Part Strikingly of Awesome

Brad Adams and Friends

Walking Giants is a song that I fear to misjudge. I fear that if I don’t say the right things that I could end up in my grave. So I enjoyed this song very much as a little pee comes out. Brad the music was rockin. I really like brake down that lead back to the main guitar between the lyrics. The lyrics that Brandon wrote with the excitation of the voice made for a great over all song. I liked the change in the voice from a deep growl to the higher screech, “This is where.” It sounds like that was done with out an over lay but I'm not an expert just a listener.

I'm Going Home is a cool blend of music styles. Brad another good heavy riffing with a dramatic 3^rd verse breakdown/ change-up. It's chugs along like a locomotive, strong, solid, and leveling anything in it's path. Cassie did a great job on the lyrics and with singing them. I really enjoy her affliction and the tone of her vocal performance. I really like the high note on the last line of each chorus, it just grabs ya. T Clax very good rap. I enjoy it. I feel like that's a poor evaluation, “Hey, T CLAX that was a good rap!” Does that make up for it, Maybe. I guess I could say that my favorite part of the rap was, “Bro check my posts I ain't posing got loads of info for your knowing, Ahh man I long to see the gates.” Over all these were two fun songs, I hope that they were as fun to make as they were fun to listen too. I guess I will mention the silence. It doesn't matter too much to me because you did per-warn us with a blog, So All Is Forgiven.

DEFEKTIV – Nu State of Mind

Flock defiantly takes me to a good place. You nailed the sound of Nu-Metal with this one. I cant put into word how much fun I have rocking this at work. I don't know how you know DMX, but that is awesome. I really enjoyed the bridge, it probably my favorite part, “It's all about me, Na na na na nah.” Hurricane could be better. Just kidding this is a very cool song. You must know what your doing because the verses have very cool effects in them. The way the chorus is teased then builds up to it  grabbed me. The way you did the breakdown, … Awesome. My favorite part of it is that little aliens sound right before the chorus kicks in. Did I say, Cool because I meant too. Explode is a gritty song to count too. It has a whole bunch of reminders of other elements but they all feed off each other and build them shoot away. Some times I cant tell if the lyrics were “ 3.. 2.. 1.” or “Afraid to Run” but that just made me listen to the song a few more times. I still can't tell. Decomposed is a heavy riff ride. The lead in of the sound clip puts me in a good mind state. I enjoyed the fast lyrics and the pulsing music. The chorus is very good, I like telling my coworkers to “Take a look between you legs.” Its a good way to get their attention and challenge their masculinity at the same time. Bent has is my favorite of all of them. It got a great sound and the lyrics are very catchy. They paint a vivid picture in my mind. There is something spell-binding about the mystic of a Bionic Woman. They way they can reprogram your heart, lead you down dark paths, and give you multiple viruses without a care. Behind is the revenge I will have on my Cyborg lover. Chase her down some shady terminals with an ax. Chop her to bits and watch as the sparks fly. This song has an awesome sound. The way the per-chorus has so much going on with its strangle inviting vibe. The crazy placement of the melodic background vocal with the heavy growl over it. There is only one thing that this album did that I wish it hadn't. And that is End, I could have enjoyed a handful more song very good stuff.

Merkelig Batteri - Blod I Himmelen

This is a very heavy journey back in time by the means of heavy riffs. On to the New World place you at the paddles of the massive long boats. The sound is epic and very scoping. The lyrics lead the third eye to see all the pain and torment that this great tribe has brought to make this new world it's own. Cross the Rainbow is a sweet revelry in the treats of war. This journey is only one that can be made by those whose have split the blood of many men in glorious battle. The guitar has awesome attack and the blending of the soulful vocals behind it is awesome. The verse lyrics have a great sound its such a blending of so many voices it's undefinable. The riffs work together good with the smooth runs between them leading to the final lyrics is very striking. Jeg ønsker å dø nå is exactly that. Know entering the valley of the leaders and forefathers seeking there guidance for the next great move. Very cool song, I don’t know what it means but I don’t need to. The structure is very good it leads me to believe that the leaders have spoken of some great battle that will take many life but one that must be fought. O Great One begins the struggle to lead your solders on a death march. Knowing that this is something that must be done and what you have been doing your whole life. The riffing is very good in this part. I really like the way the riffs just start to build on top of itself after the last of the vocals. In the Name of the Northland is like the final battle that for the New World. The sky blazes with the flames as they reach higher and higher as the swords cut through flesh and bone. The guitars have such awesome attach here. Its like the blood pumping through my veins as the song steps up tempo. Its cool how the lyrics are brought back from the first song. Just to remind us who has to die. The intensity is picked up. There is some great tone and blend of bells with each stroke to the end of the song it adds, dare I say, awesome depth to the song. Valkyrie is like the tell of that lone victor marching home carrying the weight of all his fallen brothers. This is a good way to end an album. This is my favorite song there is something that grabs me with verses. The riffs under and over it are great and heavy with that cool breakdown and sole after the 2^nd verse. Very cool. This is an awesome release. The album art is very fitting, it has all the element from the songs. I like the promo art as well. Right now I don't want to order one but it is good to know that it is made my IKEA.

Reviews Forthcoming

OK, I know I said this like 3 weeks ago, but I have a lot of driving to do tomorrow and plan on listening to as much of the RTIX music as I come, and I WILL be writing reviews soon!

Part Breath-Taking of Awesome

Para Siempre and his Brother-

To begin with but I really enjoyed this album. Cordoba is a groove track. The chorus is very catchy expectancy with the piano in the background. I like the tie in of a needle hitting vinyl and continuing in the tracks thru there forth. Para Siempre and his brother is as groove with a different turn. My favorite lines are: A twist on your arm, But don't be alarmed.

Right all the time grabs you with that fun bass line and the guitar chords. I agree with the words of this song, you cant be right all the time. I fell like this song begins a theme for the next two songs. Town good piano driven song. I would like to know what the answer is. Did they end up moving closer to town? Plus how close is this town to begin with? Was it 1 mile or 50 miles? Does the town have a bad crime rate? Just things to think about when your deciding. Where would you go has become my favorite song. It's like watching an old movie. It also pushes for an answer to the last question about moving closer to town. Where would you go without me if you don't move with me. Over all I am very glad that I had the chance to listen and enjoy these songs. I'm not sure how you can combine all these cool sounds, I'm glad you can.

Cover art - I like the choice of the black letters and the font is not to bold. What beach is this? I have enjoyed many sunrises and sunsets but I have never seen it without the Sun. If I had waterproof headphones, the trans that your songs put on me could make me swim out to the horizon and fall off the edge. A judgmental note- sounds maybe everywhere but not everyone can hear them. I luckily can hear them but like I said just a judgment thrown in for fun.

Jake Pearson - Pearson

Calluses feels like a psychedelic melody story. The way it builds leads you forth into yourself. I feel like this the isolation that leads to Sanity which is describes Damn it. It like you just walked into a mental ward which is holding it talent show. The layering of the lyrics add to it creepy appeal. I like the sound effect at the beginning. I could wait is a trippy adventure which leads to the Representation of where the narrator sees himself. I like the blinding of the Sci-Fi guitars and the roomy vocals. Favorite lines: Eccentricity my Feeble self control. Shimmer is a cool acoustic song. I cant tell if its one guitar or multiple all the way thru but it doesn't matter because its cool. I like the way the chorus clear up or change style that gives me the real sense of self discovery. This also leads to the Recollection of himself to see what is at the heart of this madness. I enjoyed the songs and the ride that took me to you.

Groove Suit- Smoke & Mirrors

Start Stop very groovy. The guitar sets a grate tone with the middle section is very cool. I like the smooth rap over the top. It was sinister and subliminal it soaked its way into my mind. I keep trying to get those diamonds but my shine is just not right. When I'm with you began like an old school song groovy and soulful. This the song for getting ready for the club. Jump out the shower, wipe off the mirror, and grab my beer take a sip to get me a needed twist. Strut over to the closet pull out that Groove suit. You know the one its the one the makes the ladies stop and start droolin'. Slow burn grabs you right off the bat. The rhythm that makes the feet take control. Walk into the club and grab that cute chick with curly hair and grin slowly. Making heads turn and it all goes slow-mo. What it do is a good closer song. Its like last call has been called it's now time to seal the deal. I hope that one of this girls cant resist this White Smoothie Groove Suit.

I definitely enjoyed these songs and the street cred that goes with it. I like the way you talked at the pictures and frames in Start Stop it link me to your cover art.

Pigeon - With The Tides

Intro (The Sea) is a cool ride. Groovy and draws me into the world of your sound. I like the crazy guitar sound in the background. Was it a guitar? Yeah I think it was unless you used a recording waves crashing on a beach and reversed then modulated them. Maybe. Where are we? Great question. I think you are in my computer and also in my stereo at work. I like the brake down. I like the sound of the drums. They also gives a good feel to your sound or world. Who will can is a cool vocal song. Great blending. The subtle changes in the lines with that crazy guitar sounds closing it off and blending into the Grey Skies. My favorite line is: Honey my limbs are shaking. I get this cool visual image or is it just cold in my house well I'm writing this. There I turned up the heat, so it is the words and that visual image. The band sound good I would see this live. Interracial Couples I believe in them. I was waiting on the lyrics to tell me about it. Maybe give me some dirty detail. I have never enjoyed one myself but I though long and hard about it well I listened to this song. Cool and groovy. With the Tides is a spectroscope song. There is something to be said about songs that let the words drift in and out a persons head. With nothing but a guitar to guide them visually. I don’t believe in reincarnation but I can say if I do come back I hope that it is not as a piece of drift wood. Thanks for the cool tunes to let my mind wounder around a bit of your musical world.

Kris Eckman - Brain Glass

Broken Glass is good and heavy. Heavy on my soul. No, I would not like to see an angel if that when they would truly appear. They can keep to there miracles and stay invisible. Epidemically if this song begins playing as: a hole is ripped open in the clouds. Dozens of Angel come raining down on a city. Flapping there wings giant and white. In there large flawless fist are huge spears. There I stand in the midst of a large crowd pouring more and more into the streets. Some of the ones, I will call, Believers, standing with there arms spread wide in a Jesus Christ Pose. Close there eyes as the flock of Angels fill the sky.And in a moment of shock and aah, the Angels swoop in. Their spears that pierce though the bodies of the believers. Hosting them high and into the blue sky.

This is when Free Will kicks in. Terror rips throw the crowds of people running in all directions. The angels begin dropping the bodies from the sky. Crashing to the pavement with splashes of blood, bone, and limbs shooting everywhere. I am running with the crowds of panicked people. Fighting with no mercy to anyone who falls. Dodging chunks of human body parts. I push down an elderly lady for a doorway. I slam the door shut as another person tries to pull it open from the outside. My self preservation has taken over. I yell that they must find there own place to hide. Through a small window on the door I see the face of a frighten younger lady. Her voice is crying in terror and agony to let them in. Mid sentence they are speared by an passing Angel. The little window is splattered with her blood.

Brain Glass begins. The torment of screams from the outside and my inner cry for answers. I find the courage to open the door and face my own mortality. To pay for my sins or not to. That is the question. Weather it is noble to stand upon with blood soaked Earth and answer for my action. An Angel comes to a stop in front of me. I feel every hair on my body stand on end. The sweet smell of Downy Fresh laundry feels my nose. The Angel speaks but I can understand. Then a sudden rush of pain expounds in my head and I fall to the ground. I cover my ears with my hands but the pain continues. I open my eyes and look at my hands to see blood. My ears are bleeding. My hands search the ground and I grab a hold a chunky of bone. Its a rib bone and I stab the Angel in the chest and I am blown backward by the scream he admits.

This is when Marietta begins. Not waiting another minute for the Angel to grab me I am running. Running and running. A dark shadow covers me and my path. I take one close look above and I see it is Angel's they blanketing sky. This inner voice takes over in my head and I am filled with love and sweet euphoria. The Angels begin to encircle me forming a large circle around me. I feel nothing but good intentions. The Angel began to flap there wings hundreds of them in one sensitized movement. Lifting me off the ground like I was in the middle of a tornado. I begin to laugh so hard, I cry. I must be 50 stories off the ground when they wind stops. I'm falling in slow motion. My life flashes before my eyes. I feel my last tears run out my eyes and roll off my cheeks as I hit the ground.

I'm not to sure what else to say about you song but I definitely enjoy them. Thanks for introducing me to Record Time! This is Awesome.

Reviews Part Bitchin' of Awesome

Bitchin' Van - Bicoastal
First of all,  I would like to say that your album art is perfect. It puts my mind eye's at a focus point. I find myself standing in front of the van. I'm waiting for you to start with a nod of your head, I look up at the sign. I reach in my pocket and luckily there is $6.93. Toss it in the guitar case then you began to play. I'm glad that I am only human.
The sound is directly up my alley, the acoustic guitars, harmonica, the blending of the vocals and the wolf or dog howling is great. I really enjoy the lyrics of every song. Tell Me - grabs a hold right off the bat. The guitar rhythm with the finger snaps is catchy then the lyrics pop in. My favorite lines are: Fanny pack, shinny slack, showing to much booty crack, pierces hacks, tattoo backs, motorcycle choppers claps. These lines are fun and fresh. Out of phase- very beautiful blend of both voices with great lines colliding together. I couldn't put my favorite part because its so solid. I'm only human- is a catch song about taking trouble with a chin held high. What I can believe is that the you had no money but your mice can afford champagne. Also I like sour cream and salsa but not sour salsa. Motionless- is a song that I feel is like a news story. Telling the view of a man and what he sees. Do we owe it to them to speak up or should we mind our own business? When we become a witness to some changes and do we have a right to say. I really enjoyed your pronoun-cation on this song. Marriage- is like a 2010's Cash and Carter "Jackson."  This was a fun story song, not sure if it a true story or not but I don't mind either way. My favorite lines: Still I see my strengths and flaws in all of them like a fear of spiders its all stuck in my head.
For these song I clap my hands and maybe wish for an autograph. Its OK because I don't have a pen or pencil just a burrito wrapper. Ill shake your hand and wonder on down this road to though these hills.

Reviews Part Supererogation of Awesome

Hello, let me start off by saying I have been throatily enjoying everyone's music. Yes, even myself. I'm a bit conceded but back to the point that I was making was ..... AWESOME.

Andrew Miller - Contentment Storm
I was blown way by your blog about how you hand wrote all the sheet music for this. I cant read sheet music and I know tabs don't count. So this let my mind open to the sounds when I clicked on the track to listen. It was a cool adventure even if it is like Indiana Johns was running out of the cave with the boulder rolling behind him. The sound of this great thing echoing behind him with danger sense tingling. He jumps over the spikes and trips on a skeleton. Trying not to fear death, he faces this evil hands of fate to see a roll the size of a watermelon.  Which splits open on the spikes but the juices run down the cave floor and get his pants leg wet.
I also tried to follow along with the pictures of the music sheets and I was lost. I went ahead and made 5 playlist out of this record time folder. I broke the songs up by my first impressions, so that I could get them all on CD's and listen to them at work. Contentment Storm fit well at the beginning of each playlist. It's got so much build to it, it leads great into each of the EPs. I only wish it was longer but pickers cant be choosers. They can only choose what to pick and I choose to listen.
My favorite part is when the brass instruments come in @ .12

Album Order

Hello all,

I foolishly forgot to put numbers in front of my track titles to indicate the song order in my album.  I DID create metadata in iTunes, so if you listen in iTunes it MIGHT put the songs in the correct order, but I haven't checked yet.

The song order for Christmas with the Webers, by Weber, is:
1) Hippotoppomas
2) I'll Miss You (This Christmas)
3) Coventry Carol
4) Family
5) Starlight
6) It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
7) No One Stopping Us

I haven't yet gotten a chance to listen to all of the music, but what I have heard so far is great!  I plan on listening to all/most of it today, and reviews will be forthcoming.

Mike

Reviews by Dan

Alright, here goes! I feel like I can never write enough about the music, and it's hard thinking of anything to say besides "awesome" on all of this. It's all so good and the progress is always so huge. But I did it anyway, and you should too!

On to the reviews!

DEFEKTIV – NU STATE OF MIND: Another triumph from Logan, and a predictably loud-as-hell one at that. I’m honestly not sure that Logan ever really explained what this is, but it’s a sort of tribute to nu-metal, a genre he and I both enjoyed the heck out of in our formative years. I think my favorite is probably the Limp Bizkit track (“Flock”) just for its sheer accuracy. I also love “Explode,” which has hilariously stupid lyrics but surprisingly weird stuff going on in a lot of the guitar parts. I’ve never actually listened to Slipknot, but honestly “Decomposed” is a pretty badass song. The artwork obviously has to be mentioned as well…perfect. Everything about this album is dead on. If Logan could step into a time machine and travel back to 2002 (I just looked up when Trustcompany’s “Downfall” was released and went with that), he would probably make a lot of money.

BITCHIN’ VAN – BICOASTAL: Another huge step forward for Joe, thanks in no small part to Nick P. of Lobster Shanty. This is classic Bitchin’ with a Shanty shine. I can’t be sure, but from the way the lyrics are set I’m willing to bet Joe wrote a lot of the words before the music. Which I like a lot, because the lyrics seem more bold this time around. I like the line “lane splittin’, now you’re dead,” as I have predicted Joe’s death many times and he needs to stop riding his motorcycle. I think my favorite track is “Out of Phase”…seems the most mature, from a songwriting standpoint. “Marriage” is pretty irresistible as well, with some awesome guitar work by Nick. I love the line/rhyme “my college scholarship made all the ladies craze.” Bit of a stretch in a most excellent way. So glad to see the classic Bitchin’ artwork style, again brought to the next level by Nick.

WEBER – CHRISTMAS WITH THE WEBERS: Someone had to do it, and by golly, Mike and Jenni did it. The first Record Time Christmas album, just in time for…Halloween? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say “I’ll Miss You” is my favorite track from this Record Time. Every melody in that thing is absolutely perfect. Somehow the production works perfectly, too, in that it’s sort of “held back” the whole time and never really blows up…it just makes you crave that adorable chorus all the more. I like how Mike indulged me and recorded “Hippopotamus,” despite the fact that the lyrics are all wrong and he awkwardly ends on the 5^th. Pretty sure he listened to the song once and tried to play it from memory 3 days later. “Family” could be one of those Christmas classics that you love but sort of bums you out. AWESOME to hear Jenni throughout, and with a solo song even! I hope Jenni knows she’s just signed up for Record Time forever.

ANDREW MILLER – CONTENTMENT STORM: I was really happy Andrew decided to go a crazy experimental route (espcially after Logan and I teased him one night). For those who didn’t catch it, Andrew wrote this out by hand on score paper without ever hearing it until the very last day. In some ways probably the most difficult RT submission ever, even though it’s only 30 seconds. The music is up to Andrew’s usual standard and hopefully this can become the start of a bigger piece. The score itself is the real achievement though…honestly with the low-res pictures it just looks professionally printed rather than done by hand. Wise use of repetition throughout. And the artwork, let’s just say that’s a good looking ventilation grate.

BRAD ADAMS AND FRIENDS – SELF-TITLED: Cassie has an awesome voice! “Going Home” is a crazy combo, with the female vocals and rap-rockin’. Real nice. Not sure who the growler is on “Walking Giants,” but damn, that’s some low stuff. Didn’t read the lyrics until just now, but honestly the lyrics on this one are pretty similar to my Viking metal lyrics, haha.

F.E.A.R. – F.E.A.R.OLOGY: Honestly it’s hard for me to talk about one song or another, as they’re all variations on the same kind of thing, namely a bunch of atonal industrial insanity. That’s not to say there isn’t variety, though, as I don’t think any of these pieces use the same sounds. Dennis’ stuff is starting to sound almost like film score – I could hear it in something like Hostel, although the music is a lot weirder than you’d probably ever hear in a big feature film. Hopefully these demos will turn into full songs. I appreciate the creepy vocals on Misandry – would love to hear more vocals if only because I don’t know how you’d really fit them in on most of this!

INTRAPHASE – BOY/DEMON: As soon as I heard track 1 I was sold. I wish I had the guts to try a full-on prog-rock opera (like the two bands I probably compared Intraphase to last time, Ayreon and Pain of Salvation). This is almost more of a musical campfire/ghost story (which I think subtly ties into the album artwork, and again…perfect for the season!). You guys definitely need to complete the trilogy next time. The production is sounding good, and major props for using real drums!

KRIS ECKMAN: By far my favorite of the Eckman catalogue. I hear a little bit of Bungle-style genre shifting, which I will never get tired of as long as I live. Honestly I really liked any section with the synths over the heavy guitars. Some of your heavy stuff sounds a lot like something I’d write – maybe because our influences are starting to overlap a bit. You should also be using WAY more trumpet – that is the key to your metal success. I always forget that you play – and you really need to play on some of my albums from this point on. I really appreciated more soft sections this time around, and I think you hit a nice balance overall. You also managed to make your album louder than mine, ya bastard!

KEVIN TODD – AND THEN LOVE: Gah. The lyrics. So good. Lyrically you’re in that sweet spot that I’m constantly striving for – they’re clever, funny, 95% cliché free (the 5% being the clichés you truly need), direct, unpretentious…everything. I’m not even going to talk about the music because the lyrics are so good. Favorite lines “I know it in my guitar’s heart” – “I miss your heart, I miss your throat, I miss your arms again…I messed it up because of love.” My favorite song is “Blue Guitar.” I love how connected everything is thematically (or are these motifs?) – the moon, the guitar, the blue-ness, the lost love. Timeless stuff. I know he won’t take this the wrong way, but I feel like Kevin could be one of those artists where other, bigger artists make tons of money covering his songs, but all the while real fans know it’s Kevin’s weird-ass voice that makes the songs what they are (basically I’ve been listening to a lot of Randy Newman). As much as I gushed about the last album, I like this one better. Fucking awesome.

ALAN ROY RODRIGUEZ PONCE – PARA SIEMPRE AND HIS BROTHER: Wow. Not sure what you’re doing in Record Time – you should be out making money off this! Great vocals, really, unique sound – seems almost like super modern café music. I love the string sample in “Where Would You Go.” “Right All the Time” is ready to be on a TV commercial. I’d really like to know what you used for the music in all of this stuff – it seems like I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the samples and sounds amateur musicians generally use, but yours sounds really different and fresh. Really impressed and jealous.

JAKE PEARSON – SANITY – REPRESENTATION/RECOLLECTION: I love the voice: really natural and interesting. I think my favorite track is “Shimmer” – my kind of melody, and my favorite part of your vocal range. I really like hearing your voice without the effects and really up front. “Calluses” is great too, especially the second half. Great melody writing overall, which is the main thing I look for in music like this. Even though it’s definitely a sort of modern indie sound, I can’t help but get a certain type of 90s vibe from some of the melodies…no idea why, but it almost sounds a little grunge-y to me. Really great first Record Time album – you new guys are embarrassing the rest of us!

PIGEON – WITH THE TIDES: I can’t remember the last one exactly (don’t have it with me at work), but this certainly feels like a really big step up...a lot less ambient, a lot more form and structure and whatnot. Overall just seems way more confident which is awesome. Big props for using real drums (I think!). Some really beautiful chord progressions in there. My favorite is probably “Who Will Can” – it’s pretty short but I could see it turning into the chorus of a way bigger song. Love being able to hear your voice up front on “With the Tides.” Really incredible chords on that one too. Awesome all around.

GROOVE SUIT – SMOKE & MIRRORS EP: Rap + live instruments is a definite first for Record Time. Thanks so much for joining in! This is really trippy stuff…the vocals are really simple, laid back, and a little weird in a good way. I love the guitar work – there are actually some crazy chords in there, and I like the inclusion of some tasteful lead playing. I feel like there’s no good place for these songs to end, like they could just keep going for an hour and I’d be too zoned out to notice. We get a lot of really frenetic music during RT due to the time limit, but it’s interesting to see you guys go the complete opposite direction with it. Hope to hear another one next time!

ERIC CRIPE – WHATEVER UNFOLDS : This is a crazy album. I’m not totally sure what to say about it, other than that I appreciate the craziness. The lyrics are all over the place, and I like how I can hear you having a lot of fun with it (“Chipmunk” and “Jollien”). Also liked hearing some more instrumentation – just need bass now! I like your lyrical style – I’m all about concrete, direct stuff rather than meaningless abstract phrases. And I enjoyed the little stories within each song. Definitely way better than your last one, keep it up!

THE REGULARS – CAMPFIRE: Great single! The harmonies REALLY make the song. Love all the different voices. I really wish you would have pulled a Boyz II Men and fade out the music so it’s just the harmonies and claps at the very end. I like the sea-shanty vibe the whole thing has – each of you singing one verse and returning to that big chorus. In that sense it actually helps that it’s 7 minutes long – when you sing drunken sea shanties, it would be a disgrace to limit yourselves to two or 3 minutes. Honestly I think you just gave me my concept for Record Time X. Sweet song.

MERKELIG BATTERI – BLOD I HIMMELEN: Easily the worst Viking album of all time. In Viking terms, it ranks somewhere between Hagar the Horrible and the Maelstrom longboat ride at Epcot. 0/10.

THE MUSIC OF RECORD TIME IX!

Here it is folks! Download links below the picture!

DOWNLOAD VOLUME 1
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DOWNLOAD VOLUME 2
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DOWNLOAD VOLUME 3

For the noobs, the only thing left to do, if you're up for it, is post what you think of everyone's album! As a general rule, we like to keep it positive. My reviews coming real soon!

arg!

so i just realized i didn't move my end markers so there is a significant amount of silence at the end of my tracks...awesome.

if you are listening and anxiously awaiting a bonus track or the song to pick up again awkwardly don't, there is no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

That weird aftertaste.

Every Record Time, I completely underestimate how "artistically" wiped out I am by the end of it. It doesn't matter if there was so much more that could have been written/recorded, had situations played out ideally; I just feel drained. The cool thing is not only looking back and seeing how much you've learned about the writing/recording process, but also seeing how you've grown and matured as a musician. My music isn't complicated or even overly original by any means, but the main thing Record Time has taught me is that I'm totally fine with that. Not just within the context of Record Time, but just in general. No, I'll most likely never figure out sweep picking, but as long as I can continue to get better and progress at blues-based shredding, I'm as happy as can be.

To put it simply, Record Time shows you EXACTLY how you like to express yourself, because it puts you under the gun and doesn't allow you to ruminate over a length of time, which would allow all sorts of outside influences in.

Record Time is music from the soul, buster. Dig it.

I'm unreasonably stoked to hear everyone's music.

Bitchin' Van - Bicoastal

Joe and I are very proud to present the front cover of Bicoastal by Bitchin' Van. I'm happy I got to tackle the art design for the album, featuring this killer photography by Joe Wilinski and Turner Kirk. It gave me a great opportunity to work on my photo editing chops, as I usually take a more graphic design and typography approach to our album art.

A new Record Time record?

Hey all,

So for this RT I ended up doing something a bit different and far more challenging than anything I've done in the past.  I was excited to write some stuff for solo cello as I just got a cello and can almost sorta play it.  Dan W, however, suggested I write some music using nothing but some orchestral manuscript paper.  To write for orchestra without being able to hear it (or even any pitch reference at all) sounded like a pretty interesting challenge, so I decided to try.

So I ended up writing about 3 pages worth of action-ish music for full orchestra.  I successfully wrote an entire bit of music without hearing it whatsoever except in my head.  I didn't use a pitchfork or tuner or hit a single piano key to help me.  It was a total brain drain trying to concentrate on hearing it mentally.  It made me resurrect a bit of my ear training from college.  And it made me appreciate my composing rig a ton more.  It was super satisfying to finally sequence and hear what I had written out over the past 4 days or so.  I'm actually really pleased with the way it came out.  I did make a few tweaks here or there after sequencing it.  I added some cymbal crashes and bass drum hits, took out some notes that were cluttering things up, and changed a few notes at the octave.  But like 98% of what you'll hear is what I originally wrote...I didn't change any pitch classes or re-harmonize or change rhythms, etc.  It's interesting to compare now how I write when I can play it back and hear it immediately with how I write when I'm on my own.  If I were stranded in the wilderness without my rig, and had to compose to survive, I now think I could! (Bear Grylls would be proud, and that's really what I'm taking away from this.)

Okay, so I didn't start on this until Wednesday because of work projects, and I didn't really work on it Thursday either.  I guess my head wasn't in it that night.  So I really only had the weekend and two weekday evenings that I put into this.  That being said, what I wrote came out to a grand total of about...........an entire........30 seconds!!  Yeah, not my lengthiest RT for sure, but I'd say it was by far my most challenging and beneficial.  (There's a bit in the strings at the end that I started but didn't get to continue with, so never mind that!)  I didn't spend much time on the mixing and mastering, because it's only 30 seconds long so who cares, but I think it's fine.  I'm calling it "Contentment Storm", which comes from a song name generator and is dumb, but it pretty well sums up the piece and the way I feel about it.  So that's about it!

-Andrew

Boy/Demon

 Hello, Eric from Intraphase here. I can not wait to share this you all, it was sent in today. This is part 2 to last year's "A Boy and his Demon." This one tells the story of what happens when a demon takes control and the Powers that Be try to control and abuse it.  It was a long weekend recording and it was so much fun looking back.
There was a lot of awesome recording gear on my drums and I'm amazed at the way I can play. Not to only pat myself on the back : Mike Godlove, Guitar and Voice of the demon, bottled lighting placed it in his amp and shocked it,  Brad Shearer, Bass, Piano, and the Voice of the Judge, brought the thunder put Boom town fireworks out of business. We had a friend Paul Eckert  help out with the Mixing and the Voice of Dr. Lavist.

We even had two very drunk guy walk uninvited into our session and tell us how much we rock and that if we wanted they could pack the room with naked chick. I was all for it but we knew that we had to stay focused if we were to finish the record. Plus they were pretty plastered and I'm not sure if they could supply any ladies. So we gave them a 2 min rock jam and politely asked them to leave about 50 times before they left. I don't want to say too much more till you get to listen to it. I cant wait to hear everybodies music.

Last Night

So I finally turned in my album last night. At least I think I did, I'm new to media fire. Please let me know if you did not receive it, Dan. Sorry I went so far over time on it. Mixing is always a pain in my ass because I get weirded out by hearing so many different versions of my own voice, so I have to fight with myself not to turn the vocals down too much.

Also, I had to take special care with the in and out points of each song b/c ... you guessed it ... it's all really one big song. A mashup, or whatever you call it. Does anyone have a surefire technique they use when making track cuts like this? Without fades and whatnot?

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it, and I can't wait to hear everyone's stuff.

BLOD I HIMMELEN

AW YEAH.

1) On to the New World

2) Cross the Rainbow

3) Jeg ønsker å dø nå
4) O Great One

5) In the Name of the Northland

6) Valkyrie

Got my sister's vocal tracks, got my grandpa's artwork, bounced the tracks, made the MP3s, typed the lyrics, and threw it all into my ever-expanding Record Time IX folder. I'm done!

so close!

I'm just about finished with my album. It clocks in at roughly 18:40, and despite all the setbacks I had, I think I may now be more proud of this recording than any I've done yet. I have to go to a work meeting in half an hour, run another errand while I'm in town, then finish mastering one song and send it out. This is the latest I've ever been, and I didn't even make the 30 minute mark. Boo this man.

Brain Glass

1. Broken Clocks

2. Free Will

3. Brain Glass

4. Marietta

Dun

And a 9th Record Time is complete.

I only got about 23 minutes this time, but I feel pretty good about the music.  If I had wanted to I could have stretched things out, extended intros and outros, repeated choruses a million more times, and written a lot of slow, ambient droning stuff to get it over the 30-minute mark, but I'd rather there be less well-composed music than more sub-par music. 

Stylistically the record is fairly diverse; it has some ukulele-driven indie-pop, a little 60's-era jazz, some textured ambient soundscapes (I know I just said above that I wasn't going to do that, but its pretty cool, and its only a little bit), all of the stuff a good Christmas record should have.  AND, its not just me singing this time, which is nice.

Parts of it are pretty rough around the edges (vocals especially, which is par for the course on my albums), but a lot of it turned out really cool.  It may sound vain, but I really like to listen back to the music I created durring Record Time.  On this one especially, parts of it give me goosebumps.  Of course, making that statement is putting it up on a pedistal, so I really hope somebody else thinks it sounds cool too.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I doubt any of my relatives will read this blog, but I do have quite a few friends reading it, so I need to make a disclaimer:
One of the songs on the record is about NOT wanting to see family for the holidays, about wanting to sleep in and and be by myself and relax and not see anyone. The song is completely hypothetical, and not based on my own feelings. In fact, one of the lines is "I'd rather watch the game instead". If any of you know me at all, you know that I have no interest in football whatsoever...

I have closed Garage Band for the night.

I am going to give this all one final go at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.  My album art is done.  My songs are written.  90% of everything is recorded.  I just can't figure out how to make it all the right format.  This is the hardest part for me.
Tomorrow.  3:30.  It'll be done.

That Good Ol' 6am Feeling

So a young Dominic Glimco (Pigeon), hipped me to record time during RT8, and after seeing and hearing what it did, I decided to hop on and be a part of this suicidal process. Of course, the world then threw at me one of the busiest weeks of my my college career, what with almost 20 hours logged in the SoM Studio doing random projects and of course homecoming week.

But! Despite adversity, I wrote a little EP of 4 songs (one of which is difficult to consider that) and stayed up all night sunday recording and rough mixing them. Regrets? Wish I could have had the 7 songs I had hoped for. Wish I could have tracked more than just acoustic, keys and vox. Success was met well on the other side though - I feel I squeezed some creative juices from places that have remained untapped for awhile now (could be the 1am-6am, adderall-induced style record production) I've been a songwriter for 8 years now, and these little diddies are odd as fuck and charm me oh so much. So glad to be part of this, can't wait to hear the music from everyone else and chat a little bit.

Also, I'm already afraid to hear the amount of awesome other people were surely able to accomplish this week.

Half Baby Steps.

It's always about picking the one doubt you trust the most, isn't it?  My first time doing RECORD TIME, and it will not be the last.

I'm not new to the songwriting-mixing-producing-performing process (not in that order).  I'm new to having so little time to trust my judgment.  It usually takes me a good long while before I think anything works well within a song.

It was a very refreshing experience.   Ever seen one of those pictures on the internet where someone is half naked swimming in ice water?  I got the same feeling signing up to RECORD TIME as I get whenever I come across those pictures.  

I was able to produce 16 minutes worth of material that I could trust.  5 simple songs about little things in life.  The title of all this is, Para Siempre And His Brother.

Looking forward to hearing everybody's stuff.

Alan

Hergen flergen blergen

Welp, Record Time is over and my album is 99.99% done. I'm just waiting on my sister to send me her vocals, which I have to mix in real quick.

The album is called BLOD I HIMMELEN by my new Viking side project, MERKELIG BATTERI. For those of you who don't speak Norwegian, that's Blood in Heaven by Strange Battery. According to Google Translate, obviously.

Been messing with the mastering, and I honestly don't understand how people get their recordings so loud. I'm sure Logan will win again. I literally pumped mine up almost 20 dB, then I put on some Meshuggah for reference, and it still blew mine away. I just don't get it. Mine still isn't distorting...it just doesn't feeeel right to crank it up any higher. Might just have to suck it up and do it anyway.

Anyways, it seems like this was a pretty crazy Record Time. Everybody I've talked to had some major issues, myself included. My album turned out quite well. Unfortunately this isn't the type of album I can show off to my friends and family -- it was for me and me only, and I was basically channeling my inner high schooler. As far as my successes and failures:

GOOD: Got a pretty heavy sounding record, played the drums live, managed to get an arguably "Viking" atmosphere throughout. Did the whole thing in 6 days rather than 7. Got to include my sister on it. Hit 32 minutes, a new Record Time...er...record. For me at least.

BAD: Ran out of steam before I could properly finish all my vocals. The entire thing is technically out of tune by around 7 cents, which is awesome in a way but hurt the vocals somewhat. Lyrics are a bit boring at times. Probably could have spent more time mixing.

The good far outweighs the bad. This doesn't have anything totally brilliant on it, but it's something I've been wanting to do for a loooooooong time. So it feels good to get it out there and open up a new slot for insane back-burner ideas. I really have no idea what to expect out of myself anymore, which is an interesting feeling. Who knows what'll happen next time around! Making things is so weird!

That "morning after" feeling...

- Hope I made all the best mixing decisions

- Thank god it's over

- God, I wish it wasn't over

- F-ck, this rocks!

Record Time IX was rad. Learned a lot, had a blast. Congrats to all and can't wait to listen and share. "Record Time life" is so much funner than "real life" lol

ding...i'm done!

Just sent in my submission, I got the priviledge to be a part of "The Regulars" with our ridiculously long one song submission as well as collaborated with a screamer, a rapper, and my wife for 2 other songs, the album art leaves a bit to be desired...and I suppose you all will decide if the music does as well, but it sure was fun to do. Once again I find myself simultaneously thanking record time for the experience as well as flying it the bird...and now I am treating record time like a person...it's time for me to get some sleep...very pumped to hear everyone's stuff!

Better late than never

Sorry I haven't posted anything since the beginning of the week. To make up for it, here are some pictures!

OOPS!

I forgot to record.

HOW DO YOU FORGET TO RECORD?

Well, today I will be recording absolutely everything!  It'll be grand.

I didn't make my goal.  In fact, I have a super short album this year.  But I'm super okay with it.  RTIX hit its pinnacle for me on Friday night when I got to perform my original music for an art show.

So really, this week took on a different type of success for me.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh time to record.... RECORD TIME!


xoxo,


Marta

Whatever Unfolds

Whatever Unfolds

My Ep is, Whatever Unfolds by Eric Cripe, these are some songs that I put together. If you read my blog on  RT VIII, then I'm going to repeat some of it here. I took a  little liberty and used a few recording templates that had a drum beat and added guitar and lyrics to. I also remembered a couple tips from your reviews and applied them. I used a voice peddle board to add a fun tone to my voice on a couple of the tracks. These songs have no collective story or over all view just things that came to my head when playing and recording.

Over all these songs are just fun and funny and may just tug at your heart. Again I am not a technical guy so I cant even tell you a single name of the gear that was used but Mike does and has told me and I was impressed. So far the mixing has been done by me so the levels are a little all over the place but that's the fun of it.

Track Listing (in order as they appear)

1. Steal a Minute

2. B.F.V.U.

3. Man with a Mic

4. Jollien

5. Single Cat Lady

6. Chimpmunk Dirt

7. New

Crap.

It's crap. My whole album is crap. It's not going to be 30 minutes, which is crap. I had to abandon my original crappy concept and settle for a much crappier concept. I've decided that all of the riffs are crappy, and the production just sounds like crap. There's even a crappy little jazz section. Also, I have to do almost all of my vocals yet, and that's crappy as fuck.

On the bright side, I have included another sample from the greatest film of all time, Fargo, and have decided that for Record Time X, I'm going to do something way less crappy, like make an original soundtrack to Robocop.

Ow

So much to get into, but I am ready for bed, so I'll keep it short!

Recorded all my vocals tonight. I thought it might kill me, and it pretty much did. I've never pushed myself so hard, and I literally had to cut a few lyrics because my voice was absolutely gone. I'm talking some serious pain. But I'm happy with the results. To be honest, it's really all about one track on this record. The others are fun and heavy, but honestly I think my opener stacks up against some of the Viking metal classics - which isn't saying much, as the genre is known more for novelty than quality.

The way cooler news is that my Grandpa is drawing my album artwork by hand (well, he already drew it, but my mom needs to go pick it up, scan it, and e-mail it to me). He's more of a cartoonist than anything, but I told him to make it super violent. Whenever I ask him to draw, he always comes back with something incredibly weird and unexpected. So I'm pumped.

Oh, and for better or worse, I'm rapping on Logan's album.

RTIX has given me a cold. I unfortunately like these songs more than I wanted to. I'm dreading ruining them with vocals. Oh well...

Here are some workspace photos. I've achieved maximum RT comfort by figuring out how to watch 30 Rock while I record.

And my amp setup with my super messy pedalboard.

Back to it.

Intraphase's "Demon"

It's Record Time again!! For most record time is a week. For us it's usually a weekend. This go around it happens to be the final weekend.

-Where we stand-

As an engineer record time is as much about gear as it is writing great music. This year the studio is stocked with some great gear:

In the Rack

RME Fireface UFX -> Bass DI/drums/room mics

Audient ASP008 -> drums

Chandler Limited LTD -> Royer 122v -> Guitars

Focusrite ISA Two -> Drum Overheads

On the drum kit:

Mojave MA300-kit mic

Lauten Audio Torches-OH

SM57's-tom's/snare (because putting condensers near Eric playing drums=bad idea)

Yamaha SubKick=kick

Royer 122-kick (maybe)

random room mics:

sE 2200a

Lauten Audio-Clarion

As far as writing, last night we finished up the story and started writing riffs. The story is the continuation of Record Time VII's concept album. This time it's going to an entirely new level.

Bitchin'!

So excited to be in the thick of Record Time yet again! And super excited to be part of Wilinski's Bitchin' series. Like Joe said, this album will have much less instrumentation than Lobster Shanty material. I've traded in funk for folk, which has been really fun. And I've been able to spend a lot of time on the artwork, which I'm really happy with. Just laid down bass tracks for the first two tunes. Going to continue to mix, edit, and write parts into the wee hours of the night!

Cheers and good luck!

Queens of the Machine

Pretty good Day 4! I've got all the guitars, drums, and bass done. Now I just have to do keyboards and vocals, although I have no idea how either of those things will fit in.

I'm fully prepared to destroy my voice for this thing. I have a very loud "shouting" voice that I'm planning on using, and while I've used it in small amounts on past records, it'll probably be about 50% of the vocals on this one. So that's a little scary. Hopefully it pays off.

I originally thought this would be a pretty inaccessible album, but I'm actually starting to think some non-metal fans might enjoy it. It's still really heavy, but the bass added a lot more of a "groove" to it, and it sounds almost a little more hard-rockish now. I think the keyboards will get it back to a more Viking sound, but in it's current state it's got a lot of Rage Against the Machine and/or Queens of the Stone Age influence.

Technically, it sounds most like a band I used to love called Giant Squid...basically a heavier version of this:

There's nothing I'd rather be doing on a Friday night than recording keyboards for a Viking album. No joke. Can't wait to get back to work tonight.

quick update

Been working with my screamer for 2 days, the the first day was a hardcore jam session to see what happened, and yesterday was recording...I will be the first to say it's not the most intelligent of music, but I always love an excuse to bring out my double kick pedal :) Got all the vocals, Guitars and Drums tracked for that song, very productive night!

this is HARD!

So I'm worried this time around isn't going as smoothly as it has in the past. Ideas have been hard to come by. And they've been building a new apartment next door. I should've had the foresight to write an album about construction. And now, when I want to record some vocals, there is a loud ass thunderstorm brewing outside. I should've written an album about Benjamin Franklin. Damn, that would've been awesome.

Anyways, hope everyone else is fairing better than me, or at least are enjoying a quite recording space. See you at the end?

Things are getting hairy.

Three days left and I've only got 13 minutes of music. This is a problem. I still plan on hitting the 30 minute mark, but unfortunately, it's looking like the rest of the album will probably not sound nearly as nice as the three songs I have recorded. The songs will still be cool I think, but the production value is going to have to drop off significantly if this is to be finished on time.

As a side note, doing Record Time while working third shift is kind of crazy. I get home from work between 7-8am. This leaves me with about 4-5 hours of recording time before I need to go to bed. So, I go to bed around noon, wake up at 7-8, record for awhile, and go back to work at 11. The problem with all of this lies in this weird facet of working the third shift: your life becomes one very, very, very long day. Endless. You spend 24 years of your life going to bed when the sun is down and waking up when it's up. When you only sleep with the sun outside, the concept of a "new day" is kind of lost.

What I'm trying to say is, this album is weird as hell, very fast, and very loud, because I HAD to do it that way to keep myself awake through any of it. I hope you all like it.

Longboat is Long

Day 3 of Record Time, but only Day 2 of my Viking Metal epic!

Not a lot to report from last night, but I finished all the drums and heavy guitars. The album is clocking in at a whopping 32 minutes. It's all pretty slow, which helped a lot.

I've learned a ton already from RT9. I realized that instrumentation/production really have nothing to do with how ambitious an idea is. My piano/vocal only concept actually turned out to be too ambitious for Record Time. I was listening to a ton of Regina Spektor, James Taylor, and Carole King, thinking "I'll just write some of that." Egotistical much? In fact, I'm learning that the simpler the instrumentation, the more work it actually is. Lyrics matter more, performance matters more, structure, melody, everything. It might be true that in Record Time, you need at least one element that can be pretty much thrown by the wayside.

Anyway, the album is heavy. REAL heavy. And I've realized I have a secret weapon: my sister, who has agreed to supply some really over-the-top opera vocals to add to the epic factor (she's a vocal performance major). I've also got 4 days to find a Horn of Gondor-type thing.

I guess I'm toying with the idea of giving this album a story, because why not? It'll just be a bunch of pillaging, maybe someone gets betrayed by the gods and kills them, I dunno. I'll probably figure it out Saturday afternoon.

Later!

so much to do

I find when I do record time I branch out and collaborate with other people more than anything else, last time I produced a rapper, did a ridiculous jingle and a metal cover, all but the cover being inspired by the people that worked with me on those projects. This time around I'm working with a screamer and branching into that genre (very new for me), T Clax the rapper looks like he may make another appearance to record time in a song that I haven't started yet, and last night had a bunch of guys over (the same that worked on/inspired the brilliant work entitled mr. brew from the last record time) working on what turned out to be an 8 and a half minute campfire song...filled with just awful vocals that i'm sure will be melodyne heavy by the time it gets to sunday. Every time record time comes around again I get more and more ambitious...then realize how much work I have just cut out for myself...that's about where I'm at now :).

Day 3isms!

Day 3 was super good!  I love that Record Time fell on my birthday, & I think yesterday all the stars aligned perfect for maximum success.  (Someone even gave me a capo - about time I get my hands on one of those!)

I got a song written as well as a progression for another.  The song I wrote is by far my favorite I've ever written.  It's really lyric-heavy, which is something I was trying to stay away from, but I also think it's appropriate.  This brings my album to:

Intro
Song I
Song II
Song III music
Song IV lyrics

Two songs left to reach my goal!  I'll probably finish writing today & start recording tomorrow.

The world of music is exciting right now.  Keep blogging!  Keep musicking!  Getcha some!




xoxo,


Marta

Gear and a Viking Metal Primer

Alright well, there's not much reason to do this, as my gear hasn't changed since last time, but here it is!

My room was so clean just two days ago! Now it's gross. Honestly took these on my way out the door this morning. Please don't judge.

I had an AWESOME night of recording. I feel much better now. And I can tell you with certainty that I'm now making a straight-up old school VIKING METAL album.

For those unfamiliar with the genre, Viking Metal is, well, metal about Vikings. It technically started as an offshoot of black metal, but it can be in a pretty wide variety of styles. For mine, though, I'm shooting for the really early sound exemplified by Bathory - a one-man band made up of a dude named Quorthon (may he rest peacefully in Valhalla). I used to listen to the album "Hammerheart" before track meets in high school.

Here's the best example I have of old-school Viking metal:

As you'll notice, the production is pretty crazy. Ridiculous amounts of distortion, and the drums are huge but sort of buried at the same time. That's the plan for me as well. Last night I recorded 15 minutes of drums and basically wrote all the guitars. Tonight should be another 15 minutes of drumming, then filling in ALL the guitars and bass. Would be awesome to get all of that finished and have 4 days for keyboards, vocals, and mixing.

I'm also thinking this won't be under the Strange Battery name. The opportunity to give myself a Viking name is just too great to pass up. I don't know how, but I'll need some artwork like this, too:

I realize I may be the only one that enjoys this album. LIKE I CARE.

Pullin' Hard.

I don't think I've ever pulled this hard for lyrics.  My album is going to be instrumentally sparse, so I've been much more concerned with vocal inflections and lyrical content.  I am definitely having some of the most fun writing lyrics this time around than ever before, and for whatever reason, a lot is being pulled from my daily encounters with the homeless in San Francisco.

I bought a new guitar for Record Time back on Sunday.  A vintage Takamine acoustic.  Exciting.  It's been a pleasure to finally work on an acoustic instrument that sounds thick and good.

Hit an all-time best album cover composition for any of my solo work.  Had an entire photo shooting afternoon, and I can hardly believe how well the photos turned out.  Mmmmmmmalbumartwork.

Here's to 3:45 AM, waking up, and feeling the need to contribute to the blog.  Bitchin'.

I wish my album could be as loud as Dan's or Logan's.

I had tonight off work, so I've been working on RT IX for about 7 hours now, and at this point I have roughly 10 minutes of nearly finished music.. I'm pleased with my progress so far, but I'm having doubts about being able to pull off my original idea. First of all, while the album has some variety of sound so far, it's just varying degrees of heaviness. While this is cool, I need to take it other places. Another problem is my lyrics. So far, the riffs I've written haven't been great for putting lyrics over. I mean, I think they sound really good, but I'm a terrible lyricist to begin with, so this is extra hard. This might end up being more like my last RT submission, where the lyrics and vocals are sparse and mainly used for emphasis.

I ended up caving in and buying that EH Metal Muff today, so I re-recorded a track with it and it sounds AWESOME. Gritty as can be. The production on this album sounds really good so far, but I'm having a bit of a problem finding a balance between the bass being inaudible and booming over the kick drum. Anyway, I think I'm going to take a nap for a few hours, wait for all the neighbors to wake up, and then go back out to the motorhome for more mayhem. The track I'll be working on this morning is going rip. Headbangers, get excited.

I've got blistas on me fingas!

Today wasn't so hot.  I got a song written as well as some ideas for some others... but all in all, it was just a day of perfecting two of my songs.

This has been the most pointless update.



xoxo,

Marta

Day 2!

Day 2 is essentially just beginning for me. I work 9am-6pm every day, with an hour drive in the morning and evening. I work out from 5am-6:30am each morning, leaving me with just a hair over an hour to write before I have to leave at 8. Them when I get home from work, I make dinner, eat dinner, then begin. So, I started tonight at about roughly 8:30.

That being said, I feel like I've accomplished a TON for the amount of time I have actually spent on RTIX. I have one song finished, sans lyrics, another one sketched out and I'm about to begin writing a third.

So far, everything is very heavy on piano. I'm going to change it up on this next one. No piano, only vocals, spoon. claps, and a plastic cup on a dry erase board (I'll take picture of the mic setup tomorrow when I record the cup and board).

This is the first RT I've actually been recording and mixing in a treated space. It's super exciting, let me tell you what. Also, this is the first major project (aside from the odd composition gig here and there) that I've gotten to use the full might of my new DAW machine.

A little bit about it...

AMD 8 core CPU a@ 4.1GHz
16GB DDR3 RAM @ 1866MHz
120GB SSD drive for OS and programs
2 TB Storage



I'm still using my trusty M-box 2, but that's the next thing to go very shortly. I'm getting to the point where I need more than 2 mic inputs.

This machine handles plugins like a boss, chews sample libraries up and spits out symphonies, and pretty much runs anything you throw at it without stopping to ask questions.

Mics:

2x Fat Head II Ribbons
2x SM57
1x SM7B
1x Bluebird
1x Cloudlifter

Instruments:

Schecter Diamond Series Studio-5 Bass
Cordoba Tenor Ukulele
Custom Violin
Roland midi keyboard
Cinesamples Piano in Blue
Stormdrum 2
RA (maybe)
EWQL SO Plat (maybe)
EWQL Voices of Passion (maybe)


Drink of the night: "Healthy" Pina Colada (pureed pineapple, passion fruit, papaya, mango mixed with coconut rum, triple sec, and sweetened shaved coconut)

Time to get back to it!

record time makes me want to vomit sometimes

I'm glad the blog is so active already, I love reading about what everyone else is doing!  All of the pictures of gear and recording setups are great!

I only got to put in a couple of hours yesterday, so I don't have tooo much accomplished yet, but I do have 3 or 4 songs mapped out and started.  I plan on getting much more done tonight.

There is a turning point each time, somewhere near the middle of the week, where what seemed like a hopeless pile of bad ideas and out-of-tune guitar takes suddenly starts to resemble music.  Until I reach that point I have no way to guage how well things are going.  I usually feel like quitting and crying in the corner until I reach that point.  Its a terrible feeling, really.  But once I round that corner and the album starts to take shape, its one of the greatest feelings in the world.  I hope I get to that point soon...

Buh

Basically, this was me from about 7:30-11:30 last night:

After eight Record Times, it finally happened - I had a day of complete and total failure. I'm scrapping EVERYTHING I did last night. Just wasn't happening. I guess it's not time to panic yet, as I remember doing RT7 in just 6 days (had a girlfriend's birthday on one day, I believe). For about 20 minutes I decided I would switch to another concept I have way in the back of my mind, but that turned out to be 100x more difficult.

I think the main problem is that my habits are so incredibly deep now - everything I try to write sounds like something I've already done before. Playing piano I can't get my fingers to do anything new.

Long story short: the stars might be aligning for my triumphant return to metal. I won't jinx it by writing the idea here, but I've got something that might be crazy enough to work. Getting more excited about it by the minute, which I think is a good sign. It doesn't require me to obsess over lyrics, it allows for a great deal of melody, and best of all, I might be able to master it louder than Logan's album.

Also it's leg day at the gym after work. RECORD TIME BEAST MODE: ENGAGE.

This ams a metal albums.

 Gear expo!

First, here's my recording space.

It's my parents' motorhome, and while it's kinda cramped and awkward, it's SUPER cushy and private, and privacy is really important to me while recording. In the foreground is my busted old Macbook which I "gutted" of programs not pertaining to producing music or album art.

This is my main guitar for this project. It's an Ibanez RG370, and I have it downtuned to drop Bb. It sounds pretty wicked. 

A Peavey Bandit 112 solidstate amp. I'm not mic'ing this amp, but I'm running direct out from it to a USB interface.

 

This is my baby. My first electric guitar, bought from a pawnshop at 17. It's a 1984 Ibanez RoadStar II. One humbucker at the Floyd-Rose bridge. The funny thing is that the humbucker is actually swapped out from ANOTHER Ibanez Roadstar II (from 1986) that I own, but is in disrepair right now.

Also, it has this:

Yes, scalloped frets, from the 12th to the 22nd. It's weird, because I sanded those out many years ago without really knowing what I was doing, and now I seriously can't imagine playing this guitar without them. If you want to take a chance at totally destroying your guitar for a little more control and a LOT more comfort, I suggest this. But seriously, learn what you're doing first. I went about this like an idiot and am genuinely lucky it worked out.

For bass, I'm using my old Ibanez GSR200. Maybe you have noticed a certain pattern to the guitars I own. I have never meant to own only Ibanez guitars, but somehow it's always worked out that way. I have a Fender acoustic, if that counts for anything. Anyway, this bass was how I learned how a fretboard works (I played bass before I learned guitar).

The dirty trio. These are the three pedals I intend on using. A Danelectro reverse delay, Digitech Grunge, and Dunlop Cry Baby, from left to right. I have a couple of Behringer multi-fx pedals, but I'm trying not to use anything subpar (which, really, that Grunge pedal is cutting it close). I meant to have an EH Metal Muff at this point, but you know how these things go. I've used that reverse delay in LOTS of recordings, but I usually use it to build up layers of sound during solos. In this context, I'll definitely be doing some of that, but I'll be using it a little more subtly this time (which actually means more recognizably? It's weird).

Anyway, I'm done. We need more gear posts up in here!

Day 1.

Hey Record Time, I'm 1972 (aka David White) and with my friend Raunchy I'm going to be doing Record Time for the first time. We're a psychedelic hip hop group from the South Side of Chicago called GRO☮VE SUIT and we've only been putting out music for the past few months so we're looking forward to doing something this ambitious. I'm not really sure of what our goal is as of right now, I've never really tried something like this. I'm hoping to finish at least a full EP by the end of the week, but who knows maybe we'll be able to push it to a full album. We've discussed a concept or a theme for this project but as of right now that's still up in the air, I find that things like are better off falling into their own place and happening naturally. Here's a quick look at what we're working with;

Fender Statocaster, Washburn acoustic guitar, a bass borrowed from a friend & my dirty toes.

Raunchy doing a verse using the Samson G-Track, not the best for recording music but pretty inexpensive so it's a good deal if you want to record but can't afford professional equipment. Also using Fruity Loops 8 for production.

As for the music, we've had a pretty productive day. One song completely finished and 3 others that are at different stages, hoping to wrap those up within the next few days. I also have a few ideas for some other songs but we'll see if we're able to get to those before the deadline, things have actually been going along a lot more smoothly than I thought they would. Right now I'm just going to finish the music to a Pet Sounds-esque beat and call it a day, I'll post an update tomorrow if I have the time. Good night! ☮