This was an exercise to practice placing vocals in a mix. I used GB vocal loops for the vocals on top of a home grown backing track I recorded this afternoon.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
'06 Rickenbacker 340
'08 Fender Jaguar bass
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Voices facilitated by GB, chopped and thrown against the wall like so much spaghetti
Drums programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
I've had pretty wicked writer's block for what seems forever. Work stress sucks. Here are a few of the most recent kicks at the can and assorted indulgences.
This started out a few months ago as '"Saturday Afternoon, Late One Spring'. Since then, I've played around with it, cleaning up parts and working to develop an interesting 'middle eight'. While it really needs to be edited down into something more cohesive, here's where it stands today. With this post, you can hear the development of an idea over a summer.
By the way, the Brian Wilson show we attended recently was pretty amazing. Poignant. What a master.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
Mid-'60s 330-style Kent bass
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Drums were looped, chopped up & re-voiced through GB
Rough bed tracks for a cover of The Grass Roots tune from 1968. This is one case we're I'd love to have a Les Paul with good humbuckers, as the Casino's P-90s don't have the "oomph", the clean dirt & sustain/heaviness this needs. The 360 has single-coil pups, too, so no humbucker sound there. Still, sounding OK so far. Note to self: Get a decent Les Paul ... one day.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
'01 Rickenbacker 360/6
'87 Guild GF-30 acoustic
Mid-'60s 330-style Kent bass
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
ElectroVoice Raven dynamic microphone
Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer
Drums programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
Built around the finger picking style and bass line of an old band tune we called "Big Star". The original tune was about our aspirations: "I wanna be a big star...." Here, I'm playing heavily with percussion loops, using multiple layers to determine how to weave the layers to best advantage.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'06 Rickenbacker 340 VP VB
'08 Fender Jaguar bass
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Drums were looped, chopped up & re-voiced through GB
At the time this was written, I was especially into Motown and this tune shows it. A very basic demo, as the roughly sketched lead line indicates, but it has the beginnings of a serious groove. The gigged version rocked.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
'06 Rickenbacker 340/6
'04 Rickenbacker 370/12
'08 Fender Jaguar bass
Drums were looped, chopped up & re-voiced through GB
'Happening' tunes go places and make you want to move, groove, shake,
or whatever you're all about. It's like the incidental music in a film
or on TV. You can just imagine something 'happening', then there's the
music sweeping you along.Here are two mixes of, roughly, the same demo. Each has its own great qualities.
The original demo was completed one Saturday/Sunday while chilling far away from the office in November 2011. I've never been able to recapture the drive of this mix ... which, of course, I did not document in any manner other than burning this recording:
This is a remix of the original demo from November 2011, with the addition of an additional track or two, including an acoustic guitar, and a thumb piano with a vibraphone morphed into a single sound. The sound is cleaner, but it has a different energy.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
'06 Rickenbacker 340/6
'04 Rickenbacker 370/12
'87 Guild GF-30 acoustic
'68 Gibson EB-0 Custom
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Drums were looped, chopped up & re-voiced through GB
I was thinking "London Calling" by The Clash, but then this happened. I'd been speaking with Murf, afore-mentioned creator of the Murfenbacker, about how Pete Townshend is able to create wonderful overtones and harmonics by layering his guitar tracks. That's why this tune ends in such a rich, multi-layered, harmonically aural experience ... (self larfs, etc.). This is another of those nasty AM radio-type mixes in which I excel, but I like to believe it's due to my 1970s, culturally rich childhood experience. And I did manage to find those overtones.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
'84-'87 E-Series Fender Stratocaster
'04 Rickenbacker 370/12
'06 Rickenbacker 340/6 VP VB
'68 Gibson EB-O Custom
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Percussion played and voiced through GB's Musical Typing
One afternoon in February 2011, I managed to get away from the office. I played with a mic and a mixing board, but when things weren't flowing I got silly and reverted to form: my Punk/New Wave roots. It's all about comfort zone, so I tracked a lead vocal in one of my silly voices, then a harmony vocal through a vocorder to get that ... well, you'll hear. An old music bud from the day provided the drums & synth.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'04 Epiphone Casino
Mid-'60s EB2-style Kent bass
ElectroVoice Raven dynamic microphone
Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer
Roland XV-88 synthesizer
Remaining instruments programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
I chose this early Who/Pete Townshend tune as an exercise to learn how to program drum patterns. Keith Moon ... there's an exercise in eloquently demented patterns! As an exercise, I think it turned out OK. I like the overdrive I managed on the lead guitar, the Murfenbacker. Nice sound. I tried to mix Townshend with early '70s glam. The bass is a mix of my old Gibson bass and keyboards morphed into a single bass sound. Thanks to Ray Manzarek et. al. for the idea.
That Murfenbacker.... Woodathunk that a homemade Ric copy, made from an old, weathered birch table top with a rock maple table leg for a neck, loaded with 1960s Sears-purchased Silvertone pickups could sound so nice!? My favourite guitar, hands down.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'01 Rickenbacker 360/6
'04 Rickenbacker 370/12
'86 Murfenbacker 6-string
'68 Gibson EB-O Custom
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Drums programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
A microphone against my wrist to record my pulse, then speed up the recorded result. The tune is my wonk on Love Sculpture's 1968 take of the Willie Dixon tune.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
This tune in progress really shows the wonk as it's happening. The tune is one I used to do with a band in Halifax back in the '90s. It never went anywhere, neither the band nor the tune, but I always liked the groove. It's slowed from it's original hyper speed, and a couple of parts are missing. That said, I think you'll get the idea. Apologies for the harsh mix. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to re-do it sooner than later.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'86 Murfenbacker 6-string
What is a Murfenbacker? It's a custom, luthier-built Rickenbacker 370/6-style guitar, crafted from a birch table leg and top, plus some sides that Welt had up in the truck. Yes, she was made from an old table that lived outside for countless-odd years. The fretboard is cherry with bubinga inlays and the three pickups are single coils from a '60s Beltone guitar. A bone nut (actually made from the leftovers of that night's dinner), hand-tooled brass hardtail tailpiece/bridge, and Gibson Custom tuners complete the set-up. She's currently strung with Pyramid Gold 11-gauge flatwounds and playing beautifully. The guitar was built by Murf Lively of NSCAD/Halifax back in the early 1980s.
Mid-'60s Kent bass
Kawai keyboard with voicings facilitated by GB
Remaining instruments programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
Another partial from last summer, 2010, that never made it to completion, though something tells me it will be finished this spring. Who knows, we'll see.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'01 Rickenbacker 360/6
'04 Rickenbacker 370/12
'68 Gibson EB-O Custom
Remaining instruments programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
This is part of an tune I wrote back in ancient times, but started to re-record last year after being prompted by someone who should know better. The "middle eight" section of the original is missing So, too, are the vocals. However, it does have that '80s percussion sound, especially the snare which is augmented with hand-claps.
Recorded using GarageBand and....
'86 Murfenbacker 6-string
Mid-'60s Kent bass
Kawai keyboard (found by the side of the street while walking home from work one day. All the lower register keys were broken or missing on receipt. Honest.)
Remaining instruments programmed & played through GB's Musical Typing
