Black Obelisk – Ray Toler

Day two and I’m already behind. I didn’t post the first track until about 11:30 PM, and then worked into the wee hours only to realize nothing worthwhile. When listening to the various sketches this morning, nothing really seemed like it would gain traction. So I decided to work on the website, writing my post for day one, as well as day one of 2024.

Black Obelisk Ray Toler 5:19

I’m sure this will come as a massive surprise to anyone who knows me, but I’ve kind of made my entire process overly complicated. I like what the end result is, but it’s a lot more work than I probably need to do.

Here’s my typical process:

Create the 24-bit Broadcast WAV master
Batch onvert that to 24- and 16-bit ALAC, and a 192Kbps MP3. This step also adds the majority of the meta tags into the four files.
Bring those into Apple Music¹ to fix missing tags and add lyrics if needed.
Upload MP3 to Song-A-Day site, add lyrics and info, and listen to the entire thing to verify it’s right.
Upload MP3 to my web site.
Add MP3 to main page playlist and create an individual playlist for the day’s post.
Write the day’s post.
Either take a photo of handwritten lyrics or look for a suitable header image for post.
Paste my post text into WordPress, format, link graphics and playlists.
Publish, rinse and repeat.

It might seem like overkill, but at the end of the day, these are my babies and I treat them that way. I could stop doing the blog posts – I doubt many people read them – but I find them incredibly helpful. It’s like reading a diary, and I remember lots of things.²

Where Was I?

Oh yeah, I’m behind. So take that process above and double it because I’m also doing this for 2024. I managed not to do most of it last year and I really missed having the daily posts over the course of the year. I also needed to remember how to do some things, install fonts on the new computer, update the various software, etc., etc., etc. I didn’t start trying to write today’s track until around 5 PM! So much for being a day ahead.

Ok. Truth Time. Today’s track is not the first one I “finished.” That one will show up tomorrow, and I’ll discuss why in tomorrow’s post. Suffice to say that I actually started this track around midnight. My thinking? The track I’d been working on was mostly done but needed some fresh ears for mixing and maybe a little extra something. But it’s only midnight! Surely I can crank out something in the next couple of hours, and then I’ll be back working a day ahead!

Easy or Familiar?

So what do I do when I only have limited time? Most often, it’s going to be an ambient track of some sort. Over the last year I have listened to my Mare series from 2023-24 a lot. I mean, a whole lot. More than anything else I did in those years. I use it to fall asleep, while I’m walking the dog, etc., etc., etc. I used to worry about boring my fellow Song-A-Day participants with it, but I have to keep reminding myself that I’m writing these for me. Also, I’ve gotten some really positive feedback about them, so I don’t worry so much about that now.

But am I really challenging myself? Do I resort to ambient or drone because it’s easy? Ehhhh… maybe. Kind of. In a really abstract way. It’s not so much that they’re easy, but that I’ve practiced making them so much that I know what I’m doing. I’m not faffing about with a bunch of things that end up going nowhere (though if you saw one of my sketch projects, you’d laugh at that statement). I do a lot of experimentation at other times of the year, and Song-A-Day is when those techniques get used.

The “trick” on this one was coming up with the initial shape of it using a crystal bowls sample library, then to duplicate a lot of what I’d played to other instruments. This is where a lot of the work is, because finding the things that gel well together is definitely needle-in-haystack territory. I have hundreds of thousands of samples and patches. In this particular case, I ended up with a lot of acoustic things (strings, choir), and then decided to balance that with some granular synth and effects.

The copied performances are customized to fit each instrument’s particular needs, then I mix the whole thing. For a drone like this, I try to strike a balance between letting things bloom in their own time and providing points of interest. I did this mostly with volume automation, but also did some auto panning on two parts, but keeping them in different periods and ranges of motion. This one may be a bit on the loud side, so I might have to revisit it later.

In any case, I was able to complete this track and get to bed by 3 – an hour too late – but also have tomorrow’s track 99% done as well. So I’m back on schedule. That takes a lot of pressure off.

Colophon

Instruments & Samples

Spitfire Crystal Bowls, Symphonic Strings Evolutions, & Eric Whitacre Contrast, S+A Choreographs, Dawesome Myth

Effects, Mixing, & Mastering

FabFilter, Gullfoss, MOTU Masterworks EQ, PanMan, Dawesome Love

Image Credit: David Cousinou

Notes

1
AKA iTunes
2
Clearly I forget nearly everything I write because when going through past posts, I find I’m repeating lots of stories and jokes.