Slept In A Mill

Here it is, the moment that you all (maybe 10 people at least) have been waiting for! The moment when I release the second song in the Pen Saga. It's really exciting, I know. I totally gave away the title just now, which does tell you some things about the story. From the previous song, I'm sure you have gathered that there is a girl, there is a fire, and that there is a voice that makes a phone call who sends his regards to Caller Number Nine (because he lost, (HINT: HE WAS DISTRACTED) some kind of contest) but ultimately decides he cares about something else. From this songs title, you can gather that someone definitely sleeps in a mill.




I have been doing a lot of work on this. I took out some of the drum samples, and then exported everything track by track into MultiTrack DAW by Harmonic Dog, which is what I produced two other albums on. It's no longer the best available recording platform for me (it's an iphone app, and I own ProTools, the aptly named tool of pros) but it is actually really nice for mixing, and overdubbing. I also prefer it's interface to protools for the act of stitching field recordings into songs. After I mixed the basic tracks, I exported those into another file where I did that sort of thing. I took a couple noises I'd collected (a dumpster, a car passing by, some birds, the rain machine at UCCS, my garage door, a 55 gallon barrel of wheat, myself walking down the stairs, a sewer pipe, and a saw at Lowe's), then used that to put an extra beat behind the existing song. It was sort of industrial sounding, actually, which fit the setting of the song. After that was done, I did overdubbing in a separate file, where I learned roughly the highest note I can hit. And the lowest probably. Overdubs, in my experience, my very short experience, only seem to sound good when I record them through my iphone mic. I don't know what it is. When I do the exact same thing in ProTools, it sounds sketch. Anyway. Yeah.

There are improvements that could be made to this mix. I could spend about 3 hours making sure each individual syllable in the backing vocals lines up perfectly. I could actually take this one really high, tremoloed mandola part and replicate it in the second chorus, as well as the first. In the end, I could nitpick this song for another two months, but I have decided it's time to put it out there. About 85% of this song was improvised, as far as the instrumentals go, and there is a certain character that comes with that. I can only save the best parts, but I am just going to keep as much of it as it came out. HOWEVER! I am also going to release each file, as it was bounced out of the iphone; the basic mix, the industrial mix, and the overdub mix.

I wasn't planning on this, there was actually a concert that I wanted to go to, which I would end up going to, because one of my new friends from college is there. It sounds like a legit show, with a bunch of really awesome bands. I don't have a license though, for one, and everyone at my house has been out and about, and probably won't be in the mood to drive down there. Also, the Vilgiate family's archnemesis is the pollinating plant family (it's a large family, but we have thumbs, so we usually win), and the pollinating plants have been out to get us. I've also been doing lawn work all day, and I think I've inhaled more plant dust than any normal person should in one day. It's just not a good day, to go anywhere. This is a blog, so I figure I can ramble about that if I am so persuaded, because why not! I'm sick, tired, but I've been putting off THIS SONG for way to long.

So, yeah. Song. Coming up.