Some of my favorite music is "headphone" music, the kind of stuff that only really comes alive within the intimate confines of being piped directly into your head. So it's only natural that when I record music I tend to try to recreate this layered sound. Except I don't have the skill and equipment to do all the compressing and EQing to make it all fit. The result of my "everything AND the kitchen sink" approach is that it often takes months and months for a single song, a song which ends up being "muddy", and that IS a technical term.
As I recently completed a labor intensive song for my Beloved (with two kitchen sinks and a garbage disposal) I decided to do something light... and scaled back. Thus I'm redoing an old song an old friend and I wrote in days of old. I'm intentionally keeping things spartan and it's not easy fighting against my nature. So far I've recorded acoustic guitar and a glossy electric guitar part plus vocals. Still to go is piano, percussion, bass, and various keyboard bits (choir, strings, and church organ). I had planned to include an accordion part (any excuse I have to free the monster from it's cage...) but recently and painfully decided to cut it for the sake of sonic clarity. The same fate may befall one or two of the choir/strings/organ bits. The intent is to make the song sparse and organic so no heavy distortion (sniff), no weird effects (double sniff) and a moderately tame bass part (or maybe not... how much can a man restrain himself?!?!?). I started the song this past weekend and at this wreckless pace it should be completed next weekend.
Also since the song is a very early guitar creation from Shumway it's near-constant chord progression of D A C G had to be broken up with two instrumental passages featuring such exotic chords as Em, F#m, barre C and B. Ooooo, fancy!
4 comments:
I still want in on this if I can. I also have an idea for a song about a raccoon that wants to write a song about another raccoon who used to write songs but now he has permanent writers block...and really bad eczema.
That sounds like GOLD! We'll make meellions for sure!!!
With the wonders of the modern studio, or in my case my antique software running on Windows 98, it's a breeze to record a new guitar or vocal part long after the rest of the song is completed. One day I plan to have all my songs resung by the Tweedlebugs but I'm waiting for their rates to drop.
I'm not sure if you still follow Spongebob these days, but his buddy Patrick Star had HIS song set to music. It was a studio band that shelled out recorded versions of songs sent in by the general public--for a price, of course.
Twinkle Twinkle Patrick Star is pure gold.
We no longer have cable, satellite TV, or even animated GIFs. Next year at this time we may or may not have a digital conversion box. We'll probably cave 'cause I can't do without my weekly fix of Router Workshop. There's nothing like watching an old guy do in ten minutes with a router what he could do in thirty seconds with a table saw.
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