I wonder how high the untitled numbering system will climb to?
Unbelievably there are 14 tracks buried in here. Just as with my old 4 track straight-to-cassette mixer, there is significant compression and distortion on each individual track that is sent to a final mix. Consequently, I have adopted the practice of mixing down every time I hit 4 or so distinct tracks.
Why is it the case that, despite working with purely digital representations of sound, there is still a margin of degradation on mix downs? I hate this shot in the dark methodology. (Perhaps this is a problem with Garageband, but I doubt it. I’m much more inclined to attribute it to my own lack of skills.)
This ’song’ (alternatively titled World War, perhaps?) took no more than an hour to morph from a drunken impulse to a blog entry. I intend to buy a midi keyboard in the near future and a real microphone. Despite the mix down issues (more likely me than the app), Garageband kills.
Chicken bones… Laughter!
Technorati Tags: Public Burning
A song from a long time ago about a girl I can no longer remember.
And here the (poorly sung) words:
I think about my crime
thinking ain’t so clear
I think I wasted time
and you disappeared
a thinning wooden man
hands that cannot hold
he’s all alone
and it’s getting so cold
she wants to be free
where does that leave me?
my own bad company.
she wants to be free.
the sun don’t seem to rise
like it always did
said his last goodbyes
said he can’t forgive
blood is running cold
are we having fun?
a solitary bullet in the gun.
I’ve spent the entire day producing the small morsel below. I drink alone… And what singing!
.
A few years ago I recorded an ‘album’ on a 4 track with a build-in cassette deck. I learned quite a bit in the process. Creativity, above all, seemed firmly rooted in chance, and some of the best episodes from the entirety of the recordings came about through happenings that were not my doing. I wish I still had a copy of that old set of songs!
The process of creating music on a computer is entirely different - analogue vs. digital, I suppose. The different tracks no longer exist in some metaphysical space accessible only by an abstract set of fast-forward, rewind and play buttons. They present themselves graphically - as spastic, almost fractal sound strokes. Carve them up, loop them, distort them, merge, flatten or perform any number of other possible surgeries upon their form. It’s a lustful relationship…
Here are the words to the above song - sing along! Haha:
it’s the same old sun
climbing in the sky
it’s the same big city girl
and her out of town guy
looking so composed
as she says goodbye
it’s the same old smile you know
- beneath the washed out eyes
it’s the same old sun
the woman of the street
it’s the same old victory
the same sense of defeat
she said there’s nothing wrong
as she hid under the sheet
it’s the same old sun
same old city heat
it’s the same old sun
hanging out so high
it’s the same deserted town
filling up my eyes
the same old country song
on the radio
the same actors on the stage
same finish to the show.
This is extremely gratuitous, but here is another track I’ve produced in the past hour. I’ll call it - The Top Line:
There are around 13 separate looped tracks here (save for the vocals). Again, this is the first few days I’ve played with this amazing little piece of engineering, so, not to make excuses, it ain’t much. But it is making it extremely easy to procrastinate filling out University applications…
