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! ☮