The Key of B

“Symbolic Dog Blues,” rev 3: drum fills and mix upgrade August 3, 2009

More progress, creeping through the final maze of stalagmites, like a haunted subterranean slalom, toward the light at the end of the tunnel …

I redid Jimbob’s middle dialog, yet again. His voice in verse 2 now very nearly matches the other verses, and I think this is the best it is going to get. For what it’s worth, when the distorted guitar enters for verse 2, it actually makes poor Jimbob’s voice sound different by contrast, something like how a given color appears different against a white background versus a black background. I tested this by pasting Jimbob clips from verse 1 and 2 back to back with no background, and they sound convincingly identical. So part of this problem is actually an “audio illusion”! Don’t ask me why Brit is immune to it. I guess our friends across the pond have a higher tolerance.

After retouching Jimbob, I remixed parts of verse three that hadn’t gotten much attention yet, particularly the Jimbob/Brit duet, and then I added drum fills throughout the first verse. Tomorrow, drum fills for verse two.

Symbolic Dog Blues, rev 3

Enjoy!

Full Mix of “Symbolic Dog Blues,” rev. 2 July 28, 2009

We are really getting there now!!

I have rewritten and rerecorded the more confusing bits of dialog, rerecorded all of Jimbob’s middle dialog (where his voice had suddenly changed), and fully mixed the whole song.

Jimbob still has some voice-matching trouble, but it is not as bad as before.

Symbolic Dog Blues, rev 2

What’s left?

Keep on improving the Jimbob voice match, and add some drum fills.

More on “Symbolic Dog Blues”:

• A brief explanation
• The Kazooka video
• All posts on this song

First Complete Draft of “Symbolic Dog Blues” !! July 17, 2009

It’s done! Well, not DONE. Just, you know, done. First draft, all the way through, all instruments, all voices, all everything.

What’s left to do?

• Fix the jokes that don’t work, and rerecord their dialog.
• Rerecord Jimbob’s dialog in the 2nd verse, matching his voice to the other verses.
• Add some light drum fills if I feel like it.
• Adjust all volume levels and mix the song as a whole.

Notably absent from this list is any more instrumental recording: the bass, guitars, keyboard, and Kazooka tracks are completely finished!

The audio:

As always, use headphones or real speakers (not your laptop’s) for best results. Or use your laptop. Whatever.

What is all this Silliness??

Okay, I am not attempting to produce America’s next pop hit. This offbeat, silly song is my learning exercise, and by the time it is fully mixed down, it will have provided me with about a year of self schooling in audio recording and production. This sort of character work is a favorite style of mine, and it has allowed me to practice every element I am likely to work with in the future: programmed drums, guitars (acoustic, electric, bass) and keyboards, singing vocals, spoken vocals, singing character vocals, and odd percussion sounds like glass bottles and a hand drum I once bought at a T’ai Chi festival. Oh yeah, and a hard rock kazoo.

Future work will take more conventional considerations into account, such as selecting styles that other people tend to like. Don’t misunderstand—I am very happy with this project!! Just sayin’ …

Guitar finished through end of “Symbolic Dog Blues” July 9, 2009

That’s right, another instrument is done, all the way through!

The clip below fades in at the third instrumental, where you will hear drums, bass, organ, and guitar through the end.

Excerpt fading in at third instrumental

Still to go are the Kazooka and all voices. Jimbob will take his turn singing, with Brit joining in for an extended duet. Then as Brit picks up the guitar, Jimbob will answer him on the Kazooka, with the usual character banter throughout. The only question is, will I finish it before summer ends? We can always hope.

For any newcomers:

The song you are hearing (assuming you clicked the gray triangle, ahem) is my exercise in learning to mix and produce audio recordings. I am playing all the instruments and doing all character voices and lyrics. The only exception is the drum kit, which I programmed on my computer.

When you hear gaps in the music, as if something is missing, that’s where I will be singing or speaking or playing the kazooka. Particularly at the end, in the gaping pause before the big finish, Brit will say, “Why do we always bury that bone?”

No, this is not your typical song! I am having too much Frank-Zappa-and-Weird-Al-inspired fun! And while I may not be the first person ever to rock out with a distorted kazoo, I’m probably the first you’ve heard of! We can always hope.

Find out more: hear the first two completed verses.

Demo: New Organ Track June 25, 2009

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately on Symbolic Dog Blues: recording the organ and bass for the third verse.

This brief mp3 features only the third verse, just to demo the organ. Vocals will be done later (singing and dialog), so it is very sparse at this point.

Imagine Jimbob crooning along: “When I was a little dog …” with more banter from Brit.

Organ demo, Symbolic Dog Blues, third verse

What about the first two verses?
Hear them here.

You may notice extra material after the standard twelve-bar verse. That’s where the two of them do an extended reprise of “Now that I’m a big dog …” as a duet. I can’t wait!