I've been working some more on La Da Da Dee. Cleaning up those bridge grooves, filling out the 3rd verse, trying to get the ups and downs right. I don't like programming drums for slower songs. It's too easy to subvert the groove with a misplaced fill. I just looped a basic 6/8 patten and recorded everything over it. Then when I find a moment that needs accenting, I'll throw in some goodies. All very simple, though. I'm from the ?uestlove school of drumming; keep it simple as it can be. Now if only Arthur and the Geniuses could find a drummer who agreed.
It's still a little disjointed. Parts will jump in out of nowhere on accented points, and fade away as easily. I'm finding that cellos really help to smooth things out. Just a simple line in the background provides a real nice pad. I'm totally lazy about my patch choices though. I'm just using the same basic Kompakt "Cello Arco" patch that I always use, and it doesn't quite sound right. I suppose I could find something better, but I'd rather figure out the meat of things now, when it feels like I have all the time in the world. In a couple of months, when I start to panic, it'll be nice to have something easy to work on.
But on the whole, i'm getting pretty close to have a full arrangement of this song. Once I do, that'll make six full arrangements, two on the way, and one that just needs a day of piano and vocal recording. Of course, those "full" arrangements will still need tweaking, and the more I work on these songs that I wrote anywhere from one to three years ago, the more I think about writing new melodies. I'm constantly writing new tunes, but I don't have time anymore to develop them as songs. I might sneak some on to this album as instrumental or, dare I say it, nonsense interludes. (Gasp!)