I'll do a this thread for the overall process, then individual threads for individual songs.

Recording/writing lasted from October 1 until November 15, just a touch over six weeks. This is longer than I usually spend total on an album, and I was hoping to use the additional time to develop my songs a bit more than I had in the past.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary #writing

I definitely felt like the 28 day timeframe I had dedicated to my last two discrete albums (Oneirogen Codex and Tales of Etherspace, both done as previous #RPMChallenge albums) was not quite enough time to polish my ideas and execute on them. But previous open ended attempts had largely failed to produce much/anything. This time frame seemed about right, especially with the #writing / #production split.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary

My hope was to #write and #record at least 13 songs in that space of time. I was getting them to the level that I felt the skeleton was there, and as much as the substance as I could do in a reasonable timeframe, but not worrying too much/at all about the #layering, #polishing, and #production. I'd put #effects on things if they were necessary for it to sound "right" (eg a lot of stuff sounds off until the #delay goes on), including some #reverb.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary

I didn't mess with getting the #reverb just right, or any of that but a lot of insert effects did get used at this point. I think it makes sense why, listening to the album: it's pretty effects heavy/processed. Hey, as a matter of fact, that brings me to some other #guidelines I came up with in the early recording stages.

#EffectsMatter is the first one, and I capitalized it when I wrote it in my notebook, so you know I meant it LOL.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary #HomeRecording

One of the reviews of my previous album had mentioned that for as weird as it was, it was a pretty dry album overall. And that stung a little LOL. They were right though, I still have an #oldhead approach to #effects -- a little on the conservative side, a habit learned before we could record everything digitally and had so many tools to sculpt the sound both precisely and in wild, unpredictable ways.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary #HomeRecording #MakingMusic #MusicProduction

So I decided to make sure I leaned into the #effects. Did I lean far enough? You tell me. I think I got a lot closer than I had previously, but still have some room for improvement. As #weird as some of this album is, I definitely backed down from a few effects stacks that were a little too out there even for me. Maybe next time.

#MusicProduction #PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary #Songwriting #HowItsMade #MusicProduction

The next rule I came up with/decided on (though it felt like #discovery, not #decision) was #ThisIsASamplingAlbum (even though I am mostly sampling myself). As I was in the early stages of #writing and #recording, I was faced with some decisions of how to actually build the tracks, including how much to do now vs later. Based on the #ThisIsAnMPCAlbum decision earlier, this decision (discovery) followed naturally.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary

Basically, the #MPC offers several #workflow options but the one that feels the most natural/native to the platform, and the one I was the most familiar with, was the #SampleChopping approach, which utilizes the so-called Drum programs in the #MPC to slice up #samples across 16 pads (or multiple banks of 16) that can then be played and sequenced.

#PsychedelicGhostStories #ProductionDiary #HowItsMade #MusicProduction #HomeRecording #MakingMusic #MyAlbum