I was on a bit of a roll with my home recording. But a few things have lead to that coming to a hard and sudden stop.

The midi thing worked really well on the last track I think. So I'm going to try the same approach on this next track but also experiment a bit with the Haas effect to get a wider stereo image without actually panning at all. If that sounds fancy, I only just learned about it, because I was a bit dissatisfied with the panning of the guitar solo in Wicked

The song was originally called Moon Addict, but I think it may now be called Starsign. I'm definitely going to play around with the song, lyrics and arrangement as I wrote it close to 15 years ago and otherwise it wouldn't be too interesting for me or anyone else.

So I've plugged in my Arturia Minilab (something that was previously gathering dust but is now potentially my favourite piece of kit) and I've started playing around with church organs. We'll see how it turns out!

I'm a guitar guy, I can barely play the keyboard and I can only read sight music at a snails pace.

Usually when recording I do a guide track with guitar and vocals at the same time. Then I add layers on top and eventually replace the guide with a better take. That works fine if you have the exact arrangement in mind at the start of the process. But what if you are reworking a song, or exploring a composition as you record it. What if, when you record it you find out what worked live doesn't work on "tape".

I've been struggling with such a song the past few weeks. I've reworked the lyrics, I've tried different tempos. And now after re-recording everything with the new tempo I've decided there needs to be some kind of discordant bridge to make the resolution in the chorus and verse feel more earned.

So I'm thinking, what if I play every part in midi first and then I can re-arrange and play with tempos without expending all the effort on doing vocal/guitar takes. And hopefully, my inability to play keyboard leads to some mistakes which spark some ideas (especially in this case as I want a semi-discordant breakdown).

We'll see.

Another thought re: midi. I really love Empress Of's album Me. And I remember reading an interview, she was saying she couldn't write that album with others involved, it was so much easier to program beats and layers on her computer herself as she could take her time and explore ideas slowly and carefully. I may be misremembering the exact quotes. But I really relate to that. Maybe if I get better with my midi controller, I can create soundscapes that would have been impossible for me otherwise.

It's kind of hard for a guitar to sound as haunting or sad as a piano. And there's a reason every reality TV show starts playing a piano part when someone is telling a sad story about their life. Different instruments are better at evoking different emotions.

At the same time midi instruments can sound really bad when simulating plucked instruments and guitar has a beautiful raw organic quality.

So some balance across the possibility space would be great.