Talkadelphia

This weekend I wrote a 30 second jingle for the Talkadelphia podcast. Talkadelphia is a Philly based weekly podcast with the stated mission of interviewing every single interesting person in Philadelphia. I met hosts of Talkadelphia, Gino and Kishwer, on January 1st, 2011 at Pecha Kucha Philly Vol. 7.

After the presentation I gave them my card and suggested that they interview me about TWT. Very forward, I know. Later that month Gino and Kishwer invited me over to talk about the Tendrils.



Then on May 27th, I received this request:

What is your song idea?
We'd love a jingle for our weekly podcast, Talkadelphia :)

describe your song in one word
jingle

I absolutely love writing Jingles and I was so happy to get this request from Talkadelphia. I wanted it to be up beat and short --not a full song. Just a teaser. Something they could play during the podcast in its entirety.

Day 1 - Saturday: I began by improvising on my uke. I settled on a short chromatic riff and recorded it using one of my Rhode NT5s. Then I double tracked it and looped it. After settling on the intro riff, I worked out some simple chords to play under it. I used the uke again, but this time I ran it through NI's Guitar Rig so that it sounded more like a weird electric guitar... I threw some drums under the track and recorded 3 vocal tracks of chanting "talk talk talk talk..." Then I went to bed.

Video has taught me that naps are an important part of the creative process.

Day 2 - Sunday: I woke up and deleted the chanting. I worked out a new melody and wrote most of the lyrics. I recorded a scratch vocal track and then turned my attention back to the music. Up to this point it was all ukulele and drums. Kind of a weird combination. I decided to record a bass part on electric piano. After listening to it a few times, I decided I had no idea what to do next so I took a nap. I woke up, deleted the electric piano part and recorded a synth bass instead then called it quits for the day.



Day 3 - Monday: I woke up and decided that while I wasn't that far off, it was getting way too crowded. I deleted most of the ukulele riff from the first day and almost all of the strumming, leaving the Uke only at the beginning and end of the song. I changed the lyrics and rerecorded the vocals with the new line "terry gross says that" and then dropping in the terry gross sample. Originally I was looking for a very short sample that fit my rhyming scheme, but then I gave up on that idea and instead went with a longer sample from an interview Terry did with Jon Stewart. I tightened things up a bit structurally deleting measures here and there until I got it to 30seconds. I listened to it a few more times and decided it was done.

3 days = 30 seconds. I think it turned out well though. I'm happy with it.

Singing in Japanese

I spent the three day weekend working on a jingle for the excellent Philadelphia podcast Talkadelphia. Three days of work and 30 seconds to show for it... (more on that later). Now I'm on to the next request. It's a good one.

What is your song idea?
"Most of you may not understand what I sing because I'm singing in Japanese. But I believe music is heart and music is soul. I'm very happy if you feel my heart and soul." ~Higuchi Makiko.

describe your song in one word
No-Borders

I always enjoy the song requests that turn me on to something new. I had never heard of Higuchi Makiko before. Here she performing somewhere on June 9th, 2008.



After using the synths and uke on the Talkadelphia song I felt like going back to my guitar. I envisioned a small song in three distinct parts. I recorded a few musical ideas on the guitar with one Rhode NT5 pointed at the sound hole about a foot away. I put some shaker and bass drum under the track and improvised some vocals. The vocals are recorded with my SM7B and there's a slap (16th note) delay on the lead vocal. It's getting late and I have other work to do tonight so I can't do much more with it now. I'm hearing a simple FM synth part playing bass notes in the beginning. Maybe some ooo's and ah's in the middle section and fuzz guitar at the end.

The lyrics are very much in process. On my mind is this episode of radio lab about the music inherent in language.



Hopefully, I'll get further tomorrow night. I have no idea what to make of the one word description "No-Borders". I'll have to begin with that next time I sit down with the song. Here's where I am right now:

Selling a friend: My CP-70

D and I are moving to California at the end of July. We've decided not to take a U-Haul across the country and instead sell all of our furniture and take only what we can fit in my VW Golf. It's going to be tight and we're unloading a lot of gear. 

To be honest it's nice to have the opportunity to go through all the musical instruments I've acquired over the years and prioritize. I won't miss my Behringer mixer, or my Epiphone Valve Jr. But then there are some instruments I will miss terribly. Like my Yamaha CP-70.

My Yamaha CP-70. Still in my studio... for now.

I first heard a CP-70 playing a show on April 4th 2005 at the Iron Post in Urbana Champaign. We shared the stage with an excellent band called "The Eleanors." We had brought my Wurlitzer 200a and they had brought the CP-70. It was a monster, and sounded absolutely gorgeous. It sounded like a cross between an electric piano and a baby grand piano. Which is exactly what it is. The CP-70 is a "portable" baby grand that disassembles into two pieces. It has electric pickups under each string and no soundboard as it is meant to be played electrically. It's a very unique instrument. We asked the Eleanors if we could play their monstrous keyboard during the show and they graciously agreed. I fell in love and began a 3 year off and on search for one.

Ronnie (on the right) plays a CP-70. April 4th, 2005.

It was difficult to find one locally. I regularly searched ebay and craigslist, and one day in 2008 I saw one listed at a reasonable price. I called the seller and picked it up that day. I had it tuned by a professional tuner about a week later. It took up most of our front room. The instrument is very very heavy. Each of the two pieces weigh about 150 lbs. I can't imagine gigging with this instrument. I'm amazed the Eleanors were able to do it. 

I've used the CP-70 on a few recordings. Like the ones below. But I mostly use it to write. It's the key board I go to first when working out chords or melodies. The action is very pleasant to the touch and the tone is nice and the volume is soft when it's not amplified. It's the perfect piano for apartment dwellers.

I love the tremolo, but rarely used it.

Yes Philadelphia. Acoustic CP-70 recorded haphazardly with a single SM57 in 2008.

We should self unite. Acoustic CP-70 recorded haphazardly with a single SM57 in 2008.

Love in Philadelphia. Electric CP-70 recorded direct into a the 1/8" input of my PC in 2008.

The Invitation. Electric CP-70 recorded direct into the 1/8" input of my PC in 2008.

The lullaby. Plucked CP-70 recorded with an SM-57.


I listed the piano on craigslist about 2 weeks ago and I've made an appointment to sell the instrument. I will miss it. It was a great piece of gear, and it was a lot of fun to own. I don't think I'll buy another when I get out to California. It's time for something else. Onward and upward!

Three Instrumentals

Songs are really more my thing, but from time to time I enjoy writing instrumental music. Here are three examples of instrumental pieces that I wrote over the past year.

ONE


On April 2nd my sister asked me to write music for a short (1.30) video. She sent me a .mov file and I wrote music to compliment the mood and timing of the images. I wanted an energetic yet minimalist feel. Something that felt both mechanized but also organic. I started by noodling on my acoustic guitar. Then I took those wave files, chopped them up and looped them. It's the loop which starts at the beginning and continues throughout the song. I added drums and a little synth and sent it to my sister to get her comments. Here's what she said...

It works really well with the video. I feel it the most around 16-36 seconds, when the synth tone comes in. I feel like the ending should be more melodic swell, less drums. It should pull the audience's heartstrings

...it wasn't quite right and I couldn't see how to fix it, so I restarted...

TWO


I ignored my sister's feedback about melody and swells and instead went back to work on my original vision of hyperactive minimalism and a combination of mechanistic and organic sounds. I wanted to turn the music around quickly so I decided to work entirely in midi. I began with a pizzicato string sound and a piano patch playing arpeggios. Then I punctuated the images in video with horns and percussion from logic's asian kit. There's also a ticking clock sound and a FM synth sound.

I like this version much better. I find it much more interesting, though ultimately neither version was used.

the ideal environ for writing music

THREE


I made this piece while riding Amtrak around the country with my wife. I was working on it as we were crossing the continental divide on our way from Chicago to San Francisco. I had brought my MacBook Pro and a very small midi controller and I spent much of the day working on music while Deirdre read.

I don't think I had any particular inspiration or reason for recording this music. I may have thought I would use it for a song. I can't remember. In any case, I wrote it and forgot about it until a couple days ago when I stumbled on the file and decided to post it to TWT.

FunkySoulJazzy

I'm trying to build up my songwriting momentum after being out of it for a while. Tonight I knocked out an interesting song request that I've been meaning to write for a while now. Here's what Dona asked for:

What is your song idea? I'm looking for something really funky and jazz like. I love the piano and guitar, so I'd like those to be in the rhythm. I want a really bassy song, so something with either electric bass, or tuba or trombone or some other bass instrument playing melody.
I'd just love for you guys to try, even if you guys aren't really jazz oriented.
Thanks a bunch! 

describe your song in one word funkysouljazzy

Well as much as I wish The Wiggly Tendrils were proficient in all styles of music, we aren't. I haven't a clue how to play jazz. And that's not for a lack of interest. My love of music started with jazz.

The first albums I bought with my own money were jazz albums: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; John Coltrane, Blue Train; Chet Baker, Chet... And if I had to choose one album to listen to for the next year, I'd probably go with Stevie Wonder's Musiquarium compilation. Mr. Wonder is my favorite male vocalist. My favorite female vocalist is Nina Simone. My interest in songwriting really came after realizing I was never going to be good enough to play jazz... I mean not even close. I had so much trouble trying to learn other people's music that I just decided it would be easier to write my own.

...well jazz and the Beatles. I listened to a lot of Beatles growing up too...

In any case, for whatever reason, I never developed the chops to play anything much more complex than root position chord shapes on the guitar. So I really wasn't sure what to do with this request. Initially I planned to play the instruments myself... but then I gave up on that and worked with samples instead.

a young man learns he has no chops.

I went through the sample bank in logic and settled on an acoustic bass sample, a drum sample, a guitar sample and a piano sample. Each of the 4 samples are pretty short. No more than 16 beats. I created variety by cutting up the samples and playing them in different orders and having them come in and out at different times. You can hear clicks in some of the places where I've made edits. It's tedious work, and I tend to be a bit sloppy. After I finished the music, I threw in some crowed noises under the music on a whim.

sample collage. tedious but fun.

The request didn't ask for lyrics or mention anything about possible subject matter, so I left it as an instrumental. All in all I think the recording turned out well for a night's work. I just wish I could actually play it!

Like A Bird In A Maze

I took some time off from writing this past month. At first I was just procrastinating as usual, but then I really enjoyed the break. I feel like I have a bit of perspective now on the music I've been writing this past year.

Plus my wife, Deirdre, just defended her PhD so we've had more time to hang out together --which has been awesome!

This weekend I decided to start writing for TWT again. I browsed through the list of open song requests and picked this one:

What is your song idea?Previous request, Space Whales, was so good that I'm compelled to ask again.
My friend is writing a Metroidish 8-bit style videogame with a snail for hero, which has a maze room you have to shoot and break open the path to get to an item, which has no enemies in it.
Her bird enemies fly through all objects like Medusa heads in Castlevania, so I joked "that room with the breakable maze to the helix piece, you could have birds fly through there too. since they can already fly through the ground why not brick walls too."
Anyways can you write a song about Birds In The Maze Room. Here's the cover art:
http://i51.tinypic.com/w01hyo.png 

describe your song in one word birdsinthemazeroom

I had started this song last month, but abandoned it. Originally I was writing 8-bit style video game music... but then I looked a little closer at the request and realized I was supposed to write a song about Birds In The Maze Room, not music for Birds In The Maze Room. Doah.

screenshot of birds in the maze room

This was my original take:


Deirdre suggested that the song be in a 50s style similar to Rocking Robin. I used her idea as a starting point and came up with a simple guitar riff in a 1-4-5 progression. I recorded the riff on an acoustic guitar using my new pair of Rhode NT5 small diaphragm condensers. I wasn't wild about the sound so I ran it through an octave effect and fuzz and looped it about 4 times. I wasn't sure what to do next so I just added stuff: a second strummed acoustic, a synth bass, harpsichord, two tambourines, and two drum beats. It was a mess.

Video is glad to be songwriting again. She naps, I rock.

I spent the next couple hours muting tracks, planning when each instrument should drop in and out. I decided to start by featuring the strummed acoustic guitar, then moving to the fuzzed riff, then featuring the bass and harpsichord, then going back to the acoustic. Changing the instrumentation gave it some sense of forward motion, which it needed since the song was just verse-verse-verse-verse.  Starting and ending with the acoustic guitar at least gave it some sense of return and resolution.

I jotted down some words and recorded the vocals through my SM7. The lead vocal has a slap echo and a bit of distortion. The background vocals are dry and in three part harmony. Pretty slapdash overall, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Here's the finished song (which sounds nothing like Rocking Robin).

Bowie

Friend and fellow Tendril, D. E. Healey, recently contributed a new song to the wiggly tendrils blog. DEH is one of my favorite songwriters and I was interested in his thoughts on his latest song.

Here's they are:

T.W. asked me to write a little bit about how I recorded the song forrequest #129. Here's more than anyone could ever want to know: 

The request was simply for a song about, "How David Bowie is awesome." 

For me, one of the main things that makes Bowie awesome is that he givesteenagers who are weirded out by themselves a chance to embrace thatawkwardness, try on wacky outfits, and generally be drama queens.

Trying to imagine a song that would capture that quality, I was remindedof "Lady Stardust," Bowie's own tribute to Marc Bolan of T. Rex.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkReR89J-gk)  I tried to use that song asa model for tone and arrangement.  I even appropriated the lines, "Oh, howI sighed when they asked if I knew his name," as my lyrical startingpoint. 

From that initial inspiration, I tried to adhere closely to the basicformula for a glam song that I've worked out over the years: 

0. Lyrics = Glam Mad-LibsGRADE: B. I tend to overwrite songs, but as my pal Stryker once pointedout, T. Rex lyrics are basically Glam Mad-Libs, and I think that holdstrue for most glitter rock.  I think I managed some relativelytossed-off-sounding lyrics. 

1. Make it catchy.GRADE: B-. I think the song turned out modestly catchy, mostly just theinstrumental bits.  The beginning of the chorus is sort of a non-event,sadly. 

2. Emote.GRADE: B+. I'm out of practice, but this vocal was fairly overwrought. 

3. MOST IMPORANT: Use the minor four chord a lot.GRADE: PASS. I leaned on that G-minor chord pretty hard. 

My attempts to ape '70s sounds were limited, as I'm not a skilledengineer, but I did put my wallet on my snare drum to try to deaden thesound; I remembered those old Bowie records having the hardest, tubbiestsnare sounds in the world. I used two overhead mics on the drum kit whichI panned hard to either side.  I notice now that the crash cymbal has alittle bit of phasing going on.  I think that's because I put theoverheads at two different heights above the floor; I think that'stechnically a no-no. 

In retrospect, my drum and lead guitar parts may owe more to T. Rex thanto Bowie, and my bass part isn't nearly nimble or groovy enough.  The songisn't a masterpiece, but I hope it's a fun bit of nostalgia and anon-embarrassing tribute.
Enjoy,

D. E. Healey

Enjoy the song here:

How To Paint An Owl

I wrote this song after reading a blog post by Juliette Crane about a painting she was working on.

In addition to selling her own beautiful paintings, Juliette teaches in person and online mixed media workshops. Her online class "How To Paint An Owl" includes several time-lapse videos that follow her paintings from start to finish. I've seen a few segments and they are gorgeous documents of the creative process. Quite inspiring.

Juliette asked if she could use music from The Wiggly Tendrils in her videos (we of course said yes), but I felt she should have a song of her own. So I sat down to write this tune.

Working out the lyrics for "How To Paint An Owl"

I knew I wanted the chorus to be the title of Juliette's e-course "how to paint an owl." Reading Juliette's blog I saw her post about an unfinished painting I was struck by the starless night above the main character. That starless night and the lamppost reminded me of C. S. Lewis's description of the beginning of Narnia. I was imagining that the beginning a painting must be like the beginning of the world, and I thought the picture looked so right just there in its unfinished form. I had to write about it.

12 years old and still sounding good

Once the song was written, I recorded it on my new Portastudio 414 cassette 4-track. I haven't gotten around to buying any new cassette tapes, so I used a 12 year old Maxel XLII tape that I had used to bootleg a concert. Considering the tape's age, I'm amazed this recording sounds as good as it does. 

I recorded two tracks of acoustic guitar. One with a capo and one without. Then two tracks of vocals. For the higher harmony part, I used the pitch control to pitch the song up while recording it, then slowed it back down on play back. It makes the vocal sound a bit heavy and lethargic. There's something interesting about hearing the higher vocal part in a slightly slowed down tone. I will definitely try that again.

The Portastudio has stereo RCA outs, but I only could find one of my RCA to quarter inch mono adaptors. I imported each track into logic one at a time and mixed the recording in logic. I added some compression, EQ and reverb to each track and then bounced it down to wave.

Here it is:

Portastudio 414

I bought a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder last week, the Portastudio 414. A college friend of mine had a similar machine (the 424) and we used to record covers of Billy Bragg and Wilco songs. A few years later I started writing my own music. I got a Sony mini disc recorder and recorded a few horrible demos of my first band... Demos that I have just recently rediscovered in a box full of cassette tapes that I've been moving around with me over the past 10 years.

Song Idea and Various Demos

I started recording a song on the Tascam tonight, but didn't finish it. Here are my initial thoughts:

1. I'm refreshingly out of my comfort zone. I've already accidently played a take without hitting record, recorded silence over a take I wanted to keep, and recorded a take at the wrong tape speed. Yeah learning!
2. Everything sounds different, and that is inspiring.
3. Rewind. I forgot all about rewinding. I spend a lot of time rewinding.

Stay tuned for the finished song...

Tascam Portastudio 414 4-Track Cassette Recorder

Spring Won't You Come

This song began with lyrics by fellow tendril, Terrance G. Terrance and I have collaborated on five songs now, and I think they've all turned out nicely. I'm particularly proud of "Farmageddon" and "My Onetime Friend". Here's how the collaboration works, Terrance sends me an email with lyrics and some musical ideas, and then I do my best to mold the lyrics into a song. I enjoy working this way because I normally start with the melody and fit the words together afterwards. Working with lyrics first gets me out of my normal writing habits and forces me in some new and interesting directions. Here are the words Terrance sent:

Spring,
Spring won't you come?
Come out and wake up the flowers
Show us your colours!

Sun,
Sun won't you rise?
Rise up high above the clouds
and warm up our faces

I like the simplicity and the repetition. That's really what you need from good song lyrics. In Terrance's lyrics I thought it was interesting that he repeated the last word in the second line, as the first word in the third line. Quite cool. I like to imagine that if you were to lift a song's lyrics off the page, that somehow all the words would still fit together. That each part is connected to the whole. That each word is held in the song by meter, meaning, consonance, assonance, and rhyme. That's the effect I go for more than any particular rhyme or metrical scheme. Just a sense that everything connects... Here's my version:

spring won't you come
come and wake up the flowers
flowers with their colors
colors of the sun

Sun won't you rise
high above the clouds
wake up all the flowers
sleeping in the ground

In the first verse I use Terrance's trick. Each line begins with the last word of the previous line. To my ears all the words hold together even without a single rhyme. Quite a cool effect. In the second verse I have some parallel construction with the first verse, but now I'm using rhyme instead of repetition to hold things together. Really it's just the slant/rhyme of the words "clouds" and "ground" but it's enough to get that sensation of something clasping shut as the verse ends.

Here's the recording...

Vegetarians (Thank God I Ain't One)

While I'm OK with the lyrics and melody on this song, I think the recording is pretty awful. It's like a bad sandwich made badly from bad ingredients. I was rushing and it shows. I started writing the song around 7pm on Thursday night and finished the recording around 10pm. The song needed to be submitted to baconfest by noon on Thursday, so I had to get it done.

Guitar
I used one mic, an SM57 pointed at the neck of the guitar around the 12th fret. I'm not into this sound. The sound of the guitar at the beginning of "Fifty" is much better.

Drums percussion
They're drum and percussion loops from logic. I didn't spend much time selecting loops that made sense with the song. And I have them dropping in and out at weird times. Sort of disorienting and distracting. Once the drums drop out at the end, I like the track much better.

Vocals
I sang all the vocals into an SM57. I was just too lazy to set up a second mic. I didn't use a windscreen on the lead track and you can tell. There's a nasty mic distortion. This is especially apparent when the guitar drops out at the start of the second chorus. The SM57 sounds OK on the background vocals (where I used the windscreen), I'll probably use it again to give some contrast.

Organ
I wanted something in the bass register so I laid down a midi organ track. The part isn't very inspired, but it fills out the spectrum a bit.

Mix
I think more than anything else it's the mix that bothers me on this track. It's hard for me to put my finger on, but something about it is bad. Actually, this is an area where I need to spend more time and focus. These are three incredibly basic things that I know I need to do:

1. First, I need to get out of the habit of writing, recording and mixing in one sitting. By the time I get to the mix my ears are shot. I can't hear anything with any objectivity.
2. Second, I need to stop mixing on headphones. This really follows from the point above. Because I tend to write/record/ and mix in one sitting I end up mixing very late. I use the headphones because my recording set up is located above my landlord's bedroom and I don't want to wake him.
3. Third, I need to A/B my mixes. This is so basic and obvious. I'm embarrassed to admit I never do it... (hmmm... what should I use?)

Lyrics
I thought about posting this song with a disclaimer, or writing a partner song about vegetarianism. I have a lot of respect for vegetarians, and I have difficulty justifying my omnivorous lifestyle. I suppose I'm just nutritionally reckless at this point in my life. I don't actually thank god that I'm not a vegetarian, and in fact, someday I would like to be one. Or at least make rational decision about what I ingest. . . I'll let it sit for a bit, but I think I owe the universe a second song along these lines.

Fifty

This song was written for a 50th birthday party. I wrote most of the words earlier in the week and started recording yesterday around noon. I finished a little before 8pm. I wanted a "spirit in the sky" type sound, but ended up going in a completely different direction.

The "Fifty" background vocal continues throughout the entire song after the first chorus. I imagined it as sort of a sing along, though I don't think it worked out that way. The background vocals are too echoey to sing along with. They're more of an atmospheric thing.

I wish that the "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" part in the chorus was "Dean and Barbara" instead. But I thought of that after I'd already sent out the song. Also, I recorded a short bridge after the second chorus, but ended up cutting it in order to get the song done in time for the party. Here's a summary of the tracks...

Drums:
Logic comes with loads of techno and two-step beats, but it doesn't have much in the way of rock and swing. I end up going to the same loops again and again. For this song I used the 60s Shuffle Drumset 01. I used this beat on Farmageddon and remembered liking it.  I set the tempo to 135bpm for this song, and as I continued recording I realized this drum sample just does not rock at this tempo. I messed around with it a bunch (chopped it up, distorted it, etc.) but finally ended up deleting most of it, and putting it way back in the mix. To me it just sounded stale so I thought it was better to go without drums for most of the song. I used tambourines and shakers to compensate.

Someday (when I don't live above my landlord) I'll buy a drum-set and learn to play.

Acoustic Guitar:
There are two stereo tracks of acoustic guitar. One is muted and dry, the other is strummed and very wet. I recorded both the same way: SM57 around the 12th fret and a SM7B at the bridge. The mics were 180 out of phase, so I inverted the SM57 at the pre-amp. I tuned the guitar down a whole step and put a capo on the second fret to make the strings a little more slack. I wanted something that sounded kind of slack, dead, and sloppy. I just wish I could have gotten that same feel in the drums.

Electric Guitar:
I have a complex relationship with distortion. I love the way it sounds, and hate the way it makes everything else sound. I'm always searching for fuzz that fits in the track. For this song, I tried to use my Zvex fuzz factory to dial in a fuzz sound. I found plenty of cool sounds, but I didn't like the way they sounded in the song. Plus the drums weren't rocking, so I ditched the fuzz guitar, and went for a clean sound. The guitar here is subtle, and really just shows up for a bit in the second chorus.

Zipper fuzz sound. So cool, but alas...

Wurlitzer:
I envisioned a more complete electric piano part, but I'm a poor keyboard player and I wanted to get the song done in time for the birthday party. I ended up just using it for the bass notes. I like the way it sounds as the bass. The notes are really uneven, and I think that gives it a cool sound.

Vocals:
I used my AKG 414 and SM7B for the back and fourth section at the beginning. I like the SM7B, but I managed to dial in a pretty wonky sound with the AKG. The background vocals are done with the SM7B. I used the presence boost and bass roll off for everything. If I had been thinking about it, I probably would have only used the presence boost on the lead vocal. But I was moving quickly and wasn't really thinking about it. . . There's lots of reverb and echo on the background vocals, and I was having fun singing harmony into all that cacophony. I expect I'll do a lot more of that in future songs.

Sony TC-650

A very generous friend lent me an amazing thing. It's a 1/4inch reel to reel stereo tape recorder. What fun! I've had a little time to mess around with it and here's what I've learned.

• The mic and line inputs work in the left channel, but not the right. (RCA and two 1/4 inch mono inputs)
• The machine will play audio from both channels from headphone and line outs. (RCA and one 1/4 inch stereo output)
• While I can monitor the inputs from the left channel --it doesn't seem to record. So far I've only managed to record silence over what's already on the tape. Hopefully this is a user error.
• Two tape speeds: 7.5ips and 3.75 ips.
• The reel to reel tapes sound fantastic to me. They sounds like, well... they sound like old tapes.

Right now my plan is to listen to a stack of reel to reel tapes that my friend "lent" me and then cut them up to make loops of various lengths. I've never done anything like this before so it will be an adventure. Whatever comes of it (song or sound collage) it'll be fun. I'll post sound files when I have some.

Phantom: Getting Off The Grid

Over the past year I've grown to love midi. Midi has given me access to sounds from instruments that I don't have, can't play, or don't exist. Plus, with midi I don't have to play anything correctly. It's easy enough to fix a take by dragging the notes around on the piano roll. Midi is wonderful fun, and I'm so so tired of it!

In my last few songs, I've been determined to get off the piano roll. It takes a little longer to put the music together, but I'm having fun playing real instruments again. Today I finished a song called Phantom. Here's a run down of the tracks and how they were recorded.

Interestingly, I didn't use any condensers on this track. All the mics are dynamic.

Drums
I started with Drums. The beat is from my Korg/Univox SR-120 drum machine. This is a weird little device from the 1970s. The drum sounds are shaped noise like a synth (not samples), and it's not programmable. It has 13 rhythms: Rock, Tango, Polka, Foxtrot, March, Slow Rock, Swing, Bossanova, Beguine, Rumba, Mambo, Samba and Waltz. Each rhythm has 2 variation --except for Rock which appropriately has 8. What makes this device super interesting is that you can hold down several rhythms at once, and that's what I did for this track. I set the controls to Rock and Waltz at the same time. Instead of creating a 3 against 4 rhythm it played this cool truncated rock beat. Originally I imagined the song would be in 4/4, but I was so taken with this weird 3/4 rhythm I decided to go with the waltz tempo.

I went direct into logic and then messed around with different reverb and compression settings until I got something I liked. I wish I could have gotten the individual drums on separate tracks, but I don't think it's possible with this machine.

Guitar
I recorded two tracks of acoustic guitar. One with a capo half way up the neck. Sort of a poor man's 12string I guess. I recorded the guitars with the same mic placement: a SM57 around the 12th fret and my SM7B pointed at the body just below the bridge. I usually use one mic when recording acoustic guitar so this was a bit of an experiment for me. I managed to place the mics 180 degrees out of phase and they sounded thin and terrible until I flipped the phase of the SM57. Check it out:

Wurlitzer

This is where the four note "la la la la" arrived. I don't have a bass guitar so I decided to use my Wurlitzer 200A instead. I just love this keyboard, it's noisy, gnarly, and filled with hiss pops and scratches. Yet somehow it cleans up nice and isn't distracting in the mix. I recorded it direct from the line output and left it dry to give it a little contrast with the CP70.

Yamaha CP70 Piano

This thing is a monster. It's a "portable" electro/acoustic piano that comes apart in two pieces. Kind of hard to explain. Better to just watch this. Anyway, it's the sound you hear at the very top of the track. To me it sounds like a cross between an acoustic piano and rhodes or wurlitzer. Very unique. The instrument is quiet and records well, though it can have a bit of a piezo on the attack that I find a bit harsh. Also, the strings are shorter than a normal piano and the harmonics on the bass notes sound nasty. I'd love to have a real piano, but it's just not possible while I'm still living in apartments.

I played the CP70 with the pedal down and recorded it direct from the FX send. I was just too lazy to reach around the back of the instrument and plug in an XLR. I put a bunch of reverb on it to give things a sense of space during the chorus --especially where the drums drop out.

Vocals

I used my SM7B for all the vocals on this track. I've been really liking it recently. The mic takes a lot of gain and I had my FMR RNP cranked up to 11 here. Unfortunately the RNP is pretty noisy at those levels, especially after I've compressed the track, so I have a noise gate on. The lead vocals are pretty dry. One track has a bit of delay and the other has some reverb.

The background vocals were recorded the same way but they're effected heavily with a backwards reverb into a tremolo.

Trumpet

There's a little trumpet at the end. I just felt like adding one more thing I suppose. The two note line is made of the only two notes I can play. I used to be an OK player in middle school, but those days are long gone. I bought this instrument for 60 bucks at a thrift shore years ago. I'm glad I got a chance to use it.

I didn't think much about mic choice or set up. I just blew into the SM7B and put some reverb and delay on it.

Hello World!

"Showers of frogs and blizzards of snails—gushes of periwinkles down from the sky—"

From Lo! by Charles Fort