Podcast: “Dreaming Of Better Days”

This is my 3rd rock-instrumental.

or Listen >>> Dreaming of Better Days (4 min 51 secs)
[Archive.org details]

Chords - A/ C#m/ Bm/ A/ E

Total recording/ production time — approx. 1 week (don’t ask me exactly how many hours!)

[Click on image to view larger size]

How it was done:
1) I chose a rock drum loop and played the guitar on a distortion (Classic Rock) setting. Once I was happy with the Beats Per Second setting (120 bps), I recorded the rhythm part and replicated it at appropriate intervals.

2) Once I had the drums and rhythm, I played it on a repeat-loop and tried to find an appropriate melody for it. I played the guitar and tried it with different guitar effects and settings. I settled for the “Summer Sound” effect for the lead melody. Then I chose an Amp effect setting and customised it with a Cry-Baby Wah setting. That became my main lead guitar sound. For the distortion guitar fill-ins, I basically used the same lead guitar setting with variations of the Wah and Chorus effects. The recording of the lead and fill-ins took the most time, and often done non-sequentially. In the midst of recording, the tracks looked really messy.

4) After most of the rhythm and lead tracks were recorded to my satisfaction (as far as my skills allowed!), I started to plan the flow of the song, i.e. how much to play the opening chords before the chorus part came in. At this stage, I started cutting the recorded lead tracks and moved them where appropriate.

5) Next, I played the song to get a feel of how it was like overall. I decided it needed another layer of fill-in, and also a ‘Break’ after the chorus. For the additional fill-in, I chose the Acoustic Guitar Echo effect for a cleaner sound. For the ‘Break’, I recorded the rhythm on a Super Fuzz effect setting.

6) I continued with more adjustments (duplicating and placing parts of the recorded tracks). Then I realised it lacked a bass. I don’t have a bass guitar so I recorded with my electric guitar on a Rock Bass effect, with my guitar volume turned up and treble setting at the lowest. I played without a pick to get more of that bass sound. I recorded the bass for the different parts as separate layers. Then I consolidated them into one layer after editing out the parts that were misplayed or unused.

7) At this point, I tried out a few factory loops just for fun, to see if it matched the recorded tracks. Surprisingly, a few of the Jazz Piano loops sounded quite fitting, but some editing was required. In the end, I chose two loops and editing out most of the notes, leaving those that sounded appropriate as fill-ins. Now came the final stage of adjusting the volume settings to ensure that no one track overpowered the rest. I’ve learnt that it was best to do this systematically, starting and completing by parts. E.g. finishing the first stanza before moving to the chorus, then the 3rd stanza, then the ‘Break’, and so on. An adjusted track looks something like this (this was for the lead guitar):

[Click on image to view larger size]

9) Playing the entire track once again, I felt the drum loop was too consistent throughout. The final missing piece was the cymbals, so I added those for the part after the first chorus and nearer to the end of the song.

This song is far from perfect. I can spot some inconsistencies even as I listen to it now. Some parts I wished I’d played more in time to the drum beat. Overall, I quite happy with this song. There’s a happy and feel-good quality to the song, at least for me.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

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Technorati Tags: garageband, mac, apple, collaborative music

Joe Satriani: Super Colossal

Joe Satriani is my guitar hero. Thought that’s not the reason for blogging this. This album is — Super Colossal [UPDATE, Nov 2006: Music Video here]

My favourites from “Super Colossal” are definitely “Ten Words”, “A Cool New Way”, and “Crowd Chant”. Never fails to uplift my spirit. I don’t really know how to articulate why I like them in particular. They just make me feel really good — especially those with simple chord progressions, moving from a ‘major’ to a ‘minor’ chord added with a powerful melodies.

I first discovered Satriani more than ten years ago, when a friend passed me a cassette (yes, cassette!) of an earlier album of his — The Extremist

From then on, there was no turning back. I’ve been hooked to Joe Satriani ever since. I even bought some tabs for two or three of his albums. His mastery of pitch harmonics combined with the whammy bar… wicked. Guitar genius at work. He plays fast but only when necessary. It’s the melodies that I enjoy the most, with that Metal/ Rock feel (to most tracks). I’ve found his albums more and more to my taste over the years, almost as if they are getting more melodic and comtemplative if you will, especially the “slower” ones.

Technorati Tag: joe satriani

Drum Solo: Tony Royster Jr.

You don’t need to be able to play drums to appreciate the talent that this kid has:

BTW, that was Tony Royster Jr. at age 12. He’s now grown up now. And speaking of drummers, VanTan laments the (yet to be confirmed) loss of the drummer in her jazz band, Moonjumpers.

Podcast: “August Nights” (2006)

This is my 2nd attempt at a rock-genre guitar piece.

Listen to the podcast >>> August Nights (2006)
[Archive.org info here]

Chords:
C#m/ B/ A
B/ A
E/ B/ A

This is how the GarageBand tracks look like:

[Click on image to view larger size]

Brief notes:
- The drum beat was from the GarageBand factory loop, with the tempo set at 95 Beats Per Sec.
- All other tracks were recorded as ‘Live Instrument’ tracks, with one electric guitar and edited with different GarageBand guitar effects.
- I’d estimate the total recording time to be around… oh, I don’t know. Many many hours!* Time is spent re-recording ‘cos my guitar playing is really unpolished. I needed several takes just for simple riffs, like the solo (it starts at the 3rd minute).
[* I told a friend that it took me many nights in August, and quite a few in September too! LOL. The solo that starts around the 3rd minute already took around five hours just to get it right.]

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Technorati Tags: garageband, mac, apple

Red Umbrella Reprise 2006 (musical collaboration)

This is a collaborative piece

>>>Red Umbrella Reprise 2006.
Archive.org info here.

How it was done:

[click on image to view larger size]

1) I downloaded and imported Frederick’s MP3 song and imported/ dragged into GarageBand (it’s the layer in Orange).

2) After listening to his original track a few times, a melody formed in my head. I didn’t want to substantially change or sample his original composition. My intent was to add an accompanying guitar track. I recorded the guitar lead using GarageBand’s Software Instrument onscreen keyboard, with the “Big Electric Lead” setting.

3) Then for effects, I played around with the PopKit (i.e. the built-in drum kit effects) and added the chimes. The drum beat was also created with the onscreen keyboard.

4) I added two more ‘Live’ Instrument tracks recorded with my electric guitar (one with the “Acoustic Guitar Echoes” and another with the “Dreamy Shimmer” settings).

5) Finally, I played through the song to monitor the output volume (i.e. ensure it doesn’t “redline”). I decided to increase the volumne of Frederick’s original piano track and added a Reverb effect, so that it remains the overall tune and not let the accompanying guitar tracks drown it out.

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Technorati Tags: garageband, mac, apple, collaborative music

“Draw Your Style” - Shiseido TV commercial

Spotted this from Youtube.com. It’s a TV commercial by the Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido. As much as I would like to describe the video, I shan’t spoil the surprise : )

I wonder how something like that is done… markings on the floor? Creative stuff!

“Still Life With”… ‘L’

This blog was again FIJ’s recommendation — ‘Still Life With‘ (www.stilllifewith.com), by someone who calls herself ‘L’.

I don’t usually blog about photography blogs (mainly because I can’t go beyond the words “nice pictures, i like”, heh). I subscribe to their feeds if they strike me as interesting.

However, for this one, somehow I’m compelled to say something. I don’t know… perhaps it’s the overall feel I get from looking at the posts. Or it’s the pictures. There’s something very cosy about them. Reminds me of lazy Sunday mornings. The photos are certainly very professional looking. Posts are instructional as well, like this one on a photography technique called “Bounce” (more on this technique from here, here and here).

Technorati Tags: photography, photo blogs

Sand Art Performance

This clip is about 9mins long, and it’s worth taking a look. It’s more than just Sand Art. It’s a performance — the art “pieces” are “drawn” in sync with the music (from Kitaro, I believe) and in quick succession. I was simply captivated by the performance. Enough said — watch it yourself.

At the end of the video, the artist wrote the letters “SICAF Seoul 2003″. I learnt via a Google search that SICAF stood for “Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival”.

MoonSong

This was a piece I uploaded for the SoundClash challenge.

or Click here to listen.

How it was done (In brief)
1. I downloaded the sample tracks from the SoundClash site (that was the requirement for that particular challenge)
2. Imported the tracks to GarageBand
3. Played an sampled a guitar track (using an actual guitar)
4. Edited and added in sound effects from GarageBand loops, like the rolling waves, crickets…

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Technorati Tags: garageband, mac, apple

How to make Tim-Tam Truffles, by Su-Yin

My Friend In Japan (a Food Blog groupie, heh) alerted me to this Youtube video on making Tim-Tam Truffles, by Su-Yin (cookingismypassion.blogspot.com).

Sure looks delicious. Seems easy to make as well, but be prepared for lots of waiting!

Technorati Tag: home receipe