Lore -- Preview

[Samulis]

(06-10-2018, 08:32 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote:

(06-10-2018, 08:29 PM)Samulis Wrote: I think 'wind controller' (i.e. 'woodwind controller') is the right term for stuff like Ecorders/complete instruments, and 'breath controller' is for just the little breath thing, but I could be wrong.

That is indeed correct, but you wrote "breath controller" initially which is what threw me off

Ah, sorry about that! Slip of the tongue. Technically correct, semantically incorrect. 

[Mattias Westlund]

From my Facebook page:

Quote:I have made the desicion to postpone the release of Lore until later this summer. I know, I said second quarter of 2018. But with only two weeks left until that deadline and lots of work still remaining, I have only two choices: 1) work myself half to death and release a rushed, sloppy version of the album later this month, or 2) postpone the release and try and get everything right. I don't know about you, but I personally much prefer the second option.

I tend to underestimate how time-consuming the technical aspects can be -- after all, composing the music itself is only half the work -- and since Lore has 24 tracks and a total runtime of well over an hour... as you can imagine the amount of tweaking and polishing required to make such a big chunk of music presentable is not trivial. So I'm just going to take my time here. Sorry. But I promise you it will be worth it, as Lore contains what I feel is some of my best work to date and deserves to sound as good as possible.

[Nayrb]

(06-16-2018, 07:36 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: From my Facebook page:

Quote:I have made the desicion to postpone the release of Lore until later this summer. I know, I said second quarter of 2018. But with only two weeks left until that deadline and lots of work still remaining, I have only two choices: 1) work myself half to death and release a rushed, sloppy version of the album later this month, or 2) postpone the release and try and get everything right. I don't know about you, but I personally much prefer the second option.

I tend to underestimate how time-consuming the technical aspects can be -- after all, composing the music itself is only half the work -- and since Lore has 24 tracks and a total runtime of well over an hour... as you can imagine the amount of tweaking and polishing required to make such a big chunk of music presentable is not trivial. So I'm just going to take my time here. Sorry. But I promise you it will be worth it, as Lore contains what I feel is some of my best work to date and deserves to sound as good as possible.

Waiting is no problem. I'm in a somewhat similar boat still waiting for the cover art to be finished for my next album (again). I could go with another artist who may work more quickly, but I'd rather have the cover I know I'll love. After all, once it's released it'll be as if it was always there and I'll barely remember what the wait felt like. You don't want to have too many regrets on your mind when that day comes. So I say take your time! I'm sure Lore will be an excellent product when it's all done.

[Mattias Westlund]

(06-16-2018, 07:45 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Waiting is no problem. I'm in a somewhat similar boat still waiting for the cover art to be finished for my next album (again). I could go with another artist who may work more quickly, but I'd rather have the cover I know I'll love. After all, once it's released it'll be as if it was always there and I'll barely remember what the wait felt like. You don't want to have too many regrets on your mind when that day comes. So I say take your time! I'm sure Lore will be an excellent product when it's all done.

What you say about regrets is exactly what I mean -- it would bug me forever if I rushed the release and wasn't happy with the album as a result, while knowing that I could have spent a few more weeks on it and gotten it the way I wanted it. I can live with flaws if I'm doing commissioned work and there's a deadline, because in that case I'll know I did my best with the time I had at my disposal. If an album that I'm doing in my own free time is going to be flawed (which it will likely be in some ways no matter how much time I spend on it), I want the flaws to be due to my shortcomings as a composer and mixing engineer, not because I was struggling to meet a completely artificial deadline. Just like with WoR I set a deadline for Lore mainly to prevent myself from tinkering forever, but on WoR I had to work my ass off the last couple of weeks and that was not a pleasant experience. I just felt that as this isn't a commissioned project, I have much more leeway as far as the time frame is concerned, so why not just let it take the time it takes. I'm not going to go GRRM on the album -- it's done, musically, but the tweaking/polishing bit is only maybe at 50% or so -- so "later this summer" is completely realistic.

On a related note, I took maybe a month's break from the album earlier this year (which is probably why I'm in this situation right now), because I was completely stuck. I reached a point where I'd listened to the unfinished tracks so many times while trying to figure out where to go with them that they became cemented in my mind. I don't know if this is an issue for anyone else but it definitely is for me sometimes. It doesn't matter if I know that a track is only half-finished -- listen to it enough times and that half-finishedness sort of becomes the way it's "supposed" to sound like and it's very difficult to imagine it sounding any other way. When that happens I need to back away until my brain can hear the potential of the tune again, which is frustrating but completely necessary at times.

[Viktor]

(06-16-2018, 08:37 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: On a related note, I took maybe a month's break from the album earlier this year (which is probably why I'm in this situation right now), because I was completely stuck. I reached a point where I'd listened to the unfinished tracks so many times while trying to figure out where to go with them that they became cemented in my mind. I don't know if this is an issue for anyone else but it definitely is for me sometimes. It doesn't matter if I know that a track is only half-finished -- listen to it enough times and that half-finishedness sort of becomes the way it's "supposed" to sound like and it's very difficult to imagine it sounding any other way. When that happens I need to back away until my brain can hear the potential of the tune again, which is frustrating but completely necessary at times.

Totally relatable. I was getting really frustrated earlier in my life about that, but now I know, I could be just way more productive with another piece of music in that time. I think of time being productive not just about the time that I work actively on it, but also the time I'll let it grow unconsciously in the back of my brain. The good thing about this kind of breaks, that they can be very freeing, cause you can loose up a bit and work on other things and gain new perspectives. The hard thing is just to catch the point were its best to move onto something else for a while.

Anyway take your time, I'm really looking forward to the album, I listened to the previews for a while, when they were still opened, really good stuff!

[Nayrb]

(06-16-2018, 08:37 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: What you say about regrets is exactly what I mean -- it would bug me forever if I rushed the release and wasn't happy with the album as a result, while knowing that I could have spent a few more weeks on it and gotten it the way I wanted it. I can live with flaws if I'm doing commissioned work and there's a deadline, because in that case I'll know I did my best with the time I had at my disposal. If an album that I'm doing in my own free time is going to be flawed (which it will likely be in some ways no matter how much time I spend on it), I want the flaws to be due to my shortcomings as a composer and mixing engineer, not because I was struggling to meet a completely artificial deadline. Just like with WoR I set a deadline for Lore mainly to prevent myself from tinkering forever, but on WoR I had to work my ass off the last couple of weeks and that was not a pleasant experience. I just felt that as this isn't a commissioned project, I have much more leeway as far as the time frame is concerned, so why not just let it take the time it takes. I'm not going to go GRRM on the album -- it's done, musically, but the tweaking/polishing bit is only maybe at 50% or so -- so "later this summer" is completely realistic.

I have yet to do any commissioned work, so I know all about the artificial deadlines of personal projects. It's still important to set some goals for yourself and be able to say "done!" when the time comes, or you risk "pittling the painting to death," as Bob Ross would say. As you point out, there will be some things that you will notice after the fact, but they won't be regrets so much as things you can learn and grow from.

---

(06-17-2018, 08:38 PM)Viktor Wrote:

(06-16-2018, 08:37 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: On a related note, I took maybe a month's break from the album earlier this year (which is probably why I'm in this situation right now), because I was completely stuck. I reached a point where I'd listened to the unfinished tracks so many times while trying to figure out where to go with them that they became cemented in my mind. I don't know if this is an issue for anyone else but it definitely is for me sometimes. It doesn't matter if I know that a track is only half-finished -- listen to it enough times and that half-finishedness sort of becomes the way it's "supposed" to sound like and it's very difficult to imagine it sounding any other way. When that happens I need to back away until my brain can hear the potential of the tune again, which is frustrating but completely necessary at times.

Totally relatable. I was getting really frustrated earlier in my life about that, but now I know, I could be just way more productive with another piece of music in that time. I think of time being productive not just about the time that I work actively on it, but also the time I'll let it grow unconsciously  in the back of my brain. The good thing about this kind of breaks, that they can be very freeing, cause you can loose up a bit and work on other things and gain new perspectives. The hard thing is just to catch the point were its best to move onto something else for a while.

Anyway take your time, I'm really looking forward to the album, I listened to the previews for a while, when they were still opened, really good stuff!

Totally agree here. There is always something else you can do to stay productive, especially when you're working on a personal project like an album or something. I often try to use the dead spots in my creativity to explore new ideas or educate myself on technical matters, practice, and learn about composing for different instruments. But as for everyone there are plenty of times where just stepping away from the desk altogether can be the best remedy for burn-out.

[Mattias Westlund]

(06-17-2018, 08:38 PM)Viktor Wrote: Totally relatable. I was getting really frustrated earlier in my life about that, but now I know, I could be just way more productive with another piece of music in that time. I think of time being productive not just about the time that I work actively on it, but also the time I'll let it grow unconsciously  in the back of my brain. The good thing about this kind of breaks, that they can be very freeing, cause you can loose up a bit and work on other things and gain new perspectives. The hard thing is just to catch the point were its best to move onto something else for a while.

Yeah, that can indeed be difficult. Because by the time you notice that you have become immune to the emotion or atmosphere that the tracks are meant to convey, you are already suffering from creative burn-out. On the other hand, stepping away everytime you feel that you might be stuck is no good either -- sometimes you just need to press on and force the music into existence. Some of the best ideas will happen when you give up any notion of being inspired and just make the most of whatever you can come up with.

(06-17-2018, 08:38 PM)Viktor Wrote: Anyway take your time, I'm really looking forward to the album, I listened to the previews for a while, when they were still opened, really good stuff!

Thanks Viktor!

(06-18-2018, 12:27 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Totally agree here. There is always something else you can do to stay productive, especially when you're working on a personal project like an album or something. I often try to use the dead spots in my creativity to explore new ideas or educate myself on technical matters, practice, and learn about composing for different instruments. But as for everyone there are plenty of times where just stepping away from the desk altogether can be the best remedy for burn-out.

I have found that playing and writing for guitar is really good for rebooting my brain when it's stuck in orchestral mode. It's so different from composing for orchestra that I can almost feel how completely unrelated neural pathways are being activated as soon as I start getting into guitar mode. It's no wonder music is commonly used as rehabilitation for people with dementia, because it literally excercises your brain.

[Mattias Westlund]

Second preview track from Lore is now up on soundcloud. This wasn't actually included in the full album preview I posted a while ago, it's an idea I came up with recently and it seemed to fit right in with the other tunes.

[Nayrb]

(07-12-2018, 07:22 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Second preview track from Lore is now up on soundcloud. This wasn't actually included in the full album preview I posted a while ago, it's an idea I came up with recently and it seemed to fit right in with the other tunes.

 
I like the use of the pad and how the track builds up toward the end where the big drums come in. Rather different, actually. Should fit nicely on the album, for sure.

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-13-2018, 12:11 AM)Nayrb Wrote: I like the use of the pad and how the track builds up toward the end where the big drums come in. Rather different, actually. Should fit nicely on the album, for sure.

I was actually trying out the pad sound on a different track, but when I was playing around with it I came up with Starry Skies