S.E.N.T. – Week 5
What the hell is S.E.N.T.?
If you’ve no idea what we’re talking about you can catch up with previous weeks over on the S.E.N.T. page.
Week 5 – Flowering
IDEA #1 – ED
Ok… so last week I just got my deadline day wrong. I’m very sorry… Luckily James managed to pretty much nail my blog so on to this week. Cool stereoised keys. Nice fuzzy bass parts and percussion and some cool distorted drum parts. (I just checked the week 4 blog and Fletch says he made that with his mouth to which I say “BRUSH YOUR TEETH FLETCH! YOUR MOUTH SOUNDS DIRTY”.) As always my self assigned first job is to bash what’s there into shape a bit more. Take things in the direction they seem to be headed. So I add some saturation and distortion to stuff. Make the drums kick a bit harder. Vocal sounds too clean and doesn’t fit the slightly homebrew Gary Numan vibe so I spend a bunch of time on that and end up with this odd slightly goth crazy harmonised reverb thing which makes me laugh. This week I’m trying to use the logic stock plugins as much as possible and I don’t really like any of the saturations (which are my world tbh) but I spanner the already distorted bass with the API graphic eq clone and it starts to do this cool slightly turning inward on itself thing which I kinda like. When it sounds a bit more like a record (although not necessarily a good one) I add two tracks of keys from the Reface. Some slightly bell like FM chords and then a messed up melody that I mangle as I’m playing it. Not sure about any of it. Time to pass to Hux! Much more to say but the word count nazis say STOP.
IDEA #2 – HUX
Lots to love in here. Ed’s Synth parts/sounds, Gary’s multi-bodypart percussion, Si’s melody and his mangled acoustic, Fletch’s re-working and chattery backing vocals. Deffo an easier start for me than last week (which may have been because of a “Mixim” sync issue, but I’m sure James’ll tell you alllll about that.
Ed’s making these sound super interesting as they arrive, so as I’ve not been as judicious an editor as say Fletch on this project, it’s just a few textures from me. Layered glockenspiel/music box piano counterpoint, cut stuff up, slow it, loop it, stack harmonies, track high guitar part. Done. Aaaaaaand pass it on.
IDEA #3 – JAMES
Firstly, this ISN’T the sound of the Yamaha PSS 760 Musiczone PortaSound. It’s the sound of one of the synth engines off a Novation Circuit, a battery powered groove box that I use for live gigs. I couldn’t live with the lie any longer.
I really didn’t know where to start with this one, I could feel the early onset signs of a brown day. Something in my brain told me that it would make complete sense to put something like the theme tune to the great british bake off as the outro to this song. I think you’ll agree it was a resounding success. Now I knew where I was heading I just needed to lay the road to get there. Inspired by Fletches time stretchy proliferation of the original vocal I decided to go one step further and try and make the original verses work over the new chords/feel………….errrr this sort of works………in my mind it’s that kind of Bowie style, odd melody against the chords thing, in reality it just sounds weird. I took a step back and did some timing editing in the final section along with editing in some stops, carved a little space for the new verse vocal, added some B.V.s, a little synth melody and re-pitched one of the guitars for the end section to add some top end excitement.
Ok, don’t get me wrong the verses are sketchy but there’s something in there. I listened back to it just now and thought “this is great!” instantly listened again and thought “oh no wait….it’s terrible” Hopefully Gary can figure it out…….or delete!
IDEA #4 – GARY
What’s in Mary Poppins carpet bag this week? Ooh it’s Fletch’s seed. Ooh there’s Hux singing about drinking eagles. Fletch’s signature vocal style. Obligatory Flugel from James. Shall I add a verse or chorus vocal? Naaaah. Stick to what’s instinctive Gaz. Shaker. Claps. Triangle. Floor Tom. Cymbal swells. Job. Done. (And blog in 50 words. Boom.)
IDEA #5 – SI
Open up this week’s project. First listen…it’s not bad…got some groove, some sort of pop/indie thing. Another listen…oh no, hang on, maybe it’s not as good. Third listen, oh it’s dreadful. It’s like Roxette but without the fun. Or the sales. There’d been rumour that Ed’s original drums were amazing on this so I texted the band to ask what had happened to them…James told me to listen to only the drums. Yep…that’s the only positive thing I can find. Regrouped. Came up with a melody and felt hopeful for a very short period. Recorded a vocal and, unbelievably, managed to make it worse. My only hope is that the world is ready for more Simple Minds. Send it to Fletch…sorry mate.
IDEA #6 – FLETCH
My week –
Tuesday night
Download it and listened. Sounds great! Don’t need to add anything to this (just double tracked Gary’s claps and turned all of Si’s vocals down which Ed will undo in the next round). Decided I’m going to leave it alone and write an insightful blog about the importance in creating things of knowing when to do nothing and the dangers of ego.
Wednesday
Yep – leave it
Thursday
Must remember to write that blog
Friday
Had another listen…all good, happy with my decision.
Saturday
Away for the weekend, keep singing bits of the song randomly
Sunday
Had a lovely weekend, easy week. Still need to write blog
Monday
Yep, definitely doesn’t need anything else on it. I’ll write the blog tomorrow.
Tuesday
Just found my clarinet! Haven’t tried to play this in ages. Really must learn how to do that at some point…….
Sorry.
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I’m loving every update! Can’t wait for the finale :) Certainly make’s my day listening to you guys while I work!
☺️