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 Rakkard 
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Post Rakkard
I got up promptly at 0600 this morning, with one mission: make a Stickist tune for the collab before the end of the year. That is tonight! But troubles along the way! My new Saffire i2 wouldn't take my Railboard signal without a lot of hiss for some reason, so I had to get my old Saffire Pro 24 out of storage, and reload the drivers and restart a couple of times.

Then I was recording Railboard this morning, I had a recurring problem that I noticed when I was at Interlochen. My stereo switch on the R-Block is going out. I have to whack it a couple of times, and jiggle the plug, to get it to work. It will sum both channels together no problem, which is why I never even noticed it lately because I've been plugging it into an amp with a mono cable. It's also why I was having the hiss problem with the Saffire, it turns out. (I did all that driver reloading for nothing!)

But I went to record, and there was no bass side. I got it working long enough to get the C riff, but I had to go to the Eflat and the F on my NS/Stick. The melody side would separate just fine, but the bass side would only sum with the total. Also, the bass side is super-duper low in terms of level, even with the phantom plugins working.

But that's okay. I was determined to rock this mf'er out, and that's what I've done. All Railboard except the bass parts (Eflat and F) in NS/Stick. I was gonna use my Rosewood, but I decided that I like the sound of the NS better.

I'll send the raw tracks later to you Scott. Here's my minute and a half jam of it. By the way, melodic minor sucks ass. I can give you minor or major or harmonic minor no problem. That melodic minor doesn't work well with my melodies-making brain. But I did my best.

The title: I was looking for an exotic place name to go with the flavor of the melody. I took the name from the Drakkar boxed set that the kids gave me for Christmas that I'll never use. I spelled it backwards and it was "Rakkard" or Rock hard. I thought that was clever.

Here it is, such as it is. I started at 600 this morning and just finished the rough track and loaded it to SoundCloud to look at the file. Still needs mixing and mastering and it's only a minute and a half, so....(I'm usually a 4-5-minute-tune guy.)

I'll send Scott the stems. Gonna hang with the family tonight and celebrate the New Year's.

Happy New Year's, all! Rock it out!
https://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1/rakkard


--Steve Sink

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:37 pm
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Post Re: Rakkard
WOW! this knocked me out! great playing and composition. Dig the bass side of things as well.!


Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:03 pm
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Post Re: Rakkard
rclere wrote:
WOW! this knocked me out! great playing and composition. Dig the bass side of things as well!


https://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1/rakkard


Thanks so much, Randy! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making this, in spite of the technical difficulties. Or maybe because. There's a certain Zen state you reach as Murphy's Law takes hold and the printer won't print the day that the Big Paper is due. I left myself only one day to rock this out, and the universe started to conspire against me.

Then I got the bass lines done and I was very pleased, even though I have two different bass instruments alternating the chords: C in Railboard, and Eflat and F in NS/Stick. The Railboard out-growls the NS, but then I am hitting that low C on the Railboard and also the octave above it and then another octave above that. I'm only using the octaves on the NS.

I set the bass lines on loop and recorded about 20 minutes worth of noodling on top of it. Then I ended up literally using the very first riff/scale/flourish of the beginning and then one rythm part, and completely ignored the rest of the 20 minutes! There's about 5 different songs there against these basslines, but I like the first riff that popped in my head.

Then there's a solo at the end that sounded really shitty and off time when soloed, but when you put the track against the others, it clicked magically and was really tight. Several crappy lines merged together in one glorious riff that I really dug (your mileage and taste may vary). I have to say that when this happens, it is one of the main reasons that I love the studio: tracks organically go together until the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergy is the fancy word.

I've listened to this track on repeat for hours now since I posted the SoundCloud link. I remixed a bit more this morning. I still need to get the R-Block looked at, but I've got lots to do before I'll get around to it. Yay for extra Sticks!

Sink's Law #5: "Deadlines are our friends. Without them, nothing much gets done."

Thanks Randy and Happy New Year!

_________________
Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:10 am
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Post Re: Rakkard
Very cool, Steve! Quite well played, ride the wave and keep this stuff coming, eh?

(My collab thanks you for the contribution!)

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Mon Jan 01, 2018 6:06 pm
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Post Re: Rakkard
Jayesskerr wrote:
Very cool, Steve! Quite well played, ride the wave and keep this stuff coming, eh?

(My collab thanks you for the contribution!)

My pleasure! I hope you can use this in the Great Stick Borg Tune of 2017-2018. Thanks for the support!
*********************************

It's fractal time! Hot off Vulcan's Fractal Forges (and a 1080Ti, a 1080 & 2 980s), here's some fractal videos with your Chapman Stick rocking.

(4K) Rainbow Brainblow 3--"Rakkard"--3D Fractal Animation Music Video

Original music, "Rakkard," is done with Chapman Stick Railboard and NS/Stick and drums.

4K 3D Fractal Animation Music Video done in Mandelbulber OpenCL v 1.21, using mclarekin-formula "Benesi T1 M-Box."

Background done in Mandelbulber v 1.21, using mclarekin formula "ABox InvC."

https://youtu.be/jkjtOzFO35g

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1/rakkard

_________________
Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:43 pm
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