Haha Tape IV. Buy in?

[Petey Pate]

Yeah, I want help on genres, please. So many subgenres in EDM (for example) that some specifics from the POV of the creators would be more than helpful.

For my track I'd suggest the following tags (which may well apply to others):

#ambient #glitch #soundtrack #instrumental #drone #experimental #electronica #breaks

There also aren't any 'main' liner notes for the album, unlike the others in the series.

[the]

Back now, have had a few shuttles through the album, sounding great. Tight and crisp, just the way I like it. And much livelier compositions than I was expecting too. Will get the whole thing and have a proper deeper listen shortly.

Kudos to NoSleep for bringing it all together (especially in mastering) and to everybody for getting the right inspiration to produce a swathe of solid work, in what was a pretty bonkers brief.

Have grabbed the radio show and the music video as well, cheers NoSleep. Hope the chatroom events had a nice little audience, would've enjoyed being in there.

Hope people found the artwork tasteful too.

For my track I'd suggest the following tags (which may well apply to others):

I'd be happy with #rave and #breakbeat for mine. (And maybe #soundtrack to cover the first bit.)

There also aren't any 'main' liner notes for the album, unlike the others in the series.

If any get added, they ought to contain a memorial credit to Dusty too. And his track's a belter.

[NoSleep]

Don't worry, I'm going to get the main liner notes sorted soon; explain the process we undertook, etc. And it goes without saying that the album will be dedicated to Dusty.

[NoSleep]

Hi. I always get a bit sheepish with these things as I like taking part but am never that convinced by my contributions (some of you guys are genuine talents). I'll give the whole thing a listen in next few days and report back. For what it's worth I was trying to get the feeling of being asleep for my track. :)

I used your track to conclude the film; just as Loss awakes from his dream of Mars to see the posters advertising tyres.

[falafel]

Tags are tricky. Not sure mine has a genre beyond 'piano house disco pastiche'.

#disco #house #theremin #bassline

Anyway, I'm anxiously awaiting the Ha Ha Tape V thread. Who's going to start it?

[NoSleep]

Hope people found the artwork tasteful too.

It's excellent. I like the idea of an album cover within another album cover on Mars.

[NoSleep]

Anyway, I'm anxiously awaiting the Ha Ha Tape V thread. Who's going to start it?

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

(leave it for a day or two)

[falafel]

I said anxiously, and I meant it

[Johnny Textface]

The next one needs to be swift - like a race to get your submissions in by a deadline. Should still make for interesting content.

[NoSleep]

The next one needs to be swift...

I'll make a note of that.

This one was meant to be swift; rather than stack the making of all tracks one after the other we all commenced at the same time.

[falafel]

I laughed.

[NoSleep]

As the film soundtrack is a work in progress, and you've all had a chance to see it, I will ask again if anyone can send me some stems from their productions.

The kind of thing I'm looking for:

1) Don't change any of the mix levels
2) Leave all the fx/reverbs/echoes just as they are
3) Simply isolate certain instruments e.g. remove the drums and bass and just bounce/render a mix of all the other instruments or just have one of all the synths or guitars, whatever makes sense.

Just think what might be useful as incidental music, so that the music isn't always full on.

[Beagle 2]

I should be able to sleepy, once again we're about to move house but hopefully I can wire up the mac again before we start packing up.

It occurs to me that we were once able to somehow pull a Christmas album out of our arses, so something based around an immovable event or date in the future might galvanise folk.

[olliebean]

It occurs to me that we were once able to somehow pull a Christmas album out of our arses, so something based around an immovable event or date in the future might galvanise folk.

So, a Brexit album, then?

[NoSleep]

There weren't so many tracks on the xmas album and three of them were tracks that people had done before we had planned to make it.

I've said before that we can make it a race with deadlines or leaving slackers behind ("first ten completed get on the album").

Making a track in a single day would be a possible challenge; I had to make the music for an entire stage production under those circumstances, beginning each track from nothing at the start of each day and ending with the final product by the evening. It was all breakbeaty and dancy, so not as daunting as you'd think; repetitive loops with things coming and going like a dub mix.

We'd have to pick a day (asap after deciding) and deliver the tracks the next day. Given how most people have the wrong attitude towards their own music, this frees you up from your own inner censor and can produce quite surprising results. I'm sure I can be of assistance in post-production if mixes could be a little more polished.

[gabrielconroy]

I'd be up for taking a one day to finish approach. We could even try using a shared set of samples that we each have to incorporate in some way or another (whether putting straight in or warping beyond recognition).

[NoSleep]

I'd just tap a drumbeat out in Logic or one of my drum machines and put a bass and a couple of guitars over it and finish it off with some piano or synth. I wouldn't want to be fathoming some other material that I would feel I had to "do something different to" because everyone else had the same sounds to hand; nor feel obliged to incorporate them. I feel that's part of the usual "inner censor" problem for me; I need no time to second guess what I'm going to do.

[Petey Pate]

Is the idea is that everyone would make their track on the same day or that each contributor picks a day when they make their track?

[NoSleep]

Is the idea is that everyone would make their track on the same day or that each contributor picks a day when they make their track?

I think we need to make it a particular day; the other way is asking for it to pan out to months of waiting. It's only an idea, let's not get ahead of ourselves; I want to chill for a few weeks at least (and work some more on the movie).

[Beagle 2]

I like the idea of one single day where we all try to bash something or other out. Nice and cathartic after this epic.

[hummingofevil]

As the most likely to spend forever in a track the one day challenge sounds good if we also have to use a sample of something from that day to prove people don't just pick something random from their archive. Like how Bin Laden used to talk about the latest Arsenal scores to prove he was still alive.

[NoSleep]

How would that work? Anyone could just overdub the samples on any old thing they've already been working on for years.

[NoSleep]

If people don't want to actually challenge themselves but want others to believe that they did so, then that is on their own conscience.

[Better Midlands]

Stellar work chaps, sounds really good and if I haven't known better could easily have believed that it was a single artist rather than a comp. Impossible to single anything out as the standard is so high, but the Johnny Textface track was right up my street.

[Beagle 2]

We could unveil a secret theme on the morning of the day or something.

[NoSleep]

Could still be overdubbed. Just need to trust everyone to have fun.

[Johnny Textface]

Stellar work chaps, sounds really good and if I haven't known better could easily have believed that it was a single artist rather than a comp. Impossible to single anything out as the standard is so high, but the Johnny Textface track was right up my street.

Why thank you sir.

[falafel]

As the film soundtrack is a work in progress, and you've all had a chance to see it, I will ask again if anyone can send me some stems from their productions.

The kind of thing I'm looking for:

1) Don't change any of the mix levels
2) Leave all the fx/reverbs/echoes just as they are
3) Simply isolate certain instruments e.g. remove the drums and bass and just bounce/render a mix of all the other instruments or just have one of all the synths or guitars, whatever makes sense.

Just think what might be useful as incidental music, so that the music isn't always full on.

Would it be cheating if I sent some stems plus a couple of additional bits that aren't in the original mix? Just to expand your toolkit a bit. Eg In the movie edit you made quite a lot of use of the piano loop and i feel I might be doing you a favour by giving some variants on that (some alternate melodies / playing with the octaves a bit, maybe some arpeggios, I dunno)

[NoSleep]

Yes please! I was able to make some more loops from your track than I used in the first edit of the film by phase cancelling that opening "whoop-whoop" sound out of existence over the entire intro and isolating some clean drums that I can add anywhere I like. But the more the merrier.

[gabrielconroy]

I could send you stems but it'd pretty much be the piano and the shaker, from what I remember. Or I could send a dry piano stem and the reverb send and try to send the incidental noises to separate track? I think I also have some variations and other piano bits that I cut from the end track you could have.