For my final submission on Project 1B I actually went a bit ahead and did some mixing, added a compressor and chorus effect to help pull some things forward in the mix, and tweaked a slight automation lane for a fadeout near the end.

I also spent a bunch of time fixing the off-time drums in the fills; I didn't want to go too overboard doing this cause I liked the fact that the MIDI notes were what I actually played live, but once you start editing it's pretty amazing how you can add nifty fills and things after the fact!

I'm pretty happy with where this is coming to, and I'm excited to explore further with maybe even a C section or a repeat of B with a breakdown. I could also see this just being the length of the song and focusing on FX, Ear Candy, mixing/mastering in the next assignments. :)

Learn Monthly - Synthwave meets Rush™

Spent the better part of the morning reworking a couple options for C and D bridgey type parts into the mix. 

Things I like:
- expands the song and adds a downtempo spot in the middle to build from
- got to add some basic guitar riff stuff in, interested to see where this goes

Things I'm not sure on:
- is the D section too much variation or does it fit?

Things I'm thinking about for the future:
- lots of room to fill layers into the C and D sections, I have ideas for FX, risers, some space lasery type things to fit with the 80s vibe :)

Learn Monthly - Now with more 80's guitar? Synthwave meets Rush™

Well, I ended up recording way more guitar parts than I thought I was going to, and they aren’t 100% tight and perfect, but they are “good enough” that I’m ok to move on to mixing/mastering. 

Took a bunch of peer feedback and kept the guitar parts in for the remainder of the song once they entered, tightened up the ending to a spot I’m happier with and did a rough pass at some stereo panning to widen the mix a bit.

This is way more effort than I’ve ever put into a track, so I’m stoked with how it’s turning out! Excited to dig into the mixing/mastering lesson and try to put the final polish on tomorrow :D

Learn Monthly - Synthwave Meets Rush (pre mixing/mastering)

Well, here's my final mixed/mastered version! I've titled the track "Rushing In". It's not perfect, but I learned a lot in the process and pushed myself to get to a completed track. I think all told I put 40 hours into this!

I followed Andrew Huangs mixing/mastering tips, but didn't have those fancy UAD plugins, so I settled for some stock things in Ableton. On the master channel I used an EQ Eight to cut all frequencies below 20hz, and a Mastering - Gentle Limiter.

I also spent a bit of time going back to clean up a few errant in-track volume automations and replaced with utility plugins as suggested. This really helped when being able to fine tune once I'd got the mix to a good place :D

Rushing In

Track #2 for my learnmonthly class w/ Andrew Huang. This departed significantly from my original idea but I'm pretty happy with how it came out! Lots of samples for the percussion / rhythm from my kitchen, Piano was a few Addictive Keys patches and the rest were stock Ableton instruments (brass, bass).

The Soggy Sunday Swing

Finished up with song structure, lyrics, and chords. Might have a few things to polish in production but I'm ok with where this is. This single take recording is pretty raw, but it was good to practice and nail certain parts. I'm stoked to start on the production for this!

Watchable on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9BcBWd_row

Pursuit (Pre-Production)

The final track for my #learnmonthly course w/ Andrew Huang. It's not perfect, but I'm happy to have finished all 3 tracks for the course. I kept it simple for this one, vox, lyrics, bass, drums, guitar and piano were all recorded live :)

Vocals are the only thing I'm not happy with, I had to add 4bpm to pick up the tempo and the only vocal take I was ok with I ended up warping in Ableton which added some audio artifacts.

Pursuit

Foo Fighters is one of my all time favourite bands, so I wanted to do a cover for the upcoming SurveyMonkey virtual concert :D

Wheels - (Foo Fighters Cover)

A remix of my track "Soggy Sunday Swing". I wanted to experiment with resampling and chopping from a previous track, and then try my hand at a bit of one-take live recording with the TR-8S + MC-707

The Soggy Sunday Sample

A piano-cover of the Green Day hit "When September Ends", with lyrics rewritten to "When Pandemic Ends": 

Green Day 
When Pandemic ends

Summer has come at last
The government says wear a mask
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

Tired of social distancing
Seven weeks has not gone fast
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

Here comes the pain again
Missing all we are
All this isolation and
Feeling oh so far

As my memory frets
I can’t remember what it’s like
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

[Instrumental]

Summer has come at last
But now I have to wear this mask
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

Bring back the friends again
Like we did in 2019
Wake me up when Pandemic ends 

Here comes the pain again
Missing all we are
All this isolation and
Feeling oh so far

As my memory frets
I start to forget what I lost
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

[Solo]

Summer has come at last
And I don’t want to wear this mask
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

Tired of social distancing
Twenty weeks has not gone fast
Wake me up when Pandemic ends
Wake me up when Pandemic ends
Wake me up when Pandemic ends

David Mosher