Another week, another song!
Have a songwriting strategy in place now that I am trying to stick to. First, I record a couple nice-sounding chord progressions into my nifty Olympus digital voice-recorder (the kind you use to record business meetings). I find this to be a big help, because if I happen to come up with a decent melody or a catchy guitar line when I am beginning to write, I always immediately forget it unless I get it recorded right away.
After that, I figure out the basic structure of the song, and then begin laying down rhythm loops and guitar tracks on the Tascam. At this point, I don't even know what the song is about, or how long the verses should be etc. Nevertheless, nailing down a structure early on seems to give me some sort of framework to hang the lyrics on, although sometimes I paint myself into a corner working this way.
The last thing that I figure out are the lyrics, and they are usually inspired by some of the nonsense lines that I sing just to remember the shape of the melody. If I happen to get hung up, I find it helps just to put the lyric sheet away for a while, and they seem to somehow work themselves out in my brain while I am busy doing laundry and other mundane tasks around the house.
boomp3.com
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
5135
When I first moved to Los Angeles in 1989, I went out and bought a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder and started to mess around with it in my crappy apartment. I liked the Tascam I had way better, but for some reason I sold it before I left school.
The Fostex at least had an effect send, so my demos sounded a little more polished from this point on. This was the first song I recorded over the Thanksgiving holiday that year, when I was contemplating calling about a personal ad I had seen in the paper...
boomp3.com
The Fostex at least had an effect send, so my demos sounded a little more polished from this point on. This was the first song I recorded over the Thanksgiving holiday that year, when I was contemplating calling about a personal ad I had seen in the paper...
boomp3.com
Monday, January 21, 2008
Workin' at the Wal-Mart
If you live in a small town, or any town for that matter really, you begin to cultivate a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart. You hate them for everything they stand for, and everything they are doing to small businesses and minimum-wage workers across America. Yet, you have to admit, they pretty much have everything there you could possibly ever need, and for prices that are often shockingly low.
I think if you work at Wal-Mart however, there probably ain't much to chalk up in the "love" column. At least that was the case for Barbara Ehrenreich, who spent a few weeks working there while conducting research for her book Nickel & Dimed . I highly recommend avoiding that book, unless you really want to see how difficult it is to make it in America these days without a college degree and a significant income.
boomp3.com
I think if you work at Wal-Mart however, there probably ain't much to chalk up in the "love" column. At least that was the case for Barbara Ehrenreich, who spent a few weeks working there while conducting research for her book Nickel & Dimed . I highly recommend avoiding that book, unless you really want to see how difficult it is to make it in America these days without a college degree and a significant income.
boomp3.com
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Sitting Backwards
Just re-acquired my trusty old Yamaha SPX 90 from a friend and thought I would give it a workout this weekend. Nice to finally have a dedicated reverb unit for my studio setup, though I am still using effects from my Roland amp to record electric guitar into the Portastud as well.
Been having a pretty productive month as far as songs go. Not really sure what inspired this one, besides the fact that I have spent a lot of time flying back and forth across the country since last summer.
I often don't have anything in mind when I put a song together, and just kind of hope the song "finds itself" somewhere along the way. Once I get a couple lines, or a basic concept together, I just kind of build it up from there, and see where it takes me. Lately I've been trying to get away from the basic "boy meets girl" stuff, as it seems kind of silly and insincere from the perspective of a married person.
Besides, as Joe Strummer once noted, "the subject's been covered."
boomp3.com
Been having a pretty productive month as far as songs go. Not really sure what inspired this one, besides the fact that I have spent a lot of time flying back and forth across the country since last summer.
I often don't have anything in mind when I put a song together, and just kind of hope the song "finds itself" somewhere along the way. Once I get a couple lines, or a basic concept together, I just kind of build it up from there, and see where it takes me. Lately I've been trying to get away from the basic "boy meets girl" stuff, as it seems kind of silly and insincere from the perspective of a married person.
Besides, as Joe Strummer once noted, "the subject's been covered."
boomp3.com
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Almost Summer
Thought this would be appropriate today--we had freezing rain and snow, and a two-hour "delay" for school this morning. I was afraid that they would tack those two hours on to the end of the day, but thankfully that wasn't the case.
This song was recording on my original Porta One back in 1988 in Ann Arbor, MI. It annoys the hell out of me now, but at the time I thought it was pretty good. I remember my grandmother liked it as well.
boomp3.com
This song was recording on my original Porta One back in 1988 in Ann Arbor, MI. It annoys the hell out of me now, but at the time I thought it was pretty good. I remember my grandmother liked it as well.
boomp3.com
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Sixty One
Just uploaded the new songs to this site. Lets you hear and promote new music from a variety of artists. Worth checking out for sure!
the sixtyone.
the sixtyone.
More Ants
Pulled out the ART TubeMP, and then ran the vox through a stompbox compressor and the Roland Cube for effects. Backed off the bass and drums even more, and I am gonna leave well enough alone on this one...
boomp3.com
boomp3.com
Ants
This is a song I already demoed a few years back with a free version Pro Tools I had on my iMac, but never bothered to finish. Found a better key for it, so thought I would give it another shot. Used my "new" Casio MT-205 for drums and a keyboard line on this.
Having the same problem with bass build-up in the mix, so this one was run thru a compression and EQ plug-in from Audacity. Still not happy with the singing, so I'm gonna re-record the vocals today and mix it down one more time. The Tascam will only save a single master mixdown of your song, so ya gotta commit if you decide to change anything.
Used a beat-up Autoharp for the intro on this that is in severe need of tuning. I was thinking of the New Radicals hit when I played it.
boomp3.com
Having the same problem with bass build-up in the mix, so this one was run thru a compression and EQ plug-in from Audacity. Still not happy with the singing, so I'm gonna re-record the vocals today and mix it down one more time. The Tascam will only save a single master mixdown of your song, so ya gotta commit if you decide to change anything.
Used a beat-up Autoharp for the intro on this that is in severe need of tuning. I was thinking of the New Radicals hit when I played it.
boomp3.com
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Rockin' GTI
A fitting tribute to my favorite pocket rocket. Featuring Bill Fate on Candy Apple Red Fender Jag and backing vox.
boomp3.com
boomp3.com
Friday, January 11, 2008
Finishing Seventh Grade
Think this all came together nicely. Re-did the vocals and main guitar track, and fixed everything else "in the mix" Kept the mandolin solo just like it was 'cause that took forever to get right!
Really tough to mix your demos when you know the final version will be squeezed down onto an MP3. All the effects tend to get lost somewhere along the way, and you always get weird resonances that are hard to predict ahead of time.
Could really used a compressor for the vocals, but at least the thirty-dollar pop screen I picked up last week made a big difference. Gonna try to write a few more songs with this basic set-up and see what I end up with.
boomp3.com
Really tough to mix your demos when you know the final version will be squeezed down onto an MP3. All the effects tend to get lost somewhere along the way, and you always get weird resonances that are hard to predict ahead of time.
Could really used a compressor for the vocals, but at least the thirty-dollar pop screen I picked up last week made a big difference. Gonna try to write a few more songs with this basic set-up and see what I end up with.
boomp3.com
Monday, January 7, 2008
2 The Dentist
This one goes back...wayyyyy back. Probably one of the first real attempts at songwriting. Guessing this was from around 1980, right before high school. Sad to think I entered high school in this highly uncool frame of mind.
Recorded with a Radio Shack dictation mic into my 1979 Yorx 8-track bar mitzvah stereo. People can say what they want about 8-tracks, but the tape I recorded these early songs on 27 years ago still plays fine in my player.
boomp3.com
Recorded with a Radio Shack dictation mic into my 1979 Yorx 8-track bar mitzvah stereo. People can say what they want about 8-tracks, but the tape I recorded these early songs on 27 years ago still plays fine in my player.
boomp3.com
Sunday, January 6, 2008
7th Grade
Stayed up late last night finishing my first demo on the recently acquired Tascam dp-02cf compact flash multitrack recorder (actually arrived in the mail yesterday morning). Very nice piece of kit for under than three hundred bucks ($260 with a 1 GB Compact Flash card & free shipping on eBay), which is probably less than I paid for my original Porta One cassette multitrack over twenty years ago.
This thing is built like a tank with a solid metal housing, and is extremely user-friendly. I was able to knock out the demo at the bottom of this post in a couple hours, though it clearly needs a lot of polishing. In fact, I think I will probably re-record the whole thing again, since this was mainly an experimental session, and I've got a cold which you can clearly hear in the vocals. Another problem I am having is the fact that this is my only effects processor at the present time!
They make a version with built-in reverb, but that one records to an internal hard drive, which of course will eventuall die, not to mention the fact that it has to make some noise as it spins around furiously trying to record your demo.
My previous multitrack recorder, the Zoom MRS-8, had way more bells and whistles, including multi-effects and a built-in drum machine, but I was constantly baffled by it. I found myself pulling out the manual and pretty much starting from scratch every time I wanted to use it, thought I was happy with the ultimate quality of what I produced with it.
My original plan was to find an interface to record to my laptop, but I spent a day with the Line 6 UX2 Toneport, and quickly realized it was not the way to go for me. The thing even comes bundled with their Gearbox guitar processing software, and a stripped-down version of the Abelton Live recording program for less than two hundred bucks. Nevertheless, I found that I had very little patience to deal with the choppy playback and latency issues I was having, so I boxed it up and sent it right back to Amazon. Unfortunately, by this time, the Zoom that it was supposed to replace had already sold on eBay, and I just felt silly going out and buying another.
Besides, I think I got a great deal on the Tascam, due to a printing error on the unit which inspired me to start this blog in the first place:
No idea how they managed to miss a typo like this! it even says "Portastud" in a few places on the box, though it just has to be an error. The whole manual is filled with glaring mistakes as well...
boomp3.com
This thing is built like a tank with a solid metal housing, and is extremely user-friendly. I was able to knock out the demo at the bottom of this post in a couple hours, though it clearly needs a lot of polishing. In fact, I think I will probably re-record the whole thing again, since this was mainly an experimental session, and I've got a cold which you can clearly hear in the vocals. Another problem I am having is the fact that this is my only effects processor at the present time!
They make a version with built-in reverb, but that one records to an internal hard drive, which of course will eventuall die, not to mention the fact that it has to make some noise as it spins around furiously trying to record your demo.
My previous multitrack recorder, the Zoom MRS-8, had way more bells and whistles, including multi-effects and a built-in drum machine, but I was constantly baffled by it. I found myself pulling out the manual and pretty much starting from scratch every time I wanted to use it, thought I was happy with the ultimate quality of what I produced with it.
My original plan was to find an interface to record to my laptop, but I spent a day with the Line 6 UX2 Toneport, and quickly realized it was not the way to go for me. The thing even comes bundled with their Gearbox guitar processing software, and a stripped-down version of the Abelton Live recording program for less than two hundred bucks. Nevertheless, I found that I had very little patience to deal with the choppy playback and latency issues I was having, so I boxed it up and sent it right back to Amazon. Unfortunately, by this time, the Zoom that it was supposed to replace had already sold on eBay, and I just felt silly going out and buying another.
Besides, I think I got a great deal on the Tascam, due to a printing error on the unit which inspired me to start this blog in the first place:
No idea how they managed to miss a typo like this! it even says "Portastud" in a few places on the box, though it just has to be an error. The whole manual is filled with glaring mistakes as well...boomp3.com
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Welcome 2 Digital Portastud!
Hiya! Thanks for stopping in. This is a blog about music, home recording and songwriting--three things I've been obsessed with for the better part of three decades, though I have to admit I am much more of a enthusiast than a craftsman.
Les Paul once said that "just because you love something, doesn't mean you are any good at it." While this quote has a particular resonance with me, I guess the trick is to keep trying regardless, and hope you will eventually stumble on something through sheer force of will...
boomp3.com
(one of my favorite home recordings from the mid-'90s. Back when I had a full MIDI set up--Alesis MMT8 sequencer, Roland JX8P, Casio CZ-101, and an Emu Proteus sound module. Recorded to cassette 4-track.)
Les Paul once said that "just because you love something, doesn't mean you are any good at it." While this quote has a particular resonance with me, I guess the trick is to keep trying regardless, and hope you will eventually stumble on something through sheer force of will...
boomp3.com
(one of my favorite home recordings from the mid-'90s. Back when I had a full MIDI set up--Alesis MMT8 sequencer, Roland JX8P, Casio CZ-101, and an Emu Proteus sound module. Recorded to cassette 4-track.)
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