Song a Week

Song a Week - 10 - 3:17:18, 12.02 PM

This one started out with really quiet verses and really heavy choruses. That was the whole idea for the song. Great big honkin’ chewy dynamics changes. In fact, the working title was actually “Dynamics”.

Then, while recording vocals, I thought to myself, know what self? This song sucks, and the thing that makes it suck is the dynamic changes. So it became a late drop from the 2018 RPM album. When I decided to finish up all the leftovers post-February and RPM the first thing I decided to do was re-record the heavy guitars under the choruses. Instead of tons of overdrive, I just cranked the gain on a boost pedal so that it would be a little heavier than the verses, but not quite. Also, all of the rhythm guitars were originally Les Paul through a Vox MV50. When I changed them they were my Stratocaster through the MV50. The leads are also Strat, but through the Bassbreaker, direct out.

Now that it’s done, I kinda like it… but I also kinda want to do a mix with the original heavy guitars. I guess I just can’t make up my mind.

It's Always Outtakes in Connecticut

Feels Like Home

Feels Like Home (Alternate Mix)

Another RPM2018 left over. This was supposed to be the quiet little album closer. It was going to have tons of reverb and delay going on all over the place. Too bad the song pretty much sucked. I dropped it about 3 seconds after I finished recording the vocal.

Lead guitar is start through a Bassbreaker (direct out) and rhythm is a Les Paul through an MV50 (direct out)

Soupy Ending

Written for Reddit’s Song a Week subreddit for 2018 week 11.

I don’t particularly care for this, but it was the first attempt I made that was actually finished by the Wednesday night deadline.

Rhythm guitars are my strat through my 15 watt Fender Bassbreaker and my Vox MV50 in stereo because it’s soooo cool to play through two amps in stereo. The lead is my Les Paul through the Bassbreaker.

Patience (Week 11)

My first crack at Reddit’s Song a Week challenge. I didn’t finish on time.

The prompt for 2018 week 9 was two minutes. The idea was to have the run time be less than two minutes. Mine was, except for the cymbal decay on the last note which stretched out a few seconds and put me over. Oh well, it was already overdue by that point anyway.

Recording wise, this song was an experiment with recording multiple signals at once without resorting to stereo tracks. Once I found where GarageBand hid the record ready buttons it was a snap.

The guitar parts are all ES-335 through a Fender Bassbreaker and a Vox MV50 at the same time. Two amps in stereo is pretty much audio bliss.

Time Flies (Week 9)

This came together in record time, but I feel like I could write 10000 pages on where it came from.

First off, it’s for the Reddit Song a Week. Week 12, Harmony. It qualifies as most of the vocals are in two part harmony. It’s also done on time, with three days to spare. How do you like that??

Next, the chorus. I listen to a lot of podcasts. Lately I’ve been enjoying a discussion of one of my favorite bands, R.E.M. The podcast is called R U Talking R.E.M re: Me. While discussing the band’s third record the two hosts (at least one of whom is pretty famous) were complaining about how long it takes the songs to get to the chorus. The complaints had more to do with the fact that they can’t play the whole song without having to pay a license fee, so they wanted the songs to reach the chorus before they had to stop playing it. It made me think of my own song forms. Lately I have been in the state of mind where I want to get two verses and a little break or two in before I get to the chorus. After listening to the podcast I thought maybe I should cut some of that down and just get there. The result is this little tune, which only has one verse and the break is only one bar. Future podcasts might thank me.

The third thing has to do with guitar setups. Specifically, overdrive and boost pedals. I’ve only recently stared getting really into pedals and ideas on cool ways to use them. One thing that a lot of players do that never even crossed my mind is to use an overdrive for something other than distorting your sound. Instead, if you have a good tube amp, you can use the overdrive to help the amp distort itself. I’ve read of tons of guitarists who turn the gain on their drive pedals all the way down, but turn the level all the way up. I used a duel overdrive pedal on this song. For the rhythm guitar parts I used my Stratocaster into the low gain, or boost, side of the OD pedal, setup as noted, into both of my cab simulating amps, a Vox MV50 Clean, and a 15 watt Fender Bassbreaker. Both amps were direct out into my audio interface, and then into GarageBand. For the lead parts, I used the same setup with the addition of the overdrive side of the duel pedal, also setup in the same manner as written above.

Does it sound good? Eh. I need some real actual air moving around for it to sound as good as it can.

Finally, one little note on the vocals. There are three sections. The first two have two part harmony. The third does not. The reason for this is that I had a little window of time where I had the house to myself today. I spent that time recording vocals. Just after I finished the first track for the last section, my wife came home. That settled it. No harmony on that part for me.

If You Asked Me Why (Week 12)

Technically this counts as an RPM2018 leftover, but only barely. It started life as one of three riffs that I recorded using the Music Memos app on my iPhone. When March 1st arrived that was all there was. Maybe two measures. But I figured that was enough and I wrote out the rest of it and now it’s done.

One of the things I wanted to do in February was use the new Electro Harmonix Op Amp Big Muff Pi reissue. For those who don’t know, that’s a copy of a fuzz pedal that was used to tremendous effect on the second Smashing Pumpkins record. I wanted to have one song (at least) that layered tons and tons of fuzzy op ampy goodness so I ordered the pedal near the end of January. It went on back order and wasn’t delivered until February 28th. Damn it!

I decided that this would be the op ampy goodness song and I used the shit out of it. The rhythm guitars were ES-335 recorded in stereo with one side being the direct out of a Fender Bassbreaker and the other the direct out of a Vox MV50. I then recorded the rhythm guitars four times. That’s four stereo tracks for a total of eight separate tracks of the same magical Big Muffy happiness. Of course it sounded like utter garbage so when it came time to mix I deleted two of the stereo tracks, and buried a second one so that you can only just barely hear it if you know what to listen for. Oh well… it is a left over after all. For the record, the lead guitar is a Les Paul through the Vox amp using a different Big Muff pedal. This one used a Way Huge Russian Pickle, and it’s the first time I ever recorded with that pedal. So there are Big Muff firsts all over this little “gem.”

Mid Terms

Reddit’s Song a Week, week 13. The prompt? Syncopation. I think this counts. The rhythm under the solo is syncopated enough to have thrown me off every take. I kept losing the 1.

Another song with utterly meaningless lyrics. Even more so than usual.

Rhythm guitar is strat through bassbreak and MV50, both direct.

Blood from Stone (Week 13)

This is an RPM2018 outtake and boy is the album better off without it. The word that kept coming to mind while “mixing” this was turd.

Rhythm guitars are ES335 to both the Fender Bassbreaker and Vox MV50 direct outs. The lead is the Strat through the MV50.

RPM Rob 2018