Thursday, June 26th, 2008
The Only One
Here’s the “single” from the EP and CD - a nice little pop song with lyrics which seem innocuous but read into them a little…
All the tracks posted here are really just initial mixes - starting points if you will for the real concentrated mixdowns to come. Also, especially in this song’s case, vocals are 1st or 2nd takes - started off life as guide vocal tracks but seemed to work or at least until the real mixdowns start to happen. Levels are a bit wonky still with some instruments a bit high and others low…
BUT the quality of our little home recordings is very high - so enjoy and get ready for the last track preview (Mesmerize) coming likely Friday…
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Another fine song preview from the EP - coming a week from today!!!
Drawing the Short Straw
So we’re into the last week of this version of the website - this weekend the site will morph into the Paraesthesia website. From there all news related to the “Between the Lines” EP, “a fine line between…” CD and other future projects will be there - video blogs, preview material, song videos, gigs, etc…
I’ll likely be posting one more entry to this blog - the preview of Mesmerize sometime Wednesday or Thursday. Enjoy the tunes, I’ll also do a round up post that will have previews of all the tracks from the EP by end of week.
Friday, June 20th, 2008
I got some time later this evening in the music room/studio after going out with my son early on after work. This week has been hectic with Kindergarten Graduation, some work related items that extended to after work later night and early morning hours, and simply just trying to calm my own nerves as we’re getting close to the delivery date for the EP and we’re still needing to settle some things up.
Tonight I got into the studio, pulled up the FM cover song project Phasors on Stun and re-tracked the mandolin in a few key sections to the point where I’m really pleased with that result. I then revisited the vocals - retracking and then processing them to get them to where I thought they were really sounding good. Last of the track tweaks - the little keyboard solo arpeggios were a bit too densely layered and I thought a bit mushy. I tossed a couple of the layers, then brought up a bit more of the grand piano to give a stronger attack. Finally, mixing time and I put some long delay on vocals but its really subtle, along with a touch more reverb. The whole mix was adjusted as it was very very keyboard heavy once the vocal comes in, so I tapped that down a notch or two, set up the automation and finally ran the export process (export to mp3). The results can be heard in the link on the previous post down below.
Next up on the remix odyssey (since I was pretty happy with how things turned out and feeling like my ears were doing well) was Mirror Mirror. Vocals seemed a bit dry to my ears, so after some processing with the Antares (just to take out some of the waver due to lack of ego) and then mixing in a 3/4 time delay and nice hall reverb on vox, guitars, and some keyboards (there’s a bit of mush in the 2nd chorus, but I’ll just need to automate the send bus to boost a half bar before the drop to get the echo carrying over into the acoustic guitar) I got the effect I was looking for. I also spent a lot of time adjusting dynamics on the programmed drums - you can do a lot to make drums sound more realistic by either pushing (moving the hits forward) or pocketing them (moving them slightly back against the quarter note). It can be tedious work, but for the most part Cubase has some really neat functional editing tools that will do that for you and insert variances as well. Velocities also need to vary, as no drummer spends the whole song (or the whole night) hitting the skins with exactly the same full on 127 value intensity. After making adjustment and running some of the canned functions the drums are now sounding better overall. Mixing down and reproportioning the vocal balance to the rest of the band - I think I’m pretty close to a very solid mix now. Again - results can be heard a few posts down…
Two songs in a bit more than 3 hours - not too bad. Tomorrow night I hope to get to Mesmerize, In the Shadows, The Only One and Drawing the Short Straw. The following needs to be done for each:
- Mesmerize - vocals (yes there are vocals to go in there), redo guitar parts with the EBow on the Godin into the GR-33 guitar synth. Bass and Keyboards I need both Mark and Paul to do… the existing MIDI tracks doing the arpeggios will stay. Get the drums to pop out of the mix…
- In the Shadows - vocals (especially before the keyboard break), reamping the electric guitars, a tiny bit of compression on Nick’s drums (I think), and a really decent mix with all I’ve learned recently.
- The Only One - need to review/revise lyrics, record lead vocals and harmonies, reamp guitars, and then process and mix. As with most of the mixes I do, they will likely be starting points and saved in the projects as I would like Mark to mix the songs (maybe with Paul if he’d like) and then we march everything to Jay Coover for mastering.
- Drawing the Short Straw - this one has quite a lot still left to do, with vocals needing to be retracked and maybe harmonies too, guitars top to bottom retracked and reamped. Paul needs to do his keyboard parts (Sunday) particularly the electric pianos and the Rick Wakeman “Heart of the Sunrise” grand piano break. It’s going to be rather crucial to get everything to hit perfectly on the 1 for the entire song, as this one is probably both the grooviest in a Pink Floyd type of way, and also the moodiest as the arrangements so far are the leanest of any song on both this EP and the full CD. This ironically is also the song that doesn’t have a traditional guitar solo - it’s at the beginning of the song as an EBow mood generator. It needs to be as organic sounding as possible as well to fit with the lyrics - the last piece on the CD which is the moment of realization and ultimate shock for the protagonist.
Saturday holds more fun for me as I will be pulling out the instrumentals First Piece in the Puzzle and Atonement. A full sanity check review of both songs as I try to gauge what might be missing or where they might be overdone or overlong - getting instrumentals nice and tight is absolutely imperative as ideally you the listener should be left wanting to hear sections go longer rather than getting tired of over repetition. I also have a couple of ideas I *really* want to use in the right context, so identifying where they should go is key and as such very difficult. I also really need to get a handle on the “Story to Now” project - lyrically it’s been a bitch to write for as the song is a tad too cheery for my writing style. It’s a really neat song, fun to play, excellent ideas and bits for each instrument, and reminds me of so many cool 60’s and 70’s bands’ material its not funny. With all the truly psychedelic and depressing stuff on the full CD project, the song is sorely needed to break that up a bit.
Which leads me to Temple of Lost Souls.
This one is truly an anomaly for me - some really nice flat picking riffs, a 3/4 swaying feel, space for really beautiful orchetration, potential for real power in sections. Lyrics for the 6/4 section work exceptionally well, but then we get into the 10/8 and I just dont know what to do about them. I also dont know thematically if they’re really going where they should go… I kinda envision this piece being a bit reminiscent of Thick as a Brick with the themes repeating but being modified just enough to not be completely recognizable. We also would like to bring in more modern electronica elements into this as in working with Paul earlier this spring we got it to a point where it was feeling good - but then when I return to some of those ideas I think I can almost hear how we could apply them better. Where I think the big win with us experimenting with these genres and styles will happen is more likely on some subsequent work - the next CD release. I really like the idea of doing progressive electronica, progressive dance, etc… bringing disparate elements together into a new thing. I am still committed to getting this piece completed but it’s something that needs more thought I believe…
I’m trying to remember what the 10th track is - I’ve talked about 9 of them so far, but it’s slipping my mind right now.
AAAAAHHHH yes…. Adagio!!
That will be a Saturday touch I believe. Vocals need to be retracked. Guitars reamped and we’re really waiting for a bass part from Mark (not fair of me to say it that way though). Processing and mixing - I think I can actually get a finished version of this done with some adjustment of the drum programming. I might have to pull out Voyage of the Acolyte by Steve Hackett to just remind myself of what he did for the piece on there that had this same dynamic shifts - the high drama with the mellotron strings just blasting out and flattening you against your seat. It’s really tough having a good memory for music since when writing I would try to shy away from certain progressions or “cliches” so to speak since they would be instantly recognizable by someone like me. In my version of Lady in a Cage though I tried to embrace the cliches though - sticking in little tongue in cheek references here and there, and both Heinz and Brian both did their fair share as well. I was only called to task on one which was a bit too close a quote to the original source for comfort I guess. In Adagio though, I think the only cliche that can be called out is in the arrangement since the progression is not even close to Hackett’s piece (Mark said it reminded him of Foreigner though…) and I do owe a lot to Steve Hackett, guitar stylistically.
Go check out the two songs that I did get to tonight. I’ll be getting to work porting the new web site to this domain over the weekend, which will allow the songs to be posted on a hosted player in an iFrame in the right sidebar, and that player will also allow you to purchase the mp3s as downloads as well as stream them for preview. The work I’ll be doing over the next week and a half (prior to June 30th) will be posted only as 45 sec samples - I dont want to ruin the EP preview broadcast that will happen on June 29th streamed over the new site. Details on that will be posted next week on the new site, so enjoy the tunes that are up as they will be gone shortly.
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Phasors On Stun - FM
Updated: vocals recorded, a little work on those remain. Keyboard solos programmed, might need to touch up mandolin at the start of the track…
A few weeks ago I was surfing around on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube - and I ran into a couple fairly familiar names. Nash the Slash is an avant garde progressive rock artist who’s been doing really excellent albeit odd stuff since the mid 70’s - and I have two degrees of separation with Nash as we’re both from the same home town of London, Ontario, Canada. He played with the progressive fusion group FM back in the mid 70’s and you can find all sorts of cool videos on YouTube from various times in the band and his own solo careers. I also had one degree of separation with Cameron Hawkins (keyboardist from FM) with another friend who was fairly close and kept touch with him (myself) until 1994.
The song above represents one of the all time great progressive rock songs of all time. It was keyboards, mandolin, bass pedals and drums originally - and as for keyboards it was really sparse as well with only an Elka organ, Sequential Circuits monosynth, and a Solina String Ensemble - all processed like crazy. Mandolins were processed with delays and distortion giving this shredding sound that was just incredible. AND it was a really radio friendly 3:30 seconds in length!
For me it represents the awakening of possibility - I had inherited my older cousin’s record collection of Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Yes, Deep Purple, etc… and this was one of the first albums I bought myself with my paper route money. For me a mind blowing experience - jazz fusion, rock and all with a great sense of melody and technicality. Rush were also in that group of albums bought, and along with Saga were totally influential for me.
Anyways, I hit Nash’s site, remember this album, order the CD and then decide I need to do a version for myself complete with mandolins. Above is the early result - no vocal yet, but enjoy as it will be on the new EP coming at end of month.
If it hasnt been said a million times already - order the damn EP!!!
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
I’d heard a rumor about something that was going to knock me on my ass…
Then I see this link on Craigslist…
The Moog Guitar video
Moog Guitar info
All I can say is… you’ve got to be f*king kidding me! I’ll be reading and drooling over this since I wont be able to afford one for a very long time - I can only hope they’ll license the technology someday and I might be able to build one…
Damn, being a normal everyday joe musician sucks…
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Here are two of the tunes that I’ve been promising for quite a while:
Atonement
Mirror Mirror
I *really* like Atonement - it needs some minor things, and I keep thinking of throwing some changes a la Frank Zappa or Naked City just to really f*ck things up, but it’s pretty decent right now. It has that total King Crimson vibe right from the get go - I’ll acknowledge my gross influence by that band. It also has a slight reference to Opeth there with the chord progression supporting the melodic line around the 4 minute mark - I need to give a nod to those guys since their “Deliverance” CD got me back into ultra heavy music again. I also really have to say that the 3/4 switch at the end with the cleaner processed guitar is totally “She’s So Heavy” from Abbey Road - ironic that one of the most ominous and heaviest guitar riffs ever in rock music comes from the band who wrote “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”…
*UPDATE* - Paul and I got to work on this a bit and we added quite a lot of keyboard mods to this piece, with changes to the Nord B3 part in the latter half and more drama there, as well as some really nice choirs doing a pretty sick demented waltz melody. I’m going to do some mods to the e-bow guitar orchestra lines at the beginning and end of the piece to actually use this melody as a foreshadowing thing (at the intro) and the fade out at the end. I still think it deserves a tweak or two in spots, but it’s totally come together much more for me now especially the last half.
Simply because I tend to like to think out loud on here, I will say that some of the things in there leave me slightly dissatisfied - I’m going to really try to fix that feeling as I totally think this could be one of *THE* bad ass instrumentals… the Crimson funk (so to speak) just rocks my world right now, and all it needs is *THE BAD ASS BASS LINE* to turn it into a monster track.
“Mirror Mirror” is the surprise last minute addition - written and originally recorded about 8 years ago as an elaborate demo, I think now is the time to make it into prime time. A real drummer will totally take this to the next level - the demo here is one I’ve redone to get the project prepared for the drummer, but it’s also a solid demo for you to hear. It’ll be on the EP coming out in a few weeks, and then probably make it onto the final CD, I think it’s another one of the killer tracks that might supplant another at least in the track order… we’ll see.
So check them 96 kbps streamed audio files out, and imagine you having the CD in your hands or in your player and hearing them in their full stereo 44.1 kHz 16 bit glory. The guitars sound frigging huge here in the studio on the monitors - they’ll really kick ass at home on your system.
*UPDATED AS WELL* - We got to lay the keyboard tracks for “The Only One” today as well. Mark participated in this set of sessions as he brought his bad ass camera, took pictures and then picked up the Spector bass I have lying around and put down a raw bass track for me to go and redo guitars to. I still have vocals to track as well as the guitars, but this song will definitely be one of the easier ones to finish up of all of them. Watch later this week for the low res preview…
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Yes, another sample from the EP - this time a song that hasn’t necessarily been mentioned as one that was to be included, but will supercede one which was.
Aqualung
This is still waiting Mark’s and Paul’s tracks - but the guitars and vocals feel pretty good on this. This one will likely replace “The Necromancer” on the EP, as I just never seemed to be able to get a decent feel on that one. The other cover song is also in a bit of a indecision state as I’d like to use Ramble On from a really old recording session from 2005, but the only person on that recording from this band is me (Rob). The other option is to rebuild my version of What Is and What Should Never Be, or pull out of the ether a reworked version of No Quarter which would be really cool, but we are time constrained for delivering the EP.
The other thing about the EP is we’ve added another original track in Mirror Mirror, and we need to get the guys to record their tracks for that one. Paul will be easy as he comes here every week anyways… Mark might take slightly more time. It will also have the demo grade programmed drums on it - I’ve adjusted them to make them sound more realistic, but still it’s a tad mechanical. That one is a pretty special song as it’s really strong melodically and heavy groove wise - it’ll really sound cool in the final CD.
And finally - please preorder the EP! It’s going to be amazing and worth every penny!!
Sunday, June 1st, 2008
“I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of
music. I get most joy in life out of music.”
- Albert Einstein
Makes you think, eh?
Anyways, Paul and Mark will be over tomorrow morning - Paul to record the final keyboard parts for as many songs as we can, Mark to take band pictures and provide critical guidance… I’ll have more info tomorrow evening.
Monday, May 26th, 2008
We’re still working on it just a bit but for the most part it’s ready to preview in all it’s 96 kbps glory.
In the shadows
“In the shadows…” - a bit of a freak show song that is all atmosphere with just a little prog thrown in to mix it all up. I will be going to Mark’s place to lay good vocal tracks down with some lyrical revisions in the next couple weeks, and possibly I could reamp the guitars (especially the solos) to get them a bit beefier than where they sit, but as for actually recording more bits and what not I think we only have to settle a couple things with the piano part. Arrangements on this piece are definitely more cerebral than technical, as I only have a couple things I’m concerned about - mostly the places where each of our “ornaments” kinda tramp over each other. I really dont want to lose certain elements - the romantic piano, Mark’s excellent bass work as Nick comes in, my “bridge” solo between the first two verses… but as per normal, some of these will be either compromised or removed entirely. The job of a producer/mixer (just for the “Between the lines” EP for me) is a difficult one - one that so far I’m doing for the previews and Jay Coover will tackle the detail work for the EP, but it will of value to those who pay attention to how details get changed depending on who is mixing/mastering. We’ll be handing off mixing of the final “fine line” CD to NDV and that will definitely add a new perspective & dimension to everything - fresh ears of a person who hasn’t been working this stuff for the past two plus years and has no prejudice or preconceived notion of how it should sound - this will likely result in material that will be elevated from what I would have the patience to do. I’m absolutely sure about this since this one song (in the shadows) has gone thru many iterations since it was first written and recorded in 1987. I still have the cassette tape “master” with this song, Lady in a Cage and several others which were cute and decent but not nearly the quality of the first two. 21 years separates the Tascam 4 track cassette Portastudio from the Intel Core Duo quad core based PC running Vista, Cubase/Sonar and tons of VSTs… but the essence of the song is intact. Strong songwriting is the core of every successful band or artist and I believe that this song is so strong that it has withstood time to remain contemporary and vital…
The song in rough mix form is up - look to the right and down at the bottom of the list. My webmaster has been doing excellent work revamping the website (thank you sweetie) and as such I’m a novice now with managing this site. I posted it below but it has a shopping cart entry associated with it right now - ignore than for the time being. Click the triangle and play the song - keep in mind it’s a really rough mix with a couple mistakes thrown in but the quality of the material shines thru those errors. This is really representative of how good the material is for the EP and the CD - when it finally comes out it will be the gold standard for ourselves moving forward and might represent a need to change since I’m not sure we will be able to surpass this. Thankfully, the next few projects following will be stylistic diversions exploring the other interests everyone in the band has, and this might result in that needed change as we take the progressive rock thing into a more techno or electronic direction. I’m also considering doing my own totally solo project of all acoustic guitar/vocal based pieces - simplify and make more organic. It will still have all the trademark twisty rhythmic things I like since that’s just a part of my playing and writing, but definitely strip it down to melody and accompaniment from the densely layered stuff and heavily conceptual material I’ve been up to for the last two decades. It also wont have a deadline or ship date as such since I wont put anyone including myself thru that for a long while, but when I get close to having a decent number of songs recorded to make for a solid CD then I’ll announce the release date and push it out the door. It all depends though on how well this one CD does and how big an impact it has when it gets out there.
Finally - preorders for the EP “Between the Lines” are still open. Sales and revenues from the EP go directly into financing the final ”A fine line between…” CD and you get a ton of extras - 3 or 4 cover songs included on the EP, access to other material thru the website, lyric sheets and some of the draft artwork for the EP packaging, signed copies of the EP… And the best bonus of all - 1/2 off the purchase price of the final CD coming in October. We really appreciate the support everyone has given us, but we’d like to see more of the EPs get sold to help us out. Without any record label support we’ve been purchasing and upgrading hardware and software to build the facilities needed to record this project. We’ve also got to think about what is needed moving forward - purchase of duplication equipment and packaging costs. Handling all of this on the front end will allow us to get quality music to you quicker and for less cost to you in the long run so the $9.99 investment is something that is exactly that - an investment. If we can get this established now, we can look to being a true self sufficient co-operative label that will be able to not only ship out our own music but also those artists deserving of a bigger audience. As musicians, we can only hope to be heard sometime and hopefully we’ll be able to remove another brick from the wall blocking people from being heard.
Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Sorry for the delay on this - I know I promised demos of this piece by Friday but we’re kinda taking longer than expected. For what it’s worth, Pentelho Vermelho was the last piece written for the last CD, and it turned into one of the feature songs on it. This one is getting serious as Paul and I worked on an Opeth sounding riff and some transitions between the King Crimson parts and the more ethereal 7/8 sections - it’s more or less taken shape now as I’m simply working on a couple ideas to see if they’ll work with the Opeth riff and then the ending 6/8 monsterous blast beat section that will fade out. The opening right now has layers of EBow’d guitars in a huge chord that then goes into the KC duelling guitars - this is reminiscent of some of the ideas in Pentelho Vermelho, but builds it into a far funkier thing while still remaining heavy.
It’ll blow people away, especially the final product that will have the real amps cranked up on the recordings. Most of the tracks will be totally amazing once the Ampeg and Epi Modded Valve Jr are miked and tracked. VSTs are fine for demo work and give some idea of what to expect, but nothing compares with 140W thru 4×12 speakers!
Yesterday we got the chance to meet with Juris Vinters and family - Juris and I were bandmates back in 1985 thru 1990 in “Babble and Rhetoric” in London, Ontario. Being able to discuss the chance to work together again on some tracks for this project was awesome, and he is looking at the material and assembling ideas for parts he would be contributing. Stay tuned for more.
Another reminder - Presales ongoing for the “Between the Lines” EP. Look right and up and click that wonderful PayPal Buy Now button! Be one of the first to pick up this wonderful EP with 4 awesome tracks from the full CD and 3 amazing cover versions of some classic songs. You get the 1/2 off the final purchase price for the CD “A fine line between…” due in October, and a hearty thank you from the band!!
