Today I learned that when you eq something on headphones, by the time it gets onto speakers it sounds harsh and brittle.
I made a preset on the eq to solve this problem, a gently sloping gradient of a bass boost and a high cut, that covers my track in a thin layer of mud, that when amplified sounds brilliant and rounded. I've been trying, as I've been recording this second hans pucket track, to make all decisions in the pursuit of a listener wanting to turn the volume up.
I dulled the highs and lows, as they become a lot fuller when amplified
I hid the vocals slightly under the volume of the backing.
Genearally my attempts have been working well. The track is sounding a lot punchier than my first one, smokey ghost. Now I just need a name. Something that says "I wish I had found this out earlier", but also "Im glad I know this know"
Preferably one or two words, with a slight pun. A half pun, if you will.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tuesday
Today is Tuesday, buts its like my Friday cause tomorrow they let me stay home and do whatever I like for 3 days. I could build like a big tower out of kitchen misc! or cook a 3 day roast, or smoke a whole ham.
I'd love to do that, because I live at home and I could actually work for 5 days and then spend all the money on a whole pig that I would smoke in the weekend. What a life I could lead!
Today was pretty good for a Tuesday. The guys at work found a huge bunch of shoes in the dumpster from no 1 shoe warehouse, so they dug them out and are going to donate them to Fiji.
I got a free half strength flat white, which was pretty much just warm milk, and ate all the edges off a fudge slice.
The magic slice had a shade too little condensed milk in the biscuit base, so a whole bunch of it was too crumbly to sell, I got to take it home! I also got some free dutch Christmas cookie balls, that they apparently use for a sort of lolly scramble except with spiced cookies.
Other things I have now tried at the cafe include, krokets (awesome), Pickled herring (delicious), reaaly salty liquorice (almost made me throw up), a dutch late (with aniseed, very tasty).
I really want to try the custard squares they make at the cafe, look amazing.
We also got some new teapots in the cafe that are super shiny and pretty. I told a couple of old ladies I served that they were lucky to use them, as we had just got them yesterday, the cafe was quite excited. One lady pointed out if that was the most exciting thing in my day...
Totally bummed out.
On the way home I biked past a group of cathedral grammer kids, two eight year old girls, one leading a little boy about four or five, who had only one shoe on. I just managed to hear one girl say to the other; "hey maddy... did he have two shoes on back at the place?"
I'd love to do that, because I live at home and I could actually work for 5 days and then spend all the money on a whole pig that I would smoke in the weekend. What a life I could lead!
Today was pretty good for a Tuesday. The guys at work found a huge bunch of shoes in the dumpster from no 1 shoe warehouse, so they dug them out and are going to donate them to Fiji.
I got a free half strength flat white, which was pretty much just warm milk, and ate all the edges off a fudge slice.
The magic slice had a shade too little condensed milk in the biscuit base, so a whole bunch of it was too crumbly to sell, I got to take it home! I also got some free dutch Christmas cookie balls, that they apparently use for a sort of lolly scramble except with spiced cookies.
Other things I have now tried at the cafe include, krokets (awesome), Pickled herring (delicious), reaaly salty liquorice (almost made me throw up), a dutch late (with aniseed, very tasty).
I really want to try the custard squares they make at the cafe, look amazing.
We also got some new teapots in the cafe that are super shiny and pretty. I told a couple of old ladies I served that they were lucky to use them, as we had just got them yesterday, the cafe was quite excited. One lady pointed out if that was the most exciting thing in my day...
Totally bummed out.
On the way home I biked past a group of cathedral grammer kids, two eight year old girls, one leading a little boy about four or five, who had only one shoe on. I just managed to hear one girl say to the other; "hey maddy... did he have two shoes on back at the place?"
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tiger Moth
I finished recording two songs in the last few days.
One is for Hans Pucket, a band I started with Callum so he can bash the drums and I can write annoyingly catchy 60's disco and Motown numbers, distorted as all hell. I like the idea of a two piece, white stripes/Simon and Garfunkel line up. Callum has said he talked to Liam Finn at camp about the benefits of playing with a brother like he does with Elroy, and I agree, It's pretty awesome. The last gig we played had a highlight for me when I was in the middle of our Motown song and I busted out the bridge bass line from Lady Madonna, and callum knew exactly what I was doing, he just went with it. That's not jamming, it's a lot closer to mind reading.
The song I recorded is called Smokey Ghost and has a lot more going for it lyrically than I first realised, and I freaking love it when that happens.
I try when I write lyrics not to follow any linear thread, but more what I think just sounds right. I tend to choose phrases that fall into place naturally because of either vowel sounds that I want, or the rhythm of the melody. The lyrics end up collage like, and a lot of their meaning I like to think happens subconsciously, although generally there is a point I'm trying to make, I don't overthink it too much, because they end up waaaaay overthought and complex like the ones in the last post.
I like Smokey Ghost because the random, "spooky" annoying tone of the song matches the lyrics really well. I think the song's meaning is pretty clear.
The second song is one of a batch I've written recently with the melody first. It was an abnormally sunny Saturday for autumn, I just made cookies and was walking round with the guitar playing randomly. The melody just popped out of nowhere, but I think it had roots in Smoked too much by Lawrence Arabia. I wrote the lyrics about a week later when I was biking through Hagley park en route to the Dentist and thought I'd have a sit down on a bench by the museum. I realised that I had had the melody in my head for a solid week, and I better do something about it. The lyrics were shit so I wrote another random poem about a classic Loved-and-Hated leader-type which sprung up really quick after I got the first line "Humming hymns" down. Turns out with a bit of tweaking it fitted perfectly and I had the song.
I called it Tiger Moth after my favourite phrase in the song, It's a pretty awesome name when you think about it. It's an oxymoron. It's a plane. It has tiger in it.
Fuck its a way better name than custard bear. But theres already a band called it. Damn.
The dentist was shit. I got a filling, and nearly bit a hole through my eerily numb lip biking home. But they backdated it to before I turned 18 so it was free.
I've also written a whole host of Custard Bear songs recently. One called Silent Lions, as in yawning, One called Summer, its wicked. They both sound like a cross between mgmt and conan mockasin, but when we get it into the band with jack and callum it sounds completely different, one of the joys of having a band with three completely different people. Okay, one different person and a pair of twins.
Theres another song with a chorus that sounds like the copacobana. I'll tweak it, It'll be okay. They all sound really cohesive though, and I really want to make an ep out of them. Exciting times.
One is for Hans Pucket, a band I started with Callum so he can bash the drums and I can write annoyingly catchy 60's disco and Motown numbers, distorted as all hell. I like the idea of a two piece, white stripes/Simon and Garfunkel line up. Callum has said he talked to Liam Finn at camp about the benefits of playing with a brother like he does with Elroy, and I agree, It's pretty awesome. The last gig we played had a highlight for me when I was in the middle of our Motown song and I busted out the bridge bass line from Lady Madonna, and callum knew exactly what I was doing, he just went with it. That's not jamming, it's a lot closer to mind reading.
The song I recorded is called Smokey Ghost and has a lot more going for it lyrically than I first realised, and I freaking love it when that happens.
I try when I write lyrics not to follow any linear thread, but more what I think just sounds right. I tend to choose phrases that fall into place naturally because of either vowel sounds that I want, or the rhythm of the melody. The lyrics end up collage like, and a lot of their meaning I like to think happens subconsciously, although generally there is a point I'm trying to make, I don't overthink it too much, because they end up waaaaay overthought and complex like the ones in the last post.
I like Smokey Ghost because the random, "spooky" annoying tone of the song matches the lyrics really well. I think the song's meaning is pretty clear.
The second song is one of a batch I've written recently with the melody first. It was an abnormally sunny Saturday for autumn, I just made cookies and was walking round with the guitar playing randomly. The melody just popped out of nowhere, but I think it had roots in Smoked too much by Lawrence Arabia. I wrote the lyrics about a week later when I was biking through Hagley park en route to the Dentist and thought I'd have a sit down on a bench by the museum. I realised that I had had the melody in my head for a solid week, and I better do something about it. The lyrics were shit so I wrote another random poem about a classic Loved-and-Hated leader-type which sprung up really quick after I got the first line "Humming hymns" down. Turns out with a bit of tweaking it fitted perfectly and I had the song.
I called it Tiger Moth after my favourite phrase in the song, It's a pretty awesome name when you think about it. It's an oxymoron. It's a plane. It has tiger in it.
Fuck its a way better name than custard bear. But theres already a band called it. Damn.
The dentist was shit. I got a filling, and nearly bit a hole through my eerily numb lip biking home. But they backdated it to before I turned 18 so it was free.
I've also written a whole host of Custard Bear songs recently. One called Silent Lions, as in yawning, One called Summer, its wicked. They both sound like a cross between mgmt and conan mockasin, but when we get it into the band with jack and callum it sounds completely different, one of the joys of having a band with three completely different people. Okay, one different person and a pair of twins.
Theres another song with a chorus that sounds like the copacobana. I'll tweak it, It'll be okay. They all sound really cohesive though, and I really want to make an ep out of them. Exciting times.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Wealth
I wrote this song late the other night in a fit of inspiration. Like a lot of songs I write, I had just spent about 2 hours writing a piece of crap that ended up sounding like something else. I should stop writing late at night. I'm losing sleep.
Wealth by olidevlin
As a matter of fact this is the single most intellectual lyric I've written, stemming from a thought I had about extremely driven, successful people; perfectionists; and the irony that their uber-success could possibly be hidden to them, but nonetheless fuelled by a massive lack of self-esteem, or a sense of inadequacy or whatever. A comforting thought for us plebs that success must come with a cost, or is only an attractive concept from the outside.
more to come, including work by my digital alter-ego "Sponge"
Wealth by olidevlin
As a matter of fact this is the single most intellectual lyric I've written, stemming from a thought I had about extremely driven, successful people; perfectionists; and the irony that their uber-success could possibly be hidden to them, but nonetheless fuelled by a massive lack of self-esteem, or a sense of inadequacy or whatever. A comforting thought for us plebs that success must come with a cost, or is only an attractive concept from the outside.
more to come, including work by my digital alter-ego "Sponge"
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Bitch; Please
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