XI

Recording went alright on Saturday. Well, we really just worked on drums on that one song (and didn't even finish, but got a good portion down). Ryan couldn't make it. Paul did make it and ended up not having anything to do and left after a little while anyway. We're recording the part in pieces (drums separately) for a few reasons (for sound...also 'cuz I probably can't play my part without fucking up). I will be doing the chorus part altogether (it also warrants a different type of sound). That's the one part we haven't done yet. Getting the drums down made it apparent how there are some tempo fluctuations and awkward timing. We'll have to go back to it and see if it's salvageable. I hope it is. EVERYTHING on it SOUNDS amazing. Hopefully the performances won't ruin it or nothin'. We'll see. I did a really awesome trick on the bass drum as I was recording it. I ran it through the Moog filter (half wet/dry or so) with the envelope swooping down and a good bit of resonance. Not over the top, kinda subtle, but it transforms the sound something fierce. Later I added the Prophet droning that one chord throughout "Death Blow." There was a holy shit moment when I do that atonal shriek on the Moog where the two synths in the mix together create this magical fucking sound that isn't there on either track alone. We also added this noise throughout "Battle Chant." Notice when plugging the equilizer pedal in while it was going through the instrument interface that it made this weird beep/shriek (kinda similar to that noise at the end of "Uncontrollable Urge," I also reckon a similar principle went into its making). We plopped it throughout the song at intervals I determined using the digits of e with multiples of 7. Also, Jacques gave me a couple Tangerine Dream cds he'd gotten doubles of: Exit and Hyperborea.

Sunday was a gym day. Not too much else about it. This last week before spring break and last week of the quarter has been flying by. Monday was my last day of tutoring and last day to take makeup work and I literally had the most kids in my room at one time as I've ever had. It was well over-packed with all the desks taken and kids standing around. So it was pretty hectic and crazy but I think I handled it better than I've handled less crowded past tutoring situations. Also, I've had this notice for extra credit for tissue and paper towls up for weeks and kept leaving it up 'cuz I just wasn't really getting any. Then suddently this week the damn floodgates opened up and I now have this fucking mountain of this shit in my closet right now. Kids have no concept of grades at all until two days before the grading term ends. As far as the grading term ending (due date got pushed back from this morning to tomorrow morning), I'm pretty on top of it. Just have to finish conduct grades plus a few loose ends. Been low on sleep most of this week, but I'm not sweating it about tonight (hope these aren't famous last words). Got a toy on Tuesday. This thing called a Rock-It 3.0 ("turn anything into a speaker"). So you put it on stuff and it vibrates it and makes it a speaker. Read a trick about using it with contact mics to make a metal file cabinet turn into a lo-fi plate reverb. It seemed like an awesome idea and I'd wanted contact mics for forever anyway so I jumped on it (still waiting for mics to show up). Yesterday I got my Criterion flash sale order in: Brand upon the Brain!, Insignificance, and Dodes'ka-Den (also Cul-de-Sac stupidly on blu-ray which I need to send back for an exchange, doh, second time that's happened). And I got my fuckin' Eurorack modular case! It's a Monorocket. I don't have screws or nothin' so I haven't quite mounted my awesome new filter, but I plugged it up and tested it out with the drum machine and it sounds incredible (through one headphone channel no less). I am excited to get this shit goin'. Today was the black history program at school. We went to first period, then it was to the auditorium. I was direct to transport the out-of-uniform kids, who had been separated from the rest of the students, to the gym where they were to be through the program (Think Show was also happening today so there were visitors in the building). It was really boring in there. I did go and fetch my laptop but there wasn't any internet so I ended up just playing minesweeper of all things til lunch. Luckily we went to lunch earlier and after being dismissed I was able to get some work done. Got some awesome mail today: Autechre: Exai. Sure, I've had it downloaded for like a month, but I barely listened but to clips of it. It has all been incredible, but I'm not wired to listen to downloads. Well, the fucking album is even more incredible going straight through. God it's so fucking good. Also, these stickers I got with it...they're so pretty do I dare use them? Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say for now.