Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
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Shadows

By orangedrink on September 20, 2020 8:45 pm

Another track written outside in the sunlight on the OP-1!  Came inside a day later and lifted a vocal sample from my 14th Weekly Beat and recorded some guitar lines.  This track is supposed to be the counterpoint to my previous track three weeks ago, "Sunlight Vertigo".  The wind chimes are from our back porch!  I love them.  Recorded straight from the onboard OP-1 mic, but I used the terrific iZotope RX7 plug-in to remove clicks and noise.  I usually sequence beats on the OP-1, but I played them by hand this time, and tried to do that "perfectly late" thing.  Also tried to very gently push and pull the hi-hat.  (the pitched down hi-hat segment in the introduction was done in post-production)


My mood is like a roller coaster.  I have no motivation to do anything, but I'm getting my songs done, and I started an art homework club with two of my painting friends and I'm getting those projects done as well.  I've finished two paintings and am really proud of that.  Also, I'm learning how to color these Derek Jacobi pictures in Photoshop using Color Gradient Layers, lol.  All the social strife, violence, and global health concerns are really getting to me, no matter how much I try to avoid them. 


But I still love art, my husband, our dog, my friends, video games, and the WB fam for keeping me going.


Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)

Motivation is overrated... smile But of course it is way more fun when we are motivated. Another track done. There are some good ideas there again.

I like the echoey drums.  The wind chimes give it the outdoors feeling but it feels a bit less sunny than the one a few weeks ago.  A little darker like autumn is creeping in or something.

This is a very nice track. The drum is of course the backbone of the song and all layers you add are like a different color nuance. The wind chime adds this subtle high accents, the low drone-like bass is kinda eery. The pad/choir like sound brings also some darkness. I like how the guitar builds progressively mid-point into the middles. Great tone, makes me wanna buy a jazzmaster. Keep up the great work, enjoy the little pleasures of life, don't let the madness around you take you down.

Nothing like getting outside, breathing in the fresh air, taking in life, and converting it into song form smile

Man, I got to get in on this OP-1 thing.  I've seen so many people post jams with it on instagram and it looks so fun.  Thats awesome that you were able to make this on there while sitting on your porch.  Sounds great.  I'm really digging those swelly pads.

Wonderful track! I really like how you sequenced the drums here. Nice work!!!

Great beat, great chord progression, and great atmosphere with those vocals!

I can`t believe how fat the OP1 sounds in your track. The nonsequenced beats are much cooler for my taste, because they stand for individual imperfection. Why do people always try to pretend to be perfect (and use presets and quantisation)??? I love your guitarsound coming into the composition. Nice atmo and great experimental track. well done.

Delay on the drums is always a treat. Bells coming in on the track like a spark of inspiration! I absolutely feel you on the mood issues though. Hard to get motivated, stay motivated, feel like much of anything has value right now when it seems the world is spiraling towards fascism again. I'm glad you're doing so much creatively, and I'm glad you have love and support to keep you afloat in all of this!

djippy wrote:

Motivation is overrated... smile But of course it is way more fun when we are motivated. Another track done. There are some good ideas there again.

thanks for listening my dear friend

CosmicCairns wrote:

I like the echoey drums.  The wind chimes give it the outdoors feeling but it feels a bit less sunny than the one a few weeks ago.  A little darker like autumn is creeping in or something.

thank you!  this is exactly what I was going for, the "shadows" to the previous track's "sunlight" - and i'm glad it came across because it means I was successful at communicating my environmental experience - it's colder outside!

Kedbreak136 wrote:

This is a very nice track. The drum is of course the backbone of the song and all layers you add are like a different color nuance. The wind chime adds this subtle high accents, the low drone-like bass is kinda eery. The pad/choir like sound brings also some darkness. I like how the guitar builds progressively mid-point into the middles. Great tone, makes me wanna buy a jazzmaster. Keep up the great work, enjoy the little pleasures of life, don't let the madness around you take you down.

100% buy a jazzmaster, don't buy a jaguar or a stratocaster.  I can abide by a telecaster.  wink

thanks for your support; couldn't make it without the WB family.  yeah, i was trying to really "paint by numbers" with low bass, mid-low choir, middle pad, mid-high guitar, and high wind chimes.  and the drums are a pretty strict low kick, mid snare/clap, high hi-hat

ViridianLoom wrote:

Nothing like getting outside, breathing in the fresh air, taking in life, and converting it into song form smile

feels good to emotionally revisit that feeling now because of this song smile  I'll never forget where I was sitting and what the weather was like; my husband was also mowing the lawn.

Chrisfoo wrote:

Man, I got to get in on this OP-1 thing.  I've seen so many people post jams with it on instagram and it looks so fun.  Thats awesome that you were able to make this on there while sitting on your porch.  Sounds great.  I'm really digging those swelly pads.

it's suuuuuuuuper fun.  making full tracks on the go is life-changing.  I come from the 4-track cassette recording era, so having a digital 4-track works perfectly for my recording work flow brain.  I wish Ableton had a cassette tape visual of scrubbing back and forth in the track, it'd really help me!

Mission Crossing wrote:

Wonderful track! I really like how you sequenced the drums here. Nice work!!!

thanks!  i haven't done wonky drums in a while, and it's nice

Reilly Farrell wrote:

Great beat, great chord progression, and great atmosphere with those vocals!

thanks!  i'm really happy with the vocals.

Ipaghost wrote:

perfection

Q-Rosh wrote:

I can`t believe how fat the OP1 sounds in your track. The nonsequenced beats are much cooler for my taste, because they stand for individual imperfection. Why do people always try to pretend to be perfect (and use presets and quantisation)??? I love your guitarsound coming into the composition. Nice atmo and great experimental track. well done.

I am trying to get rid of the idea that imperfect is bad.  Thanks for your support!  If the drums were straight, the whole piece would lose the character of "rotating off axis"

scottux wrote:

Delay on the drums is always a treat. Bells coming in on the track like a spark of inspiration! I absolutely feel you on the mood issues though. Hard to get motivated, stay motivated, feel like much of anything has value right now when it seems the world is spiraling towards fascism again. I'm glad you're doing so much creatively, and I'm glad you have love and support to keep you afloat in all of this!

Art is the way for us to curate and share and treasure the beauty in the world, especially when it is hard to find.

orangedrink wrote:


100% buy a jazzmaster, don't buy a jaguar or a stratocaster.  I can abide by a telecaster.  wink

Buy all of them... Strat and jaguar are awesome too. (I don't own neither a jazzmaster or a jaguar but I really like Fender guitars. smile

Now I have to find a cool jazzmaster, which is not easy to find at a not too expensive price... and I might upgrade my drums before that since I am mostly playing drums... and I should put some money on the house before that too (soundproofing the garage, adding some sound treatment, etc..). Damn.

My fenders, I do own a squier strat sss as well which I love too.

djippy wrote:
orangedrink wrote:


100% buy a jazzmaster, don't buy a jaguar or a stratocaster.  I can abide by a telecaster.  wink

Buy all of them... Strat and jaguar are awesome too. (I don't own neither a jazzmaster or a jaguar but I really like Fender guitars. smile

Now I have to find a cool jazzmaster, which is not easy to find at a not too expensive price... and I might upgrade my drums before that since I am mostly playing drums... and I should put some money on the house before that too (soundproofing the garage, adding some sound treatment, etc..). Damn.

My fenders, I do own a squier strat sss as well which I love too.

Wow, those all look terrific!  What guitar did you use on the DiscoRock track?

orangedrink wrote:
djippy wrote:
orangedrink wrote:


100% buy a jazzmaster, don't buy a jaguar or a stratocaster.  I can abide by a telecaster.  wink

Buy all of them... Strat and jaguar are awesome too. (I don't own neither a jazzmaster or a jaguar but I really like Fender guitars. smile

Now I have to find a cool jazzmaster, which is not easy to find at a not too expensive price... and I might upgrade my drums before that since I am mostly playing drums... and I should put some money on the house before that too (soundproofing the garage, adding some sound treatment, etc..). Damn.

My fenders, I do own a squier strat sss as well which I love too.

Wow, those all look terrific!  What guitar did you use on the DiscoRock track?

It wasn't me playing the guitars on DiscoRock, it was Niko. Not sure which one of these two he was playing on that evening, but it is either one of those two:


Into the Blackstar artist 15 amp that you can see on top.

Love the organic feel of the beat.  Those chords that come in around 1:40ish are soooo nice and sublime.  Ooooh that guitar fade in even sweeter.  The bassline fills everything out nicely as well.  I need a hammock, drink and bowl for this one.  Yais!

Wind chime sounds great, smooth bass, like how you brought the guitar in, beat has a stuttering feel to it which keeps everything propelling forward.  Just keep doing what you do, negativity is unfortunately at a high point right now, just “kill dem with positive vibes”

pretty

The drumming is super catchy with the bounce back delay and the hand played quality adds for spontaneity and human vibe.  Wind chimes are awesome. For just a second, I got a flash of Talking Heads feeling but those punchy drums pull in a different more contemporary direction. Amazing you can produce this quality of work with so few tools.  Mostly imagination and drumming skills.

Love the wind chimes on this one, it really sets the mood. Agree with others this has a more autumn feel to it! 

I feel the autumn mood too, it put me in a good space. Got some work done to this actually, so thanks! The change of seasons has been tough this year for me. Feeling like getting outside has been the true solace during this mess ... and now days growing shorter and colder. Oh well. Keep making art. Congrats on soldiering on, and painting homework, that's awesome. And photoshop skills. Well some bright spots amidst it all I suppose.

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