Snow pics, track update

I apologize for my slowness with this track. I'm trying to come back to where I last left it before Christmas, which is with the rhythm guitar finished as well as some of the bassline, but I'm feeling awful right now, to the point that I don't feel I can work on it right away. I'll get back to it as soon as I'm able, finishing up the bassline, and any lead work that it needs, and then having someone put drums to it.


Something completely different, though, is this collection of photos that I took of the snow around my place.

 

But snow is not the only thing I've taken photographs of. There are a couple pedals I've recently added to my collection: a '76 DOD 250 clone, made by a hobbyist in Russia, bought by me (cheaper than making one, myself), and a 90's reissue Micro Synthesizer. Both of these may feature in the upcoming track, or they may not - I don't know right now, but both of those pedals work excellently for producing a great lead guitar sound.

Also, my guitar amp rack is almost completed. There are a couple of items not in this photo, because they're getting some work done on them, but this is pretty much my dream amp setup,

C~ Soundscapes

 

Interim track demo: Moss & Marigold

I'm not going to have any money to pay for someone to play drums for this next track until right before Christmas, and so I probably won't get drums added to the track until a bit after Christmas. So, I'm putting up this older acoustic demo track of mine for listening to in the meanwhile.

It's just a little bit more than a basic track, with a mid-section solo, and a couple of brief bass-idea lines popping in and out in a couple of places.

I'm sure that I'll make a complete production of this song at a later time.

C~ Soundscapes

 

A bit more progress, the next track gets

I finished up the rhythm guitar for the next track, today. When I previously said I was going to go easier on the layering with this track, I guess I wasn't properly coordinating my plans with my future-self, because there's now a lot of layering in this track:

Also, the track overview looks like a sine wave. That's gotta mean something, right?

C~ Soundscapes

 

The next track, a bit more progress gets

Got some further work done on the rhythm guitar parts for this next track, and it's sounding really good.

 

Doesn't it look like it sounds really good?
 

C~ Soundscapes
 

The beginnings of another track

This represents guitar work for a new track's intro:

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what time-signature the track was in, so that I could play to a click, since that keeps things organized while editing, and easier for someone else to lay drums down to (if I end up getting someone to play drums for this), but I discovered that this doesn't really fit to a time-signature that I know how to easily put in... it seems that a half-beat in a 4/4 signature is dropped every third bar, and so the actual music sections keep receding away from a time-signature of 4/4. The music sounds right, though. So, I'm just recording it without any click, and relying on my own internal rhythm, which isn't a problem.

Each take is recorded with 3 tracks, one for each mic that I'm using. I could set things up so that all 3 mics feed into one track, and reduce the overall track usage, but I like to change the mic levels independently, and sometimes edit takes from the different mics distinctly from each other. Overall, though, I'm expecting to be more lax with how I record this track than I have been with some others that I've recorded, in both planning and editing, and I think I can do that and still have a great sound, because the sound of my actual guitar rig has improved substantially since my previous recordings, and so I don't feel that I'll need as much layering, plugins, and mixing to try to make it sound great.

We'll find out, but I'm already confident the result will be good.

C~ Soundscapes
 

(Just) Some pretty photos

 

 

These are some photos, obv. But they are nice photos, obv. I am sharing these photos, obv. Hope you like them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, no newly-recorded music. But I feel that it is long overdue, which is probably an obv thing to be feeling by now, so I will make an effort to record something, and it will be good (resisting the temptation to say obv there, aaaaand... done. But it will be).

 

 

C~ Soundscapes

 

Pipeline panorama, and rack amp... panorama?

Nature and technology, co-existing in moss-covered harmony.

There was a really cool shot nearby, looking down the inlet, with cities in the distance, but my friend was the only one with a camera / phone on them, and they were out of storage space. And, so, no other great pic.



Rack and rack gear, co-existing in screw-mounted harmony.



This isn't the completed thing, but it's getting there. Most of what remains to be done to give me my ideal setup is technical work, like modding, or replacing parts of some gear.

That TC Electronic 1128 equalizer, underneath the ADA MP-1 preamp (has blue buttons), is renowned for its top-quality, and non-colourizing presentation of input audio. However, many of them have a display that has faded in visibility over time, rendering the unit basically useless, without an external controller. Fortunately, for myself, I found someone online selling an upgrade kit for the display, which TC Electronic used to give out to people, to replace the original blue non-LED display with a green LED display, which is easy to see, and can have its LED screen replaced, if it's ever needed.

It's fortunate for myself that I found the person selling the upgrade kit, because TC Electronic hasn't had them available for, probably, many years. The one I found could even be the last one, anywhere.

The sound this setup is putting out is incredible. I've now improved my guitar sound even further than I had with all my previous recordings, and, I think that I just might have the best-sounding amp setup I've ever heard, per my personal taste.


Of course, great guitar sound ought to be made use of in recordings, to be listened to.

I'd really like to be recording and releasing track after track, just as I'm coming up with new track after new track, but I rarely feel as though I have the energy necessary to make a full recording. I keep recording new tracks and bits of music on my phone, which is enjoyable to do, but I don't want to be posting them as presentations of the music, on this blog

Whenever it is that I'm able to work on my music in the manner that I'd like, I'll have more than the 2 - 3 full careers worth of music that I already have, ready to be recorded.

I think I really gotta get a band going to make use of all this music I've got.

C~ Soundscapes