Episode 12: The Release

After you’ve sparked an idea, nurtured it into an arrangement, layered in instruments and vocals, and then spent hours shaping, balancing, mixing, and mastering it into something whole—you finally have a song you can celebrate.

But…

Episode Eleven: Final Mix and Master

The song is now in its final draft stage. The full arrangement is built — drums, bass, guitar, synths, and vocals all locked in (see previous journals for the breakdown). Now it’s time to…

Eclipse – Episode Ten:  Vocals Part 2

How do I even come up with words? Honestly, it’s always different, but usually it takes a good bit of simmering. I’ll bury myself in endless loops of a song, humming nonsense syllables…

Eclipse – Episode Nine:  Vocals Part 1

Vocals can feel intimidating—especially if you’re shy about putting your voice front and center. Unlike other instruments, vocals don’t live in isolation; they thrive in the context of rhythm, instrumentation, and the “pocket”…

Eclipse – Episode Eight: Building the Guitar Foundation

In this chapter of my ongoing Eclipse project, I shift the focus to the guitar. Earlier episodes walked through my reference track selection and the layering of drums and bass. Now, it’s…

Eclipse

Episode Seven

The Drums and Bass

At the time of this song's creation I was using EZdrummer 2. This virtual drum instrument has a function called "Tap 2 Find" which allows you to tap in a drum rhythm. I…

Eclipse

Episode Five

Song creation takes perseverance. It takes much more time than someone from outside looking in would generally believe. Well, believe it. You will hit mental, emotional and technical challenges along the way. Stay the course and commit…

Eclipse

Episode Four

Listening to the song Chemical you will first notice a simple acoustic arpeggiated pattern with bass entry soon after. This pattern anchors the song and is a technique artist use often to introduce music. Post Malone then…

Eclipse

Episode Three

The song was chosen for none of the genre reasons mentioned in the previous episode directly, it was chosen because I simply enjoyed the song.  My ears perked up. Do not choose a song because you think…

Eclipse

Episode Two

The beginning of a new song is challenging for me. I often seek inspiration in other music, make a playlist and down-select to a top two or three songs. During this particular song's inception, I landed on…

Eclipse

Episode One

I have decided to take you into my studio lair for a peak into the cobwebs, corners and hidden nooks; the very mad-house of my thinking, or at least as best I can recollect the moments of……"Song…

Greetings,

Thinking of doing final touch-ups on a song that has been on the shelf for quite some time. It is called Train's Comin'.  Here is my original post on the song back when it was first born and has…