Let the Crow Soar represents my singing debut (no laughing allowed). The title is a play on the former Attorney General John Ashcroft's Let the Eagle Soar but the resemblance to that classic stops there. It's just that I thought crows needed a song too. Why should eagles get all the glory. My crow actually doesn't do much soaring, mostly he grabs shiny objects and pecks at roadkill but, hey, that's what crows do.
Before this tune, I hadn't attempted to sing anything since, like, grade school (not even karaoke). So I used every trick I could think of to make my voice at least listenable. I have an electric piano backing the vocals note for note to help with the illusion that I'm hitting the notes (or at least near missing). I've also pumped the vocal track through a software amp, eq'd out some of the low end and added compression and reverb. I just got a new reverb plugin for Logic from a company called Wave Arts. It sounds pretty good. In this case, I was going for an outdoor feel and I wanted to keep it rough on the edges.
Another thing I did to get the best vocal performance possible was to sing one line at a time. I would loop the backing tracks, sing the same line about a dozen times and pick the one that sounded best. Then I pieced the lines together.
The other melodic elements are electric guitar, bass and electric piano. I spent considerable time working on the sound. I wanted each to retain some kind of character of a crow squawk. The electric guitar, however, is the real squawker.
I brought in a couple of friends, Kim and Greg, to sing backup vocals. After a few glasses of wine, I managed to get some pretty good stuff from them. No golden voices but this isn't a song for golden voices.
I built the song around a couple of drum loops, but once it was arranged, I played the drums straight through. Admittedly I did a little splicing and editing but mostly it's a single performance.
Here are the lyrics:
Black, black in flight
A shadow in the air
Here it comes, diving down
Snatch that ribbon from her hair
On the wing, pressing up
A talon clutching gold
Flying high, headed home
But there’s something in the road
A plunge, a swoop, a dip
Alighting on the ground
Pecking flattened furry meat
Dancing all around
With a steel smile and glowing eyes
A roaring monster comes
Flapping hard, a blast of smoke
The crow was nearly done
Chorus:
Tumble, flail, squawk
Rolling in the wind
Tumble, flail, squawk
The crow takes flight again
Refrain: Pecking flattened furry meat, dancing all around
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Din Don Dub
Taking a little break from yacking about my stuff ...
One of the great things about archive.org is the serendipitous chancing upon some hidden gem. (Although this is getting more difficult as the amount of stuff being uploaded has become so vast and the browsing capabilities of the site are limited.) One such gem is a tune called Din Don Dub, a wonderfully layered combination of nature sounds and electronic effects. It has a slow-paced, syncopated rhythm. It sounds as if the audio signal of much of the drums and other elements is reversed. Sometimes that technique comes across as gimmicky but here it works to excellent effect, giving the song a non-human yet organic feel.
There's no information on the artist, Gery Petit. The CC license is French and a quickie Google search reveals that maybe he's music producer in the French film industry.
Beautiful, hypnotic and haunting, I think the tune touches something that's difficult to describe. Enjoy.
One of the great things about archive.org is the serendipitous chancing upon some hidden gem. (Although this is getting more difficult as the amount of stuff being uploaded has become so vast and the browsing capabilities of the site are limited.) One such gem is a tune called Din Don Dub, a wonderfully layered combination of nature sounds and electronic effects. It has a slow-paced, syncopated rhythm. It sounds as if the audio signal of much of the drums and other elements is reversed. Sometimes that technique comes across as gimmicky but here it works to excellent effect, giving the song a non-human yet organic feel.
There's no information on the artist, Gery Petit. The CC license is French and a quickie Google search reveals that maybe he's music producer in the French film industry.
Beautiful, hypnotic and haunting, I think the tune touches something that's difficult to describe. Enjoy.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Pondicherry Cutie
Here's one I put together about a year ago - Pondicherry Cutie. It's my first full song with Logic, basically learning the ropes of it's FM synthesizer. After I had gotten the theme down, it struck me as something I'd heard before. Then it came to me, it reminded me of Horace Silver's "Calcutta Cutie." Side by side comparison revealed it wasn't really a rip-off, just a similar feel. Hey, it's not like Steely Dan when they stole Silver's bass line from "Song For My Father" and used it in "Rikki Don't Lose That Number."
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Salty
For some reason, an old (year and half) song of mine is attracting a lot of downloads at archive.org: Salty. In the last month or so it's gone from around 20 downloads to 160, making it my third most downloaded song after Zigong Blues (656) and Bad Buddhist (394).
Don't know why exactly. It's a pretty low-fi GarageBand effort. It's a simple arrangement around a bass loop with piano and trumpet. Mainly I wrote it as an exercise to help improve the timing of my drumming. When I started recording against loops, I had discovered my tempo keeping was pretty weak. The computer doesn't lie. With Salty, I would come down to my basement studio, load up GarageBand, hit record and do a take or two. Eventually I got a pretty solid version which is what you hear on the song. However, at the time I was still recording with a cheap stereo mic and my old kit so the drums lack clarity and punch. The fills came across pretty well though and they have nice retro sound and feel.
I do like the song. I wouldn't have posted it otherwise. But why the sudden interest? A Google search doesn't reveal any cites of the song in the blogs or someplace. Not that I mind. Just curious.
Don't know why exactly. It's a pretty low-fi GarageBand effort. It's a simple arrangement around a bass loop with piano and trumpet. Mainly I wrote it as an exercise to help improve the timing of my drumming. When I started recording against loops, I had discovered my tempo keeping was pretty weak. The computer doesn't lie. With Salty, I would come down to my basement studio, load up GarageBand, hit record and do a take or two. Eventually I got a pretty solid version which is what you hear on the song. However, at the time I was still recording with a cheap stereo mic and my old kit so the drums lack clarity and punch. The fills came across pretty well though and they have nice retro sound and feel.
I do like the song. I wouldn't have posted it otherwise. But why the sudden interest? A Google search doesn't reveal any cites of the song in the blogs or someplace. Not that I mind. Just curious.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Beaver Crossing
Continuing with my animal stories thing, although I'm not sure where it's going, I came up this song, Beaver Crossing. (Note that you can now stream the latest song with the player to the left.) It was influenced by two records I've been enjoying lately. One is "Colossal Youth" by the Young Marble Giants which is a very minimalist and subdued, sort of proto-post-punk, recording put out in 1980. It's got great texture and resists all temptation to move into some "big sound." (A temptation I rarely can resist.)
The other influence is a wonderful CD called "Jin Jin/Firefly" by Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman. It's very different from "Colossal Youth" in that it's melodically and harmonically complex, but it shares the minimalist feel in terms of instrumentation. In this case, two guitars and occasional percussion. The sound is surprising mixture of Okinawan and Hawaiian folk and Western pop. Both Hirayasu and Brozman are acoustic guitar virtuosos.
So with Beaver Crossing, I chose an electric bass that's got a bit of a plucked sound (resembling Young Marble Giants' bass), a software kit of African percussion, a ukulele and one of my software instrument favorites, the Chinese muon moon guitar where I make full use of its note-bending capabilities. I settled on using A & B sixths chords and add F# later on. This pretty much puts it in the key of F#. The ukulele strums chords mainly while the Chinese guitar picks the melody. The sound kind of has a bluesy Hawaiian flavor.
In keeping with the minimalist theme, there's only four tracks and no fancy effects. Or almost none. Using tip from the latest issue of EMusician magazine, I set up four bus tracks for reverb panned to the opposite side of their respective instruments. For example, the Chinese guitar is panned to the right but its reverb is panned to the left. The reverse is true for the ukulele. I kept the reverb low-key so the effect is subtle but I think it adds a nice depth to the overall mix.
The effect is pretty much lost when streaming. To hear it, you'll need to download the mp3.
The other influence is a wonderful CD called "Jin Jin/Firefly" by Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman. It's very different from "Colossal Youth" in that it's melodically and harmonically complex, but it shares the minimalist feel in terms of instrumentation. In this case, two guitars and occasional percussion. The sound is surprising mixture of Okinawan and Hawaiian folk and Western pop. Both Hirayasu and Brozman are acoustic guitar virtuosos.
So with Beaver Crossing, I chose an electric bass that's got a bit of a plucked sound (resembling Young Marble Giants' bass), a software kit of African percussion, a ukulele and one of my software instrument favorites, the Chinese muon moon guitar where I make full use of its note-bending capabilities. I settled on using A & B sixths chords and add F# later on. This pretty much puts it in the key of F#. The ukulele strums chords mainly while the Chinese guitar picks the melody. The sound kind of has a bluesy Hawaiian flavor.
In keeping with the minimalist theme, there's only four tracks and no fancy effects. Or almost none. Using tip from the latest issue of EMusician magazine, I set up four bus tracks for reverb panned to the opposite side of their respective instruments. For example, the Chinese guitar is panned to the right but its reverb is panned to the left. The reverse is true for the ukulele. I kept the reverb low-key so the effect is subtle but I think it adds a nice depth to the overall mix.
The effect is pretty much lost when streaming. To hear it, you'll need to download the mp3.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Doby Coyote
I just posted my latest, Doby Coyote, a running eight-bar bass line built on a B-flat seventh chord with drums and various instruments providing the melody. The bass line doesn't change throughout, a habit I've tried to move away from, but somehow this one has a compelling, rolling quality that resisted my efforts to add variation. (I may perhaps be reaching the limits of my current skills.) When the back-beat kicks in, the song's a head bobber. It just seems to want to keep going.
The genesis of the song began with an idea that I had to write a series of stories using animals as characters. The stories would be written sort of like Zen koans or parables, and they'd have commentary like traditional texts. The main character I imagined to be a young coyote named Doby and the parables would chronicle his adventures. The stories, I figured, would be accompanied by music. This song is Doby Coyote's theme. As a theme to return to at various points, I'm quite happy with it. I'm not sure how strong it is as a stand-alone song. But those who have heard it really seem to like it, so I posted it. I hope I kept it interesting my mixing up the instrumentation and moving from acoustic in the first part to electric in the second.
In case anybody's interested, here's a draft of the story I wrote that inspired the song:
-------------------
Doby Coyote trotted through and open meadow with tall grass warming under the summer sun. A jackrabbit popped his head up, looking sideways at Doby.
Yum, Doby thought.
"I see you," the jackrabbit said.
"I know."
"So don't bother."
"I won't."
Doby stopped, sat down, scratched his ear.
"Nice meadow," Doby said.
"The grass is delicious here," Jackrabbit replied.
Doby plucked and chewed a green blade.
"Good for the digestion but, frankly, I don't see why folks like you relish it so."
"How could you? You're a coyote," Jackrabbit said.
"I try to be broad minded."
"That's a laugh."
Doby stood up, doing a long stretch of his hind legs and then the front.
"You know what," Doby said.
"What."
"I changed my mind."
With that Doby Coyote darted toward Jackrabbit who, with a spring of his back legs, bolted into the woods, Doby hot on his heels. Jackrabbit bounded and dashed around the trees and over the brambles. Doby deftly jumped deadwood and dodged trunks in pursuit. But Jackrabbit was faster and soon would reach the open field where Doby would have no chance to catch him.
Snap! An old steel trap grabbed Jackrabbit's leg, stopping him with a jerk.
"Aiy!" He shrieked.
Doby rushed up and, seeing Jackrabbit's plight, stopped a few feet away.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I was only chasing you for fun and to scare you a little. I'm not even that hungry right now."
"I know," said Jackrabbit as he winced in pain. "I was glad you did. I wanted to show off."
"Maybe I can get you out of the trap somehow," Doby said.
"It won't do any good. My back leg is broken. I cannot survive," Jackrabbit said. "You're a coyote. Do what you do and make it quick."
"Are you sure?" Doby asked.
"Yes. Please hurry."
Doby clamped his jaws on Jackrabbit's neck and shook him with all his might until Jackrabbit was dead. Then he pulled the corpse from the trap and took it to the meadow to eat what he could under the warm sun.
Commentary:
Buzzard: Nature's way. I hope Doby left some for the buzzards.
Tortoise: Doby was rash. It was an unnecessary killing made necessary by folly. Doby needed discipline.
Buzzard: Creatures need to test their capabilities and learn their limits. Predators and prey, mates and rivals all contrive situations to do that. It's dangerous and sometimes tragic. But not learning is more dangerous and nearly always tragic.
The genesis of the song began with an idea that I had to write a series of stories using animals as characters. The stories would be written sort of like Zen koans or parables, and they'd have commentary like traditional texts. The main character I imagined to be a young coyote named Doby and the parables would chronicle his adventures. The stories, I figured, would be accompanied by music. This song is Doby Coyote's theme. As a theme to return to at various points, I'm quite happy with it. I'm not sure how strong it is as a stand-alone song. But those who have heard it really seem to like it, so I posted it. I hope I kept it interesting my mixing up the instrumentation and moving from acoustic in the first part to electric in the second.
In case anybody's interested, here's a draft of the story I wrote that inspired the song:
-------------------
Doby Coyote trotted through and open meadow with tall grass warming under the summer sun. A jackrabbit popped his head up, looking sideways at Doby.
Yum, Doby thought.
"I see you," the jackrabbit said.
"I know."
"So don't bother."
"I won't."
Doby stopped, sat down, scratched his ear.
"Nice meadow," Doby said.
"The grass is delicious here," Jackrabbit replied.
Doby plucked and chewed a green blade.
"Good for the digestion but, frankly, I don't see why folks like you relish it so."
"How could you? You're a coyote," Jackrabbit said.
"I try to be broad minded."
"That's a laugh."
Doby stood up, doing a long stretch of his hind legs and then the front.
"You know what," Doby said.
"What."
"I changed my mind."
With that Doby Coyote darted toward Jackrabbit who, with a spring of his back legs, bolted into the woods, Doby hot on his heels. Jackrabbit bounded and dashed around the trees and over the brambles. Doby deftly jumped deadwood and dodged trunks in pursuit. But Jackrabbit was faster and soon would reach the open field where Doby would have no chance to catch him.
Snap! An old steel trap grabbed Jackrabbit's leg, stopping him with a jerk.
"Aiy!" He shrieked.
Doby rushed up and, seeing Jackrabbit's plight, stopped a few feet away.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I was only chasing you for fun and to scare you a little. I'm not even that hungry right now."
"I know," said Jackrabbit as he winced in pain. "I was glad you did. I wanted to show off."
"Maybe I can get you out of the trap somehow," Doby said.
"It won't do any good. My back leg is broken. I cannot survive," Jackrabbit said. "You're a coyote. Do what you do and make it quick."
"Are you sure?" Doby asked.
"Yes. Please hurry."
Doby clamped his jaws on Jackrabbit's neck and shook him with all his might until Jackrabbit was dead. Then he pulled the corpse from the trap and took it to the meadow to eat what he could under the warm sun.
Commentary:
Buzzard: Nature's way. I hope Doby left some for the buzzards.
Tortoise: Doby was rash. It was an unnecessary killing made necessary by folly. Doby needed discipline.
Buzzard: Creatures need to test their capabilities and learn their limits. Predators and prey, mates and rivals all contrive situations to do that. It's dangerous and sometimes tragic. But not learning is more dangerous and nearly always tragic.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Buddhism Gone Bad
My next most popular tune, and one that's generated the most positive feedback, has been Bad Buddhist. It also was featured as a BSWC One-a-Day and played on the associated radio show. It has the distinction of being the only song I've written to date with lyrics.
I've long cultivated an interest in Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism (along with Taoism), although I don't think I can claim to be a Buddhist as such. In any case, I occasionally talk about it with friends and coworkers. The idea for the song emerged at some point when I made a sarcastic remark about someone and my cube-mate at work says to me, "I thought you were a Buddhist, aren't Buddhists supposed to show universal compassion?" I replied, "That's true but I'm a bad Buddhist." The lyrics of the song quickly took shape. Basically, I poke fun at some common Buddhist notions (and the Dalai Lama) in the guise of a grizzled cowboy character.
This song also represents my transition from GarageBand to Logic, and it's the first recorded appearance of my new drum set (ddrum's Dominion Pocket Maple series). The basic instrumentation I worked out in GarageBand and then ported it over to Logic when I upgraded. The looped bass line is a Russian Balalaika guitar played on the low end. I muscled it up a bit with a software amplifier. The drums are me playing live straight through, no loops. It's rough in a couple of spots and I miss a fill or two but it was the best take of maybe two dozen that I attempted. It's a quick beat and a challenge for me to sustain accurately for nearly six minutes (yes, I'm an amateur).
To introduce the song, and end it, I use Tibetan singing bowls, which I thought was fitting. The background throughout is a kind of eerie, desolate sounding synthesizer patch that came loaded with Logic. The vocals are me using my best western drawl (I'm originally from Nebraska so it's kind of ingrained). I didn't tamper with the voice much other than to add a little reverb and a low end filter to take out some of the "puffs." I used a naked condenser microphone. I've since picked up a puff guard for it.
But what makes the song, I think, is the guitar. It's probably my best modification of a software instrument. It's a Chinese ruan moon guitar which has a thin, fretty sound. Again, I muscled it up with a software amplifier. Then I pump it through a plugin called Bit Crusher which, along with adding distortion, amplifies the frettiness. This gives it a gnarly, grinding steel sound that's particularly noticeable on the decay of the notes. The guitar solo may also represent my best effort at playing a software instrument with a keyboard. I don't know where the performance came from but I couldn't repeat it again if I wanted to.
Enjoy. Oh, and if you're a Buddhist, please don't be offended. I'm just joking around.
I've long cultivated an interest in Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism (along with Taoism), although I don't think I can claim to be a Buddhist as such. In any case, I occasionally talk about it with friends and coworkers. The idea for the song emerged at some point when I made a sarcastic remark about someone and my cube-mate at work says to me, "I thought you were a Buddhist, aren't Buddhists supposed to show universal compassion?" I replied, "That's true but I'm a bad Buddhist." The lyrics of the song quickly took shape. Basically, I poke fun at some common Buddhist notions (and the Dalai Lama) in the guise of a grizzled cowboy character.
This song also represents my transition from GarageBand to Logic, and it's the first recorded appearance of my new drum set (ddrum's Dominion Pocket Maple series). The basic instrumentation I worked out in GarageBand and then ported it over to Logic when I upgraded. The looped bass line is a Russian Balalaika guitar played on the low end. I muscled it up a bit with a software amplifier. The drums are me playing live straight through, no loops. It's rough in a couple of spots and I miss a fill or two but it was the best take of maybe two dozen that I attempted. It's a quick beat and a challenge for me to sustain accurately for nearly six minutes (yes, I'm an amateur).
To introduce the song, and end it, I use Tibetan singing bowls, which I thought was fitting. The background throughout is a kind of eerie, desolate sounding synthesizer patch that came loaded with Logic. The vocals are me using my best western drawl (I'm originally from Nebraska so it's kind of ingrained). I didn't tamper with the voice much other than to add a little reverb and a low end filter to take out some of the "puffs." I used a naked condenser microphone. I've since picked up a puff guard for it.
But what makes the song, I think, is the guitar. It's probably my best modification of a software instrument. It's a Chinese ruan moon guitar which has a thin, fretty sound. Again, I muscled it up with a software amplifier. Then I pump it through a plugin called Bit Crusher which, along with adding distortion, amplifies the frettiness. This gives it a gnarly, grinding steel sound that's particularly noticeable on the decay of the notes. The guitar solo may also represent my best effort at playing a software instrument with a keyboard. I don't know where the performance came from but I couldn't repeat it again if I wanted to.
Enjoy. Oh, and if you're a Buddhist, please don't be offended. I'm just joking around.
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