Goldenrod

October 31, 2023 7:32 PM

Goldenrod lets pollinators get in a last feast before the first frost.

A lo-fi jazz joint brought to you by the recent $10 special to crossgrade SubLab to SubLab XL.

After the upgrade, since I was already in Ableton, I thought I'd audition some presets. I laid down a bass line and found a preset that I kinda liked. A few knob twiddles and I had something I was digging. I managed to get down the bones including the Darskichord keys part and the bridge with Thenatan's Brass that afternoon.

Going back to it later, I decided I wanted to track in some guitar. As usual I played my Yamaha through a Catalyst 60 DIed into the Tascam Model 12. I did a few takes of the rhythm part, and took the best two and used them to double the track, panned left and right. I only got one good take of the lead part — for some value of good — but so be it.

Events overtook and I didn't feel up to working on it until today. I trimmed the track back to under 3 minutes. Another go at the bridge and a restatement of the head didn't really add enough to keep them. Once I did that, everything came together relatively quickly.

Over the course of composing and recording this one, I shot some footage on my phone of bees and wasps feeding on the goldenrod in my daily path. I used HitFilm Express to turn that into a music video, including learning how to do masks so I could crop out my own shadow from where I wasn't careful enough in my shot composition. It's not so much that I composed to the picture, as I was lucky to get shots that matched what I had already composed, including the bumblebee which makes me smile just thinking about it.

posted by ob1quixote (1 comment total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

The break with the horns and the slowdown is very arresting. It's like the end of a Korean businessman's night out when he puts down his last drink and realizes his life is not what he wants it to be.
posted by ignignokt at 6:20 PM on November 1, 2023 [1 favorite]


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