Finished!

Hello all,

For my Record Time VI project, I intentionally didn't really have much of a plan starting out. I wanted to simply start writing and see where it took me. About halfway through Monday, however, I decided that I wanted to use this week to produce at least one demo track that I had been wanting to write to promote myself. I had been wanting to compose an orchestral action/thriller demo piece that incorporated electronic or techno elements, much in the style of the music you hear in many movies, video games and tv shows today. So I started that on Monday, and since I wanted it to be as detailed and professional as I could make it within a reasonable amount of time, I worked exclusively on that until Thursday.

While I had been working on that, I decided I wanted to try a much more experimental 'sound mass' piece for orchestra. I chose to base it on the idea of limbo, and used orchestra with boy's choir. I began writing this on Thursday and finished it on Friday.

Saturday started off with me working on a composition for which I have had the melody for a long time. However, I ultimately decided to throw this idea out exclusively because it's a slow tempo piece and I didn't want to include two very slow compositions on a such a short album (the other being the sound mass one). So, I spent the remainder of the day adding finishing touches to the previous two pieces.

On Sunday, I started writing my first real attempt at some sort of Afro-Cuban music, which ended up also having some Thomas Newman-ish elements to it, which I'm definitely cool with. Also on Sunday, I went back and resurrected what I had originally written on Monday, touched it up, and presented it as an intermission track.

Overall, I can definitely say I'm pleased with my project. I didn't give it an album title because I don't really consider it an album, but rather a collection of unrelated pieces of music. Although it's only 4 tracks, it's longer in length than my previous Record Time album, and unlike it, every note of music here was conceived during this week. I'm definitely glad to have been a part of this again and look forward to hearing all of your music!

I didn't mean to make this post so long,
Andrew

VLOG - It's Overrr!

One last video... I ended up with a 5 song EP with a total length of 16.7 minutes. Short & Sweet.
Yesterday was definitely the craziest day I've had trying to get a project done in a long time. I got a couple people to throw a couple lil verses in and I like the contrast it added against my voice. I also appreciate that my boyfriend took the time to check over my mixes to make sure it was all legit... he also added a killer 808 to the last two tracks.
We burnt a CD and jumped into the car last night around 1 am to make sure the levels were all good, and I don't think I've ever had that much fun driving around so late on a Sunday bumpin an album I've just finished before. I hope that you all like it and take the time to burn it to a CD so you can jam to it in the car when you're rollin off to the clubz.
& I also hope someone made some relaxing music this week that I can put on my ipod and nap to, cause I don't know about you, but I need to hibernate now.

-Luxi

The Philosopher Stoned, stoned

Things got a bit ugly towards the end there, but by midnight I submitted my project. As of Sunday, I had yet to write nearly half of the lyrics and to record the lyrics to all but one song.

About one third of the album seems to be my infamous use of kung fu clips, but I did a little work warping them into something a bit more interesting, and my original music plays throughout these parts as well as the song portions. The entirety of the record is OVER 45 MINUTES, so I am certainly pleased.

At some point during the composition process, I was told the music is reminiscent of that of Shaq-Fu; I am definitely down with that! The use of phasing drums is effective, but at times seems to disrupt the flow.

For those of you familiar with my original plan (according to my first blog post), things have changed slightly, particularly my idea to use each tonic pitch as respective root notes in an album-long chord progression. I decided to treat this series of pitches as one specific voice following the progression, instead of necessarily making them root notes. The virtual chord progression is still there, but I felt this approach gave the album a more convincing melodic function. Additionally, I scrapped the idea of dividing the album into eighths.

BEWARE: Rhythms are loose and recording quality is low. Some sounds are at times difficult to hear while other moments straight up distort. That being said, I actually love this album. I feel that lyrically focusing on one story, combined with incorporating this "macroscopic form", has done much to give my submission for RECORD TIME VI an enjoyable and cohesive quality.

I hope you all enjoy "The Philosopher Stoned", and I very much look forward to reading other blogs and listening to other contributions.

Multitudinous congratulations to those of you that completed projects for this!

- Ed Mellen (The Killer Meteor)

Wrap Up

Well, this week I managed to write and record only 3 songs, and they aren't as finished as I'd like them to be, but it's something. It's been very fun and definitely a learning experience. I will continue working on these songs and others, at a more relaxed pace. I'm definitely participating next time (next year?) and set a schedule/goals/deadlines better and get at least a half hour. Looking forward to hearing everyone's work.

OOF

Just got back from recording vocals. My whole body hurts, but...I LOVE this album.

Only about 25 minutes long (I know, pathetic!) but I literally could not be happier with it. It REALLY IS an experimental children's album! Have you ever heard one of those?!? I've got a teeth-brushing song, a room-cleaning song, a pooping song, a bath time song, a late-for school song, a song about the vowels (except I for some reason), a dance song, and an epic closer about being what you wanna be. It's absolute twisted delirious nonsense.

I'm breaking my own rules this time. I need some more time to mix. I figure it's alright...I started it last Monday at 7 pm, and if I finish by 7 pm tomorrow, it will have been within a week.

Again, the plan is to release everything either Wednesday or Thursday.

After that, I encourage you to post your reviews of everything. You don't have to do it, but it's a lot of fun.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I feel good.

Phew!

It's just about midnight here and I'm bouncing everything as I type this. For my first RT, I think this went pretty well. Next time, I'm going to try to create something not as avant-garde. It's been fun though. I'm really proud of the stuff I created. I was planning on having 5 tracks, but my ideas were a little slow coming on that 5th track... STILL, I have 4 tracks with a total of 29.5 minutes!

I had a ton of fun this past week! Hope everyone else did too!

Made It!

I am currently in the process of uploading my album to mediafire. I feel bad that I wasn't able to blog about my progress through the week, but oftentimes I was too distracted with the editing and recording process.

ANYWAY, I have to say that I'm incredibly pleased with the outcome. It's a 28 minute melting pot of immersive electronics, psychedelic soundscapes, screaming keyboards interlaced with wild guitar solos, 202 bpm thrash riffs in shifting 13/8 - 10/8 time, all drenched with a heavy coating of acid.

I tried very hard to put out something where I had to push my playing to it's limits, and it's pretty obvious as sometimes the playing gets a little sloppy. Either way, I hope anyone who's interested in Hirochi No Hi has a good time listening to it.

So, enough of my shameless self-promotion. You guys worked hard too, and I really really hope everyone is just as proud of their work as I am. I can't wait to hear everyone else's work, just a few more days!

a not-so-fashionably late post.

I had been meaning to post on here all week but got distracted and spent all my free time either working on this project or getting caught up on sleep... so I thought I would finally post tonight, four hours before the deadline!

Anywho, this is my first time participating in record time and it has been a (slightly stressful) blast! I have no musical inclination whatsoever and so rather than attempt to make an album, which would inevitably be a disaster, I decided to stick to something I know and make a video. I am usually directing, editing or production designing when it comes to film, so thought this would be a neat opportunity for me to branch out and do some camera work with my friend's Canon 7D SLR. I am a big fan of the close-up, and so my project is basically a collection of insert shots taken from places I happened to be this week (on set in a factory, a prop house, my apartment, etc.), edited together for your viewing pleasure. I did not have a tripod with me and was a bit rushed at all these locations, so the footage is shaky and random, but I am happy with it overall. I was going to enlist the help of Mr. Waldkirch and create a simple soundtrack for it in garageband or the like, but seeing as I am still editing the footage I think I will just pick a random song to go with it. So back to editing and hopefully I can finish before midnight!

____________________________________ (my editing window) _________________________________

Can't wait to see everyone's finished products!

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

So, I had all of my drums mixed on one of my songs and I was going to use it as a template so this is what I did...

File > Save As > template3.lso

Select All > Delete

Are You Sure You Want To Delete Files? > Yes > Check Yes To All

"..."

"*sigh*"

I'm so discouraged that I don't want to do anymore work. Until next time friends... and I was really excited. =(

~trevor

Edit: The idea was to delete everything and have the drum eqs, compressors, reverb sends, pans, and everything set perfectly so all I had to do was program the drums and be set.

Edit 2: Maybe I'll just write a Dub Step piece for this and call it something. =)

Caffeine, please kick in!

So, I didn't get as much done today as I had wanted. Kylene and I went to church this morning and then decided to go out to eat, shopping, and then more shopping (she gets side tracked easily...). So, we were out of the house from 10 until about 5... And I still had to have her record 2 more tracks of vocals. BUT We got it recorded. Now I'm doing my thing and processing them and trying to get it all mixed before the night is over. I'm sitting here sipping cup after cup of earl grey tea, hoping it will do something. It would be coffee, but we don't have a coffee pot right now. :(

Also, I'm hving too much fun in melodyne right now... Need to stop that and get cranking!

Will update more later!

Working... I guess?

So, I thought I would post on here finally. I was looking forward to Record Time VI, but as always I find myself busy with other things in life and can't find the motivation needed to write music. Here I am Sunday night ready to bust out some more music after only 2 days and approximately 4 hours of time in.

I don't think Record Time is my cup of tea, but I like the challenge and the way it makes you be creative in ways you aren't used to. It's a very uncomfortable situation to be honest... but usually good comes out of those affairs.

My goal is 15 minutes of music. I know 30 wouldn't be possible with the schedule I had, but I plan on finishing up on Monday night since my guitar strings didn't come in until then.

But I am making progress and it feels good man!

~trevor

DONE!

I am pleased to announce that Nick and I have just finished up and submitted...

"Lobster Shanty & the Crab Rangoons: Friends of Mine"

I hope everyone likes it; I know that we're proud of everything that we put together. It's been fun, but as this is my 5th time participating in Record Time...I think I'm finally used to the pressure and mental focus that's necessary to finish (granted I've never actually finished 30 minutes of music). We set our goal...came up a song short...but very pleased with the quality of everything that came out of this week.

This is the first time that I've collaborated with anyone, and I must say that having an extra set of ears is very convenient. And someone else to put on additional tracks and help mix is incredibly awesome! Teamwork was definitely a nice change of pace, a breath of fresh air...

Please enjoy when you get the chance to DL the files!

Fantastically Short

Well I've managed to fall fantastically short of my intentions as it looks like I'll only get one song finished for this RT. I'd written the music for 6 of the 7 I was planning, and 3 or 4 of them are almost there musically. The problem has been that I've just had no inspiration and not much time for the lyrics, leaving my songs stranded in an instrumental limbo (also no time to blog as I went along unfortunately). I only had half this weekend, and a few evening were taken out during the week with relatives over to stay so I don't think I've done too bad considering. I've certainly learnt a bit from the process and I hope there'll be another RT in the future so I can see whether I'll have improved. I'm going to finish the ep/album off over the next couple weeks so I'll post the full thing up somewhere when I'm done. I hope you enjoy my one-sided single, I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else has done...

Bringer

So, I haven't posted since I began working because I've been working so much on this. I'm fairly confident that I will get everything done and mixed by tomorrow. I spent a lot of my time this past week creating synth patches, Max/MSP patches, programming the midi stuff, writing notation, etc, etc...

Today was the first time I've actually gotten to record (trust me it isn't as bad as it sounds). Since most of the music is highly electronic based, today focused on recording my wife's vocals and my violin stuff. I don't have access to any xlr mics sadly, so I had to improvise my recording setup. I have an m-box and I do all of my mixing and editing in pro tools, however the only mic I DO have is a Samson C01u usb microphone. I've had it for a couple years and have only really used it a couple of times since I have always had access to a large supply of mics, however this is not the case anymore. It doesn't sound horrible, a little mid-range-ish, but nothing some eq couldn't fix. I used to use Sonar 8 until recently, so I could use the usb mic to record into that (phew) I bounced the midi vocal filler I had been using in pro tools to a wav file, opened it in Sonar and recorded Kylene there. I then bounced the vocals and brought them back to pro tools. Yay!

Also, like eric p, I don't have a mic stand (I've been making a list of things I NEED this week too...) so I had to improvise by using one of my folding music stands, a book, and the desktop stand that came with the mic... Very janky and we could hardly move for fear that it would fall over, but it all went well. The room I do all of my mixing has horrid acoustics too, so I created a little vocal iso booth using a tall dresser, some heavy blankets, and some pillows. Worked pretty well.

Right now, I'm finishing up the violin recording, and running the violin sounds through some max/msp patches I made. Pretty much, they sound 10% like a violin, 85% like "oh my god run for your life Grendel is coming after us," and 5% bad acid trip.

It's looking like I'm going to have almost exactly 30 minutes of music in 5 tracks. I'm hoping to get the rest of Kylene's vocals done tomorrow...

Ok, back to cranking stuff out!


Edit: I've been trying to make one of my tracks seem very uneasy, and I just had a stroke of brilliance, I think. I added a couple layers of binaural beats and it definitely does the trick. I'm already feeling queasy! ha

Lobster Shanty and the Crab Rangoons

First post, post-start.

This has been an interesting RT...as they always are. Looking back, and thinking about what I'm currently doing, I think an interesting part of this whole process is the realization of your current state of mind. It's incredible how you actually apply your creativity into the music (or whatever you may be working on) in this small time frame. Record Time continues to remind me just how important it is to put time into these events and make the best of it.

So...I didn't sleep last night. By 6am, my fingers were sore, mind was numb, but spirits were high. I have 3 songs written and sent off to my collaborator, Nick (who is playing bass and is going to mix everything). I've thus far used real instruments and amplifiers:

Baldwin baby grand piano
Fender Strat
Vox 4 watt ATV4 amplifier
Dr. Z 30/40 watt Galaxie amplifier
Reeves 2x12" speaker cabinet
Green Rhino Overdrive Pedal
RE-20 Space Echo
MX Pacific drum kit
Paiste Giant Beat cymbals
Tambourine

I've recorded using a Zoom H4N, sm57s, and Macbook Pro.

Be ready for some solid tunes from LOBSTER SHANTY AND THE CRAB RANGOONS. This is going to be a good one. Keep truckin' everyone!

Outlook for Sunday Night!

Well it appears that David and I have produced 3 tracks for our....somewhat of a thin EP and somewhat of a thick single. 2 of the tracks are killer, many hours spent on every aspect of the song, sometimes an hour or more on one or two lines to lyrics to make them as close to perfection as possible. The other song is....well, its a song....it has all the necessary elements: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. David had it kind of written and I decided I could sing SOMETHING over the top of it, so we went with it. A subject matter I know nothing about, but oh well.

I know its only Saturday night, but I think that is going to be our final product. A 3 song "album" to take over the world. All thats left is an album title, cover art, maybe even a band name (as much as I love the name "Beatz and Lyrix," it doesn't seem to fit us)

It's Saturday.

Ah, Behold: My Built-From-IKEA-Boxes Microphone Stand. Fear not, audiophiles, the mic is not hanging by the XLR cable, but rather a piece of rope coming out of that little white thing there.

Yes, I realized a short time ago that I did not have a microphone stand with me (among the many things that wouldn't fit in my car), so I had to improvise. It's not terribly stable, as I had to secure it with packing tape, but it's still standing so far.

Writing and recording are coming along nicely and I'll finish up tonight so that I have time tomorrow to make things wonderful. Or. As wonderful as I can make them.

I hope everyone else is doing well. I have a good feeling about Record Time VI. It's gonna be good.

-'Ric

So Far Behind!

Behind on blog updates that is. ;) Well. What to say.

Last Saturday, to make an incredibly long and annoying story short, our computer crashed. We essentially bought a new computer...part by part...as we determined what the problem (read: problemS) was. We were up and running again by late Monday, but have managed to make decent progress nonetheless!

I spent all of Sunday cooking and freezing a ridiculous amount of food to keep our food preparation time down for the week (Eric works 40 hrs. a week, I work 20 hrs. and go to school full-time...so time is of the essence). On the menu for the week: breakfast burritos, vegetarian chili, chicken noodle soup, spinach balls, and...turkey/avocado sandwiches. Yeah!

Challenges: our roommate has hosted not one, but TWO band rehearsals at our place in the evening-time...I've experienced a pretty serious writer's block and thusly Eric has taken up the majority of lyric-writing...switching gears from work/school mode to Record Time mode.

Successes!: Feeling productive and enjoying very FULL days...being creative together, which is just good, plain fun...I'm learning a shit-ton about editing software/building computers/recording sounds which is a blast.

That's all for now. Had some ridiculous pictures of our "set-up" at home, which looks like a huge pile of junk. But they got deleted. :(

>:(

Words, where are you? You are not in our brains; we've already looked there. Please get back to us as soon as you can. We need you.

Love,
- Nathan and David

What not to do

Today I played a long game of "find the electrical interference." Can YOU spot it?

3 & 4

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday...but things are still going well.

I finished all the drumming for the album...new plan is to finish guitars and bass by Friday, then keyboards Saturday, vocals Sunday. No idea when I'll mix.

Right now I have no less than FIFTEEN tracks...each around a minute and a half. I'll probably combine a few of them, as there is absolutely no logic to how it's divided up right now.

And I'm strongly flirting with the idea of making this entire album about brushing your teeth. Originally I was going to do a different children's topic for each song, but I keep coming back to the teeth-brushing thing.

Music-wise, this is a dance album, in the broadest sense of the term. No electronica whatsoever...we're talking jigs, waltzes, tarantellas, hardcore 2-steppin, soca, bossa nova, a little headbanging, and even a brief appearance by a close relative of the Chicken Dance (played on my new melodica of course). This is without a doubt the stupidest album I've ever done, and that's saying something (especially for those of you who have heard my mini-musical based on Home Alone 2).

Anyways, can't wait to get back home and shred...later!

VLOG-DAY FOUR

I missed Day Three due to my job etc... but now I'm picking back up where I left off!
As far as my Record Time VI fuel goes: Frozen Egg Rolls all the way! and also lots of tea.
Now I only hope that my downstairs neighbor stops blasting hardcore Metal music so I can get some stuff done.
--Luxi

Wednesday

Pretty good day. Wrote another song and recorded two songs which both still need a lot of work. Recordings been going pretty slowly since I don't have a Mac keyboard. Also, I haven't done it in awhile so I had to relearn some things. I wish MIDI horns didn't sound so fake and wishboney. Hopefully I'll be able to do some collaboration tomorrow.

Rocket Fuel

My Record Time Fuel? Alcohol! Drink of choice? The Old Fashioned. 2 oz bourbon or rye whiskey, 1 ounce water, three dashes Angostuta bitters, 1/2 ounce 1:1 simple syrup. Garnish with cherry or orange.

Back to the drunken arranging dungeon...

A Quicky

So I don't have the internet at home and I've only got a few minutes before Research Methods but I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and give everyone an update. Things are going really well. The sound isn't all I thought it'd be and more, but it's cool nonetheless. I just saw Pulp Fiction for the first time yesterday so I'm taking a bit of time off to recover from Samuel L Jackson and I should be resuming work tonight (assuming I can get my grading done this afternoon). I wish I could post pics, but again, I'm on a school computer right now and the wireless at NIU is pretty spotty. Enough excuses though. I'll try to post pictures on my next post. I even thought about video-blogging. I'm really enjoying the way this project is stimulating my creative juice glands. Whew. Anyways, I look forward to hearing everyone's stuff at the end! Happy Hump Day!

Same Old

Today I did exactly what I did yesterday. 8 more minutes of drumming, 4 or 5 more minutes of guitar. My goal is 24 minutes of drum parts my Wednesday -- I figure I can come up with 6 minutes of material that doesn't need drums to hit 30.

I still love where my record is headed. I've got kind of a retro guitar sound going -- really raw and dirty, but not all that distorted. Sounds a little White Stripesy on its own, but put in the context of my music, it almost sounds heavier than the ridiculous Meshuggah tone I've been aiming for for years.

I figured this record would turn out as some kind of experimental metal thing, but it's becoming much more punk than metal, which is strange and wonderful.

I love the raw sound of this stuff so much that I almost want to avoid using keyboards altogether. I have plenty of acoustic instruments lying around: acoustic guitar, melodica, kalimba, mandolin, harmonica, ukulele, toy piano, some homemade percussion...I could certainly get by without keyboards. But so many of the parts were conceived with a piano in mind...hopefully the sampled sounds won't ruin the charm. Haven't decided what to do yet. Also may record vocals with an SM57, just to go with that brand-new feel. Never recorded vocals with a dynamic before.

I am also carbo-loading, because the drumming and guitaring is taking a surprising amount out of me. Here's my dinner, some baby raviolis! Feel free to post YOUR Record Time fuel as well...

Tuesday

Just more writing and idea-ing. Finished writing one song at least, but I haven't started recording at all yet since I had to pick up my computer today. I've been feeling a bit antsy about all this, but in a good way I guess. I think I might be behind pace, but I should have something by Sunday.

Record Time virgins.....

So I am finally going to have actual material at the end of the week! This is the 3rd record time I've tried and the first that I will actually finish SOMETHING. My actual completion of anything worthwhile this year is due in large part to me working alongside a friend and creating something together. So in the spirit of some past posts, I decided to post the studio that David and I were working in for this week.

I look forward to hearing everything and getting comments on our stuff!

VLOG-DAY TWO

---Luxi

Record Time Rookie Reporting In

This is my first Record Time. I tried to hop aboard on the last one but got delayed and ended up missing the boat.

Before Record Time kicked off I had a think about what to do and how to approach it. I came up with a target to do 7 songs - one for each day, but not necessasrily written and recorded in a day. I then fell completely unawares into the classic concept album trap by obsessing about the number seven. Deadly sins? No. Dwarfs? Hmmmm, no. Ages of man? Ohhhh, yeah that could, ur, no. Wonders of the ancient world? Yes! Quite an IMLish approach but I'm hoping familiarity will make the process easier. The only trouble is that if I don't finish, there will either be a gaping hole or a couple of very short songs of extremely questionable quality about the Colossus of Rhodes and Great Pyramid of Giza. With that in mind, as a strategy I've decided to get each song recorded as quickly as possible with just a central acoustic guitar or piano part and the vocals. Once all the songs are down in that form I'll then add as much instrumentation as time allows and just constantly mix as I go so there won't be much to do at the end, well hopefully.

Day 1 progressed pretty well: I got the core ideas for six songs and started reading up on the Wonders. So far today (day 2) I've finished my reading and gotten angles from which to write the lyrics to most of songs. I've paired up each Wonder with a song idea (only the pyramid remains songless) and started to pen a few lines about the Lighthuse of Alexandria. Tonight I hope to get the central parts recorded and the lyrics written for 2 or 3 songs.

It's interesting to see where people are working so to continue a tradition set by the previous two posts here's my hovel:

Good luck to you all, I'm very excited to hear the results.

Tuesday Morning...

My 8 o'clock professor on Tuesdays and Thursdays has a class policy of "entirely optional, but you are responsible for the test grades." Hooray! So I'm taking this time to sit and relax, drink some coffee, and contemplate where I should start recording when I'm done with class around noon. I've been moving as quickly as possible on it pretty much whenever I can, so I've got about 10 minutes of material (some mixed, some not) so far.

I found yesterday that my ideas were becoming overwrought after I would try to force them out hour after hour on the same song. After working on one song for almost 5 hours (with the last hour being pretty unproductive), moving on to something else felt really nice, and it made going back to the first song a lot easier.

What kind of gear is everyone using? I'll go ahead and list some of mine. Also, since Dan was nice enough to post a picture of his drum set-up, I'll go ahead and post a picture of my non-drum set-up.

Pictured:

1985 Ibanez Roadstar II

Ibanez RG370

Yamaha PSR-290

Some pedals that I won't bore you by listing

Tascam US-144 usb recording interface/TM-78 mic

Day 2 begins. Good luck!

Freedom

Day One is over, and I feel so weird!

I've realized what must be my overall goal for RTVI: to let go. Thanks to my new job, I have 3-4 hours a day to work on this, so I don't have time to try and impress anyone...just to do something. But oddly enough, I LOVE this record already.

Not so much how it sounds, but rather what it means for me as a musician. I'm finally, FINALLY breaking out of my comfort zone in a big way. I'm honestly having a blast already...usually I trudge through the first 5 days and the fun doesn't start till Saturday (with keyboards and vocals). Now I'm just recording dumb riff after dumb riff and I don't care and it feels awesome.

Here is some of what I am working with. Not pictured is my new melodica and kalimba, both of which will certainly make an appearance. Got this new electronic set -- this is the first time in 6 years that I'm actually playing drums on one of my records...not quite real ones, but almost...and no quantizing!

Monday

Today I started coming up with some ideas for songs. I have a good start to one that I want to write for my friend's soon to be baby, and a few more ideas for guitar parts for other songs. I also want to try and write a song in Minecraft, which may turn out to be cool or just a giant waste of time. We'll see.

VLOG-DAY ONE

^^Check out the vid, time for a food break!
--Luxi

#donttrusther

This week, once the days' work is done, the kids are in bed, and I've watched some TV with the lady wife, I will mostly be writing songs about whatever topic is trending at the top of Twitter's charts. Today the worldwide trending topic at the time of composing was #donttrusther which is a mercifully straightforward topic to write about (though not, I hasten to add, as a reflection of my wife, who I completely trust).

Due to the complexities of this week, I'm going to aim for piano and vocal only, though possibly with some bass thrown in for good measure. I think probably limiting myself like this I'll find it easier to actually get the job done. That with the ridiculous Twitter trend idea for song titles (and potentially lyrics, though I haven't dived into the hive mind for those just yet).

Anyway, to conclude, a lovely time was had plinking and plonking away when I could have been in bed trying to unlock all the extras on the latest Prof Layton game. Hoorah for Record Time VI! Right off to bed. I've composed one song (and written most of the lyrics). Good luck evryone else and hats off to Dan for organising it all.

Not a Record

Being someone who is not musically inclined, I am going to listen to a record and bake something. I'll upload or link to a photo of the food and include which record I listened to.

Good luck to all of you on your projects!

So it begins...

I started work at precisely 12:00 am CST this morning and continued to work until about 3:00 am. I got a good deal done before I figured I should get to bed so I could get up at 6...

I decided on the ultimate form for my music this week. I've began writing some poetry/lyrics based loosely on an idea I had to combine a love goddess with a death goddess. So far the concept is to introduce the goddess in the first movement, bring forth a dilemma in the second movement, have a chase in the third movement, bring closure in the fourth movement, and then the fifth movement will be an elegy by death/love for those she has wrongfully brought into her clutches. I'm hoping to have the poetry done today.

The introduction, entitled "Bringer", will wind up being about 7 minutes long. I have most of the lyrics done and a great deal of the textures and soundscape laid down. I plan on recording the vocals later tonight when my wife gets home.

In the meantime, I am going to spend the rest of today working on the chase scene which has no lyrics.

Welcome.

This is going to be one crazy week. I cannot wait to listen to all of the music all of you contributors will produce.
Have a good time, and go insane.

Welcome to Record Time week!

Hi strangers!

I'm finally going to participate in Record Time and I am working on 2 projects this week. I'm really not a painter, but I'm going to paint. I'm a musician, but I'm more into planning events than playing, so I'm also going to plan an event this week. I'm planning to collaborate on the event with my boyfriend, so hopefully we can get started on that today!

I suppose I will have to update on the event for you to get the idea of what I'm accomplishing this week, as I can't really post an event to show you next Sunday when it won't take place for another week. The goal is to plan a "Superbowl Sunday Marathon" and to take the game from being just a football game to an experience. The whole day will be filled with various activities. It should be a good time. Now we need a venue (or two... or three)!

Tonight!

Is there anybody else who is going to start recording tonight at midnight? Stoke-age oozes from my every pore. I have to be awake at 7 a.m., but I've been really looking forward to this, so drowsiness tomorrow morning will just have to be the reality. Let's hear it for irresponsibility in the name of artistic integrity!

P.S. I hope everyone has a great time while writing and recording. We all deserve hugs.

Eric Putnam (Unplugged)

Thought I'd throw in my two cents. Which is funny/sad because I am actually really short on change these days. Like. Coins. All these Illinois tolls are suckin' up my metal. Anyways...

As the title implies, this Record Time will be unplugged. Since my move has vastly limited my instrument options, I've been inspired to squeeze every last drop of juice out, so to speak. I'll be recording electric bass not amplified, not direct, just raw, unplugged electric bass. I know it soudns lame, but i've been experimenting and it actually makes a cool texture along with some recorded desk percussion and clapping. Yes it'll be a very natural sounding album this year. Other instruments may include my external hard drive case's buzz and my vintage 1987 2 qt saucepan. I've also set limiters on chord usage and number of songs so there shouldn't be a whole lot to think about at all. Which is nice when you're a full-time grad student and TA.

Greetings

This will be my first time participating in Record Time, and I am super pumped! I've listened to most of the submissions from the past couple years and have always been impressed but I never had enough time to actually do anything due to all of my projects for school or the various recording and composition jobs I had at Ball State. Now that I'm out of school and unemployed (for the time being...) I have plenty of time to devote my full creative attention to Record Time VI.

I've never been very comfortable with the writing popular music like rock/pop/country. I feel like it always comes out sounding cliché. So, I'm going to attempt to fuse my usual avant-garde electro-acoustic style with something... pop-ish...

My goal is to create 30-40 minutes of music in the vein of John Adams, Terry Riley, Phillip Glass, and maybe some Stockhausen, then fuse it with some of the style of artists like Justice, BT, Blockhead, Little People, RJD2... etc. I'll probably wind up using a combination of synthesis, music concrete techniques, live instrument and voice through Max/MSP, and recording voice, violin, and electric guitar. The guitar stuff will probably just be chordal and texture stuff, definitely not my forte.

I've always enjoyed music that either tells a story or has some kind of metaphysical point to it but I've never been very good at writing lyrics. So, I spent the majority of last week either scouring the internet and the Nashville public library for some sort of inspiration. My journey took me from the Tao Te Ching to the Bhagavad gita, from Ovid's Metamorphoses to Goethe's Faust. Needless to say, I had a very full week of reading last week. However, I didn't quite find what I wanted. I was beginning to think that I might have to sit down and write my own poetry to accomplish what I'm after (which I am probably going to wind up doing anyway) until I stumbled upon Tolkien's poetry. It's exactly what I was looking for (and I had forgotten he had written poetry for the LotR books until I stumbled upon a Nordic poetry site.) However, I feel that it might be too well known. I mean, most everyone has heard of some of the cities and people in the poems (whether through the books or by watching the movies).

I might draw on Tolkien for some inspiration while I write my poetry/lyrics. It will most likely be about a journey through a post-apocalyptic world to reach some type of goal. The heroine will be the narrator and the music/soundscape will provide the scenery and action which the heroine must react to.

Wow, this was a lot longer than I planned on it being. I hope everyone has as much fun as I plan on having!

Paul Marquissee

Collaboration

Hey all.

This will be my husband's second Record Time and my first. We decided to collaborate...though I won't pretend I don't feel hesitant about that! I just see this going Paul and Linda...or John/Yoko (you know, he is blinded by love and can't tell her that she sounds like a tortured animal whilst singing). But anyway.

Eric really wanted to make an album about/inspired by Chicago (the city...not the band). We've both lived here for about two years and love it, so I was totally on board to do a Chicago tribute project (again...speaking about the city here). I'm taking an audio documentary class at the moment and have been playing around with the recorder and mics I've been given to record various sounds throughout the city. So far my focus has been on street performers and musicians in the subway, so we're going to try to incorporate some of that as well.

Eric's strength is definitely in the music and recording department, so he'll be focusing on composing, and I'll be working on writing some lyrics. We both want the sound to emulate the city and the sounds we hear every day living out our lives here, so we want to try to use repetition and a lot of natural sound.

We're definitely still in the conceptualizing and preparation phase. At this point, my fears are in the collaborating-with-a-significant-other department, and Eric's fears are alllll about time, as he works full time and I go to school full time and work part-time. Anyone have some good advice for either of these areas?

Really excited to hear everyone else's ideas! Yay Record Time VI!

From Record Time, For Record Time

Just remembered this!

Barney Brown, an ACTUAL wizard from ACTUAL England, built a fantastic lyrical inspiration machine as his submission for Record Time IV. Give it a whirl when it comes time to write lyrics:

Try out iLyricise here.

Hope Barney doesn't mind me posting it! That is all.

Stormy

Although I've traditionally done Bitchin' *you name it*... I plan on hopefully collaborating with a friend to produce something a little more palatable. I expect it to have a little more of a pop sound, and something that will be fun to listen to.

The plan is to have all guitars, drums, and hopefully vocals done by friday...so that my friend can add in bass and additional guitars (as well as mix) over the weekend. I expect the collaboration over the internet to be challenging, as it will take some additional time to bounce ideas back and forth.

I'm finding it difficult to not just start sifting through ideas and starting now...but that would be against the very idea of record time. This one is going to be particularly therapeutic, I can feel the storm beginning to brew...

Lullabies

So I released my first full length album a little over a month ago, I think it was December 14th, and I plan on having another album finished January 31st like the rest of us. My first album ended up getting over 1,000 downloads and a few more trickle in every now and then, if you aren't familiar with it, it was 45:55 of improvised piano and strings. I actually wrote the album for a woman I am very close to, to help her study.

Enough background, this next album I know I am going to top my last one by miles. I plan on writing, hopefully, 50+ minutes of content in the same vein as my previous album but this time it's not going to be entirely improvised, although a good portion will be. Ideally, it's going to be a lullaby for the woman previously mentioned. A mix of ambient soundscapes, relaxing strings, calming melodies, and like the last one, all of my emotion (since I'm so awful at normal communication).

So here's to another great record time! I have so many ideas I am fighting them from getting out early!

Busy?

Record Time just keeps getting harder, and this one will definitely be the hardest for me. During 1-5, I was either in school and pushing all my work aside, or unemployed and doing absolutely nothing. Now I've got a 9-6 job (with another 1.5 hours in traffic), leaving me with only a few hours each night to record.

My strategy? 30 minutes of random, unfiltered nonsense. Every time I do an album, I set out to make something really experimental and weird, but it never happens -- it all ends up reverting back to my usual wall-of-sound pop-metal stuff. I think I've developed a nice little style of my own, but I'm sick of it now.

So I'm going to force myself out my comfort zone by laying down 30 minutes of drum improv -- randomly strung-together beats with illogical tempo and meter shifts. Then just write everything else on top of it. I've always loved bands with rapid-fire changes like Mr. Bungle, Idiot Flesh, and Naked City...I realize they write those changes for a reason, but I don't have time for that! I also bought an incredible new electronic drumset a few months ago, so it'll be fun to have something a little more human-sounding than perfectly quantized drum samples.

Guitar tuning probably won't be a big deal to many other people, but I made the pretty huge decision to play in Eb standard this time. Every record I've made in the past 4 years or so has been in the ridiculous Open C tuning (CGCGCE) or some variation of it...I went down to Open Bb at some point. Strange as it sounds, I'm hoping standard tuning will make this music LESS poppy, since I barely remember how to play in it anymore.

As for lyrics, my tentative idea is to make this entire thing an experimental children's album. Have you ever heard a song about brushing your teeth in 11/8 time? If you have, then dammit.

The Philosopher Stoned (The Killer Meteor III)

I will be doing a record as my hip-hop alias The Killer Meteor, as I did for RECORD TIME V. I intend for it to be a concept album based loosely on the kung fu movie Young Taoism Fighter. Though admittedly quite zany, I was motivated to retell this particular story because it involves such topics as: kung fu, Taoism, astral projection, man vs. himself, love, sacrifice, revenge, and truly disgusting forms of evil.

One of my goals for this project is to incorporate mostly "exotic" scales, such as Enigmatic, Hindu, Pelog, Double Harmonic, Persian, Marva, and Ethiopian scales. Another is to rap in a number of personae, as if I am "passing the mic" to myself. Though most of the lyrics will be prewritten, I intend for at least a bit to be freestyle, as I am trying to improve at such.

Concerning the actual structure of the album as a whole, the "tonic" pitch of each track will be chosen so that it can be treated as if it is the root of a chord in a typical chord progression that develops over the course of the entire album. Additionally, specific sounds will divide both the entire album, and each track, into perfect fourths or eighths, rounded to the nearest eighth note.

I look forward to reading about the plans and progress of others, and especially to hearing the end results.

-Ed Mellen (The Killer Meteor)

Ideas

I think I'm going to write about Japanese mythology of the sea. There's an old tale of a deity who slays a great 8-headed dragon, and that sounds pretty rad. I want my album to have ups and downs, so having an old story that I can manipulate is pretty useful. I've been practicing a pretty heavy amount in order to prepare for this, so hopefully the end product will be something I can be proud of.

Hello World

Welcome to the Record Time VI blog!

Record Timers can use this space to post about their progress throughout the event, as well as before and after. I would encourage everyone to share a bit about their preparation, their writing and recording processes, and of course the inevitable descent into madness.

Hopefully you’ve all received a message about the blog by now, but if you haven’t, and YOU WANT TO POST ON THE BLOG, just send me a message or e-mail with your e-mail address. From there, I just plug you into the “permissions” page and you can post as if the blog were yours and only yours.

Also, when it’s all over, this blog will be used to post reviews of everything – one of my favorite parts. The more people who can contribute, the better. But I’m getting ahead of myself, and I’ll send out more info later!

I thought I’d kick the blog off with some actual content…maybe even useful content. After organizing and participating in RT five times over the course of 4 years, I’ve accumulated VAST amounts of wisdom. Here are my top 5 tips for having a fun and safe Record Time experience.

1) Prepare. Change your guitar strings. Clean off your keyboard. Untangle your cables. Make sure they’re all working properly. Warm up your voice/fingers/mouse clickin’ muscles. Back up your computer, and delete some crap. Make some new guitar/synth/drum patches. SET UP DAW SESSION TEMPLATES. Clean your room. Get some sleep.

2) Be adventurous. If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with a new style, or try out a new technique, now is the time. Go outside your comfort zone – you’ll learn some new tricks that you can use (or not use) later.

3) Be ambitious. You can do a lot more in a week than you think. You’ll be surprised when your “rushed” material starts sounding as good as your carefully plotted, yearlong projects. I wrote the best album of my life for Record Time (RT3 to be exact), and you can too!

4) Try using limits. Self-imposed limits give you a great starting point for each piece of music. You may try writing your record using only certain instruments, or you may try writing around a theme or narrative.

5) Have a plan. A loose schedule ensures that you won’t spend too much time on insignificant details. Make sure you leave some time towards the end to tweak your mixes and do last-minute overdubs.

I was gonna do 10, but then I got bored! I pass the blogging torch to you!

Dan