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Blade runner blues

Bitterman

A technical (r)evolution of the mind. Finding my way around new vocal mic - Roswell Mini K47, This track has had a few iterations - coming into focus now I think. I'm especially proud of the tension and release guitars, they backdrop the verses, and it  kinda happened by accident. Of the moment. They pull left to right on panning and give, well in my humble opinion - an original sound. Lyrics below. I have worked in the computer technology industry for some time and this song resonates on many levels of how we proceed with our tech dependencies - an observational piece. Ah no - its not about the T1000, or HAL :) Hope you like it.

[Verse 1]
Picture how it could be
The pattern is there to see
A flash in time
The future's mine
By all these things we need

[Verse 2]
Digital serenade
Or hostage to our own gain
What you choose
You leave behind
So everything remains the same

[Chorus]
Up, Up, get unstuck,
High or higher, multiplier,
Need, Bleed, Demon seed,
Hurricane fever, mind reliever,
Wait, Wait, constant state,
Perilous power, zero hour,
Dance, Dance, future trance,
Lose your mind, disincline.
We're waiting up.
We're waking up.
Done taking up.
All things lie between.

[Verse 3]
Payment cycle, pay for gain,
New revival, paper stain,
The issue's mine,
A hopeless crime,
Our pavement dreams come true.

[Verse 4]
Resolution, Retrograde,
Cross pollution, I don't blame.
What you chose,
To leave behind
Took everything but stayed the same.

[Bridge/Breakdown]
All you are,
All you've been,
All our lives,
All between.

[Outro Chorus]
Up, Up, get unstuck,
High or higher, multiplier,
Bleed, Need, demon seed,
Hurricane fever, mind reliever,
Wait, Wait, constant state.
Perilous power, zero hour.
Dance, Dance, future trance,
Lose your mind, disincline.
We're waiting up.
We're waking up.
Done taking up.
All things lie between.

All Things Lie Between

Cover of Simple Minds song from fantastic album 'New Gold Dream'.

Was going to keep it a relatively simple version, then stuff just added itself on :)

Someone Somewhere In Summertime (cover)

Say you will, and I remain here
Hold your head, if desire is everywhere
Keep your peace, patiently
Tired arms, to vacant charm

How could I know if she was
Waiting Waiting
I'm almost done
Out of time
What could have been is always
Pointless Pointless
We're racing through
It's nothing new
Always Believe
Always Believe
In you.

Wanted.
Needed.
Caution.
Resist.
Seldom.
Spoken.
The lie thats always broken.
Mmmm, I should have called it.
Called it out.

Called Out .......
Crawl Down ...
Here.

Free Download

Always Believe

I was playing around with some diminished chords on guitar, which feature heavily in the first section, and then the descending guitar line jumped out of nowhere. This is an original piece, I am playing and programming all instruments. The drums took a good deal of experimentation as I was new to the electronic set in ezDrummer and they are key to the atmosphere. I love hearing feedback from others here, good and bad - I'm learning all the time. Thanks. -C.

Production notes follow.
DAW: Reaper on PC on a mid/low spec laptop ( at this time about  5 years old i5 quad core ). It’s just about keeping up.
Audio Interface: RME UC ( usb ), live desk Behringer Xenyz X2442 (usb ). I take the direct outs from the desk into the RME interface and then via USB native RME asio driver into the PC. ASIO Buffer size maxed out at 2048, latency reported as 43ms. I am told this is a bit high but I am managing ok so. New PC at some point. Recorded in 48kHz 24 bit wav.
VST Libs: Valhalla Vintage Reverb( highly recommend ), Various Waves plugins, iZotope Ozone 7 high details wide preset for mastering.

Instruments:  

Electric Guitars:
Epiphone Les Paul Classic-T, 50/50 treble and bass pickups, cleanish low gain signal, TC electronic hall of fame shim reverb. Further details on how I record guitars at the end.
ESP LTD MH-103QM: Super strat, used in bridge setting giving a bright sound in the outro section only.

Piano is ezKeys studio grand in the big hall.

Bass is an ibanez Soundgear Sr375, DI signal is post processed using a Waves CLA-76 plugin and toontrack ezmiz Seattle clean bass setting. The same track is duplicated in post processing and set -5dB in the mix, again using toontrack ezmix setting of the V line. This tip is one of many I use from the Produce like a Pro youtube channel.

Kontact Bridge VSTs:
Cinematic Strings - midi programmed inside reaper. Using the Lite ensemble setting. In general the kontact plugins kill my machine and we enter clicky click space so I generally freeze this track once the midi timings are in place.

Ezdrummer 2
Electronic Set - original mix - changed out the snare to the metal machine  7x14 John Tempesta. Pop tabula . Atari Amiga Xtra 14 – Deep Pulse

Further Production details:
I record guitars with a 4 tracks at same time approach, 
1) is a Sm57 on the amp, kept center.
2) and 3) are the stereos outs of a Radial Pro D2 DI. I am taking this stereo signal from just before the amp into hard panned left and right tracks in Reaper DAW. 
4) The last signal is a DI taken from before the guitar signal enters the pedal board , gives a very clean sound which I sometimes use lower in the guitar mix to add body. Kept in center.
I sometimes use the U2 Edge Herdim Pick technique - it’s a fun google search for those guitar players interested. Brings out the sparkle.

All's Not Lost

A short piece of music - alternating an ascending and descending note progression with a delay loop background and tremelo organ.

Neon Tide

I watched a horror thriller 'Veronica' on Netflix. It was in Spanish with subtitles. Having to read the meaning didn't help my racing imagine though.  Well crafted and scary stuff.

Anyway, I watched this film with my wife and son Evan. He referred to the 'demon' in the film as El Creatchar, especially when it did that lurking around thing in the shadows/corridors etc. Jaysus!

Well this  made us all laugh alot,  and funny enough, the next day this song jumped out - a tale of bewitchment, possession, some fantasy sprinkling of  teen angst.

Apart from a large amount of poetic license especially in the play around with the title dictionary definition, its really simple. Don't be messin around in the school attic with that Ouija board people  :) The Reaper has got enough cowbells.

[Verse]
Demonise,
Cold as stone,
A racing heart,
That won't let go.
Eyes forward,
You're all that you 
needed to be

[Verse]
Phased Out,
Ocean wide,
Your aching body is,
Next to mine.
The sky is yours,
The earth is far below.

[Chorus]
And the wire's gotten crazy, (* I'm gone *)
And the lights are getting dim, (* I'm gone *)
Just how long will it take me, (* I'm gone *)
To put on this second ... skin. (* I'm gone *)

[Verse]
Demonise,
Raging fire,
The lines that are drawn,
Won't go higher.
Eyes backward,
There's no one watching you.

[Verse]
Fly Straight,
Razor thin,
You ask the impossible,
That's where I begin.
The sky is yours,
The endless rains below.


[Chorus]
And the wire's gotten crazy, (* I'm gone *)
And the lights are getting dim, (* I'm gone *)
Just how long will it take it, (* I'm gone *)
To put on this second ... skin. (* I'm gone *)

Song Production Notes:
Iteration1 - basic verse and chorus
Iteration2 - full song structure, added space for a guitar solo , Added short organ solo.
... bit later , like 5 or 6 - This one is killing me - added a *VERY ROUGH* guitar solo, redid all the acoustics into one each side ... eh - realised that everything was too loud in the mix and so gain staged a bunch of tracks down to like -18 ... and now the mix is back as a work in progress .... meh. Never got back to the vocals verse 3/4 ... put in 1/2 as placeholders
 Iteration 7 - Put in a better solo. re balanced the vocals, doubled the backing to panned 60% left and right   ... think its getting close
Iteration 8 : Recorded vocals verse 3 and 4 ,  noticed the vocal is brighter but leaving it as is. ( mic setting was exactly the same - must have been a different approach ) .
Iteration 9 : Rebalanced the intro guitar to  sit better. Removed a long trailing cymbal at the end. Added a little bit more reverb on the main guitar solo.

We're here!!! : ------> Done for now.

Demonise

Stream

A song about revisiting the past and keeping the happiest of memories in focus.  Its a change of pace for me as recently I got a lot of faster tempo music buzzing about. Production notes follow the after lyrics. 

[Verse]
[A]A heart that's racing,
A time worth chasing [F#m]again,
[D]Say it one more time.
A memory played in,
The darkness fades in again,
Say it one more time.

[Chorus]
And the heart knows,
What the heart will, 
Where the heart goes,
I remain still.

[Verse Refrain]
A heart that's racing,
A time worth chasing again,
Say it one more time.

[Bridge/Mid8]
And there's more to the day,
When I'm still strong,
And nothing will take away,
One right from wrong.
Awww, don't you let me go now,
I've been waiting so long,
Nothing makes sense,
Where we have gone.

[Solo]

[Outro]
Say it one more time
Saying it one more time
Making it one more time
Taking it one more time
Saying it    ......

[Production Notes]
Update - re recorded vocal with mini K47, aded guitar solo , using hall of fame 2 mashup  midway, changed the ending.
Written on acoustic with a slow 3/4 time 128bpm - just enough not to let it drag I thought. Recorded through RME UC interface , Reaper is the DAW, plugins: Stock ReaEQ, Waves CLA-3A on the Classical Guitar, Soundtoys Effect Rack - spacial chorus added to the E-bow and Vocal verb bus using echoboy.
  
Vox: 
Bit of a mixture here and one thing I would probably re record all again on only the Mini K47 Condenser from Roswell Audio. In the end its half the K47 and half the guidetrack from a SE Electronic V7, main and backing.

Guitars: 
Ovation Applause, pick strummed. I actually kept one of the guide tracks, there is a slight timing issue on verse two I may get back and fix. Signal is straight off the pedal board, enhanced with TC electronic body zone - this pedal really helps get ovation brightness under control. Speaking of that brightness I counter balance it with a classical Nylon string Cordoba. 
Cordoba GK Studio Negra - this was recorded as a mix of a stereo signal off the pedal board and Behringer C2 Stereoset in front of the guitar at the same time. Both of these are panned full left and right. Keeping it warm with thumb strumming.
Electric Guitar: Ambient EBow added on a Gretsch G5422TG LE CGM, middle pickup position, into pedal board, compression TC electronic hypergravity, with TC electronic Hall of Fame 2 for reverb and KORG SDD 300 light delay, was going to use volume pedal but managed to keep the level consistent so its one take.
Bass is DI and plugins added CLA-76 from waves and ezmix2 from toontrack - bass clean setting.
Drums are EZDrummer 2 - Basic Gretsch kit - reverb plugin added to the snare is Valhalla Vintage Verb

Fin.

Say It One More Time

I love blues music, Ligntning Hopkins especially. This is a somewhat upbeat acoustic blues, focusing attention on an open G tuning ( down a semitone to F# ) - Song is getting close to final revision, some vox and lyrics match up still needed.

Lyrics

Now... I got to thinking.
'bout the mississippi mile,
Loneliest stretch of river
That you could find.  

Just out of Rosedale,
Is an old dirt track.
Sign on the road saying,
There ain't no going back.

Next to the riverbank,
Is an old oak tree.
And just a' neath it,
Dats where you'll find me.

Playin' guitar, 'n passin' my time.
This part of da riveh is what you'd call mine.

Now all you otha folks are long gone.,
Ill just sit here and write my song.
On the mississippi mile, the mississippi mile.......

Play it brother. ( short acoustic solo )    

Now this here song ain't about no  medicine jack,
Jumpin' off railroads, or falling on tracks.

It ain't about no woman from hazard tennessee,
This here song  about you and me.

I  gotta feeling, you ain't  playing me straight, 
Is that seven cards you're holding , or 
Is it eight.

This one cheating and that ones lies
Anything goes on the mississippi mile.

Ch
Now my fingers are flying wild
I'll just sit here and take my time,
On the mississippi mile, 
The missippi mile....

All right

The Mississippi Mile

Modern Celtic Rock

I recently had an opportunity to submit a traditional/indie Irish song for a movie production, the brief was a 'chase scene'. Emm, so ok - I'm not really one for the over the top overtly Oirish jigs and reels, but hey - I thought I'd give it a shot and it turned out to be alot of fun. The basis is a bodhran at 120 BPM with some open, like sus2 chords on the  acoustic - key Dm. And then ......

So we got a bodhran going on, a Balalaika ( Russian Bass ) - super acoustic sound from that. Background ovation acoustic guitar strumming a matching pattern to the bodhran.

In the middle there is a focus on a D major chord with chello movement around it before it moves back to the D minor key and the main drum set comes in.

I'm thinking about continuing the song after 1:30 with some lively uilleann pipes - that's for another day - that three string Russian bass is stuck in my head - thanks internet search :)

Celtic Run

In the bright city lights you'll find us

The title track of forthcoming album. Where we grow up can define us - or we can break the barriers, at this point in time, we all feel enclosed.

The light
That grows
When the night turns
Colder

So close
To the mist 
That breaths the air

To you
I have been
For the light 
Is between
Us
And tied
To the beat and the hum of the rain

All
The dreams that haunt you 
All 
The more I need you 

But her eyes remain wild
While the storm, it  is receeding
Desire 
Is as pale as the moon in the day

To you
I will be
For the light 
Remains between
Us
But tired
The beat of the drum has grown old

All
The dreams that haunt you 
All  
The more that I want you 
All   
The more I can dream
Dream
Out loud

At ease with the words
Again
At ease with the world
Again
At ease with the words
Again
At ease
With the last light

Mystimatica

This is a cover of the Glen Hansard - Frames song , say it to me now. Probably most famous as the opening song from the film Once.

I first saw Glen Hansard play in 1992 with an early incarnation of the Frames, in the Olympic Ballroom on Wicklow Street in Dublin. I think it was the Halloween Ball for a bunch of third level colleges, mine included. Anyhow, they were doing a setlist of music from the film 'The Commitments'. They were pretty good.

Now *cough*, fast forwards 25 years laters I saw him for just the second time in Vicar Street in Dublin and wow was that some talent. Phenomenal performance. I can't sing it anything like the man himself but I enjoy giving it a go anyway, He sings it in E standard, I am in D. The guitar is an ovation acoustic, tuned to open D. This is recorded as a single take live, I am singing and playing guitar at same time, very little post processing, just mastering levels.

Say It To Me Now (cover)

Another simple song from U2, yet masterfully full of energy and dynamics. I thought this was done on a strat, apparently not so I am playing on my epiphone classic T les paul in neck position.

Delay 250 ms left 387 ms right ( lower in the mix trick again )

U2 Exit Cover ( Playing Guitar One Take )

Well, on a sideways tangent to usual stuff, this morning - I slept in and had a whopper of a nightmare - like the one in seven years type of thing.  It stayed with me throughout the day, and the details is for another time, however - it inspired  this!

Kill Show

( Still working on this arrangement - bladerunner synth, yamaha cs-80 - pushed up at 1:07 )

High high
Get inside
 
I'm going to throw a little
light down there and
make you mine
 
But you been talking about
An Ocean full
Of blackened dreams
 
I'm going to wait a while
For January
 
 
She says:
  Wait Wait Ready Ready
  Wait Wait Ready Ready
 
 
Miles and miles and miles in the wind
And we're frozen in time
But time is still
 
 
Rain Rain
A Winter stain
 
Lookout
The fallout boy
Is on his way
 
Saving
Fallen skies
And making blue
 
When you tell me lies
I'll make them true
 
She says:
  Wait Wait Ready Ready
  Wait Wait Ready Ready

January

I never learnt this one fully, just dabbled , but its a tricky one to be honest.
Anyway this is an early take at learning it - I'll be back with another, more refined go !! 

Notes:  - I find the e-bow is really hard to get a nice level , without sounding loud or harsh - probably will need a volume pedal to ride it live, could be the pickup , yeah,  I am on the neck pup - quack position might be better. Recording using esp ltd super strat should be in bridge PUP , but only use that at the last outro.

This one got post processing treatment as the levels all over the place.

U2 With or without you  Cover ( Playing Guitar One Take )

Back making music! - got some good ones in the pipe

Just After Sunset

Musician and home recording enthusiast from Dublin, Ireland. Music here is mainly all original work.

Formative influences have ranged from The Doors,  U2 and Simple Minds, the Pixies, the Waterboys, R.E.M. to Thin Lizzy and back further to Hendrix, Jimmy Page and early blues artists like Lightning Hopkins. Most recently I have been listening to Elbow and Johnny Marr.  

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the music.

Colm Roy

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