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New Album Time: Project Retake II
5 years ago
If anyone's interested, I have just released my sixteen album of progressive rock, recorded between 2018 and 2020 - 'Project Retake II'
Thanks to
merlin-the-bruce for drawing the cover!
The album itself can be had for free here:
http://dougtheeagle.com/pr2.php
There's also a Bandcamp page if you think it's worth paying for:
https://dougtheeagle.bandcamp.com/a.....t-retake-vol-2
This is my sixteenth album, following 'Illiath the Barbarian'. It's been a while since I've done a 'Best of' compilation, and since writing was a little slow on the new album it's given me a chance to catch up. Like the previous 'Project Retake' album, this is a collection of favourites from earlier releases, two songs from each album, covering the period from 'Three Little Pigs' (2009) to 'Baklawa Doom' (2012).
1. Three Little Pigs (introduction)
This is a rerecording of the opening track from the 2009 album, 'Three Little Pigs', incorrectly referred to as the 'overture' on the album.
This version was recorded on 2" 24-track and features the mellotron brass arrangement that was largely omitted from the original.
2. Three Little Pigs
This was the title track from the 2009 album, 'Three Little Pigs'. It took the concept of the children's story and twisted it around, framing the pigs as criminals and the wolf as the hero. Unfortunately I twisted it a bit too hard and the wolf kind of became a villain himself, or at least an anti-hero.
This version was recorded on 2" 24-track, and the extra flexibility allowed for me to add a drum track missing from the 8-track original The underpinning of the track is now an electric bass instead of the clavinet, which is buried deeper in the mix. The vocals were flown in from the original 1/2" master tape.
3. Daniel LaGrange
My 2010 album, '...and Daryil Answered' was a bit of a mixed bag, with half of it affecting a 1960s psych style which put some people off. I think this is one of the better tracks, though if I hadn't restricted myself to 2 tracks from each album I would have liked to give 'Mr. Apocalypse' another shot.
This version is fairly true to the original, and uses the original vocals from the 1/2" master tape. I finally managed to use a real tape slowdown effect on the vocals rather than lamely faking it as was done on the original song. Though since it's using the original vocals you kind of get to hear both...
4. ...And Daryil Answered
This was the title track from the 2010 album, "And Daryil Answered", and is one of the songs I'm still really proud of. New in this version is a real electric bass track, which occasionally breaks into a nice punk-sounding mode a'la The Stranglers. The JV1010 choir has been replaced with the classic M1 choir, though it's doubled with the 'tron for the most part. The string synthesizer is now provided a Waldorf Streichfett fed through a Jurgen Haible Solina chorus, giving it a really beautiful fuzzy sound which I've been trying to recreate for ages. (Fun fact: I discovered how to do that after the album was mixed, so Daryil got a remix a few days before mastering.)
The vocals are mostly dubbed from the 1/2" master tape, with a couple of rerecorded pieces to fix some of the parts where it was off-key in the original version. The synth solo using the Waldorf Pulse was also difficult to replicate and so that was dubbed in from the original song as well.
5. Niall's Story
This is one of my favourites from the 2011 album, 'More Songs About Demons' . Those who remember 'The New War' from the later 'Incubi and Succubi' album may recognise the opening line which was reused.
This new version uses the vocals from the original 1/2" master tape, but adds proper electric bass. Otherwise it's pretty true to the original.
6. DemonHunter
This was one of the other standout tracks 2011's 'More Songs About Demons'.
Like 'Daryil Answered', this song had several remixes after the principal mixing was done. One of the things I changed after the initial take was to rerecord most of the verses. I had originally recorded them while suffering from a cold and it kind of showed. The choruses are dubbed from the original 1/2" master tape, though I added another layer of multitracking for one of them (the 'compromised') line near the end. Originally I had to stop suddenly because I needed to reuse that track for something else, but with the luxury of 24 tracks I was able to make it a little less obvious.
The synthesizer effects at the opening and close of the track were pretty much impossible to replicate and were flown in from the original 1/2" master tapes.
7. Baklawa Doom Part 3
This is one of the tracks from the eponymous suite of songs off my 2012 effort 'Baklawa Doom', one of the first songs I did to use 24-track, albeit with a 1" TASCAM machine. It was hard to choose between this and Part 2. Ideally I'd have done both, but I wanted to keep at two songs per album, and I already had my eye on 'Song of Keaton' as the closing track.
This version uses electric bass instead of the JV1010 from the original song. Starting from Baklawa Doom, I used a workflow where I'd record the vocals on my trusty old 8-track machine, and then transfer them to the 24-track master tape. This reduced wear on the more expensive machine (and the other tracks on the master). When it came to rerecording the song, I was able to fly in the vocals from the original 1/2" session tape rather than using the second-generation copy on the 1" master tape.
I have rerecorded the 1950s-style chorus at the end of the song, because it never quite sounded as good as the one at the start of the song, and I also changed the words 'Giant acid face' to 'Giant smiley face' because this apparently caused a lot of confusion to people who missed the Acid House rave culture of the late 80s and early 90s.
8. Song of Keaton
This, along with Daryil Answered, was one of the songs I really looked forward to updating for the new Project Retake compilation.
'Song of Keaton' was the closing track from 2012's 'Baklawa Doom'.
The vocals are all taken from the original 1/2" session tapes. Part of me says I should have fixed some of them up, but I think it still works pretty well.
Electric bass was added as with most of the other songs, and I have also been using the OB-6 to fatten up some of the Oberheim-like sounds that were originally provided by one of my ROMplers.
The bassline is noticeably different to the original, partly because what I'd programmed on the song was far beyond my ability to perform, but that also gave me a chance to try some new ideas.
Thanks to
merlin-the-bruce for drawing the cover!The album itself can be had for free here:
http://dougtheeagle.com/pr2.php
There's also a Bandcamp page if you think it's worth paying for:
https://dougtheeagle.bandcamp.com/a.....t-retake-vol-2
This is my sixteenth album, following 'Illiath the Barbarian'. It's been a while since I've done a 'Best of' compilation, and since writing was a little slow on the new album it's given me a chance to catch up. Like the previous 'Project Retake' album, this is a collection of favourites from earlier releases, two songs from each album, covering the period from 'Three Little Pigs' (2009) to 'Baklawa Doom' (2012).
1. Three Little Pigs (introduction)
This is a rerecording of the opening track from the 2009 album, 'Three Little Pigs', incorrectly referred to as the 'overture' on the album.
This version was recorded on 2" 24-track and features the mellotron brass arrangement that was largely omitted from the original.
2. Three Little Pigs
This was the title track from the 2009 album, 'Three Little Pigs'. It took the concept of the children's story and twisted it around, framing the pigs as criminals and the wolf as the hero. Unfortunately I twisted it a bit too hard and the wolf kind of became a villain himself, or at least an anti-hero.
This version was recorded on 2" 24-track, and the extra flexibility allowed for me to add a drum track missing from the 8-track original The underpinning of the track is now an electric bass instead of the clavinet, which is buried deeper in the mix. The vocals were flown in from the original 1/2" master tape.
3. Daniel LaGrange
My 2010 album, '...and Daryil Answered' was a bit of a mixed bag, with half of it affecting a 1960s psych style which put some people off. I think this is one of the better tracks, though if I hadn't restricted myself to 2 tracks from each album I would have liked to give 'Mr. Apocalypse' another shot.
This version is fairly true to the original, and uses the original vocals from the 1/2" master tape. I finally managed to use a real tape slowdown effect on the vocals rather than lamely faking it as was done on the original song. Though since it's using the original vocals you kind of get to hear both...
4. ...And Daryil Answered
This was the title track from the 2010 album, "And Daryil Answered", and is one of the songs I'm still really proud of. New in this version is a real electric bass track, which occasionally breaks into a nice punk-sounding mode a'la The Stranglers. The JV1010 choir has been replaced with the classic M1 choir, though it's doubled with the 'tron for the most part. The string synthesizer is now provided a Waldorf Streichfett fed through a Jurgen Haible Solina chorus, giving it a really beautiful fuzzy sound which I've been trying to recreate for ages. (Fun fact: I discovered how to do that after the album was mixed, so Daryil got a remix a few days before mastering.)
The vocals are mostly dubbed from the 1/2" master tape, with a couple of rerecorded pieces to fix some of the parts where it was off-key in the original version. The synth solo using the Waldorf Pulse was also difficult to replicate and so that was dubbed in from the original song as well.
5. Niall's Story
This is one of my favourites from the 2011 album, 'More Songs About Demons' . Those who remember 'The New War' from the later 'Incubi and Succubi' album may recognise the opening line which was reused.
This new version uses the vocals from the original 1/2" master tape, but adds proper electric bass. Otherwise it's pretty true to the original.
6. DemonHunter
This was one of the other standout tracks 2011's 'More Songs About Demons'.
Like 'Daryil Answered', this song had several remixes after the principal mixing was done. One of the things I changed after the initial take was to rerecord most of the verses. I had originally recorded them while suffering from a cold and it kind of showed. The choruses are dubbed from the original 1/2" master tape, though I added another layer of multitracking for one of them (the 'compromised') line near the end. Originally I had to stop suddenly because I needed to reuse that track for something else, but with the luxury of 24 tracks I was able to make it a little less obvious.
The synthesizer effects at the opening and close of the track were pretty much impossible to replicate and were flown in from the original 1/2" master tapes.
7. Baklawa Doom Part 3
This is one of the tracks from the eponymous suite of songs off my 2012 effort 'Baklawa Doom', one of the first songs I did to use 24-track, albeit with a 1" TASCAM machine. It was hard to choose between this and Part 2. Ideally I'd have done both, but I wanted to keep at two songs per album, and I already had my eye on 'Song of Keaton' as the closing track.
This version uses electric bass instead of the JV1010 from the original song. Starting from Baklawa Doom, I used a workflow where I'd record the vocals on my trusty old 8-track machine, and then transfer them to the 24-track master tape. This reduced wear on the more expensive machine (and the other tracks on the master). When it came to rerecording the song, I was able to fly in the vocals from the original 1/2" session tape rather than using the second-generation copy on the 1" master tape.
I have rerecorded the 1950s-style chorus at the end of the song, because it never quite sounded as good as the one at the start of the song, and I also changed the words 'Giant acid face' to 'Giant smiley face' because this apparently caused a lot of confusion to people who missed the Acid House rave culture of the late 80s and early 90s.
8. Song of Keaton
This, along with Daryil Answered, was one of the songs I really looked forward to updating for the new Project Retake compilation.
'Song of Keaton' was the closing track from 2012's 'Baklawa Doom'.
The vocals are all taken from the original 1/2" session tapes. Part of me says I should have fixed some of them up, but I think it still works pretty well.
Electric bass was added as with most of the other songs, and I have also been using the OB-6 to fatten up some of the Oberheim-like sounds that were originally provided by one of my ROMplers.
The bassline is noticeably different to the original, partly because what I'd programmed on the song was far beyond my ability to perform, but that also gave me a chance to try some new ideas.
As a fan of both Project Future and DMFA, this music should be great for me, as it shows talent in lyrics and melody. However, there's a problem that always keeps me from listening to your albums for long, which is that the singing always sounds out of key. I don't know whether it actually is, whether it's my listening, or whether it's some quirk of recording, but it always eventually bothers me enough to stop listening. It may be worthwhile to consult with another musician (which I very much am not) about whether or not you should seek additional vocal training.
...Like It-He. Poke, poke.