been neglecting you

Dear diary, I've been neglecting my blog, I confess... every spare minute I have been fooling with my Tracktion recording software. I found out about 'plug-ins' - a term that always met a "huh" in my brain before now. The first couple of songs I tried to create using MIDI & live instrumentation were okay but uneven and still had a little buzz. The one I worked on yesterday is CLEAN, and the instruments sound good together. I figured out it's better for me to use Tracktion to create the Midi & effects, then I mixdown the individual tracks & am using another piece of software for the final mix, which is where I put in the vocals - mainly cause I understand it better and my voice comes out more.

I'm very pleased with the one I did last night....til 3:30 am - mind you I didn't start til after 11 pm because I was out last night... at the opera... yes, opera.... a wonderful production of Tosca... I really like Puccini, I think part of what attracts me is the lush orchestration... but also the drama and romance! Anyway, this is a new country song I'm workin on, I'll let you know when it's posted. Song #2 is a 'world'/folkpop... I'm not happy with the back-up even though I spent a week creating tracks for it!!!! Argh... some parts of it are great, but again... it's uneven in its greatness. I also need to work on the harmonies in that one.

Also have a number of other songs I need to work on... I've decided to book next weekend as a music weekend. I have a coaching Friday, then lunch with my Mom, on the flip side I've ended up having all Monday off except for 2 hours in the evening. With Sat & Sun, that will add up to lots of time.

I laid down the country song last night in about 4 hours or so - but I already had the music template all laid out with chords & melody. Got two cool instrumentals half figured out, and have ideas for a couple more songs... and I want to get my CD laid down and mastered within two months. Tall order! I think I will aim for 7 to 8 songs on this first CD. A couple of those may be new age or world instrumentals.

Anyway, gotta get back to workin on music!!
V