Of Mice And Men
“For fuck’s sake, I’m trying to write this fucking tune!”
— Liam Howlett, upon being interrupted
I’m trying to EQ out the low end rumble on a 3-note bassline that I spent aaa… aaa … aaages tweaking with a parametric EQ so as to keep the deep bass sound and resonance and ensure that all three notes don’t seem to either blur into one or else seemingly morph into a 2-note line … keeping the drive — there’s only a limited Q width I can use and only a limited shelf range possible in which I can achieve it.
I’m loathe to shorten the tail any further, because, if I do so, there’ll be nothing but a click track left … so, I’ve got to find a way of EQ-ing it (or maybe gating the low end ¹).
The weird thing is that:
- if I listen to the bassline without the kick it seems to morph into two notes unless I listen very carefully — which is no good, because, if even I have to consciously listen for it then your average listener is only going to hear two.
- if I listen through headphones, it seems to morph into two notes.
- if I listen to only one cup on the headphones (like I were DJ-ing) then, even without the kick, it sounds like a 3-note line — which is just madness.
It has to be something to do with the reverb/delay on it, but I haven’t even added any … it’s just the raw patch produced by the synth …and, as said, I’ve already cut the tail so short that, if it were an animal, it’d be a sheep — there’s virtually nothing left to cut!
But I just can’t cope with the touchpad on the laptop any longer — it’s been driving me insane!
It’s frustrating enough that I can’t seem to keep the tonal quality of the sound and have the three notes distinct ² … either one of the notes seems to disappear or else there’s this rumble that conflicts with just about every other sound I try to add other than the kick, snare and percussion … but the last two days have not been enhanced in any way by a laptop touchpad that behaves like the computer is being remotely accessed by someone in a parallel universe … with no videofeed from the desktop, so they can’t see what they’re doing … who is fighting with me for control of the mouse-pointer!
Overshoot … ow, ow, OW, that’s loud … I hope to Christ I haven’t blown the amp and/or speakers — or my ears!
Undershoot … oh, ffs, now I’ll have start again!
Mouse jumps somewhere else just as I press click to grab something and I move an entirely different knob/slider somewhere and have no idea which one or what changed because I wasn’t looking at that, whatever it was … and have to close and re-open the whole damn project, losing whatever changes I made since the last save!
There’s no room for a mouse, so I’ve had to buy a new wireless keyboard and touchpad.
So, now, I’m being distracted by the need to learn not to reach for the keyboard/touchpad on the laptop any more, but use the one on my lap instead.
Just what I need: more distraction!
<sigh>
It started out as a fairly aggressive bassline to begin with, but the way things are going, by the time I finish this track it’s gonna be homicidally angry ³.
—
¹ I hadn’t thought of that until just now!
² It can be done with a bass that low: https://www.soundhound.com/?t=100079382291529328 — and I’m not even convinced that, at D2, mine is even that low.
³ I wasn’t planning to make this … but I might well be in he mood now.
Play it LOUD!!!
