Good articles in the news lately about the Puget Sound...actually, great articles. I lived on the Puget Sound in an R.V. and then a little guest house for about three and a half months.... It is such a nice reminder of peacefulness... in fact, it inspired at least 40 songs out of the ones I've written... Sometimes, water is like a mirror in that way. The orcas are pretty stealthy...as if they know they're to be careful around humans...but I was fortunate enough to witness an orca family/pod take out a sea lion once. At first I thought it was a shark... I remember it clearly:
Had gone to Walmart to pick up some Progresso Soups...[great to live off when you have very little money]...and came back and was eating outside when I noticed a splashing in the distance. There was what appeared to be a seal moving....then I saw its head and realized it was a Sea Lion....Then, I saw the fins...
So much wildlife around there too...visits from otters...seals that swim right next to your little rowboat...bald eagles...Never saw an octopus though...nor a giant one... its sort of interesting how that "Darwin" theory of Island Gigantism seems reversed in water... you would think that the octopuses would grow smaller or make their way out to the ocean...since so much marine life comes thru the Puget, but nope...guess they're more like the Dungeness Crabs that live there...Excellent oysters on the Puget as well...and lots of sockeye salmon...
Anyways, realized after taking a little break that I've accomplished more this year in the art/music department than I originally thought...which is kinda nice. Been finishing the last minute add-ons to the year's creations little by little, however, finally been seeing some "Hiring" signs around... Apparently the summer jobs are going back to school, so hopefully I can land a decent morning one to start building up some financial worth, not to mention to help out social security/other taxes that benefit everyone...
Transitions... Its strange to look...or glance back at the past few years and see a bunch of transitions take place...new bridges...safer communities [for the most part]...less "threats"....and me completely nailing the fuck out of the most recent song I mastered [musicwise] for Vessels...
The Sun Helix.
Sun Helix is the song...and its about...eh....I guess a spectroscopic [big picture..little picture] kind of thing... I made the recording interesting by having like 9 guitar tracks...and after all the little adjustments...it ended up to have like...13 or 14...but wow...I like how it came out... last time I'm recording that many guitar tracks though....Three songs to go before I start the vocals...
However, some tips about mastering guitars....
When mixing the tracks, I noticed that often the 3:1 compression ratio with a very low attack [1-1.5] and the usual kind of release [450-500], each third note of the spectra in the song is pushed out...so, after all 13, when doing the final mix, I turned the ratio to 1:5:1 to check out the juiciness...and it sounded great...so then I did another 3:1 and tested the 2:1 as well as some others... [keep in mind, the dB level makes all the difference, but those depend on specifics, so this general knowledge doesn't cover that], and landed the final mix without much of an EQ change with a 3:1 ratio and 1.5 attack... Another helpful thing in making the guitars sound fuller, different, and almost like a vacuum....was the panning. I made sure each track was panned differently as to cover the general side and back of the head region with the guitars...kept the drums on the upper/lower sides [2-3 tracks] and it was a little difficult to accomplish with some of the guitars mixed in with the drums...but, I'm really happy with the result.... Also, really happy with "Dragon" or "Sunset," which is the last track.... Upon listening to the drums, I realized how much work and how fast I did that work was put in to this particular set of songs and am pretty thankful/amazed with myself... Rather narcissistic...
Been listening to the other demos already recorded, and I'm thinking of changing up some of the vocals on Acrostics... also writing the R&Bish album and "Tao" little by little...
If a job earns me enough, I might spend a little on some studio time to either record the UV album, or a bunch of the trip hop albums/vocals....
Also, touched up the country/folk/bluesy Patriot songs and added a new one for the album...the lyrics are something like this:
Big fishy...little fishy in a big pond...
big birdie, little birdie right above them..
big fishies, big birdies....gone away now...
move away...
if there were more fishies, more birdies
would we hunt them?
if there was more intelligence,
less selfish...would they come home?
big fishy...little birdie...in a big world...
moving away...
No comments:
Post a Comment