I've more
or less finished what I think is the backbone of the track. I've
shortened the opening section, tinkered with the drum part and filled
in the long, descending outro. I like how it just sort of melts away.
You can access it here (or at least I hope you can. Let me know if it doesn't work). What it needs now is a focus: a vocal, or
voices, or something of like that. Something to give it a context
outside of mere computer-generated sounds. But for the moment I'm
going to let it rest.
From
a technical point of view (ie, getting to grips with Reaper), there's
been some satisfying progress. I've worked out how to do track
automation (you can automate FX, which is tremendously useful),
create track folders, render groups of tracks, and all that kind of
thing. I'd say I was quite close to where I was five years ago. I'm
still phased by the freedom that non-destructive editing gives you.
All those years working with tape-based portastudios has left it's
mark; rendering tracks, producing a master – these things are not
to be done lightly. But of course on a modern DAW that's absolute
nonsense. Make all the changes you want – you can always change
them back again. That's great but, at the same time, it kind of robs
your decisions of significance. Any alteration you make is always
“just for now”. So in a way there's no such thing as “finishing”
a track; it's only ever a work in progress.
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