Podcast: At My Window (cover version)

Thanks to Jeremy for allowing me to perform and record his original song!

This is my cover of his song: At My Window (cover version by Ivan Chew)

Composer: Jeremy Yew
Lyricist: Jeremy Yew
Vocals, Instruments: Ivan Chew

At the second Songcraft session, Jeremy (the guy who started the Songcraft Songwriting Circle) shared his original composition song. I was struck at its simplicity and catchy melody.

Here’s a recording of him performing the song at the session — Listen to it here.

You can hear me unabashedly telling him “I can sing Seconds (i.e. Harmony)” to the song. So he gamely played a stanza; I tried to sing (badly, I might add); you can hear mostly Betty’s much nicer harmonising (unfortunately I accidentally cut off the recording). Anyway, I was so taken by the song that I uncharacteristically gave an impromptu performance near the end of that second meetup. The participants were pretty polite by not getting up and leaving. Frankly, I did a terrible job that evening! I decided I had to try recording the song one of these days. I asked Jeremy for permission to do so, and he said he’d be honoured that someone decided to perform his composition. Heh.

Recently, one of the Songcrafter, Kah Loong, did a cover of Jeremy’s “Back Into The Arms”. Which reminded me of Jeremy’s earlier “At My Window”. So tonight, I spent four hours recording, arranging and engineering the song.

The chords are:
G/C/G/D (x3)
G/ Am/ C/ D/ G

For the last stanza, the second last line goes G/Am/C/D/Em. I just love how Jeremy added that “Em” chord at the last stanza!

You can check out the notes of what I did, at this Flickr image:

[Click on image to see notes]

In summary:
First, I listened to Jeremy’s recording (he gave me a copy of the lyrics and chords earlier). Once I caught his original melody and guitar strumming, I recorded a test track in GarageBand. I also experimented with the Beat Per Second and settled on 95. I chose a simple Tambourine and a “Rock Drum (093)” loop.

Next, I recorded a few attempts of the acoustic guitar track, chose the best one, and made copies (except for the last stanza, which needed a separate recording).

Then I had fun just singing the song! I started by singing at my normal range. Then I added a 7th. Somehow, it occurred to me to sing at a bass and a mid range. Turned out to be quite nice, if I say so myself.

After that, I recorded another guitar track for the incidental picking sounds, as well as the solo. In Jeremy’s original composition there wasn’t a break. I decided the song could use one, to lead to the final stanza.

Finally, it was adjusting the individual track volume levels to make sure they don’t “Red-line”. As always, this part too a bit of time, but it wasn’t too bad this time round.

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Podcast: Seashore Days (Music Mash-up)

Yay, another GarageBand user and potential Music Mash-up partner! Lekowala (i.e. Adrian Loo) discovered GarageBand recently. He knew I was into GarageBand as well so he sent me a recording. It was his 2nd Jam attempt (listen to it here). I thought it was pretty good. I downloaded it a week ago and yesterday, I mustered enough courage to attempt a mash-up. I let Adrian listen to it, to get his approval. I was glad he was happy with how it turn out

or LISTEN HERE >>> Seashore Days
[Archive.org details]

Here’s a screenshot of the GarageBand tracks (click on the image to view additional notes of how it was done):

The mashup wasn’t as easy as I thought. The challenge was how NOT to drown out Adrian’s original acoustic guitar melody. There was a section in the song where I think he deliberately played less. It sounded deliberately empty (maybe he wanted a solo there). I decided to add the electric guitar solo there. But the problem was the song would end with the guitar solo, which sounded abrupt. And if I start the solo earlier, I’d drown out his original playing and turn it into my own song, which was a no-no.

In the end, the solution was to do a copy-n-paste/ fade-in and the extension turned out quite seamless.

In choosing a title for the song (Adrian didn’t title his song earlier), I found this blog post of Adrian’s. It was perfect for the title ‘cos it’s got to do with the sea, and it captured the mood of he seem to want to express in the song.

Read Adrian’s account of the mash-up here. The song is also posted at Rambling Librarian.
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1991 (Dec) Civil War

Civil War. 1991 (December).
Watercolour on paper.

I was a student when I drew this. A friend was humming the words and opening melody of what he said was a Guns N’ Roses song of the same title. I’d not heard the GnR song at that time. I listened to the words my friend was humming: “Look at the young men dying, Life was never this before”. They later inspired me to paint that picture.

The scene is supposed to capture a moment of grief, where a young man lays dying in the arms of his comrades. There’s a rose at the bottom right. I added it there to encapsulate this story in my mind as I painted the picture — while on patrol with his comrades, the soldier (just a boy, really) saw a rose lying on the floor. He wanted to pick it up for his mother. He was shot by a sniper. His comrades rush to his aid, but it’s too late. All the rest of the child-soldiers weep for their fallen comrade, and perhaps as well as for themselves.

Poem: Plunge

Plunge
I feel as if I’d awaken
From a thousand-year old dream
Uncertain of where I’d ventured
In doubt of where I’d go

The future beckons beyond the door
My fears betray me though
Drained, in a state of flux
Eyes open; mind stays shut

Turning away from logic’s voice
I close my inner senses
Forward, being the only way
I plunge into the Light

Ivan Chew, 29 Jun 2003

1995 (Aug) Scene adapted from “Record of Lodoss War”

Scene adapted from the Japanese Anime “Record of Lodoss War“
1995 (August). Acrylics on paper.

I had this scanned picture for sometime now. Haven’t been disciplined enough in posting them online. But tonight, I heard a song that reminded me of it.

Walter and I had the privilege being invited, quite unplanned, to Vanessa’s home studio. She played a few of her compositions for us. Mostly jazz pieces. But there was one song that sounded very baroque and New Age to me. Vanessa called it “Minstrel”. I suggested she title it “Ballad of the Fallen” because it reminded me of something heroic, noble and sad at the same time. When I reached home, I suddenly recalled I had this painting that just might fit her song (she might not agree that it’ll match her song though, heh). Wish she’d post the song online.

Poem: Over Hunter-Seeker Mouse

This was written back in 2001. A “Hunter-Seeker” was a gadget (used in assassinations) mentioned in Frank Herbert’s “Dune”. In this poem, I was trying to describe a person’s foray into the World Wide Web, where one wasn’t quite sure what to expect. When I wrote the poem, the common perception was that every other web page you encountered would be pornographic. Or there would be unwanted ads and unrelenting pop-ups that came into nowhere (now that was real! and it was before pop-up blockers).

Over Hunter-seeker Mouse
——————————
Trigger finger poised
My mental state is steady
I launch myself into cyberspace
Anti-virus ready

Freebies entice newbies, but
Neither new nor a fool am I
Easy downloads I see through, for they are
Nothing but enticements to buy

She-demons beckon with
Electric sultry caress
Preaching the religion of the triple tilted crosses*
In their various forms of undress

I draw out my search weapons and
Yahoo and Google across
The information minefield of booby trapped
Javas, scripts and code source

In my haste I become careless
Setting off a claymore burst
Of an unsolicited pop-up promising me
Easy money, but only if I click first

I am losing myself rapidly
In cyberspace I dream
My trip across the light fantastic**
Prancing in the byte-stream

How I loath the portals of deceit
Why do they not relent?
What trickery would they devise next
To Alta (my) Vista without consent?

Vanquished dotcoms are now dot gone
Killed with the lack of demand
Vanquished ghosts they are now
Haunting the data autobahn

I spy flame wars to the max
Consumed by voiceless passions
A thousand virtual deaths wished upon
Each side, acceding no concession

A quick Alternate Tab
I take a well earned breather
Connections cut loose, inhale again, I can
Before I resume my hunt in the ether

History is Deleted, my
Cache consciously Cleared
My battle I begin anew — trigger finger poised –
Over hunter-seeker Mouse, revered

Ivan Chew, 3 Dec 2001.

Notes:
* I’m referring to XXX sites, or triple X. They look like tilted crosses, don’t they?
** Apparently, the phrase “tripping the light fantastic” means dancing the tango, but I can’t be sure.

Podcast: Happiness Is (2007)

[First blogged at Rambling Librarian]

LISTEN HERE >>> Happiness Is (2007)
(Playing time: 3min 16secs)

[Archive.org details]

An attempt at a piano piece, with additional instrumentals to make it sound Enya-like. For a self-taught pianist who still cannot read
notes, I think it’s a passable composition. At first I tried playing to a fixed tempo (i.e. BPS) but decided it worked better if I just let it hang loose and played it with *ahem* feelings. I deliberately sped up the tempo at the middle part and slowed down again at the last part. It’s not perfect but as the farmer said to Babe the Pig, “That’ll Do”, LOL.

How it’s done
For the piano tracks, I played and recorded the Intro (layer 1, beginning part), Middle part (layer 4), and the Ending (layer 1, last part) separately. All were software instrument tracks; no ‘live’ instruments this time. I used a MIDI keyboard in this case (previously, I only relied on the computer keyboard which was severely limited in range). I spent maybe three to four hours in a single sitting, rehearsing and recording the piano pieces and initial Orchestral String arrangements.

[Click on image to see larger sizes]

After that it was mainly editing and engineering the sounds. This was spread over a few hours over the week. From the screenshot, you can see quite extensive adjustments to the individual track volumes.

I experimented with some effects, like adding duplicate tracks and additional equalisation settings. Also added different string arrangements. I had about three different versions and in the end, I decided the 2nd version sounded cleaner and better. So I went back to version 2 and worked from there by redoing the orchestral string section.

I tried to give the song that “Enya” style by added choral effects at the Intro and Ending (i.e. layer 2). I don’t have a choral effect in GarageBand, so the closest was the “Bondi Breath” synth effect.

Because the piano was the main instrument, and my playing wasn’t that hot, I decided to break the monotony after the Intro part by duplicating the middle piano piece as two layers and panning them left and right (layers 1 and 3 in the next screen shot):

[Click on image to see larger sizes]

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