And so I don’t know my ‘onions’ regarding reproducing sounds in the exact/same way I can produce at those past certain times. Bass guitar….similar…yes. Acoustic guitar…..again, similar….yes. But an electric guitar has volume and tone knobs that are altered for sound. You play over certain pickups on the guitar too to get tone change. Even a choice of plectrum can alter sound produced. And which electric guitar did I use from the three choices I have. I’m hopeless at recording by writing down the specific choices made. Need to slap my wrist and tell myself to get a grip and get organised. Some songs I could never work on adding vocals to a newly recorded sound and reproduce that vibe again with the overall playing choices of various instruments included and the way I played them all. Apart from the drums! I never play any of the drum tracks. They are GarageBand library. Tweaked and edited though. So still have conundrums of reproduction attached. As in the example below.

And so. It comes into mind the cluttered wonderings as to what to do with a backlog of songs. Songs unfinished. Songs that are blemished. Songs that hold promises. Songs that can stay as they are. Songs that obviously have a need for change. Start afresh is my current state of mind. Especially after a horrible last eight months (since last November) of weirdness and combobulations.

My little Crucial X6 2 TB external SDD drive was plugged into the iPad last night and two huge song and experimental lists came into view within the ‘Files’ of uploads. Firstly on iPad inherent’s and secondly from sent email songs from the GarageBand recordings.

From 30 seconds of whisper singing ideas into the iPad through the Shure MOTIV Audio app to up to 2 to 6 minute songs of GarageBand/Mac home studio recordings. The GB/Mac latter with up to a dozen various stages of the same song and different dull to brighter mixes.

Part of decision thinking now is to simply re-record certain chosen songs that I feel are my faves and wipe the slate clean for a consistent sounding album to be targeted. Change and tweaking is a pain. Also, I feel a different sound vibe swimming around in my mind currently. It keeps dropping in to say hello. Eclectic thematically, but with the same overall instrumental sounds. Familiarity is key to the foundations of the Frail Autumn overall experience when listening.

Summer time is here now and Summers’ recorded music time is in need of focus and intent once more. So? Roll the sleeves up and focus…..