Just Getting Started
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Side ATrack 1: Just Getting Started One of my first "serious" tracks, this was an exercise to become more familiar with the music production software. This upbeat thing was made using all stock sound samples that I sliced, diced, retuned and reassembled. Track 2: Back Home I wanted to take a crack at some guitar-strumming, so I assembled a bunch of stock riffs. It's not perfect by any means, but it was fun to make. I remixed it in March 2022, correcting several technical flaws, extending the bridge, and sweetening some of the sound layers. Track 3: Just Sayin' This was just some pure, unabashed fun. I took an old-sounding tune ("Bitters at the Saloon" by Bird Creek) and gave it a new bass line, drums and percussion. This is by no means anything new; everyone and their brother seems to have done it. However, most everyone and their brother uses a heavy dance beat and processes the crap out of the original tune, adding distortion, stutters, and whatever is in vogue. Me, I just gave it a regular old rock beat, and did nothing to the source material except some gentle filtering and upping the tempo a bit. How to categorize it, though, is anyone's guess. Track 4: It's All Right Here This was never meant to be an official musical work; it was merely a "sampler," a collection of the most useful clips and loops I had at the time. It's much easier to refer to this file for drums, percussion, bass and electric guitar riffs than to sift through thousands of individual files, many of which are useless to me. I simply arranged the samples roughly in a pattern that sounded somewhat musical. There are no repeats—every clip is unique. When it was done, I discovered that it sorta worked as a tune all its own. Go figure. Track 5: Killing Time While making something altogether different, I found myself wanting to put some cool horn riffs I had sitting around to good use. So, this admittedly very silly track is nothing but a patchwork of stock loops—none of which I composed, but hopefully assembled in a unique and entertaining way. Track 6: Thank You This track makes use of some stock guitar loops that, together with bass and drum riffs, just happen to fit together nicely to make a simple little tune. Begun at the same time as "Back Home," it wasn't finished until months later. Track 7: Could Be I thought I had this album wrapped up, but then I came across this tune that's been sitting around unfinished for months, and it really didn't belong anywhere else, so here it is. Don't know why it took so long, but the bridge was a problem for some reason; I guess fresh eyes and ears took care of it. Except for the bass solo and background guitar, I can lay claim to all of it.
Side BTrack 1: New 2 This The first track I ever made utilizes a mix of sounds I created and recorded along with some commercial samples included with the software. It's pretty embarrassing; I was just learning, and some of the tunings are rather odd. But hey, we all start somewhere. Although I had no musical style in mind when I built it, I suppose "world beat" is about as close as it comes. Track 2: Hard Pink This little track makes for pretty brutal listening. It was a short exercise to help me reacquaint myself with the music application after having not used it for a few years. If I'm honest, the piece sucks, but it served its purpose. Track 3: Basic Pleasure Model Without question my most bizarre composition, this track is entirely comprised of two and only two sounds: my cat Pris' purring and snoring. Why? Because a friend challenged me to, and I'm not one to shy away from a music challenge. All of the drums, percussion, bass and instrumental sounds are derived from her purr—obviously heavily processed, but nonetheless genuine—while her snores, gently tuned, contribute the remarkably odd vocalization. I used snores because I felt meows would be too predictable. I also made an equally bizarre music video to accompany it.
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