Tag: Songwriting

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!

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.

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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My Eyes Play Better Than My Hands

Have you heard the expression, “my eyes are bigger than my stomach”? Meaning I put more food on my plate than I could actually eat? I have coined a guitar playing version of that statement. My eyes play better than my hands. Let me explain.

I am up to seven songs this month. Three of them were written in the dead of night using the built in instrument sounds in the iPad version of Garageband. Today I replaced the fake, software guitar parts with an actual real live guitar. On one song I was almost forced to stick with the crappy fake software. I came up with a funky little riff that was standing out above most of the others in my little head. I thought it was pretty snazzy. When I tried to play it today I couldn’t. It was beyond my abilities at this time. I’ve no doubt that back in 1995 of 2004 I could have nailed the sucker over and over again, but today? With my playing chops as weak as they are? Nope. I couldn’t do it.

I did find a work around though. It was in two parts. First, and most importantly, I practiced the little bastard over and over again for almost an hour. Over and over again. I got to the point where I could play it, but I couldn’t quite play it cleanly four times in a row as the song required. That’s where the second work around came in. It is a huge cheat. An epic cheat. A cheat for all ages. It’s also standard practice in a recording environment. I played the riff once then stopped. I then started the recording on the second measure of the phrase and played it again. I repeated until I had the whole thing comped together. I now have a complete recording of the entire phrase that is, while not perfect, good enough for my needs.

Am I a cheater? Oh you bet your sweet ass I am. In this respect, me and everyone else on the planet.

June Music Continues

I’m up to five songs. Four were written on the Strat, one using MIDI on the iPad. One has vocals. I tried working on a second vocal tonight but didn’t have time.

You’d think with all this guitar playing I’d be getting my chops up. Nope. It’s the opposite. I’m getting worse by the minute.

I’ve got a goofy idea for this month. I’m going to do all the recording on the iPad then port everything to the Mac for mixing. But… I’m thinking of doing an actual mix on the iPad too, and then putting both mixes of each song onto the bandcamp playlist.

What do you think? Too lame?

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June Music

It’s June 2nd. I’ve tortured you by making you wait a whole day for a June Music update! I’m sorry!

Yesterday I stitched together three ideas. I don’t really have a theme this month, but so far everything is 100% iPad (that won’t last), 100% Strat (that probably will last), and almost, but not quite, bluesy. Well, 1.5 of the new things at least.

All three are ready for vocals. Can you believe that? I wanted to write lyrics for one of them before work today but I decided to sleep an extra 15 minutes and then leave a little early instead.

That plan fell apart as epically as most of my music plans do. I was in the car at 7:15 on my first day back from vacation and the damn thing wouldn’t start. I had to call for a tow, and of course the tow truck driver got the sucker running almost immediately. It was fine all the way to work and back. The turd.