Wishes of a Married Geek
I wish I was built with a switch
For my wife to turn me on
Or off
Whenever she wants to.
I’d seem less desperate
for attention that way. And
Not get scolded for disrupting
Her TV time.
Might as well add a hard drive
Or two, to save thoughts and emotions
To be retrieved later
After my wife is done with me.
Ivan Chew, 16th May 2007
[Nah, I'm not that Geek. This poem came about from an idle chat with Lucian. Nope, it certainly isn't about him. He's Mr. Romantic as far as I'm concerned. We were talking about spending time with family. Then the idea of what a married geek might be thinking came to mind.
[Photo credit: "Donut" from joybucket. Decided to search for public Flickr photos to match the poem. After a few tries and scrolling through pages, the effort paid off. The picture of a slightly grimy, plain-looking donut with one bite mark, was perfect.
I was trying to describe that empty feeling one gets when feeling lonely, with that "sour" feeling in the heart (it's strange how the heart can ache and 'feel' sensations). A picture of a plain donut came to mind, i.e. with a hole in the middle. I thought it was quite apt to use the donut imagery to infer that "something isn't there".]
A remix of a 2006 radio interview, where I suggested books that readers might feel inspired after reading. Kevin and cut an excerpt from Siva’s recording, where I’d said “tears came to my eye”. On a whim, I decided to see if I could make a piece of music out of it. Mixed and edited on Apple iLife ‘06 GarageBand.
I imported the original recording into GarageBand. Then started cutting out the parts I wanted/ didn’t want. Matched it to an appropriate sounding drum loop. Basically just mucked around and ensured that the edited clips matched the beats.
At the April 2007 Songcraft Songwriting Circle meetup, Betty shared that she wrote a song for a friend as a farewell gift, which was recorded with help from a friend (who had professional recording equipment). That led me to described how I recorded and edited my music. Some of the participants seemed to want to know more — about the equipment used etc. I had a feeling they were thinking “It couldn’t be that simple”. But it is!
Basically, you need this sort of setup:
(A) Computer & software (i.e. your “recording device” and sound engineering studio)
(B) Input device (could be the instrument itself, like the electric guitar. Or a microphone, in the case of vocals or instruments without built-in pickups)
(C) Instrument (guitars, piano, your voice etc.)
(A) Computer & Software
The computer is the heart of my “recording studio”. But it’s nothing without the software. The Mac comes bundled with GarageBand. You can use a free one like Audacity for Windows and Mac (though it’s way less sophisticated as compared to GarageBand).
You may or may not need a peripheral device like a Griffen iMic (a USB audio interface/ adaptor). It’s useful if you want to record more than one input device at the same time (e.g. vocals and guitar) and your computer only has one input mic jack.
(B) Input device (for vocals)
I’ve got nothing fancy. Just a standard microphone that came as part of a headphone set. The recording quality is quite acceptable. You can always enhance it with the software. Examples: “Lady of Shalott” and “Take Me Away“.
(C) Instruments I tend to feature more guitars in my works. I’m a Joe Satriani wannabe, heh.
The one on the left is a Yamaha “Vester” with a Floyd-Rose floating bridge. Bought it around 1990. Some years later, I replaced the original pickups with EMG active pickups.
The one on the right is straight-from-factory Epiphone Les Paul Standard, bought last year in 2006. I’ve always wanted to own a Les Paul but I still find Gibsons beyond my price range. An Epiphone is more than good enough. Chapter 7 of this book says the same thing — that between a Gibson and Epiphone, the difference is quite subtle. Besides, I feel it’s the sound engineering aspect (which depends on the computer & software) that makes the real difference to the sound.
Another example of a home studio setup (from an earlier post)
[Click on image to see notes]
BTW, if you’re keen to find audio file hosting/ podcast services, check out Dave’s Imaginary Sound Space. It’s pretty comprehensive.
And if you have pics of how your home studio looks like, feel free to leave a link.
Wishes of a Married Geek
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Posted by Ivan Chew
