Phil Lynott Superstar

I have made a good solid start at sub-section 1.3.1 - this one is about electricity. This final 1/3 of the first track is about physical forces: Electricity, Magnetism & Gravity (and yes if any physicists are reading I know that I am missing strong and weak atomic forces)

So lots of electrical instruments to be used.

Unlike sometimes I had a pretty full comprehensive plan in my head for this one. I'd got several motifs (to use a posh word), and an order.  I'd even worked out the timings, based on a speed of 128 bpm, which gave an exact fit in the three minutes.  

Unfortunately when i actually started work, 128 bpm turned out to be too slow.  It needed to be more like 144.  Oh dear.  Never mind, that gives me exactly 4 more bars over 3 minutes, and I remembered an extra idea I had.

So it goes like this - it's a sort of pulsing 8/8 rythmn on 3 electric guitars, which reminds me rather heavily of "do anything you wanna do" by Thin Lizzy. It starts inside the previous sub-section carrying on from the guitar finishing up there, with a pulse on an A with a stabby chord thing every two bars.  Once into the section proper the drums start (again similar to the Thin Lizzy song - a bit of "tribute" going on there - I really wanted the nice rolling rock feel), it goes A for 4 bars, F for 4 bars C# for 4 bars and back to A for 4 bars.  This is repeated.  Over this there will be (not done yet) an electrical sounding synth solo (buzzy sound).  

If you read this blog (and I'm not sure anyone does) you will maybe remember some posts ago I was celebrating being able to do a triangle quintet.  I have now gone beyond this in terms of strangeness - the next bit is an "unplugged wire solo".  Unplugged guitar wires make buzzing noises when you touch them, so I have a very short section of doing that.

Plugged back in, the three guitars play a trio, slight similarities to the Thin Lizzy but using a chord sequence from Jesus Christ Superstar, crossed with the theme tune for Magic Roundabout: A, D, G/A, D.  I think it's pretty good.

The next motif is back to the stabby chords over an A chug, but with a double-time bass solo.

Next just the stabs without the chug, and electrical sound effects: phone dialling and alarm ringing, electric drill, zappy sounds, one of my son's electrical-tune-playing toys (my wife said "I won't ask..." when she saw me recording it) and finally thunder.  Most sound effects free from the internet, with the one exception which I recorded.

back to the A, F, C# A sequence, this one will have an electric piano soloing over it when complete.

Now for the extra 4 bars.  There's this nice rasping sound you can get by running a plectrum edgewise along a guitar string, so I have 4 bars of that (3 guitars) and finally back into the guitar trio from earlier.

It's all very rock and it rolls along nicely (in my opinion). There are several hints at electricity along the way and also I think it feels kind of charged with a sort of musical thrill.

Although  have not been as economical as I could with recording this so far, there are several bits that have been repeated or re-used.  I have made a lot of use of a little trick - doubling the speed of small sections.  There are quite a lot of little triplet runs, and actually I could probably do most of them for real at speed, but they become better defined when recorded at half-speed and doubled up. I've got a lot of overlaying, effectively editing going on on the guitar tracks.

So there are a couple of things left to do on this section - the synth and electric piano solos which I want to take good time over to make them effective, and there is some mucking about to do with the start of this sectiona nd the end of the last to get them to feel seamless.

Triangulation solutions

I think I have solved all of my triangle problems.  Warning, I am definitely "twitching the veil" on this.

Firstly the pattern part, after mulling a while I had a brainwave! The problem is that playing fast off-beats is very hard, especially when mixed with on-beats.  I considered slowing things down foor recording and then speeding them back up again.  I was concerned that this makes the natural ring of the triangles shorter.  I am recording the 5 triangles as a track each.  What I actually did was rearrange the pattern so that the off-beats were all played on two of the 5 triangles, and those two only played off-beats.  I worked out the pattern and played those as on-beats, and then shifted the recordings so that they were now on the off-beats.  I consider this to be elegant cheatery.

The second bit was the cutting off of the delay, I decided to try a different approach which is "realer" than the original rather than elegant fakery.  I again had the jangly bits, but stopped them dead by hand, waited and then had a single hit where I wanted the ringing bit to come back in.  This had exactly the effect I was looking for with the planned editing, a tightening up and then a release.

Thirdly, the first section, the "free-for-all".  I shortened it by introducing a clock winding at the beginning, which I wanted somewhere anyway.  I was thinking of having it at the back end of the previous sub-section, but this way seemed to make more sense.  This means the triangle free-for-all gets going slower.  There is a little more structure for the free-for all but not a lot, that little bit shorter really helps.  And I also used a technique called "when you think something might be boring, add something else to distract from it" - I added a nice backwards electric guitar chord, something I felt like I had wanted somewhere in this sub-section anyway.

The other thing I added was a wood-block being played, starting when the triangles pause after the jangling bit.  Actually it's not a wood-block but I don't know what it's called.  It's wooden, and shaped like a tube with a split up the side.  It's ridges so you can get noises rubbing a sick up the outside, or it rings in a wooden way when you hit it.  There are two of them on one stick, which hit alternately sound like "tick-tock" - which is why I wanted it. I'm sure I could have found a sample of the soound but I wasnted to record it, straight through proper live recorded instrument.

So the final (maybe) structure of the time sub-section goes like this:

Triangle at the start, clock winding.  as the clock starts ticking there is a triangle free-for all.  in the background a reverse guitar chord comes to it's climax, at which point a rythmic complex pattern is played on 5 triangles.  After some repeats all triangles jangle and are held.  The tick-tock starts, the triangles have a single hit and are left to ring.  Drums come in with some fills, settling to a regualr pattern, behind which the guitar chords fade in.  There is a drum fill, the tick-tock stops (not the real clock SFX) and then the guitar soloing starts, accompanied by guitar chords and bass drum only.  Solos for over a minute, end of sub-section.

After a rethink

As I left the project last time, I was feeling that I was lacking inspiration for three minutes (minus a bit) of acoustic guitar solo.  I had at least two options to deal with this: a) get more inspired, work harder, pull out the solo of a lifetime or b) have a different idea.

I had a different idea.

I need this section (1.2.2) to finish while soloing as I was - this carries on into 1.2.3 for reasons which will become clear later, when I deal with that section.  But then again, why does it need to *start* with the soloing?  No reason.

We can build up to the soloing, maybe with a bit of drums.  Yes not a bad idea.  We can use some woodblocks to give an extra ticking dimension. How about a triangle solo?

Well more of a triangle quintet.

You see, I have 5 triangles of different sizes.  Up until now I have been using a sampled triangle but I think it's time to pull out the real things and have a go.  I have three things I would like to do.  Firstly some "free jazz" triangle improvisation - in other words unstructured playing, this can build up for a while.  Secondly, the structured bit - I have a pattern I would like to play.  The pattern goes quite fast and I'll have to play them separately, recording each part alone and then combining them.  This will be difficult, which is good, I like a challenge. Finally the climax - there's this thing you can do with a triangle, you hold the stick inside the triangle and rattle it round the sides to make a long jangly noise.  I want to do that on all 5 triangles at once.  And then stop all at once and let them ring. And then take the recordings and chop the sound just after the active jangling stops and move the "letting them ring" bit (the decay) back by two bars, giving a gap in the middle.  I don't know why I want to do that last bit but I think it might be cool so I'm willing to give it a try.  I also have possible plans to use the structured bit again in a later sub-section.

OK, so having said all that, what have I actually achieved?  Moving back the start of the guitar soloing, fading in the guitar part, and some drumming to go with it all.  In the long run this gives me about a minute, maybe less for the triangly bits.  

The Mysterious Ticking Noise

Before I get going on the music stuff - the title of this post is a literary reference.  If you have not seen The Mysterious Ticking Noise then I highly recommend it for a good larf. 

Subsection 1.2.2 started, and the subject is time.  There have been many songs about time, notably "Time" by Pink Floyd and "Time" by Sam Brown (two of my favourites).  Signifying the passage of time is really easy - you just need a clock ticking noise.

I have had a subtext of determination so far with this project - to resist sound effects as much as possible.  It would be all too easy to signify water by rain effects, air by wind effects and so on.  However, in this case, the ticking becomes an integral part of the music.

So I looked online for a clock ticking.  I could have recorded my one, but I don't think I have a mechanical clock any more, and my watch is very quiet. Free sound effects are available, but often have a lot of background noise.  I found quite a good one at Sound Jay (http://www.soundjay.com/) , a source I think I'll use again in the future.  There was only one problem with it, unbelievably it was fast!  You would expect a ticking noise from a clock to work perfectly alongside a 120bmp click (2 clicks a second).  I had to process the sound to slow it down!

You can't really have a ticking noise for 3 minutes with nothing else, so I needed a musical idea (maybe more than one).  As it happens I have an idea that has been forming.  A couple of weeks ago in church we played a song that had the following chord transition:  Cmaj7 to Em/C#.  This involves moving one finger one fret on the guitar and is sweet.  Well I've been playing around with this a bit recently and have come up with a cyclic chord progression:

G, Am7, G/B, Cmaj7, Em/C#, D, B7/D#, Em, D/F#, G....

So I thought I might as well use this, but for some reason when I started playing, the G/B suddenly became a D/B - a bit of a thumb stretch but a nice gentle chord.

Now I have a vague sort of plan that whatever I do in this subsection will spill over majorly into sub-section 1.2.3 (in fact right now I'm thinking of recording them both together as one 6-minute track).  So I gave the ticking a few bars to settle and recorded the chords on the guitar, once for each side, many many repeats to be over the 6 minutes long each side - that was a long slog and my attention wandered but I made it.

So I started acoustic guitar noodling over the top, and have come to a conclusion - it gets boring after a while. Anyway at that point I stopped as I seemed to have run out of inspiration.  I'm starting to have extra ideas to come in, basically I think the chords will start later after some other fun with percussion.

27 mini solos

This is an up-to-date post, I've just finished what I'm talking about.

So I was working on 1.2.1, as described in previous posts.  I had the refrain tune recorded for the three voices (I tend to think of solo, lead instruments as being "voices", almost as if they were singers).  I also had the Bodhran backing which comes in at bit 4 (there are 9 bits of 9 bars, each followed by a refrain of 9 bars, the first three are quiet, the next three (4-6) are middling and the last three (7-9) are full on).

Time for some backing.  Two acoustic guitars (one for each ear).  I used a trick of using a capo on one to get a different tonal quality.  They come in at bit 2, quiet for 2 bits, then middle, then load, dropping out for the last refrain (which is just tunes).  Then I felt like the last three should have some bass - unfortunately I have left my bass at church.  What to do?  I wonder what it sounds like if you play the bass notes on the guitar with a plectrum, which will be an octave too high, and then process the sound to drop it an octave. Interesting, that's how it sounds, I quite like that so I'll keep it.  It sounds like a really bright bass with brand new round-wound strings and the treble turned up.  Finally some drums for the last 3 bits to go with the bass.  I used the same trick as before, programming the bass, snare and toms, and using the electronic kit to record the ride cymbal to give it more of a "live" feel.  Once again I found I didn't really like the hi-hat and the ride has a more "open" feel.  I guess I wasn't really after "tight".

And so there are 9 bits which need three solos each (one for each of the voices).  Each solo has a different chord sequence, but the three sequences in a bit are similar, so it's possible to use similar ideas over the three instruments.  This was fun, tracking through finding different ideas.  I've borrowed a proper MIDI controller keyboard from work (I'm thinking of getting one) and so I used this to record the solos.  Some are folky and jiggy and some are just meant to sound like people jamming solos.  Almost all of these were performed on the keyboard, with just the occasional bit of programming or tweaking to make it work.  My one-handed keyboard playing is definitely getting better, there were some relatively challenging bits (for me) but I thought I pulled them off.  

What I definitely try to do is replicate a style of playing you might get with a real instrument, but then maybe throw the occasional bit in which is untypical, or would be difficult or impossible on the real thing.  Well both accordion and organ are keyboard instruments already, but they tend to be played a little differently.  The pipes of course were more of a challenge with this, but thankfully the samples were very good indeed, which gave it good expressiveness - it might even fool a few people (who have not read this) into thinking that it's real pipes played live.  As it happens my wife has a set of Northumbrian bagpipes which sound quite similar to these.

So I've put it all together, and I quite like the effect.  ow to listen to it in sequence with the other sub-sections.  I still have some time today so I may be able to start 1.2.2

A solid start

Well I've had some short sessions at it, and now a good long session, section 1.1.3 is in a "finished" state. By "finished" I mean first pass done, ready to move on to another section. It needs editing, checking, listening and mastering. There are quite a few phases of letting stuff "settle in" before they are truly finished.

So I'd got about 3/4 of it done before, and was wondering what to do with the last part, when the idea of a "middle 8" or Bridge came to me. Change key, change pace. I thought for a long time about a melody, and then thought about what instrument to use - finally it hit me - use the bass.

So this meant a change not at the end, things needed rejigging somewhat. I had actually left the settings exactly where they were at the end of the guitar session, because I was reasonably sure I'd want more guitar. Lo and behold, I did, and it sounded fine. So with added guitar, and bass (including bass melody, controversial!), and some shakers and a guiro (using a stereo pair of mikes for the first time in a purple project), and it all seems to be coming together quite well.

There will be some problems with mastering, but they can be overcome. The end result is cheerful and rocky in places. Does it convey the solid form of matter? Not sure.

The guitars of wrath

Hurrah I got some time today in which to do some guitarring for 1.1.3.  It might need more but I'm pretty pleased with it.  I feel like I've got about 80% of the content done, so I'm thinking of adding some bass and then wondering what inspiration will lead me to also include.

I always have a choice when doing electric guitar - I have a pretty comprehensive package called "Guitar rig" which runs on the computer, and has a total plethora of high-quality options.  There are two drawbacks with it.  Firstly when I use it as I play, it doesn't affect the recording (so the recording comes out "dry") Secondly, (and related) I then have to apply it as an after-effect to regain the same sound - and that takes processing power.  More than two guitar tracks and the poor computer is struggling to keep up.

The other option is my trusty boss multi-effects pedal, not as high quality but what I hear is what records, and processing is really cheap as a result.  Oh and a bonus is that it is easier to get stereo effects.  And another bonus - I can apply wah effects as I play.

So today I compromised, and used guitar rig for rythmn and boss for lead.

In retrospect, I really like the drums.

Twitching the veil

So the problems with the drums are not so much sorted as I have decided I can live with them, and maybe they are not as bad as I thought.  If I take the MIDI track recorded and chop it into smaller sections this gives me some artificial "note off" events which helps, and it wasn't as quiet as i thought.

So this is where I wondered about how much of the secrets to reveal, and thought, "hey, if I'm blogging I might as well be honest, it's not like anyone is reading it anyway".  I might do it in different ways in different sub-sections but for 1.1.3 which I have been working on I have a compromise between programmed drums and performed drums.  I programmed the bass and snare, and performed the hi-hat, ride and cymbals, and fills.  This means it's tight but loose at the same time, giving it a more live feel.  I think.  I hope.  I doubt a drummer would be fooled.  I'm quite liking the drums, they are slightly trippy, slightly shuffly.

So at this point I have pretty much planned about the first half of 1.1.3, with enough drums to cover the second half, but I might not use them all.  I'm not really sure where it's going next.  One of the problems I have now is that I'm trying to imagine what it will sound like, but don't have the guitars in.  this is because a) I haven't had time to do them yet, but also b) because experience has taught me that once you pick up a guitar you should do all the guitar that you want to have the same sound.  When you come back another time the settings are never quite the same.  It's a chicken and egg situation though, because I feel like I want to hear the guitar to see where it feels like it might go next.

I'm going to end on a more general note, which is that I intend to put even more thought into BMS than the previous albums, I think about 50% more care is needed to get it sounding more professional (I am my own worst critic). This means I will have to "give it 150%".  Simon Cowell would like the effort.