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ellyssianThe Lefty Valdez Band has a new song up on MySpace...
Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Aliens (with respects to Carl Stalling) is actually a much more complex and orchestrated piece than it might appear on first listen. Or, for that matter, subsequent listenings.
The first track recorded for it was the core percussion track - in this case, involving hands slapped on the dinner table or, rarely, clapped together, and fingers snapped. At times, even in time. Almost. As a bonus, you also get the effect of forks rattling on china plates. There's kind of a When the Levee Breaks groove materializing there. This also includes the "ending note" (which later tracks ran past, thus not making it so much of an ending) of a napkin being ripped in half (where "half" equals "a corner, roughly"). I did the finger snaps and table slaps,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aequitaslevitas did the table slaps, hand claps, and napkin destruction.
The next track that went into the mix features an extended section with me on two steak knives, and later involvesaequitaslevitas on forks and plates. I also channel a few alien vocals.
Next track, panned left, isaequitaslevitason plastic spoon and saucepan and giggles. I add some alien vocalizations and I don't remember what else. Thanks to the processing, the saucepan sounds almost pipa-like - more like a string instrument than a percussion instrument. Both of us include some alien slurping sounds.
Next up are some laughing, coughing, and additional vocalizations and percussions. Really, we only break up laughing about half the time. Lots of reverb on this track, and some funky pitch shifting echo.
Panned to the right, the next track features me on the spoon and saucepan.aequitaslevitas adds the lip-smacking and alien commentary at the end. There's also random alien vocalizations and yet more percussion of the dinner-table variety.
Next, panned left, are some effects from the starship's PA system, including some test drones. All sounds vocalized by the two of us and processed pretty much beyond human recognition, which was kind of the point. This track wound up overriding everything else, especially on some long, held out notes I did. It's now way down in the mix.
The only thing at a lower level than the prior track is this one, which has a whisper filter which reduces everything to an almost steam-train like chugging distortion. The whistle trade offsaequitaslevitas and I did came out a wee bit too clear, though, so that's why it earned its place at the bottom of the mix.
The next track is amongst the highest in the mix. It has alien arguments, growling, and discussion. It's one of the reasons we decided, after the fact, that they enjoyed a little dinner and combat.
Next track is another percussion one, this with excessive echoes. Although it's high in the mix, it still seems to just blend in. The glass door provided most of the instrumentation, although we made use of the usual suspects - table, plates, forks, knives, and so on - as well.
That's it for the "live instruments" - the rest were all synth tracks. I put down some computer beeping for that authentic "our spaceship is based on early-to-mid twentieth century technology" sound.aequitaslevitas put down the next synth line, panned left, to give some random melody and music to the tune. I balanced that out on the right with a different synth line and an entirely different synth sound, and a spacey synth bell right in the middle. During the argument and clear to the end, you can hear some synth lasers being fired off.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun with it. Keep in mind, we worked without a net, or, in the aural equivalent, a set of headphones. In other words, as we recorded each track we had only a rough idea of what happened in prior tracks via a graphic representation of noise happening. It works to simulate a cafeteria inhabited by a host of unsavory alien types, but not so much to create a more coherent musical piece.
Tomorrow,noone234 will be coming over and we'll work on getting some more of 5 on Reserve done. The player-piano version out there now is already obsolete - we wrote some of the piano part for the bridge, and I have the guitar and clarinet parts written out for the whole tune. Tomorrow, I hope to get the sax part in there and then I'll repost the sheet music generated piece again. Of course, that has some serious limitations - the guitar part sounds like a keyboard, and I'm not even going to try for a transcribed guitar solo, as the software showed serious limitations on the string bending at the end of the bass track. The piece will, however, serve as a guide I can listen to to set down the bass line using the fretless. Once that's done, we'll try to get the piano, sax, and guitar parts down as well.
So there might even be live music posted tomorrow.
Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Aliens (with respects to Carl Stalling) is actually a much more complex and orchestrated piece than it might appear on first listen. Or, for that matter, subsequent listenings.
The first track recorded for it was the core percussion track - in this case, involving hands slapped on the dinner table or, rarely, clapped together, and fingers snapped. At times, even in time. Almost. As a bonus, you also get the effect of forks rattling on china plates. There's kind of a When the Levee Breaks groove materializing there. This also includes the "ending note" (which later tracks ran past, thus not making it so much of an ending) of a napkin being ripped in half (where "half" equals "a corner, roughly"). I did the finger snaps and table slaps,
aequitaslevitas did the table slaps, hand claps, and napkin destruction.The next track that went into the mix features an extended section with me on two steak knives, and later involves
aequitaslevitas on forks and plates. I also channel a few alien vocals. Next track, panned left, is
aequitaslevitason plastic spoon and saucepan and giggles. I add some alien vocalizations and I don't remember what else. Thanks to the processing, the saucepan sounds almost pipa-like - more like a string instrument than a percussion instrument. Both of us include some alien slurping sounds.Next up are some laughing, coughing, and additional vocalizations and percussions. Really, we only break up laughing about half the time. Lots of reverb on this track, and some funky pitch shifting echo.
Panned to the right, the next track features me on the spoon and saucepan.
aequitaslevitas adds the lip-smacking and alien commentary at the end. There's also random alien vocalizations and yet more percussion of the dinner-table variety.Next, panned left, are some effects from the starship's PA system, including some test drones. All sounds vocalized by the two of us and processed pretty much beyond human recognition, which was kind of the point. This track wound up overriding everything else, especially on some long, held out notes I did. It's now way down in the mix.
The only thing at a lower level than the prior track is this one, which has a whisper filter which reduces everything to an almost steam-train like chugging distortion. The whistle trade offs
aequitaslevitas and I did came out a wee bit too clear, though, so that's why it earned its place at the bottom of the mix.The next track is amongst the highest in the mix. It has alien arguments, growling, and discussion. It's one of the reasons we decided, after the fact, that they enjoyed a little dinner and combat.
Next track is another percussion one, this with excessive echoes. Although it's high in the mix, it still seems to just blend in. The glass door provided most of the instrumentation, although we made use of the usual suspects - table, plates, forks, knives, and so on - as well.
That's it for the "live instruments" - the rest were all synth tracks. I put down some computer beeping for that authentic "our spaceship is based on early-to-mid twentieth century technology" sound.
aequitaslevitas put down the next synth line, panned left, to give some random melody and music to the tune. I balanced that out on the right with a different synth line and an entirely different synth sound, and a spacey synth bell right in the middle. During the argument and clear to the end, you can hear some synth lasers being fired off.Anyway, we had a lot of fun with it. Keep in mind, we worked without a net, or, in the aural equivalent, a set of headphones. In other words, as we recorded each track we had only a rough idea of what happened in prior tracks via a graphic representation of noise happening. It works to simulate a cafeteria inhabited by a host of unsavory alien types, but not so much to create a more coherent musical piece.
Tomorrow,
noone234 will be coming over and we'll work on getting some more of 5 on Reserve done. The player-piano version out there now is already obsolete - we wrote some of the piano part for the bridge, and I have the guitar and clarinet parts written out for the whole tune. Tomorrow, I hope to get the sax part in there and then I'll repost the sheet music generated piece again. Of course, that has some serious limitations - the guitar part sounds like a keyboard, and I'm not even going to try for a transcribed guitar solo, as the software showed serious limitations on the string bending at the end of the bass track. The piece will, however, serve as a guide I can listen to to set down the bass line using the fretless. Once that's done, we'll try to get the piano, sax, and guitar parts down as well.So there might even be live music posted tomorrow.
