Mon 6th - Tues 7th November 06
More work on ‘Demons’.  Using the DX100 for a riff in the verses, splitting the riff into two main parts and feeding different sounds for each part through pedals and the Kaoss pad, recording everything we liked into the sampler to modulate further.

Ended the night with loads of usable stuff, but also the prospect of having to go through all the recordings and cut them up into individual samples etc….it’s going to take ages.

Sat 4th - Sun 5th November 06
‘Demons’ – we concentrated on progressing the bass line to the verse, some real improvements made.

Hooked up some distortion pedals to the Kaoss Pad and recorded some guitar noises through them…rattling / hammering / rubbing the strings to get interesting timbres and noises etc.

‘To The Lions’ – attempted to add to the verse progression again, using the modular to get an FM type bass sound to work with what is already there from the XTk.  Just going nowhere, we can’t seem to make the sound we know the part needs.  Quickly aborted…and continued with ‘Demons’ – modulating drums through the Kaoss Pad, mostly the kick and snare.  Good fun and loads of stuff recorded.

Mon 30th October 06
Working on the lyrics and vocal timings for ‘Demons’.  Constantly re-evaluating what we have and it feels like the chorus vocal needs to be more of a solid idea, as it’s a bit too uneventful and lacking in the demo.

Thurs 26th October 06
Disaster!......Lost all the work we did on Tuesday night for ‘Adore’, the drum sounds we spent hours modulating and honing no longer existed inside the MPC.  Spent a couple of hours attempting to find the sound sources again and modulating them the same way - trying to recreate something that you no longer have is almost an impossible task…at the back of your mind you’re always thinking whether it’s the same pitch as you had it before, what you were modulating and how you were modulating it etc etc!!  Just didn’t sound right.

Determined not to let the evening be a complete waste of time, we imported some midi and audio files over from an alternative version of the demo.  Then focused on the bassline arrangement for the verse, editing notes in the sequence to give it some sort of ‘groove’ and progression, but without sounding funky, and to move it away from basic chord patterns.

Tues 24th October 06
More work on ‘Adore’.  We need to work on this until we’re happy with where it’s heading.  Still trying different approaches to the hi hats, completely deleted the mega electronic ones we had and worked hard on layering several sounds and modulating them in the sampler, which gives them a rougher sound, but still electronic and far less run-of-the-mill.  Need to rough it up a little more yet though.

There’s a great track waiting to come out of this, but it needs to go in the right direction first.  A lot of work to do.

Mon 23rd October 06
Went through a few songs to see where we were with them.  Decided to work on ‘Adore’. After not working on it for a while we quickly realised that the drums were far too filtered, so spent a while opening up their frequencies.  Much better.

This song is by its nature quite poppy, but we want to ensure that it’s not TOO poppy, so we’re working on the hi hats to try and move them away from sounding like just straight 16ths, and getting them to sound more interesting and less commercial.

The XTk sounds that we have in the chorus are still good but lacking the drive that the strong chorus melody needs to carry across, so we need to get some killer frequencies in there to support them.

Sat 21st - Sun 22nd October 06
Spent a while getting to grips with some new equipment, but also trying to work on stuff as we get to know it.  Worked on ‘Ownership’ some more, attempting to fit a melody in the track that the original demo had in it, but decided in the end that less is more, and that the original idea isn’t necessary for the track.

Sampled a sound from the XTk and got it going in the verse section, really adds to the track…..one of those moments when all the hard work and frustration pays off.

Fed the DX100 through the Kaoss Pad to manipulate its sound, trying things out for percussion ideas, sampling everything that we liked.  Spent the afternoon cutting up the samples and modulating them in the sampler.  Some really good stuff……suddenly ‘Ownership’ is sounding heavier than we thought it would be.

Sat 7th - Tues 10th October 06
Concentrating on the verse section to ‘More’.  We’ve got a specific idea for a sound and melody that should compliment and work alongside the vocal line….but after getting some good sounds programmed on several synths, nothing quite fits the bill.  Thought we were getting closer with a sound on the DX100, but as with the other sounds, as soon as we try to shape it and get it doing what we originally wanted, it just doesn’t do what we want it to do.

We sampled a sound we made on the Modular and got it working in a sequence against a performance we recorded off the XTk, really adds something to it.  Still not complete, but it’s got some great, dirty sounds in there, sounding much more like it means business.

Everything we’ve tried to throw at this verse idea at first shows promise, but then lacks the musicality that’s required for the part as soon as we try and fit it in.  The essential part is still missing – melody.

Mon 2nd & Tues 3rd October 06
Lyrics worked on for a song called ‘Draw The Line’.  Need to demo a chorus for the track before we can continue.

Further hi hat programming for ‘More’.  Started adding an intricate pattern of closed hats and rides to work with the softer open hats that we did last week.  The drums are all starting to complement each other and really gel together.

Thurs 28th September 06
Not giving up on the hi hats for ‘More’ – spent the evening creating a soft layer of filtered open hi hats to hopefully act as a foundation for sharper sounding rides and closed hi hats to play against. Sounding pretty good so far.

 

Mon 25th September 06
‘More’ – decided the track probably does need some hi hats, so played around with various ideas to see what worked…..but nothing did….deleted.

Fri 22nd - Sun 24th September 06
Burnt out from constantly programming sounds, so turned our attentions to song arrangements.  Major reworking to the chord structure for the chorus to ‘More’, sounding much better.   Relieved to have moved it away from the typical ‘pop’ chord progressions.  Removed some tremolo from the bass sound to give it more of a raw, direct feel.

Moved onto ‘Big Mistake’.  Working hard on the chorus section.  The vocal idea for the chorus was originally sung over the chords for the verse, but after shifting some of the vocals around and tweaking the bass line it’s starting to resemble something good.

Tues 19th September 06
After a couple of days of attempting to get an idea working for a verse progression on ‘Ownership’ we’ve given up for a while to give it a rest….there are only a couple of sounds going on this track at the moment, which are both really interesting, but nothing wants to fit with them. Hugely frustrating.

 

Fri 8th - Sun 10th September 06
‘To The Lions’ – Still having trouble with the multi-layered bass part for the verse lift – cut up the sequence to incorporate the original bass sound from the verses as well as another sound, eventually got the beginnings of a sound, but couldn’t bear to hear the track any longer, so we moved onto something more productive…..

…….‘Demons’ – Deleted the demo guitar recordings as they were incredibly bad.  Started trying out alternative things for the lead sound, but somehow ended up with a fantastic, deep, pulsating bass sound that’s given the whole bottom end of the track a distinctive character.

Cabled up some distortion pedals and fed the DX7 though them to get something grungy supporting the verse vocals.

‘More’ – We decided that the snare sound was too laid back, needed something with a bit more bite…..so back to the Pro One as it gave us such a good snare for ‘Adore’……soon came up with what we were after.

Muted the hi-hats, as they just sounded too ‘Commodore 64’ish.  Maybe the track doesn’t even need any hi hats – seems to sound pretty solid without them.

Mon 4th September 06
Back to ‘To The Lions’.  Continued working on the progression after the verse, both working on synths to get something working, got something excellent going on the XTk, really working well – plenty of odd frequencies and movement, needs controlling a bit more, but it’s damn good stuff.  Needs another bass sound still to give the section its full low end and to compliment the other two bass line sounds.

Tues 29th August 06
Noticed that the bass line for ‘Ownership’ lost some of its bottom end frequencies when triggering high notes, sorted it by going through the whole sequence and dropping notes by an octave wherever it sounded good.  

Messed around on the Pro One to get a kick drum that really fitted with the bass line.  Sampled it into the MPC and it fits nicely…….it’s all sounding really good.

Spent the next couple of hours programming a sequence for the kick.  It needed to continuously change to fit around the odd timing of the bass line, but as it was changing so much it was difficult coming up with something that didn’t keep losing the rhythm of the track.

Sat 26th August 06
More work on the ‘Ownership’ bass line sequence, continued cutting, chopping, copying and moving stuff around in Logic, until we finally ended up with a long, evolving sequence that constantly moves around and interacts with the lead XTk  sound. Now we just need to get the right sound.

Ditched the Pro One bass sound we were working with, as it was nowhere near good enough.  After failing to come up with anything on various synths, decided to build something from scratch on the Modular, spent a few hours creating a big, solid, heavy monster of a sound with plenty of detail and enough scope to vary the sound in different parts of the song.  Good stuff.

14th, 15th, & 21st August 06
The freedom we thought we’d have with ‘Ownership’ isn’t quite happening….struggling to find the right direction for the track.

Absolutely nothing seems to fit with the main XTk sound.   The bass from the Pro One just isn't fitting or sounding detailed enough.  Thought that the XTk might provide a bass sound with similar interesting characteristics as the lead sound.   After a couple of hours of knob twiddling we’d heard some pretty interesting stuff….but still nothing quite right.

Decided that the bass sequence was the problem…just too repetitive and normal.  Started messing around with it, moving notes and sections around and constructing something much more complex that would bounce off the lead sound…..pretty time consuming……but eventually it all started to sound pretty good.  Just need to replace that Pro One bass sound with something a lot better.

Sat 12th - Sun 13th August 06

Continued working on the arrangement for 'To The Lions', sounding really good, stripped down to its essentials at the moment.  Concentrated on a progression to come after the verse, got the bassline written but need to split it into two separate sequences so we can trigger two different modulating bass sounds from two different synths..nothing recorded - nothing good enough yet.

 

Went through a few of our other tracks to see where we're up to, all sounding pretty good...Decided to work on a song called ' Ownership', as the demo is totally open to taking any direction we want.

 

Already have a brilliant sound on the XTk for this track, providing the whole lead melody, lots of movement and lots of detail.  Got a solid bass sound going on the Pro One, gritty and machine-like, it's given the track a solid foundation for the XTk to play against.

Mon 31st July - Tues 1st August 06

Continued with 'To The Lions'. 

 

Firstly, worked on a sound to add an open chord undertone to accompany the main resonant sound running through the song.  Got a sound going on the XTk which sounds like it'll fit just nicely...need to tweak it a bit more though.

 

Also created a pretty interesting sound on the XTk that fitted really well over the bass line, but have saved it until we get a bit further with the basics of the track.

 

Tuesday night we focused on the chord progressions and the song structure.  It's sounding much better, each part is progressing into the next a little more interestingly.

Fri 28th - Sat 29th July 06

Ventured into the loft to dig out the dusty old keyboard that provided the original bass sound for ' To The Lions' thinking that the sound from the original demo might still be on it.  No luck.  Spent some time trying to reprogram it - got close, but it just wasn't happening, so we gave up on that idea.

 

After some much needed cheese on toast we hooked up the Modular synth to try and get a bass sound that felt right - seems to be a reoccurring thing now, but the Modular appears to be giving us exactly what we like when it comes to dirty, solid bass sounds.  It's not perfect yet, but it's 95% there, even though it's a completely different sound from the original demo, it still gives the track the same 'feel' - which is the most important thing.

 

Worked on the hi hats, which again needed to sound exactly like the original demo...after a bit of work they're in there.  The foundations are finally getting there, it sounds tight and clean, progress can be slow at this stage as the backbone of each song has to be just right, the basics - drums, bass line, lead sound - once they're all in place the rest should follow relatively easy.

Mon 24th July 06

Loaded a track called 'To The Lions'.  The original demo has been hanging around a few years and the bass line sound was virtually perfect for it, so we're trying to recreate the same feel the original sound had. 

 

Eventually created a sound with similarities, but it just wasn't anywhere near as good as the original.
 

Thurs 20th July 06

Turned our attention to a song currently called ' Demons'.

 

The backbone of the drums are mostly in place from a while ago - heavy and solid.  So spent the evening trying things out to see what works for the song.  Firstly on the modular synth - nothing really jumping out at us, then hooked up the guitar through a couple of pedals, sounds pretty cool...feels a bit PJ Harvey(ish).

 

Couple of strings broke, nothing recorded.
 

Mon 17th - Tues 18th July 06

Continued with the lead melody sound for ' Adore'. 

 

The XTk is perfect for stuff like this, lots of movement and instability - tends to wander off on its own and only work on one note. We're recording each note in a few times and then changing the sound until the next note is an interesting progression from the last.

 

Time consuming, but well worth it.
 

Carried on with 'Adore'.
 

Created what we thought was a good snare sound.  Spent the next few hours creating a kick drum that fitted with the bassline and snare, but then decided the snare sounded too industrial for our liking. Annoyed that things were taking so long to fit into place, we spent the next hour sulking and eating pizza.
 

Started the snare again from scratch.  After an hour of twiddling and tweaking ended up with a solid snare off the Pro-One.  Happy again.

Lead sound for chorus is the difficult thing again, the original sound we made up no longer fits, but it's along the lines of what we want, but was too aggressive.  Threw it away, and started over...eventually got something that might work, hopefully, after a little more work this could be it.
 

'Adore? again!.....Simplified original bassline that just wasn't working, and came up with another huge modular bass sound, suddenly the direction of the track just falls into place...grubbier, darker, just the way we like it.
 

'Adore' still trying to find its feet.  Lead sound sounding good, the bass line proving trickier...it'll get there, trial and error.  Spent rest of the evening getting bogged down with audio editing, ended up vowing never to use that method again, was like pulling teeth.