Today I put a first-pass vocal track on “How It Ends” and did some quick mixing. I kept the tempo the same, but had to raise the key a step to make it work right for my voice. That’s the advantage of all-MIDI instrument tracks–I was able to find the right key in about two minutes without having to re-record anything.

Unfortunately, another hidden disadvantage of keyswitching sampler patches reared its head. Keyswitching is a way of recording alterations in non-note aspects of a MIDI performance–in my case, the articulations of the cello patches. The particular articulation you want a passage to be played in is recorded as a note outside the range of the instrument. This is a lame way to do it for many reasons, but in this case, transposing the MIDI track also transposed the articulation “notes,” making everything sound very strange. Easy to fix, but annoying that it was a problem in the first place.

All that aside, I managed to get a track that I’m reasonably happy with:

Strategery

Deciding what to work on next is interesting at this point. My inclination is to keep working on this song to polish it a bit more. The lead vocal could use some work–the performance in places could be tweaked and tuned; the chorus melody, except for the initial phrase, is in the same range as the prechorus melody which makes it a bit boring; there’s room for some harmonies; the instrumentation could be a bit more lively.

Buuut–in keeping with the spirit of Album Month, I think this is a good stopping place for this song. It’s pretty well represented in its current form and I think I can use the time I would normally spend tweaking better by starting on the next song. If I have time later in the month, I’ll come back and tinker with it.

So… what to work on next? I’ll revisit my candidate pile and see if anything jumps out at me. If not, maybe I’ll work on something brand new.