Track #3
OK, I kind of slacked off this weekend when it came to shipping CDs. I did get in a couple of surf sessions and a bike ride though. It's been tough this summer trying to shed the winter pounds. Hmmm, I guess someone must be getting old? ;)
I also bought a new skateboard called "The Wave". It's definitely a new challenge! I get lots of looks on the Strand when riding this thing because it's so maneuverable. Check it out at http://www.streetsurfing.com/.
Now on to Track #3 - everyone seems to be either puzzled or amused by the title "Captain Quirk". Well, it came about when I created the original riff way up on the 17th fret. I used the middle pickup on the Strat, with the Bizkit tone again. I retained the delay in the GT-5 patch and programmed the tempo in Cakewalk to match. Now, whenever you save a new project for the first time, you have to come up with a file name. Since this was a strange riff utilizing the not-often-used middle pickup, I thought of the name "Quirk". This triggered my memory of an old issue of Cracked magazine (a competitor to Mad) that I had back in the 70's containing a parody of Star Trek. Of course, Captain Kirk was renamed Captain Quirk...hence the song title. In the context of my surf theme, it is more like a nickname you would give someone with a strange and unique style.
This was the first song I completed when I set up my workstation. It definitely took a lot of noodling to figure out the mode changes required in the solos (again due to my hack-itude). I was VERY pleased with the results however, and instantly shared it with a few friends, receiving some positive and encouraging feedback. This propelled me to complete the entire album. The first solo utilizes the Acoustic Simulator patch using the neck pickup. The final solo is with the Eruption patch on bridge pickup (but with delay/reverb turned off). In almost all guitar tracks on the album, reverb was turned off in the GT-5 and added using Cakewalk to enable greater production flexibility. The solos are made up of MANY separate clips that were trimmed out of many improvised takes. Overall, perhaps the song lacks a strong central melody or theme. However, every time I tried to incorporate one, the song seemed to get weaker, again telling me that the song was DONE.
I intentionally went for a somewhat harsh bridge in the middle section, as this is what I heard in my head at the time. This is perhaps related to the influence of early Iron Maiden and early Rush on my sense of musicality...both were characterized by very abrupt transitions, which I found highly captivating, both then and now. I really like the way the main loop starts back up after the middle section, with a smooth acoustic melody to ease back into the flow.
The choir parts were again created with the TTS-1 software synth. I think that embellishment made the song really special, perhaps imbuing a sort of haunting yet transcendent angelic aura (haha, I'm getting cosmic here).
...quirky indeed.
I also bought a new skateboard called "The Wave". It's definitely a new challenge! I get lots of looks on the Strand when riding this thing because it's so maneuverable. Check it out at http://www.streetsurfing.com/.
Now on to Track #3 - everyone seems to be either puzzled or amused by the title "Captain Quirk". Well, it came about when I created the original riff way up on the 17th fret. I used the middle pickup on the Strat, with the Bizkit tone again. I retained the delay in the GT-5 patch and programmed the tempo in Cakewalk to match. Now, whenever you save a new project for the first time, you have to come up with a file name. Since this was a strange riff utilizing the not-often-used middle pickup, I thought of the name "Quirk". This triggered my memory of an old issue of Cracked magazine (a competitor to Mad) that I had back in the 70's containing a parody of Star Trek. Of course, Captain Kirk was renamed Captain Quirk...hence the song title. In the context of my surf theme, it is more like a nickname you would give someone with a strange and unique style.
This was the first song I completed when I set up my workstation. It definitely took a lot of noodling to figure out the mode changes required in the solos (again due to my hack-itude). I was VERY pleased with the results however, and instantly shared it with a few friends, receiving some positive and encouraging feedback. This propelled me to complete the entire album. The first solo utilizes the Acoustic Simulator patch using the neck pickup. The final solo is with the Eruption patch on bridge pickup (but with delay/reverb turned off). In almost all guitar tracks on the album, reverb was turned off in the GT-5 and added using Cakewalk to enable greater production flexibility. The solos are made up of MANY separate clips that were trimmed out of many improvised takes. Overall, perhaps the song lacks a strong central melody or theme. However, every time I tried to incorporate one, the song seemed to get weaker, again telling me that the song was DONE.
I intentionally went for a somewhat harsh bridge in the middle section, as this is what I heard in my head at the time. This is perhaps related to the influence of early Iron Maiden and early Rush on my sense of musicality...both were characterized by very abrupt transitions, which I found highly captivating, both then and now. I really like the way the main loop starts back up after the middle section, with a smooth acoustic melody to ease back into the flow.
The choir parts were again created with the TTS-1 software synth. I think that embellishment made the song really special, perhaps imbuing a sort of haunting yet transcendent angelic aura (haha, I'm getting cosmic here).
...quirky indeed.
posted by acnakagawa at 11:14 PM
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