Songs

Tracking for Let Down Begins

2018-12-10 — Leave a comment

It has been a good four weeks or so since we took a break from the project. But I am excited to get started back on tracking for this project. While waiting on vocals for Subterranean Homesick Alien and Exit Music, I’ve started to track Let Down. And let me tell you, I’m excited once again.

I started out one Saturday afternoon by planning what tracks I would need to cover up to the first chorus. This is what I originally came up with in Apple Notes (side note: I also use the iPad exclusively for writing notes and keeping track of the project progress).

After a few hours, I had a quick sketch completed. Here are the results so far. Check out the latest Twitter update here with video!

New Instrumental Tracks Posted

2018-10-18 — Leave a comment

Happy Thursday!

We’ve been working hard on finishing the tracking for Exit Music (For a Film) and Subterranean Homesick Alien. Its always a work in progress, but we’re getting close. Nolan has the ball now to finish vocals for these and Chris is heading on to Let Down in the coming weeks. Looking forward it. In the meantime, here’s a quick video update we’ve posted to Twitter.

Exit Music Bridge Transition

2018-10-15 — Leave a comment

I know it seems like we’re Exit Music happy over here. That’s because I’m trying to finish up the tracking this week.

I discovered some great tips along the way that I hope to share soon. In the meantime, here’s a recent clip of how the bridge is shaping up.

Replicating the Mellotron is Hard

2018-10-01 — Leave a comment

The human and I spent the better part of an hour tracking and attempting to find better sounds that replicate the Mellotron featured in the choruses of Exit Music (For a Film). We’re currently settling with “Granular Vox” Alchemy preset, but still not happy. We’ll be tweaking away over the coming days to try to get this right.

 

Human Learns Karma Police Piano

2018-08-20 — Leave a comment

The human is thinking way ahead here and trying to learn Karma Police before we record it. He finds that learning parts on piano first helps get the feeling right before he records it on the iPad. It’s not cheating though since we can assume that Thom Yorke knows how to play his own song well before committing it to digital bits.

Exit Guitars

2018-08-08 — Leave a comment

After working tirelessly to finish up the tracking for Subterranean Homesick Alien, I was looking forward do settling down with a simpler track, Exit Music (For a Film). Here’s sketch of the main guitar line and some scratch vocals. Love these guitar chords and the challenge of getting the guitar phrasing right.

This will be a difficult challenge due to the fact that the guitar is played well up by the neck, lending to the breathy sound of the strumming which is difficult to replicate in GarageBand. Still, I have a ways to go but it’s starting to sound great.

 

 

Again, you can see we’re using track replication to get around the lack of AUX sends in GarageBand.

 

 

Pitching Shifting Guitars for Airbag

2018-08-03 — Leave a comment

GarageBand has very limited guitar effects. Johnny Greenwood, Radiohead’s main guitarist, uses an assortment of pitch shifters, flangers, and phasers on many of the tracks of this record. I knew in advance that pitch shifting would be necessary.

GarageBand does not have a built in pitch shifter, but there’s nothing to stop you from replicating the track and moving all of the guitar notes up on octave. This was the approach I took to the ride side guitar that features in the intro. 

Simply copy and paste the original performance to the second track and shift the notes up an octave in the editor. You will also have to bring down the volume of both tracks slightly. Learn more in the video below.