bats brew

day after hump day bump

show some skin is new'ish. LOL

definitely more than one take! just as many as it takes to get a keeper!

hi david! interesting question....... when i'm writing, i usually have the arrangement of the song figured out first...and write the drum track. sometimes it will be complete to start with, sometimes, just a skeleton for arranging. i'll sometimes use a click track in open areas where i don't know what i want to do; then, i'll start recording 'scratch tracks' where i literally write as i go. sometimes, i'll bring a song in the studio that is complete in my head... the entire thing, melody, tempo, chord changes, the arrangement. those go quick. the scratch tracks sometimes become the final tracks. then, when i get far enough into it to realize a complete drum track and arrangement, i'll practice all the changes, get my head straight, and try for complete single performances for each and every track. THAT is where the feel comes from. i do not like punch ins, so i avoid them. i'd rather trash an entire track for one mistake, and cut a new one, just to get that loose first take feel. with vocals, i usually have to take multiple passes at it, verse by verse, chorus by chorus, because i'm usually trying out different things every time i do a take, and when i get one i really like, i learn it, rehearse it, then go for a long take. with solos, they are often times one off tracks, first takes, where the entire thing is off the top of my head. when i get solos that are integral melodies, i practice those, and again, try to get entire takes from beginning to end. i have written songs like you suggest, where the whole thing is improvised. just depends on the song. on "Apollo 18", the song began with the acoustic track, and an idea, a bittersweet story, to go along with the bittersweet feel of the rhythm track. i just built everything off of that acoustic track. there was no click, it was all free feel. very free. like floating in space.

well, just for wookiee, and in the spirit of 'newness', i'll post something here i've never posted before: it's a demo, from 1987, done on a small cassette 4-track machine, with many bounced overdubs.. called "Show Some Skin"

it is new, wookiee... to those who have never heard it before!! heheh, god help us if we never get any new blood around here, and posting a halloween specific song, on just halloween each year... where's the problem with that? lord knows, i write new stuff all the time!! and sometimes i post em here, and it's crickets!! crickets, i tell you.... as fun as it is, yes, i would suggest that is is wrong to suggest!! LOL maybe next year, i'll write a mummy song. it will be slow and plodding..... 😁

thanks tom!

hi makke! thanks for listening... this was a fun thing to do, originally done just for a halloween style song for a collection of tunes to go on a small label release. over the years, i've tweaked it and tweaked it, and in fact, just finished a new mix of this thing, but i didn't get it done in time to release this year. i'll fix the video and put it out next year. nobody cares about werewolves during the 'in between' months. heheh

THANKS TOM, for listening and commenting... just a regular slide, a glass slide at that. i tried to be very calm and nail each note as close to the pitch as i could, that comes from my listening to george harrison, i believe. that ending.... is just the slides going up and out, and a little synth pad that had a real long delay and repeat on it. but it felt very spacey! heheh

ha! space-influenced.... heheh, i like it! i don't do much slide recording, but i really like to play slide, so this is just an attempt at my george influence (lowell, harrison, thorogood, etc) 😁

https://batsbrew.bandcamp.com/track/apollo-18

hey antler! yea, kind of came at this one with just a basic rock groove in mind. i'm working on a new mix of this, that is a bit less harsh. thanks for commenting!

hey clean! i'm always here... and a few other places, i make myself available! LOL thanks for listening... this is one i first recorded back in 2001, i think... started on a little roland VS-880ex, then graduated to a VS 1880, then to sonar cakewalk! i've just finished re-recording and mixing a new version of this, but it didn't get done in time for halloween this year...

Boo

thanks jack! the video, i think is just a 'carrier' for the vibe of the song, like tofu in a big curry dish..... LOL

of course, for halloween. https://youtu.be/Pv_dPleLTf4

hey andy, thanks for listening, 'passive break', i gotta use that from now on. heheh i love guitar harmonizing, but i've done it to death in the past, just because it's so easy for me, i mean really easy. i can harmonize with stuff that's out of pitch. LOL but, i'm trying to get more judicious on where i use it, and how often, so i try not to do it too much, just where it seems to want it, or need it. i always play my harmonies, never use studio tricks for that stuff. i just practice it till it falls into place. and sometimes, it doesn't!!! 😝

thanks nio! glad you dig these guitars, it's pretty guitar'y.

Do you really feel qualified? A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the stranger turned to her and said, ‘Let’s talk. I’ve heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.’ The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said to the stranger, ‘What would you like to talk about?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said the stranger. ‘How about nuclear power?’ and he smiles. OK, ‘she said. ‘That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?’ The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, ‘Hmmm, I have no idea.’ To which the little girl replies, ‘Do you really feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don’t know sch!t?

hump day bump

Thanks!

Thanks antler! Passive break, that is an interesting term.

https://batsbrew.bandcamp.com/track/center-of-everywhere it's the doppelganger of "Middle of Nowhere", from the "Wild Animals" album. njoy!

i check mixes with those same k240II's for a few years, but when i moved up to a set of Sennheiser Hd 580's, it was a BIG difference. for the money, the MASSDROP models are the way to go.

hey mark! thanks for checking this one out.. bass.... i had a lot of fun tracking this one... and it gave me a chance to try blending my iridium and bass IR with a sansamp bass di, and figuring out crossover points to use, and amounts of eq and compression, all that stuff. ended up using the iridium for the higher eq, and the sansamp for the lower eq. higher in the mix with the iridium, blended in the sansamp below.