Please hang up and try your call again
A fairly typical Song-A-Day progress arc in the first two weeks, and this was certainly true for me in the first two or three years, is either a release of pent-up songs that slowly dry up, or starting with nothing, struggling for the first couple, but then getting back into the groove of writing and feeling pretty good in week two. And then comes week three. Panic starts to set in. The well is dry. … Continue reading
Today is the day. I’m going to get two of these things done. I started writing about 3pm. Plenty of time. Since yesterday was done entirely in safe, warm, and cozy, Omnisphere I’m going to try some of my newer software hoping to get some of those “new sounds, new songs” moments. Hive2 from u-He was my starting point. Almost right off the bat I found the really funky chord-stab synth that opens the track, … Continue reading
Sometimes writing a song like 509 can cause incredible pressure or an unrealistic expectation that because I did that yesterday, I should be able to do it again today. Happily, I actually found it to be a relief. There are only two days left in the month, I’ve written a couple of really solid songs, so I can actually relax a bit and feel like I had more of a “quality over quanitity” kind of … Continue reading
As is often the case, this piece started off with that very first bell sound and I started building to it. Similarly to the Output plugins mentioned yesterday, the Cycles library from Slate + Ash has become a dark-horse favorite for me – a pleasant surprise because my initial reaction to it was more in the disappointed realm. In part, it’s because the library is computationally intense. There’s a lot of granular manipulation going on, … Continue reading
Sitting down to write, I don’t think I was intending on a return to the deep space music / dark ambient genre, but here we are. I tried a slightly different approach this time, going with a slower tempo and then using a super sparse drum pattern, but running it through several effects. The opening note and kick drum sound remind me a lot of a song I wrote back in the 80s, but it’s … Continue reading