MIDI and bass guitar don't like each other. myth busted, lets go for a drive

No effect pedals, no overdubs, no sequencing. Just me, my bass, and it triggering MIDI in real time. This is an actual experiment. Later I will put this new style of bass-fu truly to work.

February 27, 2012 "Let Us Never Dance Of This Beat Again" [Second Mix]

I feel as something is still amiss in the first half of this song. If you can tell me what it is, I like you. If you make it to the second half where I'm happy with everything, I love you. and either way, we're all in love with this reverb patch i wrote, right?

two-fer-Wednesday

I've not only been slacking on Drone-a-Day, I've also:

- just not doing it at all for most of February and end of January

- been straying from the concept (ie; beats)

- and not archiving it properly here. Oh well.

Here's Wednesday's entry, which should have been named "Middle-Aged Retooling Tai Chi Tortoises":

And Thursday's, the title of which, "Be my J.O. buddy, nah just marry me" comes from something a recently married friend of mine said, when confused as to how he could take his relationship to the next level with his lovely bride.

Eno said repetition is also drone...

..but then, my beats are more like lead instruments anyways, sinners in the hands of a learning god, having to remember his place, or at least where the one is.

Drone-A-Day...pResumed. 2/20/2012

as a warning...there are beats. so this isn't really a drone.

Why Drone-A-Day is paused for a sec

So, I have gathered a couple of listeners I have never met by this project, and I'd like to say hi and thank you for your ears. And of course, just when I get you listening, I stop. This was for quotidian reasons- travel delayed by weather, being a full time single dad for a week, and one non-q reason, which is that all my music making time lately has been taken up by mixing and working on the steelydanfielding record. (for those not in the know- sdf is my working title for a record i made in Manhattan with some friends back in October)

Anyways, I got to a place with all the tracks I recorded with the SDF project that I'm comfortable with, and now I need to go deeper into production than I ever have, because I think this is the best music I've ever made.

I feel "guilty" I am slacking off on Drone-a-Day, but I really must learn how to use these mastering plugins. It's not even a matter of finding reward in what I do, it's just going to the well of give-a-fuck that's hard sometimes. The answer of course is finding another gear inside, learning to make music in the day as well as night.

Aaaaannnnddd...I think I'm going to open the parameters of Drone-a-Day up a little. The texturescapes may just have beats in them going forward. Ok, enough talking, gotta go actually DO this now. Thank you for your indulgence.

np: Aphrodite's Child- "Break"

drone-A-Day #18

All strings tuned to D....and it made not a lick of difference, no pun intended, as I got crazy with the beat repeater preset. Oops...

drone-A-Day #17

cooked the books on the timing a little tonight, as I got a drink with Dre before coming home. anyways, in the end, i couldn't shy away from post-processing, and at a minute and a half or so, I think you'll be glad I did.

drone-A-Day #16

MOAR weird butter knives, bread twisties, and bottle cap resonators!!!

drone-A-Day #15

For the next week I use prepared guitar, I will take off the training wheels/bra of gobs of signal processing (or at least viz modulation).

drone-A-Day #14

And again, I get a second wind just as the week winds up! This was actually my second effort of the night. I made another piece, but was seduced by trying to loop drums to it and thus lost a couple of hours right there. Opted for a simpler approach, as that is the true spirit of the exercise.

drone-A-Day #13

I'm kind of looking forward to prepared guitar week next week, and after trying to keep this fresh on solo fretless, synth week seems like it will be a breeze by comparison.

drone-A-Day #12

drone-A-Day #11

Here's the "b-side" of Drone 10. I felt like they worked better split up, and this isn't just laziness. Really. It's not! YOU GUYS!

drone-A-Day #10

quite chuffed my bass tracks sound less like a bass than my guitars sound like guitars :D

drone-A-Day #9

At first, I felt even worse about this one than yesterday's entry. Now I think this one may be my favorite so far.

drone-A-Day #8

This is like 5% of 1/2 of my first band's 3rd song, from some 16 years ago almost. If it meanders more than usual, well, YOU make a soundscape from a bass chord and then try and operate under a self-constraint of 'but played even MORE freely than usual'

ugh. that's no excuse. Ah well, the first entry wasn't so hot either and things picked up. I think.

drone-A-Day #7

And this concludes week one of Drone-A-Day. It's so far been a rousing success as far as getting me back into a more regular music making mode. Not unlike making yourself get x thousand words a day, even if they're shitty ones so that the next day you can at least give your internal editor practice. This has also made me clean up my sound and know my gear better. Unfortunately, the wiring in this house is so weird and old that what is quiet one day is noisy the next. Anyhoo. Next week I'm going to do all the pieces on bass guitar. Week after that I'm thinking guitar again, but this time prepared/lapstyle/extended technique (read: can't get chicks playing this way).

drone-A-Day #6

Even having to do furiously quick performance/mix of these pieces has led me to remember what a real sonic martial art drone guitar can be. Coming very soon, and I mean it, a breakdown of the various styles of gaze-fu. Maybe even with pictures.

drone-A-Day #5