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.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Stuck in China with a Zither
I suppose I should writes something about my number one online hit (approaching 500 downloads on archive.org as of this writing): Zigong Blues.
I created this song about a year ago. I was messing around with a software kit of Asian percussion and came up with a cool sort of cricket-chirp rhythm. So I decided to build a song around it. One thing I was interested in was tempo. Feedback on my previous songs indicated they seemed chained to a particular tempo. I was still working with GrarageBand 2 at the time which doesn't let you change tempo within a song. So I thought maybe you could create an illusion of a tempo change with rhythm.
I opted for a basic but slow blues beat using Asian percussion instead of a trap set. At first I drag out the beat using two layers of percussion, moving in a staggered fashion from whole notes to half notes to quarter notes etc. until everything is double-time at the end. This, I hoped, would give the illusion that the tempo of the song was increasing even though, as far as the computer was concerned, it was the same tempo throughout.
Thinking about other instruments, the story forming in my mind was that B.B. King was stuck in some city in China (hence Zigong) without his band or his guitar. So he sits in with a local group and plays a Chinese zither. For a bass I use a Chinese erhu violin. In the real world, it's a rather high-pitched instrument with a textured tone. But through the magic of MIDI, I'm able to play it impossibly low, giving it a kind of deep, eerie, scrapey tone.
Along with the zither, the other lead is a Chinese flute. I start out with lead melody being carried by the zither and the flute repeating a simple line in the background. Later, the flute takes over the lead and brings the song to a climax. I'm imagining the local Chinese flutist trumping B.B. King.
Why is this song my most downloaded? One reason is that one of the guys who cowrote the now seemingly defunct blog, Black Sweater White Cat, found the tune while rooting around archive.org. So he posted it in the blog and, what's more, played it on the associated radio show at a small community station in Great Barrington, MA.
Woo hoo, I'm famous!
I created this song about a year ago. I was messing around with a software kit of Asian percussion and came up with a cool sort of cricket-chirp rhythm. So I decided to build a song around it. One thing I was interested in was tempo. Feedback on my previous songs indicated they seemed chained to a particular tempo. I was still working with GrarageBand 2 at the time which doesn't let you change tempo within a song. So I thought maybe you could create an illusion of a tempo change with rhythm.
I opted for a basic but slow blues beat using Asian percussion instead of a trap set. At first I drag out the beat using two layers of percussion, moving in a staggered fashion from whole notes to half notes to quarter notes etc. until everything is double-time at the end. This, I hoped, would give the illusion that the tempo of the song was increasing even though, as far as the computer was concerned, it was the same tempo throughout.
Thinking about other instruments, the story forming in my mind was that B.B. King was stuck in some city in China (hence Zigong) without his band or his guitar. So he sits in with a local group and plays a Chinese zither. For a bass I use a Chinese erhu violin. In the real world, it's a rather high-pitched instrument with a textured tone. But through the magic of MIDI, I'm able to play it impossibly low, giving it a kind of deep, eerie, scrapey tone.
Along with the zither, the other lead is a Chinese flute. I start out with lead melody being carried by the zither and the flute repeating a simple line in the background. Later, the flute takes over the lead and brings the song to a climax. I'm imagining the local Chinese flutist trumping B.B. King.
Why is this song my most downloaded? One reason is that one of the guys who cowrote the now seemingly defunct blog, Black Sweater White Cat, found the tune while rooting around archive.org. So he posted it in the blog and, what's more, played it on the associated radio show at a small community station in Great Barrington, MA.
Woo hoo, I'm famous!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
RP Rides Again
Another hit from the virtual band, Remote Possiblity. This one's called Vacancy.
Matt Love, our glorious band leader (although he denies being the leader), provided some lyrics about a lonely guy lamenting a missed opportunity with a budding online romance. This put me in an electroniky-synth mode so I cobbled some stuff together using new software drum kit I'd acquired, found a bass sound that fit well and used some sythesizer buzzes, beeps and swirls to create a basic outline of a song: intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro-extended outro.
I passed this along to Vincent Knobil who was sufficiently intrigued to sing the lyrics and add electric piano and guitar melodies. The results surprised me and work rather well, I think.
Matt Love, our glorious band leader (although he denies being the leader), provided some lyrics about a lonely guy lamenting a missed opportunity with a budding online romance. This put me in an electroniky-synth mode so I cobbled some stuff together using new software drum kit I'd acquired, found a bass sound that fit well and used some sythesizer buzzes, beeps and swirls to create a basic outline of a song: intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro-extended outro.
I passed this along to Vincent Knobil who was sufficiently intrigued to sing the lyrics and add electric piano and guitar melodies. The results surprised me and work rather well, I think.
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