Is everything alright?

Yep, everything’s fine. Just been busy with life that’s all.

I spent a few days in Brussels on business at the start of the month and it took me a few days to get over that (getting old…). The house move is starting to crystallise – all parties have agreed that we should be able to move within the first two weeks in August – this year – so that’s good.

I suppose I should start packing and stuff now, but there are scheduling issues.

Anyway, the project has taken a back seat for the last few weeks, but I hope to do some stuff over the next few days…

…but don’t hold me to that, right…?;-)

Regards,

djp

Stop-Go Guy – 230609

Sponsored by the letter G.

Did audio clean-up in Cool Edit Pro on the bass parts recorded last night. Edited the parts in CE4 and things are sounding a lot better now than I thought today. There seems to be a tuning issue between the bass and the mellotron VST plugin so I may have some “choices” to make. I also need to experiment with the EQ on the bass.

Altogether, things aren’t sounding too shabby.

Off to Dublin tomorrow for a bit of a skite with Peter Fitzpatrick who has been known to drop in around these parts. Should be a bit crack…:-)

Regards,

djp

Stop-Go Guy – 220609

Sponsored by the letter F.

Finding myself, totally unexpectedly, with an empty house for the night, I decided to record some bass parts using the 4003 FG. However, when I was setting up the gear for the session, I discovered that the earth pin on the plug for the power supply for the Pod had broken off. Never seen that happen before. I toyed with using a different power supply, but I was afraid I might blow up the damn Pod, so I decided to DI the bass into the Tascam. Not sure if I’m mad about the results – a rather muddy bass sound, but hopefully it’ll all EQ out. A bit frustrating really.

Adding to the frustration was the fact that I couldn’t actually play the bass parts which I’d practised on the Aria electro-acoustic bass. Unfortunately, I’d never practised them to a metronome and I found that the tempo I’d selected for the track (98 bpm) was just a tad slow for me. I suppose I could’ve sped up the tempo a bit, but I don’t want the track to be too fast either. I ended up severely changing the bassline from what I’d intended originally – far more simple – and it still took me over two hours to nail the parts. I’m obviously out of practice and I’m not even sure if I really like the new bassline.

We’ll let things stew for a while, eh?

Regards,

djp

Oh Mammy Look – 210609

Sponsored by the letter E.

Edited all the MIDI drum parts in CE4 and Cubase VST 3.7. Substituted the Kore Player ride sound for the Stereo GM sound from HALion One.

Apart from the feedback soug around I reported earlier, the other real problem with the Kore Player is that it goes apeshit when you randomise the velocities. It seems to be far more sensitive to changes in velocity than other MIDI sounds I’ve used. I’m sure there’s a workaround for this, but I don’t really have the time to spend farting around with it…:-)

Regards,

djp

Lufthansa Terminal – 200609

Sponsored by the letter D.

Changed out the ride MIDI parts in CE4. I am now using the Stereo GM ride sounds from HALion One as against the Kore Player. Made one or two other little drum part edits. Nothing major.

The guitar parts definitely need a bit of thinning out, particularly towards the end, but that’s a job for another day…

Regards,

djp

Lufthansa Terminal – 180609

Sponsored by the letter B.

Finished off editing the MIDI drum parts in CE4 and Cubase VST 3.7. Still not sure about some of the Kore Player parts, but I’ll leave that for another day.

I may need to think about re-editing the Ebow guitar parts at some stage. Leave it with me…

Regards,

djp

Lufthansa Terminal – 170609

Sponsored by the letter A.

Started editing the MIDI drum parts in CE4.

Having some doubts about the ride sounds in Kore Player. There’s a sort of feedback effect which I’m not too fond of. It may be due to some internal reverb setting in Kore Player, or it might just EQ out…

…or I might just replace the part with something from HALion One.

Oh, the joys of producing…:-)

More editing tomorrow.

Regards,

djp

Oh Mammy Look – 160609

Sponsored by the letter A.

Finished off the MIDI Rhode parts in CE4. Took me over 30 mins to program the middle 8. There seems to have been some sort of disagreement between the laptop, the Phonic Firefly and CE4. Between notes hanging and notes not playing, I was not best pleased with much of the afternoon. The DX100 got a few thumps and it probably wasn’t the poor thing’s fault at all…

The situation continued when I tried programming various drum parts with the Kore Player. I suspect it might be rather “needy” computerwise.

Any road up, I have the basic shape of the song and a reasonably decent set of drum parts for editing. Plenty more work to do!

Regards,

djp

Lufthansa Terminal/Sentimental Hospital/Oh Mammy Look – 150609

Sponsored by the letter B.

LUFTHANSA TERMINAL

• as promised a while back, I programmed MIDI drum parts in CE4 to replace the Loopology drum loops
• yesterday, I downloaded a free (and legal) version of Native Instruments Kore Player. Some really decent snare, hi-hat, crash and tom sounds – I used some of them on this session
• a lot of editing to do, but I am satisfied that the MIDI parts will work better than the original loops
• I can see myself replacing a lot of the MIDI parts for other tracks with the Kore Player sounds. The hi-hats on HALion One are rather weak and definitely need to be replaced. Before today I was going to have to record audio hi-hats off my Roland Juno-D or other synths, but now I can happily use Kore Player and keep all the drum parts within the MIDI realm, which gives me greater flexibility right up to the mixing stage. Go me!

SENTIMENTAL HOSPITAL

• a new track. Last week, I came up with an interesting bass guitar line using my Aria electro-acoustic which I thought I’d remember forever, but it seems I’ve forgotten it already…:-). All I can recall was that the tempo was either 3/4 or a very slow 6/4. I’m sure I’ll eventually come up with a new line every bit as good as the one I’ve forgotten
• I programmed a chessy MIDI rhythm track using a “hip-hop” kit in HALion One. Not much editing required (if any…)
• there’s a bizarrely African feel about the rhythm track – in a quantized sort of way

OH MAMMY LOOK

• had a bit of spare time so I started programming a MIDI Rhodes part. Didn’t get very far with it, but there’s enough there to be going on with for the time being

Busy day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit more relaxed…

Regards,

djp

I’ll Visit You In Prison – 120609

Sponsored by the letter E.

Thanks to the iPod Shuffle, I can now bring you this…

I’LL VISIT YOU IN PRISON

You messed it up – a big mistake

Your life is crumbling like madeira cake

The laws you just could not obey

Require the system to put you away

You’re standing still there in the dock

All eyes upon you as the judge takes stock

The sentence passed – the gavel bangs

The chains clank while the big door clangs

You turn and look around you

As prison guards surround you

Your face a plea for pity

While I provide sympathy

 

I’ll visit you in prison baby

Although it’s very far away

I’ll visit you in prison baby

I’ll try and visit every day

You know you can rely upon me

You know I always will be there

I’ll visit you in prison baby

Guilty or innocent now I don’t care

 

You’re eating in – you’re slopping out

The tabloid papers have the third page torn out

And in the cell you share with lags

Who’ll beat you up if you don’t give them your fags

They’ll try to give you some tattoos

They’ll shiv you painfully if you refuse

Don’t bend to pick the bar of soap

Just keep your head down and hold on to hope

You’ll go in meek and nervous

Just like an L-plate driver

You’ll toughen up in no time

Become the great survivor

 

And come the time when you’re set free

I’ll pick you up and bring you home with me

You’ll leave behind your prison clothes

We’ll write the book and you can do the shows

You’ll tell the world your sorry tale

Advise the kiddies not to go to jail

Then you’ll achieve celebrity

Get rich and famous and abandon me

But you’ll forget what you’ve learned

Go and commit some new crime

I’ll tell the cops about it

Just like I did the last time

(c) 2009 Daniel Prendiville

And that, folks, means that I have written lyrics for all the songs that I’ve demoed fully to date and which are meant to have full sets of lyrics. Next week I will be mostly programming MIDI parts…

Regards,

djp