Recording Challenge #8 - It’s the Digital Era

[Lt. Bob]

I feel like those of us who pulled something from the archives are definitely cheating, and I'll probably try to come up with something else to supplement it!

I almost did that but instead I'm gonna post a couple that show my keyboard-drum process in the Listening Forum.
I have a couple I did a while back that are based entirelly on manually playing drumbs on the keyboard.

But I figured just going back years and grabbing old files didn't actually qualify as accepting a challenge.
I'm gonna do something fresh with a Drum Machine for this challenge and thank goodness I'm fibnally feeling enough better from the 'rona that I have enough energy to want to.

[CrowsofFritz]

I feel like those of us who pulled something from the archives are definitely cheating, and I'll probably try to come up with something else to supplement it!

I almost did that but instead I'm gonna post a couple that show my keyboard-drum process in the Listening Forum.
I have a couple I did a while back that are based entirelly on manually playing drumbs on the keyboard.

But I figured just going back years and grabbing old files didn't actually qualify as accepting a challenge.
I'm gonna do something fresh with a Drum Machine for this challenge and thank goodness I'm fibnally feeling enough better from the 'rona that I have enough energy to want to.

Glad you’re feeling better! Did you ever have a lost of taste or smell? That’s the biggest symptom my friends had.

[Lt. Bob]

I almost did that but instead I'm gonna post a couple that show my keyboard-drum process in the Listening Forum.
I have a couple I did a while back that are based entirelly on manually playing drumbs on the keyboard.

But I figured just going back years and grabbing old files didn't actually qualify as accepting a challenge.
I'm gonna do something fresh with a Drum Machine for this challenge and thank goodness I'm fibnally feeling enough better from the 'rona that I have enough energy to want to.

Glad you’re feeling better! Did you ever have a lost of taste or smell? That’s the biggest symptom my friends had.

yes, I lost my sense of taste and smell and the thing that actually made me say, "Fuck it's covid ... gotta get tested" was a rash on both of my upper thigh areas.
Unusually though I got my sense of smell and taste back around day 11 and the rash went away after a week.
Both of those things are supposed to last for months so hopefully a sign that I had a mild case.
I really had no other symptoms except a mild fever around 100 and extreme fatigue .... another thing they say can last for months.
But actually just yesterday (day 16 ) I kinda felt close to normal for the first time and mowed the lawn for an hour.

I'm 69 so I consider myself lucky and especially lucky that I had gone on a diet and lost 53 lbs.

So anyways ....... I'ma doing the drumb challenge with a pure drumb machine and if you're curious about keyboard drumming watch the listening room.

I love this place .... gets me to do stuff!

[CrowsofFritz]

Glad you’re feeling better! Did you ever have a lost of taste or smell? That’s the biggest symptom my friends had.

yes, I lost my sense of taste and smell and the thing that actually made me say, "Fuck it's covid ... gotta get tested" was a rash on both of my upper thigh areas.
Unusually though I got my sense of smell and taste back around day 11 and the rash went away after a week.
Both of those things are supposed to last for months so hopefully a sign that I had a mild case.
I really had no other symptoms except a mild fever around 100 and extreme fatigue .... another thing they say can last for months.
But actually just yesterday (day 16 ) I kinda felt close to normal for the first time and mowed the lawn for an hour.

I'm 69 so I consider myself lucky and especially lucky that I had gone on a diet and lost 53 lbs.

So anyways ....... I'ma doing the drumb challenge with a pure drumb machine and if you're curious about keyboard drumming watch the listening room.

I love this place .... gets me to do stuff!

Niceeee! I’ll be on the lookout.

[CrowsofFritz]

Here’s the finished song!



Lyrics:

Everything is better, or so it seems
Everything is colder, it seems to me

You can’t run the show, sending me up and down
Sending me out of town
You can’t run the show, sending me up or down
Sending me out town

But I’ve got to fill my heart from the very start
But I’ve got to fill my heart from the very start

[Tadpui]

I love this place .... gets me to do stuff!

Agreed! These challenge threads have been a great cure for apathy for me

Here’s the finished song!

I think that sounds great, Crows! The mix sounds full and rich and balanced. Sounds like the KA6 worked well!

[CrowsofFritz]

I love this place .... gets me to do stuff!

Agreed! These challenge threads have been a great cure for apathy for me

Here’s the finished song!

I think that sounds great, Crows! The mix sounds full and rich and balanced. Sounds like the KA6 worked well!

Awesome! Glad you liked it! It really did work well!

[vomitHatSteve]

Nice work, Crows!

[vomitHatSteve]

Ok. I'm still waiting on my hamboner for his contributions, but here's an initial draft of my song.

Hambone.mp3

[Lt. Bob]

I like this idea, I guess I just don't actually know what a drum machine is. They're all fake drums to me. If it's not a real drummer playing real drums, then it's fake drums.

So do you mean this has to be done with one of those things where you have to tap on pads with your fingers to make drum sounds?

or a keyboard ..... go look at my thread in the listening room about doing drums on a keyboard

[Tadpui]

Ok. I'm still waiting on my hamboner for his contributions, but here's an initial draft of my song.
Hambone.mp3

Love it already

I immediately thought of this:

[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqIMX-zg-9A[/BBvideo]

[CrowsofFritz]

Ok. I'm still waiting on my hamboner for his contributions, but here's an initial draft of my song.
Hambone.mp3

Sounds cool! I really like that slightly out of tune sound at the latter half of the song.

[WhiskeyJack]

Ok. I'm still waiting on my hamboner for his contributions, but here's an initial draft of my song.
Hambone.mp3

I don't do the right drugs to full appreciate this. but stone sober it is pretty bad ass.

[CrowsofFritz]

So I couldn’t help but do another one.

[Lt. Bob]

Well I've done one .... before I post it I wanted to listen to everyone's submissions so far to make sure I even did what the challenge was and, of course, I heard some great stuff.

[mention]rayc [/mention] ...... you've been pygmy beat for quite a while huh?
I like Revolution Blues quite a bit and it's not that obvious it's a drum machine ..... which I suppose if the point.
The second one doesn't sound as good as revolution Blues ...... I like the tune though .... it could bear redoing.


[mention]Tadpui[/mention] ..... that's awesome man ...... just scrambled bass and vocals ..... well and the drum machine.
Since there's no sequencer I'm assuming you 'played' the drums into the recorder and then used those recordings to loop and make up the entire sequence.

Well done man .... timing is good and the tune is nice.

[mention]vomitHatSteve[/mention] ..... that's another cool tune .... the drum machine pedigree is in place ..... wish they were a little louder but the plan at the time was to try to hide them because they are definitely drum machiney

[mention]CrowsofFritz[/mention] ...... Out of Town is way cool ..... like the harmonies ......To the Ground is better to my ears ...... I like the mix and the drumb machine and the low range vocals ...... and that cool drum machine beat when the vocals drop down .... very cool

[mention]musicturtle[/mention] ..... sounds like a good starting place ....... definitely add some vocals.

[Lt. Bob]

And here's mine ...... my drum machine is a Boss Dr. Rhythm Section DR-5. The only one I've ever had and I got bored with it quickly back when I got it at least 15 years ago .....
It basically has around 65 different beats , each having 3 or 4 variations.
You can program your own beats but I felt for this challenge I should use built in beats plus you know what's easier and quicker than programming my own beats?
NOT programming my own beats.

But really to me the spirit of the challenge is to use whatever is already in there so that's what I did.

I decided I had time to do it so last Saturday I wrote some lyrics on the way home from the gig ..... by the time I got home I had most of the lyrics and a rough idea of the melody. And, of course, I sorta had an idea of the 'feel' I thought it would have.
Just gotta find one in the machine that fits.
Well there wasn't one ...... nothing even remotely close! LOL

So I went thru all of them and picked the one that I could fit the words around ..... but it totally changed how it had to go and was nothing like I had envisioned.
Further the beat I'd chosen came in packets of 16 beats/4 measures ...... things HAD to fit into that structure ... could not be changed ...... that was fun.
The bridge is a different beat that's only 8 counts per packet but everything else is in groups of 16 counts.
As usual I took the first takes that didn't suck and the first mix that was decent.

Since it started as lyrics here they are:

Stupid Little Drum Machine

I got a drum machine
Boss Dr. Rhythm Section DR-5
It's ancient and it's awful and it doesn't sound good
Momma never taught me that a drum machine could
Inspire me to write a song like the one that I'm writing right in front of you now
Stupid little drum machine

The rhythms in my drum machine
They've got a cheesy kind of drum machine feel
The cymbals, snare and kick almost all sound the same
And getting it to play a fill's a giant pain
I think I'll use rhythm number 22
It doesn't sound like much but it's the best it can do
Stupid little drum machine

I'm just working trying to make it through
I hope I do as well ... as the others do
I'm just hoping I can get it right
And can I knock it out ...... in only just one night?

We're getting to the end of the song
I'll bet you're happy that it wasn't too long
I ran out of words that rhyme or make any sense
Almost as incoherent as the President
He's dumber than my drum machine
He's just a dumb machine
Walking talking dumb machine
He's just a dumb machine
Dumbest guy I've ever seen
aha ...... I can't help it .... he really is ..... that man is not smart
whoo-hoo!



.

[vomitHatSteve]

Nice!

That sure is some tone on that Dr. Rhythm! (I think that may even be the same series that my first album used)

[CrowsofFritz]

LMAO. That was so funny! Great song!

[WhiskeyJack]

And here's mine ...... my drum machine is a Boss Dr. Rhythm Section DR-5. The only one I've ever had and I got bored with it quickly back when I got it at least 15 years ago .....
It basically has around 65 different beats , each having 3 or 4 variations.
You can program your own beats but I felt for this challenge I should use built in beats plus you know what's easier and quicker than programming my own beats?
NOT programming my own beats.

But really to me the spirit of the challenge is to use whatever is already in there so that's what I did.

I decided I had time to do it so last Saturday I wrote some lyrics on the way home from the gig ..... by the time I got home I had most of the lyrics and a rough idea of the melody. And, of course, I sorta had an idea of the 'feel' I thought it would have.
Just gotta find one in the machine that fits.
Well there wasn't one ...... nothing even remotely close! LOL

So I went thru all of them and picked the one that I could fit the words around ..... but it totally changed how it had to go and was nothing like I had envisioned.
Further the beat I'd chosen came in packets of 16 beats/4 measures ...... things HAD to fit into that structure ... could not be changed ...... that was fun.
The bridge is a different beat that's only 8 counts per packet but everything else is in groups of 16 counts.
As usual I took the first takes that didn't suck and the first mix that was decent.

Since it started as lyrics here they are:

Stupid Little Drum Machine

I got a drum machine
Boss Dr. Rhythm Section DR-5
It's ancient and it's awful and it doesn't sound good
Momma never taught me that a drum machine could
Inspire me to write a song like the one that I'm writing right in front of you now
Stupid little drum machine

The rhythms in my drum machine
They've got a cheesy kind of drum machine feel
The cymbals, snare and kick almost all sound the same
And getting it to play a fill's a giant pain
I think I'll use rhythm number 22
It doesn't sound like much but it's the best it can do
Stupid little drum machine

I'm just working trying to make it through
I hope I do as well ... as the others do
I'm just hoping I can get it right
And can I knock it out ...... in only just one night?

We're getting to the end of the song
I'll bet you're happy that it wasn't too long
I ran out of words that rhyme or make any sense
Almost as incoherent as the President
He's dumber than my drum machine
He's just a dumb machine
Walking talking dumb machine
He's just a dumb machine
Dumbest guy I've ever seen
aha ...... I can't help it .... he really is ..... that man is not smart
whoo-hoo!



.

That last verse. Outstanding dude!!! I lauhged right out of the gate but the end was really good.

I think you nailed the challenge Lt.

Are we hearing the GRamp by any chance?

2nd listen:

WTF was that WOOP WOOOP WOOP noise at 2:30 ish?

Also i think your vox could come up really. feels like your hiding back there and despite the challenge being about thre drum machine the lyrics to this are top shelf awesomeness.

[Lt. Bob]

WTF was that WOOP WOOOP WOOP noise at 2:30 ish?

Also i think your vox could come up really. feels like your hiding back there and despite the challenge being about thre drum machine the lyrics to this are top shelf awesomeness.

Thank you sir .... i appreciate it!
I didn't bring the vox up more because there were some spots I wasn't happy with. It was early in the day.
I may take another shot at it after a gig when I've been singing and am warmed up.

The WOOP WOOP was part of that particular 8 count beat that I used for the second half of the bridge ..... it's not removable and is the most 'drum machine' you can get!