Just a quick note - I'm now up to 88 seconds of music. This is a huge advancement from the 4 seconds I was at just 50 hours ago. And from here, I just need 4 more loops from the guitar, a couple varients to the major drum loop, and vocals. Most of the "hard" stuff has been done, and it's down to time-consuming now.

Plus, I still need to think about more lyrics, but I can do that anytime - not just in my couple of hours before work.

With this much left to do, how can I say the hard part is over? I've been needing the filler - the electronic blips and beeps that go into making this more of an electro-metal piece than a hard rock with a drum machine song. That filler is done, from the completley synthesized "string section", to a very light touch of piano, to the final nice touch - phased electronic bleepy noises. And everything I'm doing is being done twice, because the song effectively changes between two keys every other measure.

Even if the vocals suck, the music-only version will be very fun to listen to once it's done.

Deal 'em!

Yesterday I recorded and added bass loops to the new song. Again, "live" bass loops, "live" guitar loops, live vocals. I think, however, that I'm going to let the music determine a great deal of the lyrical content - I have five lines written right now which, I think I can expand into at least two minutes worth of song.

Anyway, guitars are going to have to be recorded as soon as I figure out what I need - then I can record in one fell swoop and have all the sounds match. I'm also going to tune the guitar to something resembling Drop C#, but it should sound good.