The PsychoVoyager Journal

Song I've worked on and off (mostly off) since May 2008, using the program Energy XT2 in Windows XP. It's probably about done, though I will likely tweak it just a li'l bit, before I'm satisfied.

Plug-ins used; GTG DPC 3 (drums), SoHaSonata (synth), Classic compressor, Classic phaser, Classic EQ, classic flanger, Bionic Delay, as well as the program's own Synthesizer and FX DelayReverb.

A Demo was made back in 2006:



Lyrics:

I don't think you realize
just how proud I am
Just how impressed I've been
You've got the drive within
you're so long overdue
and you've long paid your dues
no one here gets an apology

sorry won't cut it
It's not in the budget
they want regrets
but they can forget it
you're doin' it your way
your way is the highway
blazin' on down the only road that gets you home

and that's why
I continue
to believe in you

and
you
should
too

takin' it underground
like you're fighting Manchus
showin' off your skills
as though you're good at kung-fu
The Five Deadly Venoms
couldn't get through your defences
forget the seven sins
your top priority is

You but not for you alone
for your strength will set the tone
and lift the hearts
of all of those around you
even those who put you down
and would see your failure crown
the doubts they've always bowed down to

and that's why
I continue
to believe in you

and
you
should
too

you rock well
and nobody does it better

(c) 2006-2009 George Isaacs


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Labels: Creative Commons, DAW, downloads, Energy XT, guitar, lyrics, music, plug-ins, Windows

I worked on this a little yesterday, but didn't post about it. I'd simply opened up Hydrogen and created a drum track using the HardElectro1 drumkit by ArtemioLabs. I also used LADSPA effects on a couple of instruments: Simple amplifier on Kick 2 & 3 & FX and TAP Flanger on FX.

Today I opened up Jack Control and set the sample rate to 88200 just because, however my soundcard may not support that as Ardour seems to indicate that I'm at 48 kHz. I'll look into that later. Hydrogen seems to stay at 44100 no matter what. Hmmm.

In Ardour I recorded a bunch of guitar takes, trying to get input levels right. Adjusted the levels via the Tascam 688 and then there was the issue of playing the song right. There were a couple of extra chords at the begining of verse two I wanted to cut out (easier than playing the whole song over again) which seemed tricky. Through right-clicking I tried to split the track, but no go for some reason. Instead I pressed the range button on the upper right hand side of the screen and was able to select the area I wanted to delete. Then I went and dragged the two pieces together. Not sure how accurate the placement was. Sounds okay, I think, as far as timing is concerned. This kinda thing would be much easier in Cakewalk. Also recorded a scratch vocal and then the Hydrogen output to a track so that I can mix it down and listen to it at my leisure.

I changed my mind about posting the in progress audio files. I'll continue to do that and then remove them from my server once the song is completed, and then post the miscelaneous tracks to archive.org.

So, here's Above It All, based on The World They Loved To Hate, written by Crystal Walters. Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Labels: Above It All, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Creative Commons, Crystal Walters, DAW, Hydrogen, Linux

My New Years Resolution included some musical promises. Among them is the recording of one cover song a month. While there are a number of "classics", I think I'd like to tackle, I've decided to select songs from the Internet Archive, licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike and Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licences. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs is a bit limiting and seems not to permit re-interpreting works, so I avoid those songs that don't allow for building on them. I don't have a problem with that licence. I use it on some of my own music as well as the previous two mentioned. The attribution-sharealike licences are suited for sampling, remixing, or in my case, covering and re-imagining these songs.

So, the first cover song of the year will be Above It All, originally titled The World They Loved To Hate by Cry For Life AKA Crystal Walters. I was struck by the unusual sentiment expressed in the lyrics. I'll send my apologies when I'm done.

I tweaked the lyrics just a little bit, changed the title, and simplified the chords so that I could create an arrangement of sorts. Then I opened up Audacity, and recorded a couple of quickie demos with guitar and voice.

Every cover I record this year has to be finished on the month I start it, so these projects won't be as open ended as my usual stuff. Of course I can always come back to them after they're "finished."

Instead of posting an audio link with every post, the finished song will be posted to archive.org along with the individual instrument and vocal tracks. I may also include examples of the song at various points of its' progress.

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Labels: Above It All, Audacity, covers, Creative Commons, Crystal Walters