Sunday, June 11, 2023

Who Needs Frets?!

I finally got around to working on the real bass line today for "This Town's Not Big Enough (for You and I)".  I had actually intended to work on it earlier in the week but it just never happened.  I also laid down a small acoustic part for the refrains in an effort to liven up that area.  I feel that I really want the core pieces of these new songs put down fairly early, just so that I can judge the songs in a better manner and start mixing them from the get go.

With this bass part, it was my maiden voyage with my fairly new Fender Mod Shop Fretless Jazz bass that I purchased a few months back.  I must say that I really dig this instrument so far and it's quite nice having a bass that doesn't have frets and also has flat wound strings, neither of which I'm used to at all.  I usually use my P Bass for most bass lines but having this new fretless bass is quite a nice addition to the arsenal.  I wasn't sure if it would be the appropriate choice for this song but it actually worked perfectly, especially since my own personal bass style is to do a lot of sliding (I now have a blister on my index finger to prove it as well).  I was also tickled to hear, when listening to the song later this evening through my stereo, that I had the bass volume almost perfectly set and the bass sound/tone overall needs almost no EQ.  I don't know if that's just a coincidence or literally something about this bass but it's quite a bonus.

The song is really coming along and is getting closer to done each time I tinker with it.  I also did a bit of a remix on "Younger Days of Manchester" and again I'm blown away by how far these two new songs for the next Jazz Machine album already are.  If I really wanted to, I could have these songs completely wrapped up probably in about a week or two since they're that far along and without a ton of instruments on them.  In other words, I think I'm filling the space of a song better than I used to...which is great.

I'm really enjoying this new album so far and I'm looking forward to working on the next track, "Do You Bump?", once I can get back to recording, probably not until late July or August.  It's going to be a real drag not being able to record for the next 2 months but I plan to occupy my time with mixing through the monitors since headphones will pretty much be off the table for me for awhile.

Speaking of, I'm mentally trying to prepare for my appointment this Wednesday.  It feels like I'm going in for voluntary body mutilation, to be honest.  I have no idea what will be left of my ear post Wednesday and it's a bit unsettling.  I'll then be going in weekly for a different spot to be removed for the next 4-5 weeks.

I need to lay very low for the week following this upcoming procedure so that the skin graft takes.  I imagine that I'll be writing a bit here since my options will be a bit limited.  I also think I'm finally going to start doing posts here about albums that have really influenced me over the years.  I have thought about doing a separate blog of those for probably a decade so it's probably best that I just start posting them here instead, especially since it hits me at random moments about different albums.

Here's to a good week!  I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed.

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