First of all, I dropped a song.
I feel like we're actually nearing the homestretch. Let's talk about progress. I downloaded the Melodyne trial again to fix like two vocal things in Bagworm and realized, oh, if I'm getting to the point where I'm tweaking tuning on vocals rather than rerecording them, I think it's almost time to drop an album. And THEN I realized that I can tweak the tuning on the broken accordion, and it was like, well, maybe it's time to stop re-recording so much already. So Bagworm is out now, but probably I'll work on the mix a little more before everything drops.
Let's do this track by track.
I recorded vocals!! They're pretty tight. I did it in the same session as some other vocals, which I did through the cheap old narrow condenser I talked about using on Countdown, but I'm probably going to keep them. It's easy to smother vocals through that mic with effects, and the song is a little psychedelic (read: delay). I need to keep working on the effects, and I need to redo some of the toy piano. Might need like a synth pad or accordion to just fill out the sound a little more. Oh, still need to pull a timpani sample from Delano, and do a couple electric guitars.
I think the last time I touched this I was adding a little countermelody to the ending. I don't think there's much more for me to do to this one!
I.... want to say this one is done too. Last time I touched this, I added a little sound to the second verse, like a digital artifact of a bowed bass. It isn't quite the sound I wanted but it's close. Can't remember what I talked about the last time I talked about these things.
This one I have released but I feel like I'm constantly messing with the balance. There are so many keyboards in this song, and I don't know if any of them are good enough. The other day I was playing an organ patch over it and it sounded good, but I don't know if I will add that.
yep
Finally integrated the trombone I recorded with Luke this January! Been working on how the strings sit in the mix. Will need to do the same for vocals - this is a tough one for vocals because there's so much happening in the song. The guitar solo sounds good now!
Oh. Forgot about this one. I don't think I have made significant progress on it since we last spoke. Probably need to focus on that banjo.
I did a low-octave harmony yesterday, and it helps the last chorus pop; I also switched to a less whispery vocal take for the choruses. I.... kind of want to redo the glockenspiel so I can mic it differently but the glockenspiel plays an ostinato the whole way through and I do NOT want to have to play that again.
Haven't been thinking about it much. Yesterday I opened it up to see if there were any vocals I had to record and I was pleased to find there were not. Probably lots of mixing to be done.
Haven't touched this since I put it on Soundcloud in the summer, I think of the three songs I have "unveiled" this is the only one that is truly over the finish line. Happy with this one
Redid the guitar solo - I put a winter glove on my left hand because the string noise was SO bad. April said yes to doing vocals, I need to send it to her again.
I feel like every time I work on this I take a huge step forward, and yet it's never much closer to completion. I might add accordion to the bridge and instrumental portions to thicken the track up. There's a part in the electric piano that I am not super happy with but I might be stuck with it unless I redo it entirely - we recorded the bed without a click. I did lead vocals for this and it's sounding good! I think they'll wind up with some crushing distortion and phasery effects, but I know so little about phasers
Countdown feels like it's in a good place. I had the keyboard plugged in a couple days ago and wound up adding some clavinet, and like doubling the live trombone line with a trumpet patch, but it's pretty buried, it's kind of just for peace of mind for me. I tried live sax instead a couple weeks ago but the timbre was wrong. Oh, and at some point I think I accidentally like turned a garbage track back on, or accidentally turned a live track way up? Something happened with the electric guitars. Will be good to revisit with fresh ears.
don't know
oh wait does this song have a different title now?? Anyway it's basically done
also good
And then there's really only one song that I could reasonably slate as a bonus track, Mr. Trapezoid, but I wanted Chris to sing on it and, well, that's not happening any time soon. I would want to rewrite many of the lyrics anyway. But the track is pretty close to completion, got Luke playing trombone on it (again, instead of the trumpet I wrote for it like 11 goddamn years ago), Chris and I recorded drums and guitar live in like 2016, did piano at a later date, bass and fake mellotrons from home. Would be nice to get out, but it's so low priority right now. I'd say maybe it could be a cute standalone single after the album releases but, um, this song probably can't stand on its own. It sort of takes refuge in absurd repetition. Also in 2008 instead of an ending it just went into Karma Police, but there's an ending now.
I say this every time but I think that if I rallied I could get these tracks finished in a month and have the album out by the holidays if I wanted. I still want to do homemade manufacturing, personally I would prefer to not have to get the label involved in anything because I know it would take longer but their support is important to me. I should probably open a serious dialog up with them about this stuff soon. Oh, and I owe Austin some upright bass.