Nicolas Grenier -151013 – 151013

My, that was quick. Back again…

As if I wasn’t busy enough over the last few days doing the remix for Katey Laurel, I spent this morning working on a quick’n’dirty electronic track for a possible collaboration with French poet Nicolas Grenier.

Nicolas contacted me after a track from my 2010 album HAPPY DAYS IN THE GULAG (Memory Foam Pillow)…

…was featured on a free download compilation album – MIDNIGHT RADIO COMPILATION 2…

He seemed to like the track and wondered would I be interested in working with him putting music to his verse (or vice versa, perhaps). After a short exchange of correspondence and a certain amount of virtual tyre-kicking, I agreed that I’d sent him over three or four short pieces for his consideration.

Today’s is the first – I’d describe it as primitive or tribal electronics. I programmed the track in CE5 using a variety of VST plugins (to wit, a Taikodrum setting in HALion One and two different voices in Minimogue VA). Did a rough mix and mastered in AA3.

I’ve sent off an mp3 of the track to Nicolas for his approval. Hopefully I’ll hear something back from him soon.

I have no idea whether this will amounting to anything – we’ll see…;-).

Regards,

djp

Daniel Prendiville & Peter Fitzpatrick – “From The Other Side Of The World” – 060812

Using my Roland Juno-D, I programmed 8 MIDI drum parts in CE5, mostly using Kore Player Sky Kit, but I also used a snare off the HALion One Jazz Kit, because it had a nice roll that I wanted to use in the intro.

Edited all the parts and tweaked one or two of the Jazz Bass parts.

Ready for tracking vocals tomorrow on the Gulag Mobile.

Regards,

djp

Peter Fitzpatrick – “12 Step”/”The Air” – 190712

Spoke too soon…;-).

Peter thought the remix might have been a bit more, shall we say, adventurous. Over the last few days I was on a bit of a road trip and thought good and hard about what I might do to the track to meet Peter’s brief. Came back this p.m., absolutely shattered, and decided to have a “go”…

…which leads to “The Air” – an abstract, vaguely ambient track based around a few key lyrics from the original track with lots of delay feedback. Plus I took the main vocal track, reversed it, ran it through a VST ring modulation plugin, a couple of delays and a flanger. I then overdubbed a few synth lines using voices from the Viral Outbreak, HALion One and Majken’s Chimera VST soft synths. All done in CE5.

The track is now almost completely unrecognisable, either as the source track or even as a piece of music. Still, Peter did ask for “adventurous”…;-).

I plan to mix/master the track tomorrow.

Regards,

 

djp

 

 

Peter Fitzpatrick – “Saving Souls” – 010712

Man, this should be made illegal!

Lots of fun with automating delays in CE5. Had to do a few edits to deal with conflicts between the saxophone and Rhodes parts. A certain element of King Tubby has emerged, but I’m keeping it to the bare minimum, I pwomiss…

I came up with a lovely wheeze in relation to a delay part on the saxophone that Peter supplied –  sounds nice and interesting.

Programmed a very light funky HALion One drum part to augment Peter’s “beatbox” stem.

And I have a tidy bass line worked out, which I’ll track over the next few days.

Most enjoyable (for me, at least…)

Regards,

 

djp

Cousin Silas – “Deserted Highways” – 280611

Programmed up some percussion parts in CE5 using various Latin elements in the Kore Player and HALion One VST plugins. I reckon they add a certain “new age” vibe to the track, which may or may not be desired.

Also removed a lot of the Strat parts and tidied up some timing issue on the bass parts which were highlighted because of the addition of the percussion parts.

Prepared two mixes in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3 –  one mix was compressed, one not. Hope to hear back from Cousin Silas pretty soon.

And in other news,  I took my Fender Jazz Bass for a set-up last week and got it back today. Kudos to Tom Peterson of Kilkenny Vintage Guitars for doing a fine job at a very reasonable price!

Regards,

djp