From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V5 #95 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, April 14 2005 Volume 05 : Number 095 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] urm [minemeno@antithetical.org] [loud-fans] Floggin' the Noggin'...bloggin' [Gil Ray ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 16:26:38 -0400 (EDT) From: minemeno@antithetical.org Subject: [loud-fans] urm i really just want to see if i'm in properly wit da new addy, but since i've managed to hear 10 release this year that could be theoretical candidates for a year's best list, here they are (in alphabetical order) in lieu of any actual content: Audible - Sky Signal (Polyvinyl) Steve Barton - Charm Offensive (Sleepless/Redeye) Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs (Righteous Babe) Black Lipstick - Sincerely, Black Lipstick (Peekaboo) Gatsby - Floods + Fires (gatsbymusic) The Gena Rowlands Band - La Merde et Les Etoiles (Lujo) Ida - Heart Like a River (Polyvinyl) The Information - Mistakes We Knew We Were Making Low - The Great Destroyer (SubPop) Transistor Transistor - Erase All Name and Likeness (Level Plane) - -- d. - ------------------------------------------------------ don't email the sender at this address; it won't work. (this address is used in cases where the email address is not adequately protected from abuses.) reply to list or contact via antithetical.org. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:29:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Gil Ray Subject: [loud-fans] Floggin' the Noggin'...bloggin' Back to work!! Saturday was an amazing day for me. I had been tweaking my drum program for the next song, and after about 20 minutes, got it where I wanted it. This song is pretty straight ahead. Verse-chorus-verse-chorus-lead break-chorus. I toyed with the idea of really gettin' in there and going nuts with "personalizing" different drum fills and such, but decided I was good with what I had. Tweaked a kick drum part, and gave myself the go-ahead to use one of the snare drum sounds I rarely use. It's kind of a tight sound with loose snares.Sorta intimate sounding, like there's one in the room. The official beginning of the recording process is obviously, getting the drum track down. Usually not much of a problem: it's mostly limited to choosing the right amount and type of reverb. I have an Alesis micro-verb and it suits me fine. But on this day, it started crappin' out on me! Great. Some fiddlin' about and somehow I got the reverb unit stabilized. I'm a genius. I knocked it around a bit. Probably dirt or something is in there. Or cat hair. Or my hair. Anyway, it came out great! The combination of the new snare sound, and the reverb gave it such a wonderful, organic sound, that fits this song. Now comes the amazing part. Since I'm lazy and a procrastinator, this one task would usually be the only task I would complete that day. But something pushed into going ahead and getting the rhythm guitar track down. So I did. This is the first song I'm using my new guitar on. (the electric hollowbody). It has a beautiful sound for what I wanted, by adding a touch of distortion. (Boss Overdrive pedal). It's a rich sound that I swear you can hear the wood with! Just what I wanted. (Great album title! Hear The Wood!) I started the process, and soon realized that what I had discovered in doing this project, still holds true: Recording a rhythm guitar track is a real sonofabitch. (w/apologies to all sonofabitches out there...) It's a simple chord progression, but hitting the strings with consistency in attack and all that stuff is real tough. Usually I'll cheat a bit and double the track to cover up any muffed notes or such, but I didn't want that sound this time, so I didn't do it. Took me about 10 takes, and I had it to where is was cool with it. Not perfect, but it will do. I absolutely love the sound I got. I love this guitar. Well, by now, I felt like a man on fire, so I said to myself: Keep goin, create and track the bass part. And I did! Holy-cow! I started play the tracks I had, and started trying to come up with a bass part. I came pretty easy, and I think it's a cool part. This is a laid back song, so I tried to play a laid back bass part. There's some sliding going on, which laid waste to my fingers, but the bass seemed to be in tune ok, and that lifted my spirits. Got it in about an hour. Since I sensed I was ON FIRE, I needed to get the guitar hook down, and do a lead break, so I just went for it. (remember, this is all happening the SAME DAY!) I had an idea as to what I wanted for the lead break, but is wasn't really working out, but then, one of those things happened, that often can happen, and something completely out of left field came to me, that I thought was way cool. I realized though, that it sorta changed the whole complexion of the song, but I went with it anyway. It's given the song a kind of...jaunty..feel, but I figured I could easily turn it into irony with lyrics and a synth part, so I started doing takes. And takes. And more takes... The lead break is kinda tricky, with some sliding around and such, so by now, my fingers were really giving me hell. It didn't help that it took me about 30 takes to get it down.I hope my neighbors didn't hear me, because my cussing got more and more loud) But it got down, and it sounded really cool, but something was lacking, so I pulled out an 'ol trick and decided to put a harmony part to the break. Another 30 takes and I was in there like swimwear! All this in one friggin' day! How cool is that?! It sounds great, great, great! It really does sound like an intimate session, and I can't help but notice that the old learning curve is starting to kick in. I'm getting better at this. There is something that has popped up, though, that is so goshdamn ironic, that I just laugh it off: I can't help but notice that since this song and the last song are laid back and slower than previous songs, I'm rushing the guitar and bass parts a bit. So to any experts out there, it may actually seem that I am the only guy in this damned world that can make a drum machine....drag....the...tempo. Who cares.... Love, Gil __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/ ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V5 #95 ******************************