The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Something’s Wrong
Due: Tuesday, 01/14/20 9:59am PST
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Subject: Something’s Wrong
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For the very first time ever I've written all my lyrics before doing any of the musical bits.

crumpart wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 3:44 pm

For the very first time ever I've written all my lyrics before doing any of the musical bits.

I was gonna do that too this fight...But then I picked up my bass. Oops!

Æpplês&vØdkã wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 4:11 pm

crumpart wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 3:44 pm

For the very first time ever I've written all my lyrics before doing any of the musical bits.

I was gonna do that too this fight...But then I picked up my bass. Oops!

I did it by accident. Turns out I have feelings about things.

I might try this one. I'm not any more punctual than I was 11 years ago (my last entry), so no promises. But I'll try. Wrote some lyrics in my lunch break, and a few ideas for chords and instrumentation.

I just find recording really stressful

I sent in a track and it looks like Amanda has an idea for a collaboration.

medavox wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:33 am

I might try this one. I'm not any more punctual than I was 11 years ago (my last entry), so no promises. But I'll try. Wrote some lyrics in my lunch break, and a few ideas for chords and instrumentation.

I just find recording really stressful

Welcome back! Seems like there must be something in the water attracting dormant Songfighters to submit again
Hopefully recording will get less stressful the more you practice.

owl wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:34 pm

Seems like there must be something in the water attracting dormant Songfighters to submit again

Maybe we all just need a creative outlet these days! I'm always surprised with how many accounts here were opened over a decade ago. I guess this place just has some sort of magnetic pull...

Anyway, I'm working up something again trying to keep my consecutive entry streak up. Checkered Past and Something's Wrong inspire me similarly so I'm in gloomy mode again. Oh well. I really oughta buy a chorus pedal.

Something’s wrong... this one is pretty normal, which is not usual for BWATBW. Well alright, normal in WreckdoMelle’s book anyway, which is, well... We’ll see how she fares this round. Going to attempt some new mixing techniques in the morning.

Welcome back! Seems like there must be something in the water attracting dormant Songfighters to submit again

Thanks!

Hopefully recording will get less stressful the more you practice.

I am definitely getting that feeling. REAPER is a huuuuge improvement over Audacity.

I'm just not quick enough yet to get the song how I like it in a single week.
I've had about 3 near misses since my last actual submission, but I was nowhere near done before the deadline.

But:

You Only Get Better By Practising, and
Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

So here goes.

I need to record the vocals, make a pathetic attempt to mix everything, and maybe program some better drums if I have time. But it's good, I like it

medavox wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:34 am

You Only Get Better By Practising, and
Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

I've had the latter quote on my FAWM profile for years!

And I went to a monthly creative retreat yesterday where we were asked to put our "word of the year for 2020" on our nametags, and I ended up writing "practice" as my word. I was quite inspired by reading @crumpart's New Year's resolution about practicing violin every day.

owl wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:57 am

medavox wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:34 am

You Only Get Better By Practising, and
Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

I've had the latter quote on my FAWM profile for years!

And I went to a monthly creative retreat yesterday where we were asked to put our "word of the year for 2020" on our nametags, and I ended up writing "practice" as my word. I was quite inspired by reading @crumpart's New Year's resolution about practicing violin every day.

Hooray! Yesterday at twenty to midnight Toshiro asked why the hell I was just starting to practice. Got 10 minutes in though!

I'm recording angsty-ass lyrics in my driveway and it started storming. I guess I'm stuck in the car for awhile.

Instant ambience/bonus time to write!

Æpplês&vØdkã wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:20 pm

I'm recording angsty-ass lyrics in my driveway and it started storming. I guess I'm stuck in the car for awhile.

Last year for FAWM, I wrote a song called "How I Wish It Would Snow" literally the day before our record breaking snowfall started and lasted for a month. Everyone at the office still blames me. Then when it snowed hard today, they all said, did you write another song Amanda?! Hahaha! Never underestimate the power of weather to inspire.

Loads of piano this time again. And a whole lot of nothing to hide behind. Always nerve wracking. I need to practice more I hear. So very true. This one's rough in places. Need to work those vocal muscles more!

ooops, I totally misremembered the deadline for this one and haven't gotten it finished yet--I thought I had till Thursday! But I have something in progress at least. Hopefully I'll manage to finish this up and sneak it in before the new prompt goes up.

This exact second is when I realised that I’ve been sending ALL my songs in late, because I’ve been converting to PDT time, not PST time. Whoops. Sorry! I was going to re-record lyrics today, but now I’m just gonna go export to mp3 and send instead. Sorry Lunkhead!

crumpart wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:03 am

This exact second is when I realised that I’ve been sending ALL my songs in late, because I’ve been converting to PDT time, not PST time. Whoops. Sorry! I was going to re-record lyrics today, but now I’m just gonna go export to mp3 and send instead. Sorry Lunkhead!

And this was the second I realised PST and PDT are the same thing except one is daylight savings? Fucking time. Jaysus. I think I still have six hours or so?

I'm in for this one. It just came to me and I recorded it quickly. I noticed this morning that "something's wrong" with it, but no fixing it now.

maybe you'all can tell me what it is? ha.

Oh, something's wrong alright.

I did it! omg

I literally moved my day off to today, so I could finish mixing (but actually just record too many vocal takes instead)

I ran out of time (and energy, and knowledge) to mix it properly, sorry!
but I did turn down the master volume, and the REAPER output didn't look clipped at all.
So prepare for raw, "authentic" massive dynamic range, I suppose?

I put a lot of effort (for me) into the lyrics, less than usual for the chords,
and far far FAR more effort than I thought was necessary to record it.

Just need to find that other 90% of the time it takes.
I'm full of productivity proverbs apparently.

I did just read everyone's posts above my last one, but it didn't go in.
I'm going to take a break now, or else something really WILL be wrong, ha

Rerecorded all my vocals, hated them, so stuck with the original.

I went in imagining it as a murder ballad, but @gizo called it a dirge, which is probably technically more correct. I'm 3/4 of way through a music video as well, because while I always share my songs on Facebook, my friends don't flood the voting because they don't listen to the songs. I have a sneaking suspicion some people might listen to this one though, so, music video on youtube because I like music videos and also to avoid flooding votes. (To be quite clear, my friends wouldn't be voting due to song quality, but song content. I don't have that many tickets on myself.)