Tag: Garageband

Stolen Melody

Yes, yes I know. The guitar melody sounds a lot like the jazz standard “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” I understand and I’m sorry, but it’s so rare that I come up with an instrumental melody that I just have to run with it when I get one.

The vocals… what happened. This was the first time I recorded vocals into a GarageBand file using an iPad in over two years. I think I have now figured out why it’s so thin and awful, but it’s too late to fix it now. It shouldn’t happen on any of the vocals I record from now on, but there might be one or two already in the can that have the same issue.

The lyrics are about feeling old and useless. Nothing major.

I used the GarageBand Drummer on the Mac Mix, but I don’t think it deviated that much from the iPad version.


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And here is the iPad version.

Hyperactive Drums

First off, the inspiration for the lyric was my MacBook Pro being unable to connect to my wireless mouse. I kid you not, that’s where it started. It sort of evolved into a fictional account of one of my customer’s network about to crash. I am an uber nerd and I am proud of it.

When I originally worked this out on my iPad I had it set for ¾ time. I should have set it for 6/8. I wanted an eighth note pulse. Instead of fixing things properly, I kept it on ¾ and drastically increased the tempo. Close enough.

Then I ported the file over to my Mac and tried to replace my shitty drums with GarageBand’s Drummer.

Oh yeah… that ridiculously fast tempo. Somehow though… I like the hyperactive drums. Let’s keep it! Rawk!


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And for comparison sake, here is the iPad version.

A Sort of Almost New Song… Sort Of

I had a neat idea for a riff but I was busy doing other things and couldn’t record it for future reference. When I did get a chance to sit down with a guitar later that night I couldn’t quite remember it. I came up with something that was in the ball park and that became the verse in the song I posted last night. The next night the forgotten riff came back to me and it became the chorus on this song. Hence the reason why the two little suckers sound so similar.


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And here is the iPad mix. I used the drummer function when I mixed on the Mac, which is why the drums will sound seriously different on this mix. Everything else is similar, although all of the processing is different.

The First Mac Mix

Duck and cover kids, here come the Mac Mixes.

This that song that I couldn’t play the riff for, yet again. While working on the Mac I reserve the right to change the drum sounds and the bass sounds, and to change all the signal processing on the guitars and vocals. Also, I reserve the right to replace the drum parts with the GarageBand Drummer function, although I didn’t do that on this song.

I did change the drum sound and the bass sound, although I just ended up using the Mac version of the same bass sound I used on the iPad. They are close to the same, but the Mac version just sounded a little fatter. The only change I made to the guitar was to swap the panning. The rhythm guitar is doubled with each one panned most of the way to either left or right. One of the tracks used the neck pick up on the Strat, the other used the middle pick up. On the iPad version the neck pick up was to the left. On the Mac version it is to the right. For the vocals I changed the preset and the EQ. I also added compression to the drums, the bass, and both vocal tracks, and to the full mix. Just a little on the mix.

Here is the new mix…

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For comparison, here is the iPad mix (again)…

Another June Song

I finished another song today. This was the third song I started this month. At the time it was sort of a throw away. The first two ideas I had had me kind of optimistic. I had a Straty 12-bar with a riff that was too reminiscent of Goodbye Porkpie Hat, but it was cool. The second song had a decent Straty sounding riff. I liked it. The third song… blah.

Now that it’s finished though… I kinda like it.

Slight Musical Change in Plans

The plan for June was 10 songs with all of the guitar parts played on the Strat.

That will still happen, but…

There will be two additional songs. One is a three part suite type thing. It uses my lovely Takamine 12-string and my magical Gibson ES 335. The other song is all 12-string right now, but it’ll probably get some Strat later.

Here’s to musically biting off more than you can chew! 50/90 is two weeks away!

Two New Songs

I have two new iPad mixes done.

This first one is one that I believe I wrote about before. I wrote the riff I used in the chorus using the “software” instruments in GarageBand. Then when it came time to record the actual guitar part it was too difficult for me to play. I had to work on it quite a bit before I got it down. Then, like a doofus, I decided to double track the part and had to do it all again.

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There’s nothing particularly special about the second song except that I made the lyrics up on the spot. Therefore they are completely meaningless. I’ve been doing that a lot this month. No trips to @floridaman yet.

Recording

I did a little recording tonight. I put the rhythm guitar onto one of the two songs that were still guitar free, and I put the leads onto two songs that are now finished and ready to iOS mix.

My playing is poor. Very poor. It’s only been a couple of weeks or so since last I played and tonight it was just difficult. I wonder if I took out the Les Paul would I have an easier time.

I also have an urge to write an extra song this month and make it proggy and long as opposed to the bluesier, acidy feel for most of this month’s crap.

We shall see, but I can almost see a GarageBand for iOS file with some 12-string tracks. Almost. Again, we shall see.

June Music Lull

Well the June Tunes have definitely slowed down over the past week. There are 10 plus the one May left over. Three total are finished but only the iPad mixes at this point. I hope to make good progress in the next couple of days.

Until then, want to hear something? How about the goofy May left over?

Wasn’t that fun? Of the 11 songs, three are 12-bars because that’s the mood I’m in. Wait… Is it three or four? I can’t remember.

Want another?

Fun, eh? Everything is still 100% iOS. How about one more for the road? This is the first song I’ve ever recorded entirely on a telephone. There will be another soon, but for now this is it.

I’m writing this post using the WordPress app on my iPad. Here’s hoping the audio tags work, eh?

That’s three songs down. Eight more to go, and then I remix ’em all. Hooray for bad music!

A GarageBand First

I said I was going to do all of the recording this month using GarageBand on my iPad. That’s mostly correct.

I just finished doing something that I’d never done before. I have a song that is recorded 100% on my iPhone. Drums and bass are GarageBand MIDI tracks. There are also two tracks of guitar, the Strat, and three tracks of vocals.

It’s rough, but everything this month is rough. I’m just glad I was able to sneak in a vocal today before this SOB of a cold ruins what little voice I have.

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