Is making an EP a realistic goal

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bfitz
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Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bfitz » Fri Feb 26, 2021 6:27 pm

My mates and I recorded this track in a cottage in the west of Ireland last January 2020

Listen to Don't Forget Your Beans by Brian Fitzpatrick on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/qzgth

The plan was to reconvene and get more done to try and get an EP made with maybe four tracks. Since then, well you all know the score. Its become ostensibly more difficult to get in a room with folks and make something.

I had written all the parts for the song I've shared here. And while I'm really happy with the outcome, it's way way way more difficult to make a full song than to say get in a room with a drummer and make music off the cuff.

Wondering how folks here have been managing their creativity in the face of covid as well as in general. I have two more tunes pretty much ready to get in a room with the lads and record but because we can't, we can't and I gotta do this back and forth business which takes a lot of the fun out of it.

The recording was done in ableton, live with a tele, into a wet/dry rig, Orange Ad30 (dry) and fender HRD (Wet). Leads were done with a Les Paul into a Fender Bass breaker 15(dry) and the HRD (Wet) then some of the vibey stuff at the beginning was done in post.
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Orange AD30
Groove Tubes Soul-O 75
Orange PPC 212 OB
Boss Nextone 40
Fender CIJ Pink Paisley Tele
Fender Classic Player Strat 50s
Yamaha SA1200s
Gibson Les Paul Standard
Gibson SG Jnr

bclaire
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bclaire » Sat Feb 27, 2021 2:04 pm

Sounds great!

Maybe try to muster up enough for a second song and do a single? Or PPE everyone up to be able to get together...?

groundmeat
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by groundmeat » Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:18 pm

bfitz wrote:
Fri Feb 26, 2021 6:27 pm
Wondering how folks here have been managing their creativity in the face of covid as well as in general.
Since before Covid started, I've been buying about 1 pedal a month from the Guitar Center website to build up a collection of essential pedals. At Christmas time, I finally got a mic boom and a 2-pack of Sterling mics that were kinda cheap but hopefully will sound okay. After Christmas, I finally caught Amazon with a couple of them in stock and bought a Focusrite 2i2 Scarlet USB interface.

And now that I got all that... I'm gonna need to buy a new computer, I guess. The bearings in the fan in the power supply on this thing started going bad, making that horrible buzzing vibrating noise. I buy a new one, EVGA brand, get it home, slap it in, fire it up,... BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Same noise. Bearings in the new one are crap too. So I take it back, I get one that costs 4 times as much, put it in, fire it up,... it's silent! YAY! I leave my PC on 24/7... so the next day I walk past the room where it's sitting... I hear that damn noise AGAIN!!!! UGH! And then I had other crap come up, I wasnt able to drive back out to take it back within 30 days, so now I'm stuck with ANOTHER PSU with noisy crappy fan bearings.

Anyway, probably gonna just order some kinda cheap-o refurbished thing with at least a 2TB hdd from Amazon and try to spend under 300 and then use that as my recording box.

So I have ZERO recent music to share with anyone, but I'm sooooo looking forward to whenever I can get it all together and actually start recording all these ideas I've had coming and going for the last 2 or 3 years now.

Don't Forget Your Beans was pretty cool. I like your usage of delay and reverb there for the leads.

bfitz
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bfitz » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:56 pm

bclaire wrote:
Sat Feb 27, 2021 2:04 pm
Sounds great!
groundmeat wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:18 pm

Don't Forget Your Beans was pretty cool. I like your usage of delay and reverb there for the leads.

Cheers boyos

I'm actually after sending off two tracks to a drummer friend mine to lay down some drums and do a bit of editing. We can't actually go to people's houses here at the moment so it is the way it is.

I'm hoping that when these come back I'll find a new bit of energy to create more. It's hard to 'catch' music if you get me
I guess staying open to it helps.

Re reading what I originally posted, it's kinda sad we can't convene but it would be worse if we couldn't create at all.

Groundmeat, those focusrite scarlets are really good. Ableton live lite comes free and it's an excellent package. Hope you can find computer resolution! In the meantime I really recommend phone notes. Like do sound recordings on your phone... It really helps not losing material and while it's not pro tools it's a great reference point
Image

Orange AD30
Groove Tubes Soul-O 75
Orange PPC 212 OB
Boss Nextone 40
Fender CIJ Pink Paisley Tele
Fender Classic Player Strat 50s
Yamaha SA1200s
Gibson Les Paul Standard
Gibson SG Jnr

bclaire
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bclaire » Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:12 am

The SSL-2 is an amazing piece of gear, interface-wise. Reasonably priced and sounds amazing.

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groundmeat
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by groundmeat » Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:29 pm

bclaire wrote:
Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:12 am
The SSL-2 is an amazing piece of gear, interface-wise. Reasonably priced and sounds amazing.

Image
I think I saw Ola Englund do a review of one of those and he showed it to be pretty noisy.

Found the video. FFW to about 6:35.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bsCb6WFInw

bclaire
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bclaire » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:13 am

groundmeat wrote:
Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:29 pm
bclaire wrote:
Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:12 am
The SSL-2 is an amazing piece of gear, interface-wise. Reasonably priced and sounds amazing.

Image
I think I saw Ola Englund do a review of one of those and he showed it to be pretty noisy.

Found the video. FFW to about 6:35.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bsCb6WFInw
Ha ha ha... well, don't turn the gain all the way up then!

It sounds fabulous...

groundmeat
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by groundmeat » Sat Mar 06, 2021 11:11 am

When I started looking for my Focusrite Scarlet 2i2, it was priced at about 150. At some point in late January, everyone jacked the price of it up another 10 bucks.

I've been noticing Gibson doing this kinda thing with their guitars in the past several years. Every year, they tack on another 100 bucks to their price tags. (And they also DOWNGRADE components for the low end guitars and still charge more compared to the previous years version of that guitar)

Food items have been the same. Little by little, they've been going up in the past few years, and most people haven't really paid attention to it.

Trying not to get political, but... I don't think this kind of inflation is reasonable or has any real economic excuse as a cause and effect kinda thing... other than the companies wanting to increase their profit margins with no regard for the consumer. And I dunno what any of us can do about it other than notice it and engage in the mostly futile act of complaining about it. :roll:

I've mentioned before how I take online marketing surveys a lot to earn free Guitar Center gift cards, and I notice that many surveys ask what is the MOST you're willing to pay for a thing. So obviously that's how they're pricing things, and they're no longer setting prices based on current market values of things. Laws of supply and demand as well as plain old competition don't seem to matter as much anymore.

Amplifiers didn't used to cost as much as they do now. I remember back in the 90's, Marshall's and Laney's and others went for about 900-1000 bucks. Now the market is flooded with all these 3000 dollar amps. I had to save and save and save for YEARS to get a nice amp. How do dirt poor working musicians afford this crap these days? It gets more expensive every year.

Anyway. Rant over.

bclaire
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bclaire » Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:30 pm

groundmeat wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 11:11 am
I've mentioned before how I take online marketing surveys a lot to earn free Guitar Center gift cards, and I notice that many surveys ask what is the MOST you're willing to pay for a thing. So obviously that's how they're pricing things, and they're no longer setting prices based on current market values of things. Laws of supply and demand as well as plain old competition don't seem to matter as much anymore.
Where are you finding these surveys?

groundmeat
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by groundmeat » Sun Mar 07, 2021 7:06 pm

It's a site called Swagbucks. I dunno how much I can "recommend" it really. The surveys aren't so easy to get into. You always have to answer several preliminary questions about sex, birthdate, race, income, zip code, etc. You get disqualified for many before you finally get one that you can get all the way through and get credited for. Since about mid-Jan, I stopped doing it everyday because the shopping season kinda went off the cliff and so surveys became harder to get into. But when I was doing it everyday, I'd do maybe one or two surveys a day, get maybe 1 dollar credited, and that would take like an hour or so. So it ain't exactly "worth" it, as in you're not gonna make exceptional money doing it. But if you're broke as hell like me, is "something" (even if it is very difficult), and something is better than nothing.

To sign up, you gotta provide your home address, and upon your first redemption of a gift card, they mail you a card with a code on it and you gotta use that to verify your physical address.

Boy_Narf
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by Boy_Narf » Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:38 am

I'm in a lucky situation as the guitarist/singer does 100% of the song writing. He will send me a rough draft and I will add my twist on it (drums). If I have any arrangement ideas I will makes notes or even chop things up in the daw before I send it back. We have always written songs this way so the current climate is not much of a departure for us.

Biggest issue is we have not been able to get together to jam so a lot of these ideas/demos are just sitting around until indoor gatherings are allowed again.

One thing that has helped us is our YouTube channel. Every Fri/Sat he sends me a song with a click. I'll lay down some drums and send it back. We either film us playing live or he does a cartoon. This has given something for the band to focus on vs just sitting alone and frowning haha. It's also good to provide some content for the "fans" since everyone is bored at home. Seems like a lot of bands are just "dropping off the earth" so I think it's good to remind people you are still rocking in one form or another.

I've been using these weekly demos to experiment with different mic placements as well as plugins/mixing techniques to prepare myself for recording our next album. I'm currently testing different variations on the Glen John's method and have had some decent results.

I guess this post has been dipping into interfaces. I've had some good luck with the Roland studio capture (they also make smaller versions). I'm a big fan of the digital control center and highly recommend the line!

bclaire
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Re: Is making an EP a realistic goal

Post by bclaire » Sat Mar 20, 2021 3:01 am

The youtube idea is good! I might have to try that....

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