The light at the end

I spent part of this weekend working on a remix which has been in the works for a while now. It's finally reaching the point from which I can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. More specifically, I've now got the entire song, from beginning to end (plus an extended intro) accounted for, with the vocal segments in place and electronics, loops, samples and effects around them in about the quantity they'll be in the finished product. So far, the synth line at the end needs some tweaking (it's still too repetitive and doesn't feel quite right), and another synth doesn't sound quite as the idea in my head does (though that will change). Then I'll put it aside for a while, work on other things, return to it, see if it still sounds OK and, if not, adjust further.

(You know the old riddle about how one goes about sculpting an elephant; i.e., by taking a block of granite and chipping away everything that's not part of an elephant? Well, that's how I often find working on music. I have an impression in my mind of how things are meant to sound, I approximate them (thus getting a vaguely elephant-sized block of granite) and then chip away at the differences between the idea in my head and the approximation coming out of Cubase when I press the Play key. Or at least it has been in this case.)

The band being remixed are said to be playing in town sometime soon; with any luck the remix will be in sufficient shape by then to burn to a CD and give to them at the gig.

More mobile phone wankery (1)

I've recently switched off the T-9 dictionary thing on my mobile phone. I used it since I got my first T-9-equipped phone (a Nokia 3210), as I found it quicker for entering frequently used words. Some of my friends disdained the whole T-9 thing, preferring to enter things letter by letter. I thought this was a bit silly and ludditic, until I saw frogworth texting at a bazillion characters per second through sheer practice. Since then, I've been keying in messages letter by letter. I'm not up to such a blistering speed yet, though give me time.

(More advantages of not using T-9: (1) you don't have to look at the screen to choose words, meaning that you can, in theory, text blind whilst walking down the street, and (2) in making the semicolon difficult to get to, T-9 is probably doing a grave injury to English punctuation. Disadvantages: it's slower, at first.)

[Poll #256025]