Writing an album that isn't shit in less than a month

So first off, this is my first post on Steemit. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I was referred here by other ancaps over a year ago, and recently someone insisted that i start using this account... So, here I am. I make music, have been doing so for many years I don't even wanna try to count at this point. It's been a while.

Anywhoo, I just recently concluded my project for the RPM challenge (not to be confused with other viral internet challenges where retarded people do retarded things like eat laundry soap, pull guns on their homies, dump buckets of ice on each other, or whatever it is the cool kids are doing these days for attention.) It's actually a challenge where musicians are tasked with creating ten songs or thirty five minutes of original music in 28 days.

Since I just completed mine on 2/24/18, and am quite pleased with the results, why not write something up about the experience, tricks, tips, and of course a link to the finished product.

So to try to keep this as simple, I'll start with how I went about this, and walk you all through the steps on how to write and record an album in under 28 days and hopefully, not have it suck too much.

1. First thing I did, on February first was wake up, drink a pot of coffee and chainsmoke on my porch for a few hours and try to talk myself into getting off my ass and doing something productive with my time.
2. I went into my makeshift studio, opened up the DAW and started sequencing drum parts into rough arrangements that I could jam over on guitar and bass for a bit until I had a ton of riffs.
3. I then edited those riffs and bass lines into various song structures until they started to sound like cohesive songs.
4. I repeated this process for a few days until I had the rough tracks for about 15 songs.
5. By the second week I had all the basic tracks put together, and it was time to start yelling and screaming.
   -It's worth noting, that during all of this, I was also chainsmoking and drinking coffee. Occasionally, I would crack open a beer when I did something worth drinking a beer or two.
6. During the week, I would write my lyrics while I was either on the toilet, or during my commute to work. I also recorded field audio while out and about of the various soundscapes you would experience in an urban shithole, such as the city where I live, Albany, NY. I got quite a bit of interesting audio from some schizophrenic, mentally disabled guy who kept blabbing on about how he wanted to wear loafers without red socks. This dude is always asking random people on the bus to see their shoes and socks... sometimes the motherfucker gets aggressive and starts demanding people hand him their shoes. I had to record this guy. He kinda reminds me of the crazy guy laughing at the beginning of dark side of the moon.
7. As I continued on writing lyrics for this album, I would prepare myself with more coffee and smoking to record vocal tracks. I Then proceeded to yell and scream said lyrics into my mic for hours on end until either I got decent takes, blew out my voice or the neighbors called the cops. Eventually I was done.
8. When all the vocals and music were completed.. I then went onto the last stages of editing. This was about 2 1/2, 3 weeks in. I did a rush job editing and such, as I was on a time limit... I had widdled down my track listing to 8 songs, as I ended up with 51 minutes in 8 songs. It helps that I write Progressive, stoner, doom influenced music where songs tend to be on the longer side. Four out of 8 songs ended up well over the five minute mark, with one hitting nine minutes, and another hitting ten.
9. Once all edits were done, it was time to rush mix... This is the part that will fuck a lot of people up, as mixing is a skill that takes years and years to really get good at. Since this is like the 20th album I've produced, or close to it... i pretty much went in knowing exactly what to do, despite each tune consisting of well over 24 tracks a piece. i was able to get the mixes where I needed them to be in a few days, then on to the mastering...
10. Mastering... They say you shouldn't do this yourself at home. You probably shouldn't and neither should I, but I did, and it came pretty good, nice and loud and not overly squashed to death so... Yeah. But... I've been doing this shit for a long time. It's still not easy, but it's not as impossible as the pro's want you to believe. They just want your money. Don't get me wrong. If you can afford someone like Bob Ludwig, then you would be retarded not to have him master your record. But I can't, so I'm gonna go with what I've got.

Finally, by 2/24 I had completed my album, uploaded it on the RPM challenge page, (www.rpmchallenge.com), my bandcamp page (www.catsdonthavesouls.bandcamp.com), and of then sent out my album to distrokid for online distribution to outlets like Itunes, spotify, google play, and however many other online stores they go through.

I'll say, as far as distribution goes, Distro kid really is a good deal. You pay one yearly fee, and they do all the work for you in terms of distribution and shit. If only promotions worked the same way, because goddammit, I might have my work in all the online stores, and I might be getting played on various internet radio station , I am still broke as fuck.

Anyway, that's my experience. If anyone has any questions about songwriting, music production, mixing, mastering, etc... Feel free to ask.

And here is a link to the finished product. If you dig goth metal/stoner/sludge/alternative metal... Check it out. Even if you don't just so you know I'm not full of shit... Here it is:

https://catsdonthavesouls.bandcamp.com/album/twenty-four-days-of-scaring-the-neighbors-with-devil-music

P.S. Anyone out there know how DSOUND works, I can't logon to that page and I don't know why... No idea what the hell I'm doing. I usually avoid new technology, especially shit as complicated as this steemit stuff (which will likely be less complicated the more I get used to it).. but sheeeeeeeet.

-J