I was trying to locate some old files to see if I could recreate a song that I never finished to… get around to finishing it.
The only problem (if I could find the files) is that they were possibly recorded using an obsolete DAW (digital audio workbench): either a much older Cakewalk or via Sony Acid (which I abused and made into a DAW when it was really just a loop manager) file. It was a song that was mostly done except for the vocal tracks and some management of song structure, but it might be lost and I’ll have to recreate it from scratch if I can figure out just what the heck I did ten or more years ago [Update: Found it! It is only six years old and I have the compatible files. Now I just have to decide if I want to modify it or keep it as-is.]
If I do end up recreating it and finishing it, I will post the early version of that song alongside the redux of that piece, originally called “Myrrh” but no longer likely to be called that. It was in the flavor of Mission/Sisters of Mercy/March Violets/Merry Thoughts with my own twist applied.
But, in looking through the possible locations for hints as to what I did, I stumbled across a .wav file of yet another song in the same vein that I thought would be fun to share (several, actually). The file is dated in the name as 1/1/2016 and sounds to be around that same period of experimentation as “Myrrh” (these “lost” discovered snippets are from late-2015 — early-2016, all with this particular flavor).
No vocals, just a snippet with no lead-in silence or fade-out — it ends abruptly, which means I did not intend for it to be available for public consumption at the time. Judging from the overall sound, I’m guessing this was a Cakewalk effort. I had purchased Cakewalk via Steam on sale, as it used to be the paragon of DAWs, only to discover it had fallen from such heights and was given to microtransaction hell and crashing. I eventually settled on Propellerhead’s Reason for my DAW and have not looked back (yes, Ableton is another perfectly decent DAW, but I could not get past the workflow hurdles because I am more used to the Cakewalk-Acid style of workflow). How do I know this? Because there are a number of “real” instruments on this recording and Acid was always a royal pain to try to record live for vocals and/or instruments and it doesn’t have the same overall sound of Reason.
Anyway, here is less than two minutes of your life that you’ll never get back. Comments are always appreciated.
The original name for this is “Rust”. The intro is a bit slow, but give it two dozen seconds or so and it picks up.
Some snippets of lyrics saved in the same folder include this untitled poem/lyrics. It may have originally been intended to go along with this song, or perhaps one of the other bits and bobs in the same folder. We’ll pretend they work with this piece, just for shits and giggles.
Like crust on the driven snow
She cuts to the bone
She shreds hearts to ribbons
So cold so cold
Living another lie again
At least she wins
No matter the soul she’s sold
So cold so cold
27 responses to “Songlet — 28may25”
More, please.
If you didn’t see the FULL song post of a more recent composition a few days ago, you should check that out and let me know what you think: https://ravensweald.com/full-song-again/
Left a response…it’s fabulous.
Just as an aside, I am not getting an email when you reply to my comments. I tried clicking the selection to notify of responses in my subscription settings, but then it sends me everything, so I un-checked it. Have I told you lately how much I hate technology? Anyway, if I don’t respond to you it’s not because I’m ghosting you…
There are days that I want to pull my hair out, like the day that Firefox wouldn’t work on my site and all other browsers did. Or the discovery that iOS hates anything on the web that is not MP3, although everyone, EVERYONE else will run flac, MP4, Ogg… But iOS? NOPE! Sometimes I want to throw things out the window.
I’m sorry about the notification issue. I’m not aware of any settings I can change to fix it for you. Maybe resub? It might be an artifact from when I couldn’t get Jetpack to play nice and used a different plugin to get around that issue?
I’ll try that–thank you!
You’ll have to let me know if it works.
Another thing, if it is email notifications and they are sent by ravensweald.com instead of from wordpress, the notifications might be going into spam folder. GMail has not appeared to be a problem for emails sent from my domain, but ProtonMail (high privacy and security email) gave me warnings because the automated WordPress server (essentially) spoofs the domain email. That’s for my contact form responses that are sent to me. I can imagine something like that might be happening, but I have not heard that. You might have to mark the email address as a safe sender/not spam (or add to your address book).
“just for shits and giggles”, alright Austin Powers 🤭
Wait… That phrase was in that movie? I’ve been using that phrase since about high school! LMAO. I thought it was a local thing because I never heard anyone else say it.
I had to make sure I was right. 🤭 The mind isn’t what it used to be.
https://youtu.be/vbmu7udlqH8?si=7lqtzrJq4MokRgG4
Wow. I didn’t doubt you, I just didn’t recall ever hearing anyone else say it except in Minneapolis. Even then, it was mostly just my weirdos, freaks and geeks homies in the late-80s, maybe early-90s.
Thanks for the link!
I doubted myself. 🤭
Oh, yes. Bit of an eighties vibe going on here I think (in a good way). I like the instrumentation on this and yes I can make the lyrics fit! Shits and giggles! Other way round and it sounds like medication for incontinence.😂
Ha! I don’t even know where that started amongst the freaks and geeks. Someone just started saying it and the phrase caught on.
I wish I knew what I was thinking when I wrote it, but the memory banks are not what they used to be. After I attack the other one that I found the lost files for, I might try to recreate this one (and it will require complete and utter reconstruction), unless I get other ideas after playing with the first one. Glad you liked it!
Looking forward to it.
Love it. Played this snippet over the house speakers so the neighbors could love it too. Yes, I’m one of those. You’re now slightly famous/infamous in Dayton, NV. We’re waiting for the full album.
Your poor neighbors being force to listen to that rot 😂
At least there is no singing being inflicted upon them.
Yet😎
True, that.
I liked it. A lot to work with here. It’s got a good driving beat.
Thanks Bob. This one (for certain) is a “rebuild from scratch” song. It might have to go on the list as a rework or to-revisit for new ideas.
I sometimes forget just how many snippets I’ve done over the years that have “legs”. Not all of them survive, nor are all of them worth sharing, but in looking for the one I found some interesting bits.
Two minutes listening to a cool tune is time well spent. 🎶😃
Thank you, Michele. 💙
It’s nice someone can enjoy what I’m tossing out to the world just for fun. I missed just having fun with music instead of the oh-so-serious approaches I was asked to take for a number of years. I forgot that it can be just fun.
Wonderful message and reminder, Michael. Beautiful things can come to fruition when the mind is relaxed and happy. 😊🎶
🙂🎸
Hey! I loved this and I read the lyrics out loud, rhythmically while listening and they work perfect. Now you must finish it.
Must.
As I was telling Bob, this one is most definitely a complete do-over. I have the software, but couldn’t say where the core files reside. If they exist at all any more (oh… wait… could they have been put… hmm🤔). But I can try to learn from it either way and try to recreate it.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. ❤️