Sometimes you have to put the keys down first though, to help you decide what guitar pedals to use.

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My P-J bass came with a white pickguard, which I didn’t love, and 14-hole Squier pickguards are hard to come by.  You almost have to order a custom one.

Well, if you’re looking at ordering a custom pickguard… why not ask your drummer, who does amazing paint jobs on all kinds of things, if he might be able to help you out?

I wanted something pretty subtle, so decided on flat black on a glossy black background. It took a while to think of a design I felt good about, but I settled on the abstract geometric/space thing from the Dark Satellites sticker. Boom.  Has a nice, vaguely 70s/80s rubik’s cube / science fiction vibe.  Perfect.

Matt nailed the execution.  The design looks perfect, and the black-on-black is exactly what I’d hoped.  The clear coat even makes it a little glossier than a standard pickguard, I think, like a little clue that it’s something special.

Custom wiring, custom pickguard; this thing is ready for adventure.

I just spent the weekend on the rock star couch knocking out h&s acoustic tracks, nothing to see here.
Two to go, then I’m back to the electric to finish up guitars.  Hoping to have a thorough mix back to Scottie by 1/1/18.  That would be finished drums, winds, and guitar, and (background info) moving the sessions over to my current mixing format.  They were started a couple of years ago before the current digital mix template existed.

Then: bass, real vocal tracks, backing vox and any final overdubs, mix, master… you get to hear it.  Maybe late 2018?  That’s optimistic but in range.

Mastering guru Ian Shepherd, the main influence on my own mastering work, demonstrates mastering’s basic principles with three real songs in thirty minutes in this video.

If you’ve ever been curious about mastering, had any of your own work professionally mastered, or wondered if it was worth it, I think you’ll dig this.

This new Brian Eno / Kevin Shields track from the Adult Swim singles series is really good:

After… two and a half months, tonight the SPFFy Loop Selector lives and breathes.

I’ll get nerdy about it on mrfuriousaudio.com later; the upshot is that I wanted to build this before starting h&s guitar parts, and now I have.

Mic placement for said parts begins tomorrow night.  I’m so happy to have this done.  It’s been a good learning experience and I’m going to use the hell out of it but I’m beyond ready to make music for a while.  Every h&s song will have its own guitar sounds, mostly because of this box.

I’m considering open-sourcing the design, because it’s a pretty gnarly build.  Mostly because of drilling / fitting the hardware.  I probably won’t make one more; it would be zero, or a bunch (enough to make making drilling templates worthwhile).

SPFFy!

I laid down two vocal tracks for Mars Lights last night.  We’ve officially started vocals for the duo LP & double LP.

Drew was excellent at clicking the mouse, telling me if my voice got too ‘Cher,’ and laughing about those Japanese baseball video game American names that have been making the rounds.

Two down, 18 to go.  (Counting Drew’s songs.  Nine to go for me.)

This has been the view from the basement for the last several weeks, and as of this afternoon it’s finally working perfectly.

(Though it looks like a crazy mess.)

It’s a loop selector (yet-to-be-named) meant to replace my Boss LS-2, with some enhancements over that design:

• True bypass (on the master, not the individual loops)
• Two footswitches (master bypass and Loop B) for accessing any sound with one stomp
• Three routing options:
  • Loop A into Loop B (series mode)
  • Loop A in parallel with Loop B
  • Loop A -or- Loop B (flip-flop mode)
• Trails bypass on the loops (for things like delay and reverb) (doesn’t work on the master bypass or on Loop A in series mode)
• Polarity inversion (for making sure the returns in parallel mode are in phase)

This is going to be a fantastic recording tool, and I’ve been pushing to get it done so I can build it and start recording h&s guitar tracks with it.

Though, now that I’ve written about it… I’m revisiting the idea of making it buffered bypass.  <thinking emoji>

I’ll draw up the layout tonight or tomorrow, order parts, and maybe record synths until the parts arrive.

After absorbing Prince and the Revolution’s Purple Rain (Deluxe Expanded Edition) for a few weeks, I’ve had fun this week re-organizing the listening experience for myself.

The package has four discs:

1. The original Purple Rain, remastered in 2015
2. From The Vault & Previously Unreleased, which is entirely non-album tracks except for the “Hallway Speech” edit of “Computer Blue”
3. Single Edits & B-Sides, just like it sounds
4. Live at the Carrier Dome DVD

I prefer listening to my own vinyl rip of Purple Rain to the remaster, so I’ve combined all of the non-album material (from both From The Vault… and …B-Sides) into one playlist, and made an “Alternate edits” playlist of the original material using the longest alternate edits available (so dance mixes and the “Hallway Speech” “Computer Blue,” and 7″ edits if longer edits aren’t included).  Here’s the result:

From The Vault, Previously Unreleased, & B-Sides:

1. 17 Days (B-Side Edit)
2. Erotic City (“Make Love Not War Erotic City Come Alive”)
3. Love and Sex
4. Electric Intercourse (Studio Version)
5. The Dance Electric
6. Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden
7. God (7″ B-Side Edit)
8. God (Love Theme from Purple Rain)
9. Wonderful Ass
10. Possessed
11. Velvet Kitty Cat
12. Katrina’s Paper Dolls
13. Another Lonely Christmas (Extended Version)
14. We Can F**k
15. Father’s Song

Purple Rain (alternate edits):

1. Let’s Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix)
2. Take Me With U (7″ Single Edit)
3. The Beautiful Ones (2015 Paisley Park Remaster)
4. Computer Blue (“Hallway Speech” Version)
5. Darling Nikki (2015 Paisley Park Remaster)
6. When Doves Cry (7″ Single Edit)
7. I Would Die 4 U (Extended Version)
8. Baby I’m A Star (7″ B-Side Edit)
9. Purple Rain (2015 Paisley Park Remaster)

(The 7″ edit of “Purple Rain” is just disappointing to listen to.  Not through any fault of Prince’s; it’s just not a song that can be edited and retain anything resembling its musical effect.)

The result is a very good new Prince double-LP (From The Vault…) that sits nicely between 1999 and Sign O’ The Times in a universe where Purple Rain never existed.  It’s not quite as strong as those records (both classics) but it’s close, and that’s saying a lot.  It’s raw, it’s loose, it’s raunchy, and it’s a lot of fun.  There are a couple clunkers in the second half (I’d say the same of Sign; really every Prince record has them, except for Purple Rain and 1999) but that’s part of the deal with Prince’s genius.  Getting a new peak-era Prince double LP in 2017 is amazing.

Hearing the alternate edits in a Purple Rain tracklist I know incredibly well is a good way to trick my ears into noticing new details in the songs.  Worthwhile listening on its own, it also enhances repeat listens of the original album, thoroughly accomplishing the point of releasing a deluxe edition like this.

Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain (Deluxe Expanded Edition) – 5/5, would go crazy again