The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I Can’t Turn It Off
Due: Friday, 12/11/20 9:59am PST
optional challenge: Include your verse riff in your chorus
yourbandname_ictio.mp3 sent to fightmaster@songfight.org
Subject: I Can’t Turn It Off
Body: (your band name)

Example that inspired the optional challenge:

(Thank you for including the example so I can learn what a riff even really is...)

Not sure if I'm ripping off Tool or Deftones harder this week...

Okay guys I started something but now I'm in over my head. I'm posting this to motivate me to finish it for fear of embarrassment.

It's a prog rock riff that I wrote by feel and counts out to 13/8. I got the guitar bits down, multitracked because I'm not skilled enough to play it cleanly over and over again. I added a bass line. I did not use a click-track because these days I believe tempo must be allowed to breathe.

But now it's drums time. I am not a drummer and the song is a brisk 13/8 with slight tempo variations. I have a plan to record each drum separately and fix my sloppiness by cutting up the waveforms. I am an adult with a day job and a family and this is fun but I'm not going to dedicate more than a couple hours to this. Any advice on how to do this without ending up falling into a black hole of perfectionist time-wasting?

How long is it?

If Hoops was here I’d say ask him. He could nail a first take in odd time signatures without a click like no-one else.

I miss that man.

Otherwise, you can use loops/etc but you’ll have to go section by section. Maybe put markers in and use as guides?

The length is still up in the air: I have 3 verse/choruses each about one minute but I should probably insert a bridge (yet to be written).

I think Pigfarmer Jr. has it right that time-stretched loops are the way to go. It does repeat a lot.

Normally I'd just not have drums (cf. our current entry) because they are a pain to set up and record and we are a one-man operation with only two mics and it's cold in the basement. But this is clearly prog rock and I live for my art ha ha not really but yes, deep inside, yes I do.

I'm now in with my second attempt. I wrote and mostly recorded the first only to scrap it and start all over again because it just wasn't working....

Anyone else get that? You write a song and you think it's a good one, yet when you come to record it you just can't make it sound like it did in your head. It just comes out as something different.

Anyways, this is my first (and possibly last) Covid themed song.


.

I don't mind it when it turns out different than in my mind. Sometimes that's cool. Other times it's a learning experience. But if it turns out different and I don't like it...


Yeah, I usually submit it anyway.

the panna cotta army wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 07, 2020 12:49 pm

Anyone else get that? You write a song and you think it's a good one, yet when you come to record it you just can't make it sound like it did in your head. It just comes out as something different?

Almost every time.

I'm slightly, mildly, a tad concerned over the 'optional challenge: Include your verse riff in your chorus.'
If your verse riff is also in your chorus then doesn't that make your chorus your verse...?

Not if you’ve got riffs on top of riffs on top of riffs. Riffs all the way down.

My chord progression in the chorus is the same as in my verse so I guess it's a variant on the same riff.

Also I'm in.

Kamakura wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:02 pm

I'm slightly, mildly, a tad concerned over the 'optional challenge: Include your verse riff in your chorus.'
If your verse riff is also in your chorus then doesn't that make your chorus your verse...?

Check the example video. In that Beck song, the verse riff is like the second half of each line of the chorus, ish.

I was absolutely not going to do anything for this fight, but then I accidentally wrote a little jingle that sucked some words out and I lost a couple of hours and there's another little gizo song in the world.

Submitting vv. soon

lichenthroat wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:56 pm

the panna cotta army wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 07, 2020 12:49 pm

Anyone else get that? You write a song and you think it's a good one, yet when you come to record it you just can't make it sound like it did in your head. It just comes out as something different?

Almost every time.

I call this "writing a song."

I didn't think I was going to do a track this week but apparently I had a tune in me. Whether it is any good or not, we shall see.

Well I really waited till almost the last minute on this tune but I went for it and am pleased with the result.

Limited recording time this week, but I was able to get creative with the takes I had and put something together. In with something less metal this week.

I wrote a song last weekend end... still haven't recorded it. Life gets in the way, sometimes. Seems to be doing that a lot lately.

In. Hard turn from synth pop in the last one to 1930s pop this time around. Steve rides again on drums.

Wasn't sure I was gonna make it, but it all worked out. I completed the optional challenge by just not writing a chorus.