The Album A Week. With Twists For Fun (AAW.WTF[F])
Starts: Thursday 6-22-2006 9PM
STATUS: FAILED! (Read below for details)
Thursday 6-22, 9:39 PM
Thursday 6-22, 10:01 PM
Thursday 6-22 11:12 PM
Sunday 6-25 11:14 PM
Sunday 6-25 11:42 PM
Monday 6-26 1:19 AM
Monday 6-26 10:15 PM
Monday 6-26 11:53 PM
Tuesday 6-27 7:45 PM
Tuesday 6-27 8:59 PM
Tuesday 6-27 10:08 PM
Wednesday 6-28 7:15 PM
Wednesday 6-28 7:59 PM
Wednesday 6-28 8:58 PM
Wednesday 6-28 10:15 PM
Wednesday 6-28 11:15 PM
Thursday 6-29 12:08 AM
Thursday 6-29 12:45 AM
Thursday 6-29 1:27 AM
Thursday 6-29 4:28 PM
Thursday 6-29 4:44 PM
Thursday 6-29 5:39 PM
FAILURE!
I have decided to fail. Niveous is not posting his album because it means too much to him. I have decided to take a similar route by taking a little extra time to get this one done. I really don't want to rush out some crappy songs just to finish this on time. I WILL post some rough mixes of some of the better ones that I DID do tonight before 9 pm.
Ends: Thursday 6-29-2006 9PM
Didn't get started until around 9:09 PM due to working on the house with Rach a bit. 2 rhythm guitar parts and a bass part laid down. 95 BPM, and I am hearing shades of Hendrix in this one thus far. Total track should be around 2:30 when complete. I will probably wait to lay down drums until Justin brings his kit back over here. Maybe he'll even want to play on this one.
Lyrics are not coming to me yet, so I am not going to force them. Might work on the music for song #2, might go to bed. Tough to say.
Maybe I should have slept, but I didn't. Song #2 also has 2 guitar parts and a bass part laid out. This one is mellow. A finger picking style. I am tired. I am going to catch some sleep. This one is also 95 BPM, and should be around 3:00 when complete.
Finished my weekly podcast, and I fixed a fairly funny typo from these journals. It had my first entries listed as happening on 6-29, the day this is due. As close to the due date as it may be, I didn't wait to start working on this AT the deadline. I have NOT been nearly as productive as I would have liked to have been, but I am not doing too bad either, I guess. Rick Podlas came over the other night and recorded a guitar solo for song 3, and he came up with the main rhythm of song 4. I still call them by their song number as I have developed nothing in the way of song titles thus far. I have skeletal structures (guitar and bass) recorded for 6 songs, and a current total of 17 minutes 22 seconds. I am figuring that it is closer to 17 minutes even because of dead roll for drums and such. Nevertheless, Justin is coming over to work on drums for some of these. If you figure that I should be doing 5 minutes of music a day, I am actually about 2 minutes ahead of schedule... but I still need a minimum of drums, lyrics and vocals on these. I do like how this is coming out so far, but this will be an interesting week to say the least.
I should probably share SOMETHING with you guys in the form of audio. Here's a teaser of what I have been able to accomplish thus far with the song structures. Enjoy!
I will be hating myself later today. Went to the piano, despite being tired. Came up with a riff, had to record it, a skeletal structure of 2 guitar, bass, and piano comes alive for song 7. I removed the dead roll from my example mp3s to get a better idea of how far along I really am with this. So, now it's safe to say that I am 19 minutes and 50 seconds into the album as far as music goes after 7 song structures. I updated that teaser file with a clip from the 7th song too.
I was right. I felt largely uninspired today, and tired. Decided to mow the lawn today, because it needed it. I might try to get to sleep at an earlier hour tonight. I was irritated at myself for failing to delete the opening dead roll from my example mp3 of song 7, so I lost about 5 seconds of my total time. I just recorded the basics for song 8, and now my total album time is up to 22:48. I still don't have drums or vocals for any tracks yet. Justin will be here to work on drums tomorrow. I may try to write music for one more tonight, because I am just too close to the 25 minute mark. As it is, it's nice to only be 12 minutes and 12 seconds away from the minimum album length. The teaser file has been updated with a clip from the 8th song.
Song 9 has piano, bass, and guitar done. It's almost midnight. I am tired. Total album time is 26:12 now. (Still needing lyrics, vocals, and drums, of course) The teaser file has been updated with a clip from the 9th song.
Justin came over this afternoon and laid down drums for a fair amount of the tracks. He thought it would be fun to do a disco track, so when he left I started making the music for a disco track. Lots of slap bass. Got a blister on my right index finger, which is proof that I am not used to playing slap bass very often these days. So, bass and guitar is done on song 10. Total album time is now 28:32. teaser clip is now updated with DRUMS included where they are done.
Cranked out music for another track. The mix sounds awful at the moment, but that will be fixed by the time this is done (hopefully). My main thing is that I am going to try to get my minimum of 35 minutes of music done by tonight, then I can concentrate on lyrics, vocals, and the rest of the drums tomorrow. If that works out, then I can focus on mixdowns on Thursday to ensure that the final product sounds ok. I am currently 11 songs into this for a total of 30:54. The FREAKY thing is that the 2 tracks I started making today BOTH came out at 2:22. That's a little odd. The teaser file has been updated yet again.
I have met my 35 minute minimum with the 12th song. I didn't set out to make it the longest song, but it is. At 4:35, it's actually over a minute longer than the 2nd longest track! I now have 35:29 of music, and I am going to go to sleep early tonight so I am well rested for vocals tomorrow. If I get these 12 songs fleshed out, I will still aim for 45 minutes of material, but I probably need to focus on my minimum first. The teaser file has been updated for what should be the last time for a while.
Drums are done. Now it's all about lyrics/vocals and touch-up/mixdown. Liking the music on this a lot. I hope the vocals and lyrics don't ruin these songs.
Song 11 is done. The title is now "Stronger Than". I love the lyrics. The mixdown is wonky, but I am saving the mixdowns for tomorrow. I might add or remove a thing or two at that time. That goes for the other songs too.
Song 2 is done, and I ate dinner. The title for Song 2 is now "A Thousand Swords".
Song 4 is done. The title for Song 4 is now "Experimental Fashion". This is not going as fast as I had hoped that it would.
Song 12 is done. The title for Song 12 is now "Highway".
Song 5 is done. The title for Song 5 is now "Tiny Room". Man... Here we are on the big deadline day... Just under 21 hours to work with. I hope to get all of the rest done after work. I may try to do one more this morning before bed.
Song 7 is done. The title for song 7 is now "Flood Victim". I am going to bed now. I hope to get the other half done tomorrow after work. 18:02 of complete songs thus far.
I was listening to the tracks that I have done thus far instead of sleeping. That may have been a bad mistake, but that never stopped me before. Here's a rough mix of "Stronger Than". It sounds like nothing else on the album, and it's probably my favorite track of the moment, even with a shoddy mix. I predict that it will be the Blue Lang fave. In fact, Blue, don't even listen to the rest of the album... it's all downhill from this one :P
Here we go. The final few hours. Song 3 is done. It's now called "Criminal Charges"
Song 1 is written. It's now called "Rot to Fill". Justin is coming over to do the drums again on this one.