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This week included (as usual) an hour and a half of ambient improvisation, finalizing a collection of this year's Weekly Beats pieces so far, a Friday-evening ambient improvisation (not yet released), and (today) a rehearsal for a show in a couple weeks.

That seems like a lot when I type it out. So I had one tracking session Saturday evening for this, and on a whim selected the Kalamazoo KG-2, tuned D F# C# E F# A. (I still have to level those frets and swap out the too-level bridge, so I can approximate that 7 1/4" fretboard radius.) Apart from having to avoid certain parts of the fretboard, it worked reasonably well, after I tightened down the pickguard again.

This guitar lends itself to thrashing around, which leads to that channel of droning on open strings while I slide around a cluster of fretted notes. (I did, after all, use this guitar for a few Glenn Branca sessions back in the day, so thrashing is in its history.) Some of these rhythm parts got pretty long in tracking; I wasn't inclined to stop at the end of a measure.

There are three tracks of Kalamazoo: neck pickup on the left, bridge pickup on the right, both pickups in the center. I felt too lazy to patch in the Colourbox, so it's direct into the UA Volt, with the "vintage" tone circuit on. I didn't worry too much about overloading, since this A/D clips nicely. (I also used the usual send to a convolution reverb, and the usual compression/eq/limiting arrangement on the stereo mix.)

The results...seem pretty decent. I'm fond of that one section in the middle (~ 1:36), so let it go on a bit longer than some of the others. After uploading, I found a few places where before-the-bar note attacks were cut off in editing, and restored them. While I was at it, I boosted everything a dB, and mixed up the reverb send a bit. So now it's more correct.

This really does have a stronger rock feeling than I've used in the last few weeks. Maybe I'm overselling it here with this title, but Mount Overrocker's highest point is 644 m.

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There are some bits and bobs in here that I like, but it's very muddy sounding.

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Kind of an experimental week. Just had some fun trying different things. I don’t think it all came together in any particularly successful way, but there are some good ideas in there. It’s nice to do something just for entertainment’s sake and not have it come out a dirge for once.

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Couldn't prioritize the time to do DAW work this week. Probably some quantization and latency compensation to figure out to using iOS GarageBand instruments better.

Have a number of musical things to dial down and focus more soon. Have been splitting a little wide between singing, guitar, production, cello, music sw, etc. Coming up on the performance I've been practicing cello for and probably will take a break and focus more on vocals/production after that. Cello is awesome, but I'm ready to put that time and energy more toward vocals, guitar, and production.

I saw a fantastic quartet this week that was inspiring and life changing. Violin violin viola cello. I was 1ft away from the violin player and in direct view of the cello player. (I was very tempted to keep going at cello after seeing and hearing this xD)

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i got inspired to play some drums after listening to Jason Nijjer's song last week: a place to work in secret. recorded a little floor tom + snare beat as a voice memo and then went a little bonkers on it.   ╰(*°▽°*)╯

thanks for the inspiration, Jason!

and thanks to all y'all for listening & making cool shit. it helps, truly. 

mind yr change!

XO,

jwh

› lyrics‹ lyrics

i think we rested in the winter time

couldn't quite escape

tumbling branches through the glass & grime

our arms don't bend that way

mind your change

BOOM

are you quiet or are you strange

maybe both

oh my god what have we gotten here

a blanket or a cape

mind your change

BOOM

are you quiet or are you strange

maybe both

i think we rested in the winter time

couldn't quite escape

tumbling branches through the glass & grime

our arms don't bend that way

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a toad that's relocatable to anywhere!

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over the past few weeks, i've been working on a score/"cover" of john williams' duel of fates for cinemadrome's sweded film fest.  i've always liked doing music for movies, but cinemadrome events are really the only time i find myself doing it.  so this month i'm gonna do some for fun! 

also been watching a lot of early 2000s asian cinema lately. first up is "the host" (directed by bong joon ho and starring song kang-ho and

Some questions don't seek an answer. They exist to be asked, again and again, in the hope that sound itself might fill the absence. This piece was born from that place.

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I recorded the church drum kit with my mid side microphone this morning, so better than my phone. didn't have a lot of time to make it into a track though

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This one is special to me. Made using Maschine.

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