what is going on in your musical life

everything in my life seems to be conspiring against me going to the studio tomorrow: my roommate has covid, unseasonable warming in the atmosphere is usually the thing that gives me an automatic sinus infection... but i seem to have avoided both of these things and will be sitting behind a drumkit recording our new album in 24 hours. unbelievable. last time we recorded was almost six years ago

Imperfect conditions -> the necessity of the work feels more critical. It's gonna go great!

I have a to-do list for "new personal work" and top of the list is "clean the basement", lol

Are you tracking drums by yourself or as a band? Remember to relax, breathe, and have fun!

we've always tracked live and we're planning to do that again. which is good because the band chemistry is actually something that relaxes me. thank u both

i just have to make sure i get enough sleep tonight. good luck me

(i will be wayyy too excited to go to bed at a reasonable time)

<3 good luck ivy!

hope the session goes well!

tracking live makes such a difference

Break a leg ivy!

one thing I've really been into recording is something I saw on Never Mind the Bullocks Classic Albums episode where Steve Jones talked about how they would overdub the main guitar line twice, an octave below and an octave above, it sounds pretty amazing

Get some rest and have so much fun Ivy!

nothing exposes how you're not as good at your instrument as you think you are like recording. regardless i'm having the time of my life

so true about recording! I've been finding it liberating to record acoustically in a room as opposed to with a mic and noise gate etc

record's almost done! still has to be mixed. listening to the raw mixes rn. all my insecurities about my drum performance are probably rooted in my playing on an unfamiliar kit on which my kick pedal action turned out to be a little more rapid than i'm used to, we fixed it early in the sessions but i still feel it on the earliest tracks. no one else notices this at all btw and it's probably mostly in my head

anyway, with that out of the way!!! it's a fucking great record i'm very happy with it

(i could also probably solve all of my time fluctuation anxieties by recording to a click, but... i refuse)

ok, a few days removed from recording, listening to the raw mixes... folks, our album absolutely whips

hell yeah

wicked! that should make the mixing go easier.... :)

Congrats! Playing to a click has its own anxieties, and would ruin the magic of a band tracking live together. If you were recording by yourself, sure. But these days it's nice to hear something with imperfect time.

i've arrived at the much more positive thought: that even playing in imperfect conditions i was able to get usable takes that other people sound great. and again the further i get away from recording the less i notice... whatever it is i'm noticing... don't live in my brain folks... it's bad in here

that other people say* sound great

I'd say if you're already at that point a few days later then you're a zen master, it takes me much longer, lol.

Btw I've been puzzling over Swen's post for days...how do you record acoustically in a room without a mic??? :)

I'd say if you're already at that point a few days later then you're a zen master, it takes me much longer, lol.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Wednesday, January 31, 2024 10:30 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i am truly so grateful that we are not mixing for another two months

I've released another batch of my Ableton noodlings into the wild on Bandcamp. All on the house / breakstep / techno adjacent side of things: https://wascal.bandcamp.com/album/t-t-k-k-008

This seems to be getting a bunch of views this morning, no idea why as it has the same low sound quality, no lighting, and shaky phone camera as the rest of my videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH_rloprXbU

Bc it rules haha

Aw thanks!

I sang a couple of spirituals this morning at the start of today’s church service; unfortunately I didn’t know where the camera was and stood in the wrong spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhSvGaCLEU

Hands are feeling good, reminding myself to breathe, feeling like I'm gonna become a decent drummer in my 40s

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3v-HlJAllm/

that's fantastic jordan!!!

I have an album of electronic music coming out on the 29th, and the Cardiacs Discord server compilation album that I started making music to contribute to is coming out Real Soon Now. I have a Bandcamp now; http://chrisirregardless.bandcamp.com . If you would have told me a year ago that I would be doing this, I would have laughed at you.

Thanks ivy! Jazz-gram has been a big inspiration over the last year, a handful of accounts that are really good for little vocabulary things to work on (Dan Weiss, Joe Farnsworth, an amazing European kid named Peter Primus Fr0sch, etc). Also just seeing lots of good drummers/different hands...I'm a real tortoise, but I think if today's internet had been around when I was in high school I would have figured some things out much, much sooner.

xp

Whoa, congrats CGLDI.

haha yeah is doing the "seven steps to heaven" intro kind of a drum meme at the moment? i've seen at least two videos of it on my youtube feed in the past month

i don't even know how i would've learned to drum without the internet. well, i guess i would've taken lessons. which i did! but watching videos of drummers clearly had as much of an effect on my playing

if today's internet had been around when I was in high school I would have figured some things out much, much sooner.

well yeah if today's internet had been around when i was a teenager i would have started playing decades before i actually started. I'm 10.5 years old as a drummer now and I feel antsy, eager to play more and keep getting better.

go get it Christine -- major kudos to you for following through and doing it

Oh I don't know! I haven't seen SStH popping up, I've just always loved it, and Tony Williams style on that record. It's so slick but also light, lyrical & almost casual, and a little more approachable than the records that came after.

This woman plays it beautifully, so relaxed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumDHdPoVwk

this is far more rudimentary and a way less flattering video overall but i filmed my drum practice today, which was eight foo fighters songs in a row. i like to call this "the marathon," because it's the set of songs that most feels like a really intense workout whenever i play it. i am usually too tired by the time i get to "everlong" to play it well or even make it through the whole thing... but i fuckin did it this time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_8KZM-z3i4

It's the 29th, and my EP is out now. Six tracks of drones, squeaks, and melodies.
https://chrisirregardless.bandcamp.com/album/wreath-mantle

I really like that! Love the textures and mallets/bell tones.

congrats CGLDI! cool stuff, i like it too

i'm working on recording more songs with my recording project band. this batch is the first time we don't have any analog in the chain (we used to record rhythm tracks to 4-track but it finally died) and i'm having trouble getting things to sound like i'm used to them sounding. otoh we can now actually mic the drums properly bc we have more input options.

i'm also taking a break from the songwriting class/workshop i had been doing. it was fun and it was good to force me to write something every week, but it was also expensive and the teacher was starting to get on my nerves, lecturing about kinks songs for half the class instead of letting people play their songs and get notes. i might go back to it later.

Now I want to be in a periodic producer's workshop where we all present demos and get feedback. Might have to pursue this!

NA have you tried using analog preamp and tape emulation plugins to get that sound? There are so many great cheap/free ones these days, I spend much of my time doing that (I would grab all the Analog Obsession ones to start with).

stuff like that makes me feel dumb but i'll take a look at it, thanks

not a tape emulator but i've found this helpful to warm and fatten up tracks or even on the master bus

https://www.soundtoys.com/product/little-radiator/

soundtoys stuff is really great, simple, focused for a purpose

I love that one on tambourines. :)

This is my current go-to "duh, make it sound better" plugin for drums
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2023/12/21/baby-audio-beat-slammer/

And I always put a touch of the BPB Saturator on basically everything.

CGLDI this EP is amazing, wow

yes chris this is great!!! also i love "gnarled doll" as a song title

I'm really touched by the positive reception that my music has gotten here and in other places. Thank you all very much. There will be more of it coming soon. Oh, and that comp I was talking about is now out.

https://scarlethall.bandcamp.com/album/pond-frozen-over

listened to the final mix of the album this afternoon. really happy with it. if we can get things (mastering, artwork, new band photo) rolling in the next week or so... might have a single out in april