2024
Don't think of this as music, it's not. It's just a bad week at work
expressed as sound.
This is all Deluge of course, a mixture of Deluge present sounds and
purpose crafted synth sounds. The bell-like sound is sampled from our
bathroom glass sink.
While incubating on new song material,
this is a remake of a 1990 song.
Entirely programmed, recorded and mixed on the Deluge again. Samplers
did exist back then but cost was astronomical (especially from a teenager
POV) and even then you could load one sound at a time into the
crazy expensive thing from a stack of floppies. A Synclavier was the
only even remotely comparable thing back then, but cost so much (up to
200.000$) that one didn't even dare to dream of it.
The lyrics opening line differs
from the 1990 version, I simply could
not bring myself to refer to McDonald's as a "snobby" place anymore.
Stale coffee in a mall chain burger place seems far more fitting.
The original was a good deal faster and more wreckless, especially the
vocals. It's not like this is fully in tune, but at least it's now
under something resembling control. It also has something resembling
an ending now.
I'd been wanting to do this little piece
for several years now, but somehow I never a) got around finish the
lyrics
b) properly caught the groove "on tape" when I tried to lay down some
early backing tracks. It finally came together
from start to finish in one day of determination.
The song itself was inspired by our former neighbours dogs. One of them
was called Frida, and I once mentioned "Linda nextdoor" to my wife who
went "Linda who?" in a mock jealousy, and besides there weren't any
Linda's around in the neighborhood to her knowledge. We had good laughs
over it once she realized I was talking about having seen Frida the dog,
and "Linda next-door" it became a bit of an inside joke from that point on.
Don't give dogs human names, eh?
Frida was an actual dog show winner and occasionally even flirted with our
two (rough collie) boys, but then they had to remove her womb due to medical
reasons, and after that she'd only give this absolutely blood-curling
growl if our boys ventured anywhere within 5m radius of her. They would
start going out of their way to avoid her, trying to drag us through
the ditches and bushes in process. While their other dog, Elsa in
real world and the friendliest creature you can imagine, was doing her
best to trying to reach us and our dogs by any means available.
It was quite the comedy. We also could tell when she was
in heat by our younger dog stopping eating, really. Cindy was just made up
for the song's sake, although our youngest dog sure loves to follow the
new neighbors elderly female nose to tail for hours at end, when given
the chance.
This was recorded and mixed entirely on the Deluge, my first real attempt
at using it as a multitrack recorder in addition to sequencing things with it.
The original version was a
tad too hastily put together, singing sounding like my vocal cords trying
wiggle their way out of the mess despite multiple takes, and and various
issues with the mix too. So what you get from the main link is a somewhat
improved version with redone single-take vocals and added details.
2023
More Deluge exploration, and perhaps meeting old
acquaintances?. Making the original Alien Encounter was fun, but I always
felt it fell a little short off the goal. Taking another look at
what may be out there was an irresistible temptation. The name is, hopefully
obviously, a silly wordplay on re-encounter.
Also featuring our dog Maagi (Mage in English) who's quite the chatterbox.
This is basically a soundtrack to an imaginary 2D driving game from the
8-bit era, implemented with modern equipment capable of "fancy stuff" such
as stereo output.
The core of this song has existed for two to three years, long enough
that I no longer remember. It started life on the Pyramid, briefly tried
with the Commodore 64 Mssiah sequencer cartridge, then recreated on the
Hapax sequencer but not really much closer to completion. And finally,
recreated once more on the Deluge where finishing it happened in one evening.
As per above: despite the theme, any relation to Vice City Heat is purely
coincidental. Oh and I know, the name is super dull.
Between buying and moving to an old house needing renovations and buying more
old cars needing love and care, buying more music gear you don't have the
time to properly learn and use does not help producing more music. Except
when it does. After three years of musical drougth, multiple not-so-good
purchases and getting absolutely nothing done, I finally broke the bank
and went for a
Synthstrom Deluge.
This short clip is the result of my first two evenings noodling around
with the Deluge. Its original name was "testsong1", to give you an idea...
Wife says it sounds like an 80s police tv-series background music, and
I can't disagree. I certainly didn't know I had such material in my head,
waiting to jump out!
The Deluge is just incredible. The joy of creation returned, just like that.
For the listener, perhaps not so much. But maybe next time?
2020
The edge of the world where dragons live is a mental image that has
fascinated me ever since hearing the story about old maps having
"here be dragons" text at the uncharted areas. At some point I realized
this would make for a cool song theme.
The way it ultimately came out is nothing like my initial ideas, both
in terms of story and musical style. It was supposed to be a nod to
classic heavy metal a'la Black Sabbath, Dio and friends but the initial
version was boring to tears. I had to tear it all apart and rethink from
scratch halfway through recording the backing tracks and I no longer know
what genre it belongs to, but this is how it was meant to be, really.
The lyrics alone took several months
of research and editing rounds. And when you work so hard on one thing,
it raises the bar on everything as otherwise the effort seems thrown away.
The song itself was composed, arranged and recorded over the course of
nine months or thereabouts, the vocals alone were re-recorded something
like five times total.
I think it was well worth it. Some people call this practising...
There's also a trace of pitch correction device on the vocals here.
It's a peculiar and subtle thing - it does not fix bad singing.
What it does instead is make mistakes easier to spot while singing: when
you hear it kick in, you know you need a retake. For the rest, it does
give a certain extra polish by smoothing out minor pitch deviations you
wouldn't strictly need correcting. Whatever bad singing remains, as you
can hear.
The only synths and thus sequenced parts here are the drums, and the
choirs on the outro. Everything else is overdubbed with real instruments.
The story is loosely based on a historical setting and sprinkled with
silly little details.
Never have I worked so hard on any song. Nothing else comes even close.
2019
This song was a long time in the making. The beginning and the ending are
from an unfinished piece from around 1990, and the middle part I came up
with in early 2018 but didn't know where it was coming from or where it
was going to. Finally this summer an idea for a story struck me and then
it all suddenly clicked together. Of course it still didn't come out quite
the way planned and because of that, I'll let you invent your own
story around the song.
All distorted electric guitars and basses and some of the acoustic guitars
recorded with real instruments, everything else sequenced with Pyramid
using JV-1080, XV-3080 and Gaia SH-01 synths.
And then something very different. I got the idea back in 2017 while playing
around with Yoshimi software synth, thinking it would be done in an afternoon
but in the end it took no less than two whole years to hatch, reprogrammed
entirely on the Pyramid + Roland JV-1080, U-220 and Gaia synths.
I had trouble finding the bass sound I wanted until I realized the
otherwise little-used U-220 might have just perfectly gruffy sounds for the
job. It did, once I doubled the bass track between a fingered and slap-bass
sound. This is my first-ever all-synthesizer song.
Oh and there's a hidden message [*] in the song.
This is a 30 year anniversary remake of my first-ever song and recording.
Once I realized it's almost to the date 30 years since the original,
I just felt kinda compelled to do a remake with current equipment.
I thought about updating the lyrics
for todays world but it didn't
feel right so for the better or worse, I ended up leaving the teenage
naivete alone. The overall song structure was simplified and shortened
though, for the better I'd say.
Listening to the
original 4-track version first is recommended, if only for perspective.
There are fourteen tracks worth of stuff in the new version, it would've
almost seemed incomprehensible back then. For some reason I had a really
hard time coming up with a guitar solo for this one, and eventually
had to settle for planning most of it ahead instead of improvising as usual.
Also strangely hard was coming up with a bass line for the verse, nothing
seemed to work and still doesn't.
Vocals, the electric guitars and the left channel acoustic guitar recorded
live, everything else sequenced with Pyramid + Roland JV-1080.
A rhythm and blues song about drag racing, inspired by
Burnout Party 2018.
Features my first song lyrics
and recorded vocals in over 25 years, so if it's a bit rusty...
In addition to vocals, the electric guitars at center and right channel
are played live, everything else sequenced by Pyramid + Roland JV-1080
synths.
Also my first original song recorded and mixed in the "full blown" studio
I've been building since early 2018 with a proper mixer, separate multitrack
recorder, effect rack + patchbays to connect it all.
2018
A slow instrumental song.
Originally came up with the chorus melody while fooling around with
some wild software effect presets of Guitarix in 2017.
The sounds in the final version are far more straightforward and
no computers involved. I always imagined the song would have lyrics,
but eventually realized I didn't quite know what the song is supposed to
be about. No wonder coming up with those lyrics felt next to impossible.
Recorded and mixed on Zoom R16.
Electric guitars played live, solo improvised on the spot, everything
else is sequenced by Pyramid + Roland JV-1080 and Roland Gaia synths.
2021 update: I never knew what this song is about because I hadn't lived
this day yet. Dedicated to the memory of our dearly loved dog
Loitsu
(Spell in English) who left us far, far too early ðŸ˜
An experiment to create some thrash-metal, just so my friends wont get
all bored up by them slow lullabies that I keep coming up with. The name
is a joke is about the genre name which I still keep misspelling.
Recorded and mixed on Zoom R16.
Drums sequenced with Zoom RT-234, everything else played live, although
in relatively small pieces. As in, lets come up with a bass line
for the chorus and record those parts before I forget the line. Repeat
for all parts and two to three guitars, and that sort of explains why
one guitar harmony is missing - I simply accidentally fast-forwarded
the section while recording. And afterwards, I couldn't
remember how to play a single one of those riffs or lines.
2017
A slow, kinda elevator-jazzy instrumental song.
I created the background as an excuse to play guitar solos, but
before I ever got the guitar hooked up, the sax somehow stole the show.
It's my first-ever keyboard solo of any kind, accidentally improvised
on the spot.
Recorded and mixed on Zoom R16.
Drums sequenced with Zoom RT-234, everything else played live. The soft
pad is Roland Gaia synth, piano and sax are from Yamaha YPG-225 keyboard
and the electric guitar is the real thing.
2016
A moody instrumental, tailor-made for
the trailer
of my wife's first novel by the same name. My first original composition
and recording in roughly 23 years.
Recorded and mixed with an open-source DAW software on Linux.
This was my first-ever original song project that I completed with a
computer setup, and if I can help it, it'll also be the last. Ptui!
Managing the level and panning changes would've been a bit of a challenge
with an analog mixer, but nothing compared to all the pain caused
by latency issues, software glitches, crashes, version incompatibilities and
mouse-hand cramps. However I didn't have an analog mixer at the time,
and this kind of mix is simply not possible at all on the R16 so
I didn't actually have a choice.
The DAW is intentionally left unnamed because I think it would be unfair
to call it out here, this is simply the name of the game with DAWs.
1989-1992
The four-track era has a page of its own.
Spoilers
- There's an obfuscated morse code repeating "HAL lives"
at seemingly random intervals in Alien Encounter
- Here Be Dragons spoilers
- There's "Isola de' Dragoni" (Island of Dragons) on the
Mauro map
on what can be thought to be loosely on the route to India as discovered
by Vasco da Gama.
- The Ninth Wave
is a famous marine themed painting and also an old sailing expression
that fits the story nicely.
- The journal of Vasco da Gama mentions an unknown island spotted
after Cape Verde.
- On da Gama's expeditions, their ships got separated by a terrible
storm of which the locals had tried to warn them.
- On da Gama's second trip, Esmeralda was wrecked and the site only
recently discovered. Among the finds were the Ghost Coin of Dom Manual 1
but also noteworthy was what was NOT found: there was not a trace of any
human remains around.
- After writing the first version of the ending, I realized the chaos
and misunderstandings reminds me of some equally mad scenes in Don Rosa's
duck stories! The otherwise unrelated mention of "white agony" is a
nod to Rosa whose comic work I absolutely adore.
- While mixing I came
perilously close to having to stop to solder more patch cables.
