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

Started by Tapewolf, July 12, 2006, 03:47:29 PM

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VAE

Well, no idea whether *you* will hate it in the morning ,but in my opinion, this is an awesomesauce song with a side order of cool beans.
Well, given that it both has electric organ, and is long enough, it kinda is set to meeting my requirements XD

Will probably say more once i can get a few better hearings of it.
What i cannot create, i do not understand. - Richard P. Feynman
This is DMFA. Where major species don't understand clothing. So innuendo is overlooked for nuendo. .
Saphroneth



Tapewolf

Quote from: VAE on August 01, 2011, 04:03:55 PM
Well, no idea whether *you* will hate it in the morning ,but in my opinion, this is an awesomesauce song with a side order of cool beans.
Well, given that it both has electric organ, and is long enough, it kinda is set to meeting my requirements XD

Will probably say more once i can get a few better hearings of it.

Thanks.  The opening sound is the 'Tape organ', that and the more traditional Hammond are used throughout the song.
One of the things I found interesting to play with was increasing the echo length on the more gritty parts of the song.  Feedback on whether that was a good idea would be nice, since those are the lines I'm going to have to rerecord anyway.


For the curious, lyrics are as follows (the simplistic rhyming scheme will probably kill Whitefox):

Young Keaton, she was born into a once-grand city state
Ruled by an immortal Queen whose love had turned to hate
Her father was a blacksmith and he dreamed of making art
Her mother hunted heretics and tore their souls apart
Her mother lived ten thousand years by feasting on the souls
Of those who would profane the Queen or mock the sacred scrolls
Her father was a younger man who forged the tools of war
To make the Red Queen's prophecies come true on every shore

Little Keaton, as the years went along
Little Keaton, such a shame it went so wrong
Little Keaton, it was such a shame that you,
Little Keaton, have become a monster too

The Queen believed she acted as the mouthpiece for her god
As nonbelievers lost their souls, her men would smile and nod
Queen Jyraneth proclaimed that Creatures were the chosen few
All wingless mortals must be slain, their sacred task to do
Each month or so her Raiders would set forth upon the land
To harvest souls and smite the cities with the Red Queen's brand
They fought and slew and captured slaves and only spared the young
"Each child is pure and holy!" was the mantra that they sung

(Little Keaton...)

Now Keaton was a young girl and she knew not what to say
When once she saw the wingless slaves the Raiders caught that day
And pity stole upon her for these frightened mortal things
She shivered and she thanked the queen that she'd been born with wings
Her brother Noah told her of a creature of the night
The story left young Keaton in a nervous state of fright
She placed her dolls like sentries on the watchtower of a keep
But stuffed toys cannot keep away the nightmare moths of sleep

(Little Keaton...)

One night when she was out alone she ran into the Queen
Who asked her what she'd like to do when she had turned nineteen
She tried hard not to think about the slaves she'd pitied so
Since Jyraneth could see her thoughts and things she didn't know
Her mother ran between the two for she was paranoid
The Queen might call out "HERESY!" and have her child destroyed
But Jyraneth ignored these quirks since Keaton was just small
She'd grow to be a warrior and cause their foes to fall

[Bridge, synth solo etc]

When Keaton was a teenager, her brother took her out
To burn away her pity for the foes of the devout
And Noah told her that their sisters had been squeamish too,
It was a rite of passage every Jyraneth goes through
They hid upon a mountain pass, 'till travellers came by
He shot them with a fireball and left them there to die
Then Noah turned to Keaton and he said the kindest thing
Would be for her to slay them both and end their suffering

(Little Keaton...)

When Keaton closed on seventy, she kept her youthful air
When you live several thousand years, it's harder to compare
She went in search of Noah who'd been missing several days
When she returned she found her father dead and house ablaze
It wasn't just her family who had been taken down,
Their city was invaded and the foes swept through the town
She fought and killed the warrior who'd claimed her father's head
But she was quickly overwhelmed and left behind for dead

(Little Keaton...)

She woke and found herself alive, but taken as a prize
Her captors healed her major wounds but took one of her eyes
It took about three hundred years and one attempted rape
Before she killed her owner and she managed to escape
She wanders now in search of any clan-mates who survive
Her dying captor hinted that her sister was alive
So now she is a drifter and she wears a mask of hate
But deep down she's just terrified she'll share her father's fate.

Little Keaton, as the years went along
Little Keaton, such a shame it went so wrong
Little Keaton, it was such a shame that you,
Little Keaton, have become a monster too

===================

How to deal with Noah talking to Keaton in the song has been a constant irritation, whether it should be 'her' or 'you'.
I went with 'you' until I recorded it and decided it sounded weird.  Then I switched to 'her' instead.  Quite how it should be written up in the liner notes is also unclear - it's paraphrasing what he said, so whether it should be quoted or not is a bit of a mystery to me.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


VAE

In the lyric, if you copypasted it, i suspect he "forged" the tools of war, instead of forcing them.
Best to catch it before it's in PDF form
What i cannot create, i do not understand. - Richard P. Feynman
This is DMFA. Where major species don't understand clothing. So innuendo is overlooked for nuendo. .
Saphroneth



Tapewolf

Quote from: VAE on August 03, 2011, 05:15:15 PM
In the lyric, if you copypasted it, i suspect he "forged" the tools of war, instead of forcing them.
Best to catch it before it's in PDF form

Quite so.  For practical reasons too stupid to go into, I actually typed it up again instead of copy-pasting it

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf

I thought I had posted this already, but apparently not.
There is a more recent mix of the song on youtube together with a quick and dirty video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSJjymCNjMA

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Kipiru

Great song and clip- it felt like I was listening to a pitch for a new animated show and this was it's main score. Nice work!   :kirby

Tapewolf

Here's one of the tracks from the album which I'm hoping to have ready for AC.  I've been holding this suite fairly close to my chest.

This is "Baklawa Doom, Part III - The End of the World" and is probably one of the most anticlimatic battles between good and evil ever.

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/BaklawaDoom_pt3-1644.mp3

Technical detail and stuff:
Vocals were tracked to my old TSR-8, rerecorded and edited via punch-ins as necessary and then dropped in to the MSR-24 using sync. Instruments were recorded straight to the MSR-24.
Mixing was done on the 10th of December and was a rather stressful process, not least trying to line up the A807 with only crappy meters to hand and never being quite sure if it was biased right, but it seems to have turned out pretty well for all that, if I do say so myself.

Things I would have done differently:
* Getting guest voices for the news reporting at the start. I tried to arrange that but no-one I knew was able to record them in a timely manner so I resorted to manipulating my own take via Audacity (and also varying the tape speed while it was being bounced)
* More use of the Minimax on tracks 1 and 2 of the album.


The track lineup for the album and approximate running times (as scrawled on the master tapes) will be:

Side 1:
Baklawa Doom
   Part 1 - The Old Man  (5:45)
   Part 2 - At the Chippy (6:00)
   Part 3 - The End of the World (7:30)
   Part 4 - After the End of the World (5:30)

Side 2:
   Heaven's Army (5:40)
   How to Build a Sundial (Instrumental - 10:30)
   Song of Keaton (10:35)

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf

Okay, I've been doing an album every year since 2004 and the muse has run a bit dry, so I decided it was time to look at rejigging some of the songs on the first four albums now I have all this wonderful technology and stuff that I didn't have at the time.

This is one of my old favourites, The Quest for the Sacred Jaguar, freshly rerecorded on 24-track.  I'm still amazed I managed to do it in only seven originally...

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/jaguar_take1-1644.mp3

Comments about the mix and vocals are most welcome, things like "You should make the intro shorter" are somewhat welcome but not particularly helpful as they will mean rerecording the entire thing yet again from scratch.  I should be able to make the finale a bit longer so it has more time to fade out, but it would still be a challenge...

The guitar power chords are kind of feeble - if anyone wants to guest on electric guitar, I would be interested.

EDIT:  Also on FA here:  http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7787918/

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Ignuus66

Technology- making things easy-er to do since the dawn of man (sadly this includes killing others, but hey, without it, we would still be in caves.

(credit: Gabi)

Tapewolf

#159

A song I've been writing about the ongoing DMFA plotline, i.e. the possibility of a new Dragon-Cubi war.

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/thenewwar-take1.mp3

Also:  http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7972298/

The mix could be better - the vocals clip in places and the volume level isn't consistent between verses.  I need to look at normalising the levels (they were already tape-to-tape copied so doing it again with the levels tweaked shouldn't be a major problem ).  Some of them seem a bit flat now, I might rerecord those.

The section 6:36 through to 'Who cares?' came to me in a dream.  Fortunately I woke up at that point and was able to remember it long enough to put it into the song.

Logo cut up from bits of DMFA, naturally.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf


This is a song I started writing about a year ago, following Daryil's ascension to tri-winged leader status in Project Future. Just within the last month or so did I manage to work out the verses and other stuff to convert the chorus and other scattered ideas into a proper song. Once again I got a harpsichord solo while playing Doom. I don't know why that sometimes happens but I'm glad it does.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8363246/
http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/age_of_daryil_take1-44.mp3

This song was the first where I tested out my new BBD chorus pedal, which I've used on the chorus and the bridge verses.

Some of the more experimental things involved the radiophonic choir at the end (varispeeded tape loops of me going 'aaaaaaaaa' ) and the chorus where I filtered the high end on the left and the bass on the right. I'm still not sure that was a good idea.

Flubs in the mix included not turning the wurtlizer up during the final parts of the song (it suddenly kicks in), not including the tape snatch at the start of the radiophonic choir, and some slight clipping on the last verse.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


joshofspam

I actually can't help but notice how I interpret the song slightly differently when I'm reading the added script of whats being sung.

A song of great risk taken that should have ended in death. New things to learn while running his clan. An admittance of all people do something evil in there life tome, but they shouldn't be necessarily cruel about it. Then an stating how he achieved all it without having to sacrifice someone to fuel the transformation.

If you really get down to it, though some clans look down upon Daryil's clan. Daryil achieved something that have tried in a long time have ended in spectacular failure. In a way, Daryil has a right to brag.
I perfer my spam cooked on a skillet.

Tapewolf

I seem to be on a roll.  Here's another song.


http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8416255/

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/born_with_wings_take1-44.mp3


This is a song I put together from nothing over the course of the week. The first verse suddenly came to me while I was leaving work and brooding over the rather dark storyline currently running in DMFA, wherein a group of adventurers is running around decapitating apparently innocent incubi and succubi for no obvious reason.

So, what would it be like to have to run and hide for your whole life to avoid summary execution just because you happened to be born with wings? This song attempts to tackle that question.

The song gradually built up during the week, and was basically finalised last night, after I had this little melody come into my head when I was lying in bed at 3am last night.
Today has been spent polishing it up, recording it, performing the vocals, and finally mixing it. I think it turned out rather well, but there are some things which could be improved. I am rather pleased with the lyrics, this time... usually they're almost an afterthought :-/

Tracking was done to a TASCAM MSR-24 and a TSR-8 for the vocals. Mixing was done on a Soundcraft MFX20 to a Studer A807. The string synth was a Cheetah MS6 fed through an Electroharmonix Small Clone chorus pedal.

Things which I'm not sure about:
The piano intro. I was trying hard to make it sound less mechanical... now I'm concerned it sounds too amateur.
I thought the metronome sounded good, other people might not.
I need someone to play Cale(?) for the final album version (and the Radio Project).

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf

#163

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8749608/

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/a_fae_story-take1.mp3



This song had a difficult birth, chiefly in terms of writing the lyrics. I had everything down pat until after the third verse, then it fell apart. I went through about three different basic plots, vacillated between having Dan, Daryil or someone else as the hero and about six rewrites of the verses before finishing this at about 2:30 in the morning and deciding that it would probably do.
I intend to use one of the offshoot ideas in Project Future or Epsilon Project. The music was less of a problem, though the style wavered somewhat - I was originally aimed at 1969 before I finally broke down and added a minimoog solo.

Recording was done on Sun 26th (during which time my sequencer laptop emitted a shrill wail and went dead) with the vocals added on Mon 27th.

Recording was done to a TASCAM MSR-24 multitrack, vocals were dubbed on a TASCAM TSR-8 and then transferred. Tape delay on the vocals was provided using a Revox B77 for that 1970 sound (the middle section in particular has the slapback effect I was gunning for, a'la 'Simon Zelotes' in original 1969 recording of Jesus Christ Superstar). What is probably a biasing issue added a strange distortion in the high end, but I kept it anyway - you get that on a number of reissued 1960s tracks too.

Mixing was done to a Studer A807 tape deck on SM900, the icon is of the actual tape box, slightly shopped to try and make it more readable.


=========

I was told a tale
About a princess from the Kingdom of Fail
She went to seek the Fae
A royal visit that went badly astray

Seduced by wolves, or eaten by witches
The Kingdom of Fail and the promise of riches
The Sky will fall, the Land will be broken
The wrath of the Fae is such a terrible token

There came a man in red
He had grey wings upon his back and his head
The stranger made it known
He was a hero who could help save the Throne

The King said 'This will never do
We hate your kind, be off with you
We have no need for 'cubi scum
Our hero must be a mortal one'

The hero's blood ran hot
"I'm going to help you if you like it or not"
He waved his mighty sword
And went to bring the Princess back to her Lord

Seduced by wolves, or eaten by witches
The Kingdom of Fail and the promise of riches
The sky will fall, the land will be broken
The wrath of the Fae is such a terrible token

* * *

It took him just two days to find the princess
But as they tried to leave
The Fae Lord held them by the sleeve

"The King will try to have the both of you killed
If you can bide your time
I'll make sure vengeance can be mine"

The hero and Princess
Returned in triumph and were under arrest
Before they could be hung
The Fae returned and killed the King and his son

The Fae Lord led them out of jail
And named the hero King of Fail
The wedding was a royal one
And soon the new queen bore a son
(That's me)

There's one thing left to do
I have to tell you that this story was true
But heroes love to roam
And so my Dad left and put me on the throne

The son of two, of princesses and kings
Benificent ruler with a new pair of headwings
I'll use my brain, my eyes and my ears
Rule wisely and justly for thousands of years

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf


Those who follow DMFA may have noticed that the darker side of life in that particular world has reared its ugly head, and that has knocked my muse into overdrive, providing a clutch of songs I'm rather pleased with.
So, here is yet another 1970s-1980s progressive rock song about some Creature whinging about being hunted for no real reason beyond xenophobia.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9025130/

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/the_murder_game-take1.mp3

This song is interesting in its own right because I have attempted to play electric bass for the first time. It's still a little shaky because I've only had the bass for one month and perhaps I tried to do this a little too soon. Even so, by virtue of the auto punch-in feature on the TSR-8 I have been able to muddle my way through by sheer brute force.

The mix may be a little iffy since I managed to break the Fostex TP20s I usually use and the other headphones were awful. Still, it sounds okay on speakers.

The icon is a photo of the tape loop used on the second chorus, it literally is "an endless loop of strife" as per the lyrics.

Instruments and recording info:
JV1010 and MVS-1 (bass synthesizers, polysynth)
Creamware ASB Minimax (bass and lead synth)
Mike Pinder mellotron samples (8-voice choir, flute, Chamberlin Female Choir)
MVS-1 'squashed organ' (see also the entire 'Clone' album by Threshold)
Hammond XM-1 organ module with Rotosphere leslie sim
Waldorf MicroWave ('phaseout' solo)
Korg Triton EX (drums, fender piano, gong)
Zoom RFX-2000 vocoder
Diode ring modulator (featuring dad's old function generator)
Encore E4 bass, DI'd into the mixer through a Reotube G2

Recording was done on a TASCAM TSR-8 for vocals and bass and transferred to a TASCAM MSR-24 which was also used for tracking the computer-controlled instruments. The gong was taped and modulated with the jog shuttle on a Studer A807. The Endless Loop of Strife was played on a Revox B77 as the Studer pitched a fit over playing a tape loop. Again.

Lyrics:

Some will call it 'murder'
Some will say they're hunting
And some say they're protecting their own kind
But in our vicious world you'll find you sometimes have to kill
Just to keep hold of your body, soul and mind.

Are we men, or are we monsters?
Careful how you choose
Are we men, or are we monsters?
What have we to lose?

No matter what the others do we always get the blame
But in the end, we're only pawns inside this Murder Game
A circle of violence
A life paid for a life
We suffer in silence
An endless loop of strife


Some live to a hundred
And some live to a thousand
And others have no limit to their span
But even with the elders just a single lucky stroke
Leaves you just as dead as any mortal man

Are we men, or are we monsters?
Careful how you choose
Are we men, or are we monsters?
What have we to lose?

No matter what the others do we 'Cubi get the blame
But in the end, we're only pawns inside this Murder Game
A circle of violence
(circle of violence)
A life paid for a life
(life paid for a life)
We suffer in silence
(suffer in silence)
An endless loop of strife
(An endless loop of strife) [tape loop of 'strife' to lead into instrumental]

The Angel hunts on tuesday
She'd like to make you her prey
A little bit here and a little bit there
No-one will notice, and no-one will care
Come one, come all, come old young and new...
You'll have to play the murder game too
You'll have to play the murder game too


Some will call it 'murder'
Some will say they're hunting
And some say they're protecting their own kind
But in our vicious world you'll find you sometimes have to kill
Just to keep hold of your body, soul and mind.

Are we men, or are we monsters?
Careful how you choose
Are we men, or are we monsters?
What have we to lose?

No matter what the others do we always get the blame
But in the end, we're only pawns inside this Murder Game
A circle of violence
A life paid for a life
We suffer in silence
An endless loop of strife

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


VAE

What can I say as a layman? The song sounds nice, and I like the lyrics too.
Also, I lol'd at the endless loop of strife.
Would have been even better with a moebius strip.

That said, I finally remembered to listen to a fae story.
Suffice to say it's promptly moved to one of my favourite songs of yers. I plain love the melody.
What i cannot create, i do not understand. - Richard P. Feynman
This is DMFA. Where major species don't understand clothing. So innuendo is overlooked for nuendo. .
Saphroneth



Tapewolf

Quote from: VAE on October 13, 2012, 07:18:34 AM
What can I say as a layman? The song sounds nice, and I like the lyrics too.
Also, I lol'd at the endless loop of strife.
Would have been even better with a moebius strip.

Heh, thanks.  As you can see, it needed a few edits to make it match the tempo of the song.  I believe I got the idea from Pink Floyd - they did something like that late in their career - either on The Wall or the Final Cut.  (I can't check because I don't have them - they're too depressing)

This was a prior attempt before I added the extra segments: http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/mg-tapeloop.mp3

Oh, and I still have one of the test recordings when I was checking out the bass part and deciding which bits need to be redone.  I believe I re-did some parts of it subsequently anyway.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60408280/mg-basstest4.mp3

...I am going to replace the strings and hope that the thing remains in better tune after that.

And no, the tape transport would be extremely upset if it played something with a twist in it.  It might just squish it but it's very likely it would get tangled and jam.

There's also the fact that the tape is backcoated and the black side can't be recorded on (sometimes newbies load the tape backwards and think the machine is broken)

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf

In case anyone's curious, this is the opening track 'The New War' being mixed this afternoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvEqd8I0DXQ

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf



This is my arrangement of the classic C64 music for 'Monty on the Run' by Rob Hubbard.  It's not perfect, there are a few things I did with my own additions that perhaps didn't work as well as I'd hoped, and if you were to play my version alongside the C64 version in sync (which I have done), you'd notice a couple of places where they don't quite line up.  But overall I'm rather pleased with with results.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10208531/
https://www.weasyl.com/view/156669

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/monty_on_the_run-take1-1644.mp3

(While uploading, I noticed a few DnB versions of this piece.  Mine tries to stay faithful to the original, while expanding on it with a couple of extra backing tracks.)

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


VAE

Don't know the original, to be honest, but that's a very nice piece
What i cannot create, i do not understand. - Richard P. Feynman
This is DMFA. Where major species don't understand clothing. So innuendo is overlooked for nuendo. .
Saphroneth



Tapewolf



http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10636368/
https://www.weasyl.com/submission/189157

http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/exemplar-take1-1644.mp3



After Merlin and I did the Werrew mini-arc in Project Future (see icon), and probably because I was reading the Ice and Fire books at the time, I found myself singing a silly ditty on the way home from work one day.

It wouldn't go away, and gradually evolved into this, a song based around the overthrow of a tyrant. It may or may not be about Werrew's adventures, I'm not wholly sure.

Instruments used:
Roland MVS-1, JV1010
Korg Triton Ex, Hammond XM-1 w/Rotosphere
Creamware Minimax ASB
TornadoTron
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic

Other stuff: Watkins Copicat Mk4, Small Clone chorus

Synthesizers sequenced in Cakewalk and Rosegarden
Vocals and bass recorded to TASCAM TSR-8, then transferred to an MSR-24 for mixdown using an ATS-500 synchronizer, on SM911 tape.
Mixed to a Studer A807 on SM900 tape.

I got bored and added some production tricks like running some of the vocals through the Leslie simulator, and true flip-the-tape-over reverse reverb.

===============

Heads bow in line
Peaceful sun shine
Heads bow in tune
They'll be mine soon

The Kingdom of Exemplar is a terrible place
Its customs are archaic and its laws a disgrace
The one thing he can't handle if it's said to his face
Is that the King is quickly running out of time and space

And I'm the Man who Should be King
Think of the golden age I'll bring
And I shall turn things upside down
When I have seized the Kingdom's crown

Heads fall in time
High Treason crime
Heads fall in tune
He'll be mine soon

The Kingdom of Exemplar is a terrible place
Its customs are archaic and its laws a disgrace
The one thing he can'd handle if it's said to his face
Is that the King is quickly running out of time and space

And I'm the Man who Should be King
Another golden age I'll bring
And I shall make this kingdom sound
When I have claimed the Golden Round

When I am king I'm going to add protections to the law
So no-one may be killed without a trial anymore
'Cause that's not right
And I'm the Man who Should be King
And hear the bells of judgement ring
And I shall make this kingdom sound
When I have claimed the Golden Round

Skulls fall in time
High Treason crime
Skulls fall in tune
The Throne...
The Throne will be mine soon...
I'm the Man who Should be King
Think of the golden age I'll bring
And I shall make this kingdom sound
When I have claimed the Golden Round

The Kingdom of Exemplar was a terrible place
Its customs were archaic and its laws a disgrace
The thing he couldn't handle when I showed him my face
Was that I'd come to kill the King and now I've taken his place.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf



http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10970102/
https://www.weasyl.com/submission/206956
http://tapewolf.wildernessguardians.com/audio/yh2013-take1-1644.mp3


Last year I had writer's block until 'Incubi and Succubi' suddenly happened, and in that time I decided to revisit some of my older songs using the upgraded studio. 'Young Human' was an early one from my second album, "Songs for the Wild-at-heart", and I decided to redo it with better mellotron, more minimax, better microphone, a real bass and 24 tracks instead of 8. Since I have writer's block again, I decided to pick up from where I left off and finish this one.

Some of the sound effects, copicat echo loops and such have been copied over from the master tape of the original song. I might have copied the vocals as well, but the new version is in a different key (I may have used the wrong version of the MIDI file...?).
I think I may have used the original WAV file of the 'life-feel-see' sample at the end, I'm not sure.

The phasing effect was going to be done using my trusty Revox/Tascam pair but the latter one blew it's drive belt and I didn't have time to order a replacement before AC. I attempted to rig something with a vacuum cleaner belt but there was too much wow.
So instead I did this thing where I copied the vocals from my 8-track machine onto the 24-track, but this time I did it twice and wiggled the speed control on the second copy. It didn't work as well as a more traditional phasing technique but it did kind-of work, except for that time when I hit the power button on the master deck instead of the varispeed control (they're next to each other).

The bass could be better played and I might revise that in a future take.

Thumbnail by Zina, who did the cover of my second album "Songs for the Wild-at-heart" which had the original version of this song.

Critique would be desirable.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf



http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11460458/
https://www.weasyl.com/submission/226305
https://soundcloud.com/dougtheeagle/a-song-about-clan-daryil-take

A while back, Amber drew a picture of Shax, depicting him being introduced to his clan leader.  In the DMFA universe, the leader of a 'cubi clan is a very large, exceptionally powerful individual with a link to all their descendants.

While trying to put these concepts into song, I ended up writing a song based around Shax' commission, but with Daryil as the singer, as if he was giving an introduction to someone who had recently matured and become part of the clan.  Whether Daryil actually serenades new clan members remains to be seen.

The picture which inspired it all is here:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9911544/
https://www.weasyl.com/submission/203025

...and as for the title pic, Merlin drew that for me.  Thanks!  A larger version is here: http://project-future.org/stuff/things/clandaryil_take1_1024.png

The song was written in SONAR as all my songs are, then recorded on a TASCAM MSR-24 multitrack using Rosegarden.  Bass and vocals were recorded on my TSR-8 and then copied to the multitrack when I was happy with them.

"Happy" being a relative word since some of the bass playing feels a bit shaky and will probably have to be revisited.  If my crazy plan bears fruit I will probably revisit the minimoog and mellotron parts anyway since it's possible I'll have a gear overhaul in the coming months.

Equipment used:
Korg Triton EX - Drums
Roland MVS-1 - Synth bass
Roland JV1010 - additional percussion, distorted organ
Hammond XM-1 organ
Creamware Minimax ASB - minimoog leads and additional synth bass
Waldorf MicroWave - additional synth lead at end
Waldorf Pulse - additional synth bass
TornadoTron - for those choirs, flutes and strings
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic - bass
Apex 460 valve microphone

I'm fairly pleased with the mix (done on a Studer A807 on SM900), I have made some signal chain improvements and lowered the overall levels to try and reduce the clipping problems that have been occurring recently, and I think I've got it.


And now the lyrics:

Come child, you've turned 23
Now you're a part of my dynasty
Come young one, you've grown all your wings
Now we must talk of many things

I'm Daryil - and I have the power
I'll be there for you in your darkest hour
I am so much, much more than a man
The great, immortal head of my clan
Don't be afraid, I'm not some evil madman


My laws are just and ought to make sense
You must not kill unless it's self-defence
And if you ever eat someone's soul
I'll stuff your corpse down a six-foot hole

I'm Daryil - and I have the power
I'll bring you comfort in your darkest hour
I am so much, much more than you know
My giant form is not just for show
But don't be scared, I'm not some evil psycho

Don't you see?  Don't you see?
You're the youngest face in my family
Don't you see?  Don't you see?
You're the youngest face in my family


And I know everything you've done and I know everywhere you've been
And I know everyone you've met and I know everything you've seen
And I know everything you love and I know everything you hate
And I know when you've played it false and I know when you've played it straight
I've seen your soul


I'm Daryil - and I have the power
I'll be there for you in your darkest hour
I am so much, much more than a man
The great, immortal head of my clan
Don't be afraid, I'm not some evil madman

Come child, hearken to me
I want what's best for my family
Our clan has status, power and such
I do not ask for very much

I'm Daryil - and I have the power
My own ascension was my finest hour
I guess a tri-wing is kind of odd
Fifty foot tall and almost a god
But don't be scared, I'm not some reckless hotrod

Don't you see?  Don't you see?
You're the youngest face in my family
Don't you see?  Don't you see?
You're the youngest face in my family


J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


Tapewolf



This is a lyrical followup to "Born with Wings" ( http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9478181/ ), in which the Succubus And Incubus Academy from DMFA is explored in detail.

It started out as a short song, and grew, and grew, and grew until it was a full quarter of an hour long ('In A Gadda Da Vida' and 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' are both longer).

Because FA still has its 10MB limit which makes it suck for epic progressive rock, I've uploaded two separate versions, a 'Single Edit' which contains just the tour of the academy, and the full version which is on Weasyl where it will fit without having to be split into pieces or the quality reduced to mobile phone levels.

Single edit: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13146320/
Full, 15 minute version: https://www.weasyl.com/submission/557111/a-hundred-years-full-version-or-the-saia-song

The song was composed on Cakewalk SONAR, tracked using Rosegarden and the bass and vocals were recorded and rerecorded over the following few weeks.

Instruments used included:
Roland MVS-1 - bass synth
Roland JV1010 - metronome
Korg Triton - Drums, electric pianos, clavinet,
Hammond XM-1
Manikin Memotron - Choir, 3 Violins, tape organ, Genesis cello,
Minimoog voyager
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic bass

Vocals and bass recorded on 1/2" 8-track tape and transferred to 1" 24-track. The pitch bend effect on Bela Santiago was done using an A807 1/4" machine and a lot of trial, error and patience. Worth it, though.
Vocals as bass recorded on RMGI SM900. 24-track was done on horrifically expensive ATR tape as an experiment. Stereo mix recorded on SM900.

And yes, I did like Karn Evil 9, thank you.

Lyrics are available on FA or Weasyl (and vary depending on which version you're looking at)

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


VAE

Just listening, and I really like this.
That said, I vaguely wish someone would teach me not to need sleep. Days are far too short these days, and the poor lynx far too tired.
What i cannot create, i do not understand. - Richard P. Feynman
This is DMFA. Where major species don't understand clothing. So innuendo is overlooked for nuendo. .
Saphroneth



Tapewolf

Quote from: VAE on April 08, 2014, 08:27:12 PM
Just listening, and I really like this.
That said, I vaguely wish someone would teach me not to need sleep. Days are far too short these days, and the poor lynx far too tired.

Thanks.  Was that the whole thing, or just the excerpt?

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


VAE

Whole thing - luckily didn't need a weasyl account to download it.
What i cannot create, i do not understand. - Richard P. Feynman
This is DMFA. Where major species don't understand clothing. So innuendo is overlooked for nuendo. .
Saphroneth



Tapewolf

Quote from: VAE on April 09, 2014, 08:12:59 AM
Whole thing - luckily didn't need a weasyl account to download it.

Oh, cool - I figure most people just listened to the highlights, but personally I was rather pleased with the composition as a whole.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E


SeamlessR

I can't even handle how old school your sound is. It's very impressive :) My uncle has some old tape recording stuff but even he hasn't used it in decades.

I exist purely in the digital world, but your doing good stuff with yours :D

Tapewolf

Quote from: SeamlessR on April 29, 2014, 10:33:55 AM
I can't even handle how old school your sound is. It's very impressive :) My uncle has some old tape recording stuff but even he hasn't used it in decades.

I exist purely in the digital world, but your doing good stuff with yours :D

Thanks.  If you're interested, I put a shot of the studio up here:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13330532/

If you really want to hear vintage done well, look up the Norwegian band D'Accord.  Their "D'Accord III" album was recorded in London last year, all-analogue.  No digital delays.  Vintage keyboards and an EMT plate reverb, and the LP was cut straight from the master tapes.   The song "Mr. Moonlight" is kicking around on Soundcloud.

J.P. Morris, Chief Engineer DMFA Radio Project * IT-HE * D-T-E