Independence Day
Tuesday, July 4th, 2023 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio90F, Sunny, and humid as hell out there for the 4th of July. I slept in until 3PM for the third day in a row, even though I intended to be up by noon.
The test verson of, Closer To You has gotten 127 plays since last night... and I don't know where they came from!
I suppose it's possible they came from TikTok... because if you look at my bio, which people seem to do a lot, the link takes you right to this blog, which loads up pretty nicely on a smart phone.
Of course here on Dreamwidth, I have no way of seeing when or if these entries are being read.
But SoundCloud also recommended that I use the hashtags, World and Latin, for the song, which was interesting too.
Like... maybe it has some appeal to people in other countries that it may not for Americans.
If so, that's fine too.
But the fact remains, it was just a test mix with test vocals, and I only uploaded it so that Tim could hear it... as he's my sole confidant for this project right now.
--<>--
To recap, the speaker jack on my computer fried out back on Friday, meaning I have no way to monitor the music out loud and with a subwoofer.
I can only monitor in headphones.
But the version of FL Studio I paid for, Fruity Edition, also does not allow me to put vocals on the track, inside the app.
So I had to export the music as a FLAC file, then open it in Audacity, and record my vocal track in Audacity.
And the problem there was that I could not hear myself in my headphones as I sang along. I could hear the music, but not my voice.
So that made it difficult to stay exactly on pitch.
I also haven't sung seriously in fifteen years so... I was struggling, and you can hear it.
I did multiple takes of each line of the song, piecing together the best ones, but some were harder than others, and I never got them exactly right.
But the main goal yesterday was just to get a version with the words on it, so that I could hear the whole thing through.
And I was still re-writing the second verse, as I was recording.
------------{=0=}------------
Linked below is the track from, Analog Nights, digitized audio journals from the mid 1990s, entitled, Closer To You, which contains the clips of me working on the original version of this song... which was never completed, or recorded.
The first verse in that version is, "I've been lookin' around, in this god forsaken poor excuse for a town."
I changed that to, "I've been lookin' around, in this antiquated, victorian boom town," which is what Aurora is.
But back in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, it was quite economically depressed.
Downtown was virtually abandoned, with vacant storefronts and empty streets. And we had a lot of drive by shootings and other gang activity all through town back then.
I also didn't own a car from 1995 through to 2000.
So, this song is a semi-fictionalized look at me, bumming around downtown all alone, pining to find my soul mate, but knowing she's probably in some other town, and wishing I could just hop on a trolley car and visit those other towns of the greater metro.
--<>--
The Chicago Aurora & Elgin was an electric car line that had it's hub in downtown Aurora, at what they still refer to as the terminal building, on Broadway and Galena Boulevard.
A two block walk from my house would've gotten you a trolley that took you down to that terminal building.
And from there, you could hop on a trolley car and get anywhere.
With a few transfers, you could take trolleys and trains all the way to New York City and back!
And one of those lines went out to DeKalb!
You'll recall I have often bemoaned the fact that DeKalb is this isolated island an hour from the metro, only accessible by car.
But this wasn't always the case.
My grandmother went to Illinois Normal School, which is now NIU, in DeKalb, and got back and forth to campus on the trolley every day.
But sadly, the CA&E was decomissioned in the mid 1950s.
--<>--
This all brings us to Kate, who... was the closest thing I ever had to a girl of my dreams or a soul mate*... and who lived in DeKalb.
The song is presumed to be taking place in 1996, and I wouldn't meet Kate for three more years, but she was definitely the one I was looking for.
So it's foreshadowing her.
Hence the bridge, "She could be at the end of a line, on the sign at the station, that was taken all the time."
But the other nod to Kate here... and only Kate would get this... is the musical allusions to the 1965 hit song, Downtown, by Petula Clark.
That's the part that plays on the vibraphone briefly, in the third measure of each verse.
When Kate and I were together, I had my clock radio set to an oldies station, and early one October morning, it went off to wake us up, and was playing, Downtown.
And laying there in the dark, I was kinda singing along with it in a girl voice and Kate thought it was hilarious, and... well, it was just one of those little moments.
So, the song is taking place in my downtwon, but it's also making an allusion to the Petula Clark song... and near the end, that Downtown allusion is the part that swells up with the horns in that very cinematic way.
------------{=0=}------------
So, that's the inside baseball on Closer to You, but I do still have to figure out how I'm gonna record proper vocals and mix the final version.
I think I do have to just pay for FL Studio, Producer Edition, because doing vocals in Audacity is a big hassle, and, like I said, I can't hear myself in the headphones.
But I also need to either find USB speakers that are suitable for mix monitoring, or get the sound card replaced in my new machine.
And neither of those things will happen until I take care of the start of month bills, and figure out my budget for July... which will happen tonight or tomorrow.
--<>--
Tim said that in his car, he could not hear or understand the vocals, as they were getting lost in the mix.
This was the opposite of what I heard, on my phone, in headphones, and in the back room, which does have a subwoofer.
I think the vocals are too loud.
So... I dunno what you may be hearing.
So I have added the lyrics below the embed of the song in this entry, for anybody who's curious.
------------{=0=}------------
°¦}
I've been lookin' around
in this antiquated
victorian boom town
window shopping to find
that elusive and exclusive girl
of my dreams
but it's gonna take a goddam miracle
cuz i'm the only soul who's down here
and all the ghosts who troll around here
don't really give a fuck if i'm alone
they've already got problems of their own
down at the terminal building
all of the fanciful guilding
has met it's fate
trolley line is a great way to get around
too bad I'm only 75 years late
cuz i don't have a wheel to roll on
or any kind of real control of
how i'm gettin from A to B to see
the lovely destinations
surrounding me
but she could be
at the end of a line
on the sign in the station
that was taken all the time
(interlude: repeat refrain)
I wanna get closer to you
I wanna get closer to you
(repeat)
* In the digitized audio journal, I am hanging out with two different girls (other than my 5 year old neice) and then driving to go see Sabrina.
The first girl, who I'm popping a cork with, is my old friend Laura, who was about to move out of town, early in 1996.
The second girl was named Mandy... a girl I used to run into a lot around town or at parties (I'm at a party in this clip).
I did have a HUGE crush on Mandy, and she would flirt with me a bit, but she considered me to be too nice a guy to actually date.
She was into bad boys. And in the first clip of her you hear her going on about how her lighter is so meaningful because it belonged to her uncle before he went to jail, which is when she found it, and started smoking!
In the second clip of her, I'm driving her home... because I'm the nice guy.
As for Sabrina, as I've said before, that whole relationship was arranged by a friend and his wife, who felt like playing cupid, without being asked.
And we were further pushed together by her gramma and my parents, who had their own agendas.
Her gramma wanted Sabrina out of the trailer. My parents just wanted me to finally settle down and get married.
So Sabrina ended up living here with me, only two months into the relationship. And from there we moved out into an apartment.
We made it work for a couple years, but... we never really should've been together.
I was just very bad at standing up for myself back then, and allowed other people to make decisions for me about my own life.
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
The test verson of, Closer To You has gotten 127 plays since last night... and I don't know where they came from!
I suppose it's possible they came from TikTok... because if you look at my bio, which people seem to do a lot, the link takes you right to this blog, which loads up pretty nicely on a smart phone.
Of course here on Dreamwidth, I have no way of seeing when or if these entries are being read.
But SoundCloud also recommended that I use the hashtags, World and Latin, for the song, which was interesting too.
Like... maybe it has some appeal to people in other countries that it may not for Americans.
If so, that's fine too.
But the fact remains, it was just a test mix with test vocals, and I only uploaded it so that Tim could hear it... as he's my sole confidant for this project right now.
To recap, the speaker jack on my computer fried out back on Friday, meaning I have no way to monitor the music out loud and with a subwoofer.
I can only monitor in headphones.
But the version of FL Studio I paid for, Fruity Edition, also does not allow me to put vocals on the track, inside the app.
So I had to export the music as a FLAC file, then open it in Audacity, and record my vocal track in Audacity.
And the problem there was that I could not hear myself in my headphones as I sang along. I could hear the music, but not my voice.
So that made it difficult to stay exactly on pitch.
I also haven't sung seriously in fifteen years so... I was struggling, and you can hear it.
I did multiple takes of each line of the song, piecing together the best ones, but some were harder than others, and I never got them exactly right.
But the main goal yesterday was just to get a version with the words on it, so that I could hear the whole thing through.
And I was still re-writing the second verse, as I was recording.
Linked below is the track from, Analog Nights, digitized audio journals from the mid 1990s, entitled, Closer To You, which contains the clips of me working on the original version of this song... which was never completed, or recorded.
The first verse in that version is, "I've been lookin' around, in this god forsaken poor excuse for a town."
I changed that to, "I've been lookin' around, in this antiquated, victorian boom town," which is what Aurora is.
But back in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, it was quite economically depressed.
Downtown was virtually abandoned, with vacant storefronts and empty streets. And we had a lot of drive by shootings and other gang activity all through town back then.
I also didn't own a car from 1995 through to 2000.
So, this song is a semi-fictionalized look at me, bumming around downtown all alone, pining to find my soul mate, but knowing she's probably in some other town, and wishing I could just hop on a trolley car and visit those other towns of the greater metro.
The Chicago Aurora & Elgin was an electric car line that had it's hub in downtown Aurora, at what they still refer to as the terminal building, on Broadway and Galena Boulevard.
A two block walk from my house would've gotten you a trolley that took you down to that terminal building.
And from there, you could hop on a trolley car and get anywhere.
With a few transfers, you could take trolleys and trains all the way to New York City and back!
And one of those lines went out to DeKalb!
You'll recall I have often bemoaned the fact that DeKalb is this isolated island an hour from the metro, only accessible by car.
But this wasn't always the case.
My grandmother went to Illinois Normal School, which is now NIU, in DeKalb, and got back and forth to campus on the trolley every day.
But sadly, the CA&E was decomissioned in the mid 1950s.
This all brings us to Kate, who... was the closest thing I ever had to a girl of my dreams or a soul mate*... and who lived in DeKalb.
The song is presumed to be taking place in 1996, and I wouldn't meet Kate for three more years, but she was definitely the one I was looking for.
So it's foreshadowing her.
Hence the bridge, "She could be at the end of a line, on the sign at the station, that was taken all the time."
But the other nod to Kate here... and only Kate would get this... is the musical allusions to the 1965 hit song, Downtown, by Petula Clark.
That's the part that plays on the vibraphone briefly, in the third measure of each verse.
When Kate and I were together, I had my clock radio set to an oldies station, and early one October morning, it went off to wake us up, and was playing, Downtown.
And laying there in the dark, I was kinda singing along with it in a girl voice and Kate thought it was hilarious, and... well, it was just one of those little moments.
So, the song is taking place in my downtwon, but it's also making an allusion to the Petula Clark song... and near the end, that Downtown allusion is the part that swells up with the horns in that very cinematic way.
So, that's the inside baseball on Closer to You, but I do still have to figure out how I'm gonna record proper vocals and mix the final version.
I think I do have to just pay for FL Studio, Producer Edition, because doing vocals in Audacity is a big hassle, and, like I said, I can't hear myself in the headphones.
But I also need to either find USB speakers that are suitable for mix monitoring, or get the sound card replaced in my new machine.
And neither of those things will happen until I take care of the start of month bills, and figure out my budget for July... which will happen tonight or tomorrow.
Tim said that in his car, he could not hear or understand the vocals, as they were getting lost in the mix.
This was the opposite of what I heard, on my phone, in headphones, and in the back room, which does have a subwoofer.
I think the vocals are too loud.
So... I dunno what you may be hearing.
So I have added the lyrics below the embed of the song in this entry, for anybody who's curious.
°¦}
I've been lookin' around
in this antiquated
victorian boom town
window shopping to find
that elusive and exclusive girl
of my dreams
but it's gonna take a goddam miracle
cuz i'm the only soul who's down here
and all the ghosts who troll around here
don't really give a fuck if i'm alone
they've already got problems of their own
down at the terminal building
all of the fanciful guilding
has met it's fate
trolley line is a great way to get around
too bad I'm only 75 years late
cuz i don't have a wheel to roll on
or any kind of real control of
how i'm gettin from A to B to see
the lovely destinations
surrounding me
but she could be
at the end of a line
on the sign in the station
that was taken all the time
(interlude: repeat refrain)
I wanna get closer to you
I wanna get closer to you
(repeat)
* In the digitized audio journal, I am hanging out with two different girls (other than my 5 year old neice) and then driving to go see Sabrina.
The first girl, who I'm popping a cork with, is my old friend Laura, who was about to move out of town, early in 1996.
The second girl was named Mandy... a girl I used to run into a lot around town or at parties (I'm at a party in this clip).
I did have a HUGE crush on Mandy, and she would flirt with me a bit, but she considered me to be too nice a guy to actually date.
She was into bad boys. And in the first clip of her you hear her going on about how her lighter is so meaningful because it belonged to her uncle before he went to jail, which is when she found it, and started smoking!
In the second clip of her, I'm driving her home... because I'm the nice guy.
As for Sabrina, as I've said before, that whole relationship was arranged by a friend and his wife, who felt like playing cupid, without being asked.
And we were further pushed together by her gramma and my parents, who had their own agendas.
Her gramma wanted Sabrina out of the trailer. My parents just wanted me to finally settle down and get married.
So Sabrina ended up living here with me, only two months into the relationship. And from there we moved out into an apartment.
We made it work for a couple years, but... we never really should've been together.
I was just very bad at standing up for myself back then, and allowed other people to make decisions for me about my own life.
