[Music] Tapewolf: J.P's music (16/Apr/2017 - 'Numerology')

[Tapewolf]

I kind of wanted to write a song about a medieval kingdom for a while, but got stuck with the lyrics. Some real-world politics ended up jading me, hence we have a political slant to the final lyrics. Sorry about that.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22668216/
https://www.weasyl.com/~tapewolf/submissions/1452531/saludora-take-1

I also decided I wanted to try messing around with odd time signatures and ended up channelling both Threshold and Van Der Graaf Generator, and ended up with a bassline I couldn't actually play.  It was so far beyond my skill level that I slowed down the recorder during the takes, but even that wasn't enough to make it feasible so I ended up splitting it into two parts, recorded on two channels which simplified things a bit and also allowed me to play stereo tricks.
Conversely I speeded up the recorder slightly for the end of the song, allowing me to end the song on a note which is impossible to play on a 4-string bass with standard tuning.

I should go back and redo some of the bass, partly because the first tricky part is still kind of messy, and also because some of it is off-tune enough to produce a chorusing effect that I'm not sure I want to keep.  This would be trivial to fix on a DAW, but that would be very boring. This way is more fun.

The random organ notes in the middle were originally a marker to say "tape collage to go here" but I kind of liked it, especially after I ran a screwdriver down the bass and got that to make some weird noises as well. For this demo I spliced in a section of backwards pipe organ music but I don't really like how that turned out to be honest so it might not be there in future takes of the song.

The song was recorded on my trust Otari MX80, with help from a TASCAM TSR-8, on which I recorded the vocals, bass and also the reverse cymbal before dubbing them onto the 24-track machine. Mixing was done to a Studer A807 which I also used to do things like the tape loops of the word 'Saludora' about halfway through, reverse pipe-organ and a clip of alternate ending from my 'Tears of Joy' song which I ended up not using anyway. Some tape editing was also used to fix fluffs in the mix.

Instruments used included an Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic, Hammond XM-1 and SK-1, Minimoog Voyager, Alesis DM10, Waldorf MicroWave, and Manikin Memotron. The medieval dance was done on a Roland JV1010 with Orchestral module.

Lyrics are available on FA and Weasyl

[Foxx Trotter]

For the first take of the song it actually sounds pretty good, but this is coming from someone who isn't much of a music critic to begin with and will listen to pretty much anything and everything.

As for two of the UK bands you mentioned, I may check those out as well. I've heard of Van der Graaf Generator before, but I don't believe I'm familiar with any of their music. Threshold is a new one to me.

[Tapewolf]

For the first take of the song it actually sounds pretty good, but this is coming from someone who isn't much of a music critic to begin with and will listen to pretty much anything and everything.

As for two of the UK bands you mentioned, I may check those out as well. I've heard of Van der Graaf Generator before, but I don't believe I'm familiar with any of their music. Threshold is a new one to me.

Thanks.  VDGG classic albums are:
"The least we can do is wave to each other" - the first one where they got their classic sound down pat, especially the last track
"H to He who am the only one" - 'Killer' is a good introductory track
"Pawn Hearts" - three tracks.  'A plague of lighthouse keepers' takes the entire second side of the album, and it's some of the more chaotic stuff I was thinking of here

Threshold put out a lot of albums and it's difficult to pick some classic ones.  My personal favourite was "Psychedelicatessen" but the stuff I was channelling is more like the solo in 'Sanity's End' off "Wounded Land", their first album.  I'm rather fond of "Extinct Instinct" as well, but a lot of their output, especially before Jon Jeary left, is very good IMHO.

[Merlin]

Yeah those organ notes in the middle do work really well, nice!

[Tapewolf]

Yeah those organ notes in the middle do work really well, nice!

Which one, the backwards bit I was thinking of getting rid of, or the random tinkly ones?

[Merlin]

Yeah those organ notes in the middle do work really well, nice!

Which one, the backwards bit I was thinking of getting rid of, or the random tinkly ones?

Both, actually. Them both being in there near each other contrasted well

[Tapewolf]

This is a song about numbers and their power to predict the future. Or something. It kind of took a detour when I ended up in the unfortunate position of having two verses inspired by the Gypsy in Ultima 6, failed to write any more in that vein and ended up with more 'cubi stuff for the last two verses. I am particularly pleased with the chorus though.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23229349/
https://www.weasyl.com/%7Etapewolf/submissions/1479724/numerology

Guest starring my talking clock, which goes really peculiar when the batteries run low. I have done some slight cleaning up in Audacity to remove the laughter on the original recording - easy enough since the samples are identical. However what it is saying now remains exactly what it said at the time.
I also remembered that when I was a child, learning the times table, the entire class would fall into a particular rhythm and intonation. I was also intrigued to find that my dad chanted the tables in the same exact way some 30 years earlier. So thanks to the wonders of multitracking and varispeed tape drives, I have preserved that here for posterity.

Things I've done differently here include using a TL Audio Indigo 2051 voice channel on bass, and reset the pickup levels to try and get that nice metallic growling I had on some of the earlier albums.
I also redesigned the vocal chain to use both a TLA 5051 voice channel and an ART Levelar as a limiter. So many valves. In addition I've added a 5021 bus compressor to the vocals sub-group on the mixing desk to smooth out the vocals a bit during mixdown. I was worried it would add too much noise to the mix but it seems to have worked pretty well in this instance.

Lyrics are available on FA and Weasyl.

Equipment used included:
Tascam TSR-8 multitrack
Otari MX80 24-track tape machine
Studer A807 stereo master recorder
Allen and Heath GL2400 mixing desk
Phonic Pro MM1002 submixer (for the chanting)
Strymon BlueSky reverb
Apex 460 valve microphone with TL Audio 5051 voice channel
TL Audio 5021 valve bus compressor for vocals
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic bass with TL Audio 2051 voice channel and Donner noise gate
Watkins Copicat tape echo
EHX 4600 chorus pedal
Roland JV1010 synthesizer
Hammond XM-1 organ w/H&K Rotosphere
Hammond SK-1 (for the electric piano)
Waldorf MicroWave Mk1
Moog Voyager
Manikin Memotron
Alesis DM10 drum machine with LA Audio TCX2 valve compressor
Waldorf Streichfett string synthesizer
Ross RTC8 talking clock