WEEK 13! Do you folks realize that if you have stayed in from the start you are well beyond the track minimum for a full length record (whatever that means now :P)? That blew me away, and for some reason some of my old ride or die homies back home have been reaching out asking when I'm putting out new music xD. I haven't shipped anything self produced in almost a decade until I took this year's challenge on along with all of you, and I am so grateful for this community for giving me the motivation to start cooking again. Thanks, everyone.
I got an RME Babyface Pro FS this week - was using a lot of consumer grade stuff and was getting far too much color stack and mud during layering vocals. Focusrite 2i2, Volt 276, Presonus IOstation - all great stuff until you get a dozen tracks in or so and you start having problems. Never looking back the RME is absolutely incredible, mainly because once it's set I don't have to think about it at all.
Speaking of stacking vocals - first takes only again, I had to get this out. Noticing I'm spending a lot less time tuning, either I'm not as pitchy or I'm more comfortable with natural note drift.
Everything was sequenced on the m8 but I did stack vocals into Reaper directly and cut the guitar solo through NI Guitar Rig 7 - I've never been able to find a tone I loved in it, but plenty I like so we hit the good enough bar. I had a prechorus built in the M8 original but it just wasnt working - ended up adding the solo instead.
The song is semi-autobiographical - we moved a lot as a kid, not much out of my hometown, but different schools and all that. While raising one of my own I am coming to realize that it made more prone to not get too attached to people and place. I want to give him more of a choice in the matter if I can.
Lyrics
I remember where I left myself
Trying to wrestle with the pain I felt
New town and I’m making some friends
But I just found out that we’re movin again
No time for the roots to grow
Never love for the dirt below
Keep my eyes straight up at the sky
and I never felt the wind when it started to blow
HOME, HOME, I KNOW
My home is a place in the sky
HOME, I KNOW
My home is a place in my mind
Want the truth I got nothing left
Nothing to play since I hedge my bets
No fear got a pocket for hands and I’m
Stepping back from another ledge I guess hey
Be a man for the rest of the night
Be a man now I’m risking my life
Be a man and I’m losing my friends
Never seeing my kids and I’m missing my wife
2026 CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)
