{"id":3075,"date":"2023-03-27T18:51:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T16:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/?page_id=3075"},"modified":"2026-09-05T12:27:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:27:55","slug":"new-music-2023-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/music-past-and-present\/new-music-2023-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"New Music&#8230;2023 and beyond?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the early days of this year(2023), I started working on new music. I had to get used to the new set-up, digital recorder and stuff, dust off the guitars and even the ER-1 that still worked, and get familiar with stuff again. Inspiration was probably the will it ever be released Songs of a Lost World. That Cure tour sure had a big impact emotionally , perhaps a touch too much at some point. Anyway, here&#8217;s a starting point. I actually have a version with some rhythms on it, but not quite happy with it, and a little mix-up means I have to find a way to cut it as I forgot to stop the recording so it&#8217;s just a lot of silence at the end. There&#8217;s guitar bits too, but nothing listenable yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I must admit I haven&#8217;t worked on it recently, as I am currently not enough on top of things to multitask\/multiproject and somehow, while it&#8217;s a bit of a procrastinating cop-out, I wanted to first finish writing all the basic material for this website, so that I did all I meant to do here, before it becomes more occasional blog posts\/updates on concerts or music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, I&#8217;m waffling on, but here&#8217;s the only real new music so far that I&#8217;ve been working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/MONO-000.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(It doesn&#8217;t even have a working title yet)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally an update on the 15th of November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes I have been slacking, on and off, bought a lot of instruments. There is more info on the &#8216;Writing&#8230;music&#8217; blog page (which really should be titled &#8216;Making&#8217; music as I am not doing much writing, and I have given up on the time-consuming and probably vain idea of transposing this onto staff this time). So there&#8217;s a level of improvisation. Anyway, having accumulated instruments, played them not long and thought &#8216;this sounds great&#8217; but not done much about it, having done or not done many other things, in 2025 I decided to make a little more effort. In stages, it was very much stop\/start, each new instrument (so the Bass VI in 2024, but this year two guitars, a synth and a bass), bringing new short-lived motivation. The Telecaster made me decide to focus a little more in August (as well as holidays and no football and lots of people away), September was too busy being back at work, October saw an early flurry, and then getting the Bass (it makes a whole lot of difference to make the overall sound more &#8216;whole&#8217;, I wish I&#8217;d got one twenty years ago) added more motivation and so in November I am once more trying to make an effort, even realising it is nowhere near enough, I still can&#8217;t play in time, my technique is really really crap, etc. But also, last long weekend, I finally studied the manual for my digital recorder (Zoom R8) a little more. I&#8217;ve only had it nearly three years, eh. And I realised I&#8217;d been fucking up a lot and should have optimised in view of freeing tracks etc. Anyway, that&#8217;s more part of the &#8216;making music&#8217; blog page, but bottom line is there is a lot of work to do if I want anything to sound decent. But for now, here are three songs, two of them not really new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also, for now, the mixes are not very final, and maybe at least one or two parts should be re-recorded (plus I can&#8217;t do the bass right, the sound isn&#8217;t clean, parasite notes abound), and obviously no lyrics or singing yet, if there ever is. Those songs don&#8217;t even have a working title really (apart from New1\/NewOld blahblah), so probably should still be filed under &#8216;demos&#8217; not &#8216;songs&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First up, the same song as above, but it has evolved (though I have in fact re-integrated some rhythm bits already recorded all that time ago but not published above). And when I say &#8216;evolved&#8217;, it&#8217;s not been a long process, it&#8217;s just &#8216;I added to it eventually&#8217;.  I think there may be a lot of needless bits in there, I tried to cram in too many instruments (also probably too many high frequencies in the mix). And the added drum patterns (well, manual on the pads, unlike the main one using the ER-1) when it comes in at 2&#8242; is too low in the mix, but I was limited by the volume on the raw material recorded over two years ago &#8211; and lost, volatile memory in these keyboards, see &#8211;  so would need to lower all of the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/NewButNearly3YOSongMaster15112025.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">31 December 2025 update: Yesterday, after mixing\/remastering the two newer tracks, I figured I should try to see if I could do better with these which I had kind of rushed to publish when I did, having set myself the target. As you will see below, my recording way evolved, and also I felt better and with more time. Anyway, I have had a small go, I&#8217;m not entirely satisfied with all, but I think some of these are improvement. Now I did already at the time a second master of this song (in November, and can&#8217;t remember if I had put it here&#8230;idiot), and I still think it may be the better version, though I think the one guitar is too high in the mix. I think it is above, so here&#8217;s a new one, that is in fact using the same Mastering Effect (7 in my machine), does not have that one as much to the front, though there&#8217;s a couple of &#8216;mixing&#8217; errors, so a better version would be a cross between the two, which I still need to do. I include another Mastering (2), that sounds a little different, not entirely sure which I prefer. Actually the above has too much saturation and on saving I see&#8230;nope it was the old one, definitely a bad take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here&#8217;s the mix from 16\/11 (because I think it may currently still be the best, definitely better than the one I rush-posted), then the new one I mentioned above, and then one with the Mastering 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/NBN3YOMaster2_16112025maystillbethebestactuallyItWasEffect7too.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/NBN3YO_ReMixedDecember_MasterEffect7better.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/NBN3YO_ReMixedDecember_MasterEffect2.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, maybe still do to : one like the first, with that guitar lower (but that&#8217;s also the same as saying the second with more drums, possibly a touch more bass, and mixing the small bit of acoustic guitar a bit better when it starts), maybe when\/if I record vocals&#8230;.(but maybe Mastering 2 sounds better as often, I am totally undecided&#8230;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then something completely new (might need drums higher in the mix), lots of entwined Bass VI (unfortunately Squier, not Fender, but, true story, I didn&#8217;t like the colour schemes for the Fender, so went for the cheaper, but in this case &#8216;better&#8217; looking &#8211; if it weren&#8217;t a Bass VI fine, but this has to have dark colours &#8211; Squier) lines essentially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ReallyNewSong2Master15112025.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Again, I had done a new Mastering\/Mix that was better the next day, and I see I hadn&#8217;t got around to putting it here. But on relisten, again too much saturation but this time I think one of the December version sounds better (Effect&#8230;.2, decidedly, I made two takes, think this one is better, also tried 5, not as good).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think I&#8217;m fairly happy with that one. I mean I could have made it longer perhaps, but that&#8217;s fine. It&#8217;s probably if I write lyrics\/try to sing that I will find it too short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ReallyNewSong_RemixedDecember_MasterEffect2v2Best.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And finally, I decided to give the &#8216;New Song 10&#8217; from the &#8216;lost demos&#8217; page a new life, figuring I could re-record the first bit, and loop it a second time rather than re-record linearly to add the guitar bits, though it evolved into a different beast in the second part compared to that demo. Lots could be improved there (was too forceful on the keyboard at the start, especially as I&#8217;d initially recorded a different version with the PSS-790 before deciding that the old Roland would be better). The synth bits are an idea I like and wanted but while I got the rough sound and generic feel right, it needs to be redone\/re-recorded. I also think the bass should be higher than in the current mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/OldNewSong10Master15112025.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At this stage, I could still work on these three and improve, but I think that will be for later if ever. I have a couple of rough ideas\/sketches that I like and this time with the guitar\/bass as starting point rather than the old keyboards as for all the above, so would quite like to try and work on these. On top of maybe one or two of the old demos I might want to give a new lease of life too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">31 December 2025 update: another remaster that I think is overall better. I tried 2, but thought 18 was better, did two takes. Very perfectible mix though, I forgot a bout a little trick I had to use to bridge a gap, so yeah I will have to work on that, but also I need to re-record the synth as it is difficult to get the sound I want though I&#8217;m close, but it is very perfectible. But again, that&#8217;s some tasks to keep for when I possibly sing on it, it can wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OldNewSong10_RemixedDecember_MasterEffect18v2_bestbutmixerror.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now for the real new 31 December 2025 stuff: I did put those couple ideas into work and finalised them. A bit during spare weekend, but mostly in the last ten days  while on holidays. Didn&#8217;t take that long or enough effort, but yeah, I certainly had more time, so improved etc. I used the benefits of digital a bit more, by recording several tracks and &#8216;bouncing&#8217; them to make just one. It doesn&#8217;t always works well, but it allows to record more instruments despite having &#8216;only&#8217; 8 tracks, it allows to record just little &#8216;fixes&#8217; (though a pain to mix), or record chorus and verses separately before merging, which, for someone like me who cannot play guitar, and is generally not relaxed or confident to record an acceptable single-take end-to-end part, is very helpful. Sure, alternatively, I could work a little harder on my skills, etc&#8230;anyway. Here they are. I did even more mastering variations or adding\/removing instruments, some of the stuff is undecided, but somehow I think I&#8217;m happier with these two, be it because I didn&#8217;t start rigidly by recording a structure on a shitty keyboard in a rhythm I couldn&#8217;t keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First up, this one, does not really have any title (provisionally SFK, yeah, I might go with that, but lyrics have not been written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the start, I had just this basic guitar bit, and somehow added a rougher-sounding bass, not sure why or how, guess I just got the Jazz Bass and wanted to experiment a bit, but that gave me the sound. But then by the time I really started recording it with structure, I had bought the Jaguar, so decided to record the main guitar bits on that. Of course I never recorded settings or initial effects I used, but in the end, sometimes practicing with the Fender Mustang tool, I had some sounds I liked that were close to what I had in mind, I did the same with the Zoom multieffect, and I started to do something new-ish (I had already on some of the songs above, but starting from scratch really), that is modify some of the settings or add this and that effect, to get near enough to what I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the structure, this one was thought as a loop initially. In fact, briefly, I also like the idea as having that as just an intro to another song\/the album, just the guitar and bass, instrumental and very short. But then it built up and I was happy with it. Ideally it would be recorded as a loop, at least the first part, that is, adding an instrument after another, live (something I remember seeing a musician opening for Sigur Ros doing in concert), and in fact, if you listen to everything before the chorus, it is practically what happened, though no loop was recorded: one guitar, then another, a third, the bass, and then drums. But actually, the chorus is OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For this one, I have two different Mastering Effects that I liked, 2, as ever, and 19. On first listen with one set of headphones, I thought that really for this one 2 was better. But on re-listening with a different (theoretically better) set, I really don&#8217;t know anymore, so it might all depend on your listening equipment too, and I&#8217;ll put both versions here. Did the re&#8217;drumming&#8217; yesterday, just one take as the initial version I did half-arsed so did some experiment that weren&#8217;t OK. Of course, one of the issues is I&#8217;m still not super-structured, so there are variations that possibly shouldn&#8217;t be there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Either way, I think I&#8217;m fairly happy with this one, I think it sounds good, and if it were perfectly recorded\/engineered, I think I could listen to it if it were someone else&#8217;s work. I mean it doesn&#8217;t make me cringe, and I think, and that&#8217;s a good criterion, despite the improvable bits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is with Mastering Effect 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SFK_FullNewDrums_MasterEffect2Excellent.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now with 19. I&#8217;ll let you decide&#8230;..maybe if\/when I sing it will make more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SFK_FullNewDrums_MasterEffect19ExcellentTooCantDecide.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the final song for now, has a title. It&#8217;s called &#8216;Dominoes in Heaven&#8217;. Not sure whether to have it with the &#8216;e&#8217; actually. Maybe, as a purist. In fact, up until this morning, and relistening, and as there are no lyrics on either yet, I thought the previous one might be that. But this one has a more funereal feeling in the drums so maybe is more apt, although for me, it was more the idea about crystallic clear, kind of &#8216;angelic&#8217; sound of the guitar, and both songs could be defended for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, the story is, the last time I saw my Mum conscious on her soon-to-be-death bed (we were there for the actual last breath too a few days later), as she had taken to playing dominoes but we hadn&#8217;t played that day, she said &#8216;next time we&#8217;ll play dominoes&#8217;. I mean, she probably said goodbye too, but for me those were the last words I heard from her. And since there has been no next time, I formed this idea at the time that the next time would be in heaven then. I was still more or less making music at the time, though this was the end of that phase, so I never actually got to write the song. Maybe about three years ago, when I tentatively restarted at last (again, I wanted to restart from 2021, but while I bought stuff I didn&#8217;t even start trying before the very last days of 2022, but I might have said that already), I put a post on ex-Twitter about it and mentioned the idea for that song and that maybe I would do it (and one person replied and said I should, thanks bathgooner). As I feel very bound by my word (some people know without me expressing it before and have tried to abuse that&#8230;), I just said maybe. But this year, with these new sounds, I thought maybe it&#8217;s the time. Of course it&#8217;s all very weird at the moment, as none of the songs have lyrics (hence my considering the previous one for that title too), but here you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wasn&#8217;t sure about drums  (same as the one above, for which I thought I might ask John to see what he can come up with, maybe I will do that at some point, to be discussed next time I see him&#8230;..when?), but I think the idea works, but for me the big sticking point (on top of the structure, think I could make a much longer song out of it, rather than stop it at the end of the &#8216;noisy&#8217; instrumental bit) is whether to put that &#8216;guitar solo&#8217; in. I think it doesn&#8217;t quite work. I&#8217;ll put the version with it below, but currently I prefer it without, because I still cannot really play a solo (though in the end I was happy with the one in The Protected Room, but that was the culmination of some work, and it felt like it fitted in the atmosphere of the song), and I&#8217;m not sure it fits in this song that I wanted to keep a little more simple, and it hides the piano bit. Which was a single improvised take, I could possibly redo, I kind of wanted to have some piano, but the way it initially came to me is forgotten, and what I did is not, I think, what I really had in mind, as I ended up doing the classic single note with echo stuff I like in many songs), but yeah I thought maybe having the piano was a &#8216;Mum&#8217; touch as after all, I&#8217;d never have started playing the piano (and so, music), without my Mum, I think. Even though history suggests the &#8216;artistic&#8217; side of the family came more from my  Dad. But yeah, so solo or no solo, if I have a final version with it I will have to re record it anyway. But right now, I think I&#8217;m more likely to prefer adding another layer of synth\/keyboard. Anyway, here are the current instrumental mixes, with or without solo. Also yeah, because I have (too much) choice of guitar, again for timeliness, I went back to the Rickenbacker for the main guitar lines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh yes, and another trick I used: Very initially, and purely because it is the default on my recorder I think, the first ideas were at 90bpm. But again, because I cannot play the guitar, and certainly struggle switching chords, I figured that not only would I record the 12-string strumming separetely for verse and choruse, I would record down to 80bpm. I didn&#8217;t necessarily think I&#8217;d go back up, but on listening, yeah 80bpm sounded too slow. So I got back to 85bpm. Some stuff were recorded at 80bpm, some at 85bpm, but really it is only the strumming that was the limitation. And in the end, I figured that it was still the version stretched back to 90bpm that was better, so I&#8217;m only putting these in, even if I still have equivalent 85bpm version on the computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contrary to the previous song, I thought Mastering 19 sounded better on that first set of headphones. Yet again, I am totally unsure on the other headphones, for the previous if anything maybe 19 sounded better and 2 for this one, so what do I know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here&#8217;s the 90bpm-no solo-mastering effect 19 version (possibly currently my favourite, though it&#8217;s a toss up between that and 2 as explained).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like the previous song, while it&#8217;s much perfectible, I can listen to it and not be unhappy (maybe really it&#8217;s just too short). And by the way, don&#8217;t worry about my neighbours, while sure you can&#8217;t remove sound from a guitar, even an electric, I&#8217;m not making much noise as doing everything through headphones, always&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But yeah, I think I&#8217;m definitely happier with these two than the three before, whether it is due to state of mind, a different process, more focus, or something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DIH90bpm_NoSolo_MasterEffect19ProbablyBest.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Mastering effect 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DIH90bpm_NoSoloMasterEffect2CloseSecondIfNotEqualOrBetter.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No I won&#8217;t bother you with two version for the solo-version as it is just anecdotical for now, so just the 19. Anyway, there is strictly no difference before the last 45 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DIH90bpmAll_MasterEffect19.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To Be Continued&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"NMSept2026\"><strong>September 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here we are. I&#8217;ve been on and off busy with music in 2026, mood, heatwaves have played a part so it&#8217;s really been on and off. I think I started on a new song late February early March; but didn&#8217;t finish it for a while (I&#8217;ve lost track), essentially I then didn&#8217;t do much music after May until the end of July. Holidays sure were still an easier time to make some, other times evening, but&#8217; I&#8217;ve really been inconsistent. I still had the idea of re-recording some of those demos from the other page that I liked and it&#8217;s exactly what I did: four of the songs below are not actually &#8216;new&#8217;. In terms of gear, I &#8216;only&#8217; bought one new guitar (an actual Fender VI &#8211; not vintage, well, so called vintage Vintera II but that&#8217;s a new production), I was just too tempted, as some stuff on the Squier VI annoyed me (the lower E string clearly not OK, and one of the knobs being loose). Weirdly on first sounds, I thought the S still sounded better than the F, but really, playing it, the Fender is stronger, more pleasant and comfortable, and with the right effect&#8230;. otherwise I started getting into buying specific pedals rather than only rely on the Zoom multi-effects ones (though I&#8217;m for now using only this for the bass). In fact I ended up buying plenty of new ones that I haven&#8217;t tried yet  while I was still recording &#8216;old&#8217; music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note that I still haven&#8217;t got round to the idea of writing lyrics for any of them. I&#8217;m fairly happy with the mixes though, having listened to them on the balcony this morning with some decent headphones, and from the uploaded version (rather than direct from the 8-track Zoom Master), it all sounded much better than I feared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So first up, that &#8216;new&#8217; song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weirdly, on mixing it all this week (so many many months after recording for this one), I wondered if the guitar sound was the Fender VI, but it couldn&#8217;t be as that song essentially dated from March, and the new guitar came in May. And indeed, notes said I just used the Telecaster. Either way, this was using the Kernom Elipse Modulation pedal and a Seymour-Duncan Vapour Trail Deluxe delay pedal (which I think you can&#8217;t find easily now, was some promo I bought  in December, so stock clearance). I think this one could be just a touch faster (it is 100bpm there). Unfortunately, for some reason I still can&#8217;t figure out, when I try to &#8216;stretch&#8217; it to 105 with the Zoom (something I managed last year with one of the tracks if you read above), some part didn&#8217;t seem to adapt so it&#8217;s all messed up. Oh well. Also, I think it could easily have been longer, I just got lazy after the first go, so didn&#8217;t want to re-record or play with edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NewSongFrom2026Q1Master19.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next four tracks, you can check the &#8216;originals&#8217; (but again, not completely as they were copied from tape with a totally shitty reader to the laptop), and also I know I got to &#8216;6 tracks&#8217; by unsing the Tascam 4 tracks, so some parts I completely lost. So I probably won&#8217;t have much to add in terms of ideas, it was just about reconstituting the tracks and using new tools\/instruments. In fact, I tried to stay as close to the originals, out of laziness perhaps, although it did offer some challenges, and I know some of the song structures were rather wonky and yet I kept them. But also, as all was there, it meant in some cases recording instruments in a different order I suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Girl From Bergamo. This is still without guitar, I thought I wouldn&#8217;t denature the idea. Except for adding proper bass. In fact, in most of these songs, the bass is the main difference. It definitely sounds better than the original, but then they all do. I only used the files from the Demos section and identified the instruments to rerecord. I realised latter (on the last song, that I still had plenty of written notes everywhere, but I mostly didn&#8217;t use them, my ears were my best tool).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I think in the end for that one I only used the Roland Keyboard for sounds, as per the original in fact (unless the original had some of the Yamaha PSS-51, more on that later as I have ended up essentially ditching that PSS-795 I bought second-hand to replace it, the original idea having been to mostly used it for initial sequencing as it is what I used to do in most cases back in the day &#8211; using MIDI to synchronise with the ER-1, I have not done that at all or used MIDI in any of the new recordings). On this one though, the bigger regret is maybe that my striking of the keys on the Roland is too irregular in intensity and as this is sensitive, it sounds a little imprecise\/erratic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GfBRe2026Master19.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Song 1 (I am keeping the titles from the demo page for easy comparison for now, since I&#8217;ve got no lyrics). I really liked the original ideas, and again this must sound a lot better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This time, yes, this uses the new Fender VI (but no new pedals, think I just used the Zoom Bass VI sound I created and am very happy with) think I recorded at the end of May. Thanfkully, as I was about to try the tedious process of trying to re-create the rhythm patters on the ER-1, I discovered only then that, miraculously in my opinion, all the patters and songs saved on the ER-1 well over 20 years ago were still there! I mean, I got that out of the cellar more than three years ago, where it had stayed for nearly ten years (or more, maybe it was also in the cellar in the previous place in the end?), and was convinced there was nothing left of the original recordings. I have to admit that saved me an incredible amount of time, anger and headaches, and also made it a lot easier for me to decide on recording the next song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Again, not so much to add that&#8217;s not been said originally, just that the first 20 seconds now remind me of something from Nightbus (Exposed to Some Light, I think?) even though, obviously Nightbus were far from existing when I did the original, and while it may not be completely like the original in sound, it is very much a coincidence, not an inspiration. One of the main differences\/decision (I put two versions in the demo page) was to ditch the different rhythm section, though I did add a little bit &#8216;live&#8217; on the ER-1 in the same spirits, but it is less noticeable or radical. Other than that, I used the XII-String Squier Jazzmaster instead of the Ovation guitar, mostly because I was worried about making too much noise for the neighbours. Just added an Acoustic Effet from the Zoom pedal to stay closer to what I wanted. Well I did take note on the gear, so while I doubled then merged some of the Fender VI (I think I could benefit from using a harmoniser pedal, though I do like to interweave the lines rather than just shift them), I also used the Jaguar with the same Bass VI effect to add a bit. The solo is with the Rickenbacker (using only Wah from the Zoom and a Boss OD-3 pedal, yeah, I just wanted to use the Rick as I&#8217;ve underused it with all the Fenders now). Keyboards from Korg. The bass possibly should be mostly mixed a little higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NS1Re2026Master19.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Song 8: I definitely would have struggled (given up?) if I didn&#8217;t have the ER-1 stuff all set up. Having it, and with the right tempo, meant everything was easier as I could put that first on the recording track, so everything is a lot better timed than say, the songs I recorded last year where the rhythm was slightly fluctuating at times, despite the presence of the metronome (one advantage of digital recording I didn&#8217;t have with the Tascam twenty years ago, hence my using the PSS sequencer, on the other hand, I am missing the &#8216;Pan&#8217; knobs that allowed me to make stereo effects without thinking, I know I would do something now, but it&#8217;s a little less intuitive so everything I have recorded over the last few years has, unfortunately, been pure Mono, whereas I think this track in particular could benefit from some stereo).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, with these it&#8217;s generally ER-1 then bass, then keys then guitars, although possibly keys coming before bass. Piano sound means Roland (I can&#8217;t get a piano sound out of the Korg synth, the PSS might do, but I&#8217;m going away from it). The other keys sounds as you can hear are very synthetic, and, again, in a weird twist, once I relistened, that sounded reminded me of Lust For Youth&#8217;s Saluting Rome, even though obviously my original was again a long long time before I even knew Lust For Youth existed, so it&#8217;s more an &#8216;after&#8217; remark. The &#8216;bass&#8217; sound from the PSS keyboard originally was very synthetic, I couldn&#8217;t quite recreate that with my multi-effect, so it changes things a bit, but in the end, I nearly had &#8216;fun&#8217; recorded it, and as with all these songs, I&#8217;m happy to use a bass now, I wish I would re-record my very first &#8216;Twilight Dream&#8217; with the instruments I have now, but that might be too much to ask to make it a third time. Anyway, so yeah, that idea I wrote about in the Demos part, about having Brass in the chorus instead of the piano sound, well I could finally indulged in it, though finding the right sound wasn&#8217;t easy, still not sure it&#8217;s that great, but after several tries both with the Korg and the Roland, I settled for one of the existing Brass sound from the Roland keyboard (remember it&#8217;s not a synth). The last touch (after I gave up on having a solo) was to use the Atreides pedal to add some noise in some parts. It&#8217;s an odd one, very hard to insert in music, but I decided this kind of worked here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NS8Re2026Master19.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Song 7: now I think that&#8217;s the one that probably departs more from the original, for several reasons. And in a way, that&#8217;s the one I am the happiest with. This was recorded exclusively at weekends\/evenings, no holidays, a long process as I forced myself bit by bit from mid July to record again, and wanted to finish BEFORE my holidays, which I just did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The original had some keyboard-based &#8216;drumming&#8217;, but this time, to ease the structure\/recording, I decided to program something new on the ER-1. So it took several iterations to get to the rhythm I wanted,  so I have three different rhythm tracks (again I though I might use them all with the final rest of the sounds and THEN decide, but I didn&#8217;t do it this way in the end). In fact, initially, I thought I used that as basis and re-drum on a keyboard later, but either out of laziness or being happy enough with it, I decided there was no point. Still, I had to make a few decisions, so altered for instance the rhythm in the chorus, something that was not necessarily present on the original. The choice of keyboard sounds also proved tricky. Unlike with the other songs above, this time I decided to check notes both for the sounds and melodies. But, as I found out, despite being essentially similar, the PSS-51 (my original from back then) and the PSS-795 don&#8217;t actually have the same  sound banks. And I couldn&#8217;t quite find something similar enough. In the end, I used the Roland for the &#8216;pan flute&#8217; sound, and also as I didn&#8217;t see how to have the tremolo effect, just used the little wheel on the left for that, but not everywhere as it proved a little more challenging to record as I then had only one hand for playing the notes. The &#8216;Bell Strings&#8217; from the PSS-51 were even more frustrating to recreate. I ended up using the Korg for that, modifying some existing sound, trying two different ones, not being sure which was truly best, and, finally, recording both and mixing them together, which I thought worked the best. Although I still feel that staying close to the original was not always great, the bells melody during the chorus probably dispensable. Add to add some extra synth layers for the bridge though, no guitar for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now having laid the rhythm and synth tracks (I didn&#8217;t do the bass before the keys this time),  I had to do the bass. Again, had to modify\/create a sound, and in the end, took so many attempts (lost one sound in the middle as this bloody Zoom saves modification before you actually tell it to), I decided to not do too many versions, just stick to one that was OK, and perfected the recording bit by bit so that I didn&#8217;t need to patch so many takes. And the bass is probably the biggest difference maker compared to the original version here. It offers a certain western-soundtrack-y balance  (I feel, could imagine a rider on a horse entering a town along to that), and I decided that it needed something different for the chorus then the bridge, so a completely different rhythm. So while I said in the demo page that I liked the chords change when going to the chorus best, now it&#8217;s completely different, as this goes in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final bit was to do the acoustic rhythm guitar, and this time I decided to actually use the electro-acoustic Ovation of old, no effect, partly because in the middle of August most people are on holidays so I think I had no neighbours around. I only did two straight takes to get it right (not perfect but in the mix the mistakes are mostly drowned out) anyway, so disturbance wouldn&#8217;t have been good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And yeah, that&#8217;s it for now, I&#8217;ve got to see if I can do something new now that I&#8217;ve bought some reverb pedal, etc&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NS7Re2026Master19.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the early days of this year(2023), I started working on new music. I had to get used to the new set-up, digital recorder and stuff, dust off the guitars and even the ER-1 that still worked, and get familiar with stuff again. Inspiration was probably the will it ever be released Songs of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":106,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3075","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"OllieRoo","author_link":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/author\/admin9036\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"In the early days of this year(2023), I started working on new music. I had to get used to the new set-up, digital recorder and stuff, dust off the guitars and even the ER-1 that still worked, and get familiar with stuff again. Inspiration was probably the will it ever be released Songs of a&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8693,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3075\/revisions\/8693"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}