Pure Motive Gig 2 at The Winston Pub!

Well...where to begin...this gig was kind of last minute, we only knew ten days before the gig that it was definitely 100% going to happen...only problem was that The Winston didn’t have another band to play with us...and we couldn’t find anyone either...so we’d be the only band...yikes... and we’d be missing two of the three practises we had before the gig...scary...but to be honest I don’t think any of us were really that nervous this time...our practise the night before the gig started off pretty scary...Chirley was late, nothing out of the ordinary...so I tried to phone her  four or five times to no avail... I walked back into the band room and said “Guys, I think we just lost a bassist...” I eventually phoned her mom, who said “Shirley went to get her hair cut” to which I replied “that was at 17h30...do you know if she is coming to practise?” and then her mom said “I don’t know, she didn’t say anything about practise...”  Scary sh*t...anyway, we decided that we would continue practise until she arrived...if she ever did...we played our “warm up song” Molly’s Lips (Nirvana)...Chane, Chwarren and I decided on the set list...We have been working on our very own version of Fallen Leaves by Billy Talent, and I was hoping we would skip that song this time...until Chane brought it up...Luckily  Chwarren shared my feelings on how well we knew the “new” version...it was then somehow decided upon that we would play it the normal way...interesting considering we hadn’t played that version for quite a while...shortly after this Chirley arrived...very apologetic...the rest of practise went smoothly, we ran through all our songs without any hiccups...the only two songs we really focussed on were Payphone (a new one which we’ve probably only played about 10 times in total) and of course, Fallen Leaves...

Gig day...

I spent almost the whole freaking day walking around with my guitar playing my intro part for The Fallen...since the last gig I have been so nervous about playing that song again...by the time we were ready to pack up and head to sound check my fingers were so sore...I still didn’t feel nervous about the actual gig though...until sound check!  During sound check my guitar was feeding back so much...and I had no idea why...we were using all the exact same equipment...Chane and Raymond adjusted settings etc...but it was still hectic...bummer...during sound check there was also this freaking weird hobo freak who seemed quite taken by Chirley, he came up to her and said “ah, you play bass?  Will you marry me?”  He then continued to bug her a bit before Raymond told him we are busy...

When we returned to The Winston, there was nobody there except for the staff, us and hobo freak...after a while some family members and friends arrived...so now there were about 11 of us there including the band, excluding the staff...we knew everyone by name...F*** Thornfest...ha ha...joking... Belinda (the owner) had told Shane earlier in the evening that they actually weren’t going to open tonight but then when they heard that a band wanted to play they decided to open...they opened just for us to play?  Surely it was not worth it to pay all the staff members etc...anyway...Just before we were about to start playing about 4 or 5 more people came in...wow...what a turn out...ha ha..not...anyway, I’m sure this is just what happens when there is a festival on somewhere...I’ve been to the Winston a few years ago over Splashy weekend and it was something similar...due to the size of our massive crowd I think we were all pretty relaxed...it was kind of like a few people came to watch us practise ha ha...

I think all the songs went rather well...Despite my guitar being so feedbacky (I invented this word)...This time we chose to open with Reach Out Quickly because of the cool intro...this song went really well...no issues from what I could tell...

In the intro of the next song, Moonflow, I thought Chane’s guitar sounded a bit weird, but I just assumed it was just because everything sounded very bassy onstage...He later told me that the switch for his pick-ups had been bumped or something because it was on the wrong pick-up so he apparently did this mysterious manoeuvre to get it right during a strum, I wish I saw it...

Our third song was Death Becomes Us. At least the feedback was useful in the intro of this song...we usually battled to get the feedback going right and it just did it itself this time...ha ha...Somewhere around this time hobo freak reappeared and was the only one jumping around in the front...at one point (not sure which song) he went right up to Chirley and slapped the fretboard of her bass guitar with his hand...she was clearly unimpressed...

Next was our first cover, Molly’s Lips, which always goes well, not much to remember...

I Know Ledge was next...went quite well as well...I missed out one of my parts...doubt anyone really noticed or cared...

Before we started play Machine Song I saw Chirley shaking her head and saying something to Chane...Chane shrugged his shoulders...hmmm...what was that about...?  During the intro she played the wrong note so I assumed she was like “oh my god what do I play again” or something...ha ha, I was not far off – Chane later told me she was saying she can’t remember the song...at all...well at least the first wrong note triggered her memory because the rest of the song went well...

Payphone was fun and easy to play live...it’s still a very new song...Chane doesn’t even really have any set lyrics for the verses yet...he kind of just makes them up as we go along...

The moment Chirley and I dreaded...Fallen Leaves...I think it went surprisingly well though...I did make more mistakes this time...oh well...over it...

Careless went well except that I screwed up a bit in the beginning...and at the end Chane didn’t put his distortion on when he was supposed to...not sure what happened there...but it went well other than that...

Finally...The Fallen...would I get the intro right this time...? I SO FREAKING NAILED IT!  It felt almost as though the whole band let out this sigh of relief when I got to the end...and it was really cool glancing around the stage and seeing my band mates smiling...yay me!  But then I messed up a lot of the other parts...guess you can’t get everything you want...sigh...


Chanya
Pure Motive

Demo Recording Sessions – Death Becomes Us (2009)

Over the past few weeks we have been busy recording the first of our demo songs. We decided to begin with Chwarren’s drum tracks and to add a more natural feel to the songs we opted to record these parts without a click track. This has helped make the tracks sound more vibrant – more like a live recording. During the first evening we found that two of our three microphones were faulty so we were left with only one Shure SM57 to rely on. Our solution was quite simple. We hooked up a pair of PS2 SingStar microphones directly into one of the PC’s USB ports. We have been using these to record rough versions of our songs during practises too – they work surprisingly well if the recording volume is set really low. We stuck one near the snare and one in the freshly cut kick-hole of the drum kit. We turned down our guitar and bass amps to a volume that Chwarren could only just barely hear and then we played along with him live as we recorded his drum tracks. The PC we have been using to record is an old AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1.40 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. The raw drum tracks were recorded using freely available Audacity software. The SingStar mics did a real good job and the resulting drum sound was surprisingly well balanced and natural. We recorded two song’s worth of drum tracks per practise over the course of a couple weeks. Chwarren’s preferred method was to have the entire drum track to a song recorded in one take – this worked out quite well considering the fact that we were using no click tracks. We did each song over again and again until Chwarren was happy. He then decided which was his best version and this became the drum track that the rest of the song was built upon. Chwarren’s chosen drum track was then saved as a stereo wave file and then imported into Cakewalk Home Studio XL 2004. The stereo track was then split into two mono tracks so that the snare and kick parts could be edited separately. All recording and editing from this point on was done in Cakewalk.


It was then my turn. The trusty SM57 was placed just to the side of the centre of the guitar amplifier’s speaker cone. The microphone was fed through a micro mixer to boost the volume and then straight into the line-in on the PC’s onboard soundcard. We then recorded my parts as I played along while listening to Chwarren’s beats blasting through the headphones. This process was repeated over and over until I was happy with all the parts and then we edited the best bits together into a single guitar track.

Chanya then played her parts while listening to both Chwarren’s and my parts. We recorded her through the SM57, the micro mixer and the same amplifier. Once Chanya was happy with all her parts we edited them into another single guitar track.

I then listened to the combined drum and guitar tracks in the headphones and sang through a piece of stocking stretched over a loop of coat hanger wire into the SM57 until my voice was hoarse. We then pieced together all the best sounding parts and saved them as a single vocal track.

Chirley then played along while listening to all of our tracks in the headphones. The SM57 was positioned slightly off the bass amplifier speaker cone’s centre. Once she was happy we edited all of her best parts into a single bass track.

While editing the early version of Death Becomes Us (now referred to as the 2009 version) we made the drums sound bigger by adding a clone of the snare drum track and panning it to the one side with a bit of reverb. We then added another clone to the opposite side with no effects. The third snare drum track was positioned in the centre together with the kick drum track with some high frequency boost added (twice over). The bass track needed a touch of high frequency boosting and some compression. All that was added to the guitar tracks was a bit of compression and then these were panned 95% left and right. The vocals needed a high frequency boost and some compression. Once the volumes were sorted out the tracks were mixed down to a single stereo track. Lastly, a bit of tape simulation (medium saturation) was added, then the volume was normalised and the track was exported to wave file format.

Since uploading Death Becomes Us (2009) we have been tweaking the mix and are hoping to have the new version ready shortly along with all the rest of the songs we have been recording.



Current Pure Motive Equipment:

Chane plays an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus-Top (Heritage Cherry Sunburst) fitted with DiMarzio PAF pickups through a Boss DS-1 into a Behringer AC108 Vintager 15-Watt Vintage Guitar Amp with Vacuum Tube.

Chane sings through a Shure SM57.

Chanya plays an Epiphone Les Paul Junior (Satin Black) with P-90 pickup through a Boss DS-1. During practice Chanya plugs into the same Behringer amplifier that Chane uses.

Chirley uses a Phil Pro bass guitar (Fireburst) into a Laney HCM65B Hard Core Max 65-Watt Bass Amplifier.

Chwarren uses a standard five-piece Century drum kit (blue) with Century skins on all the drums apart from a missing bottom skin on the high tom and Remo Pinstripe skins on the snare. The cymbal collection consists of some decent Sabian hihats, an old Century crash (warped to death and currently mounted on an old microphone stand) and a new Century ride (thanks Jason).

 
 
Chane
Pure Motive

Recording Death Becomes Us!

So we have recorded a demo version of Death Becomes Us...We have uploaded it on MySpace have a listen and let us know what you think… Recording the song actually went much faster and smoother than I thought it would…I think that this also gave us the opportunity to work on certain parts etc that we were not entirely happy with…for example Chane has changed his vocal melody in the verses…

Even though I thought I would be nervous while recording my parts I felt completely relaxed and at ease but I did find it strange not playing with the whole band…I think Chwarren was the luckiest in that regard…he got to record his parts with everyone jamming along softly…

It was also cool to be a part of the editing and mixing of the song…it was interesting to see how it was all done…

Anyway…go have a listen now…

Chanya