A Christmas Single

I like the 'old' practice of releasing singles with A sides and B sides and the special artwork that was featured on the covers. Not all singles had such artwork. Some just came in plain white sleeves or such. But some releases--such as the Beatles' singles--had unique artwork/photographs on the sleeves.

That was a pretty cool practice but who releases singles anymore? I know they used to release cd singles before but those things usually featured 4 to 6 songs on them and were aptly called 'maxi-singles' or something to that effect. And most of the songs were always different versions or mixes of the same one song. The radio version would be on there along with a remix by "DJ Kool" and another remix by "DJ Badass" among others. Pretty superfluous in my opinion. I realize a cd can hold about 80 minutes worth of music and it may be considered a waste to only have 2 songs on there. But then at least have a few other songs that the artist/band worked on themselves instead of the outsourced-to-dj versions.

The neat thing about the Beatles' singles was that all the ones they ever released were not part of any albums. So you had to buy both the singles and albums if you wanted to have all their music. Their reasoning was that they didn't want to sell the fans the same music twice. But I can only imagine how much better the already great "Revolver" album would have been with the "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" single on there!

Anyway my whole point in mentioning all this is that since I recorded 2 songs for this past Christmas it could be considered a single and I made a cover design for it. That is, were I to officially release it. Perhaps I actually will for Christmas 2014 in the early part of November. Well here is the official cover art for it:

There it is. I wish all the readers of this blog a most blessed and prosperous new year. And stay tuned for more music and updates!

Fixing Up Bass

Well, I thought I was done with "It's Christmas" but I'm just not satisfied with it. Two days ago I rerecorded a portion of the guitar solo to overlay on the existing solo. There were some muffled notes so I recorded a crisper sounding part. And last night I decided to take the bass track and do some bass boosting on the weaker sounding notes with the help of the Audacity program. It's such a painstaking process but if you want something to sound professionally done than you must put in the time and effort. If it comes out sounding great it will be worth it. I have yet to take this new and improved bass track and add it to the song. I will work on that tonight.

One new technique that I will be implementing in future recordings is to record the drums on 2 separate tracks. I usually record drums with only 2 mic's--I have very limited space where I record--even though I have a 4-piece drum mic set. In the past I've used that mic set along with an overhead when I recorded elsewhere, before I had a drum set. Now at home I record exclusively with only 2 mic's; one for the bass drum and one overhead. Not only do I not have the space to set up 5 or 6 mic's on the drums but I also only have 4 mic stands at this time. But I have found that I can get a really good overall drum set sound with only 2 mic's, and my proof for that is the drum track on "(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind." The drums on that song sound excellent IMO and has been the best recorded drum sound I ever achieved up to this point. But of course there's always room for improvement. So by recording the drums onto 2 separate tracks--bass mic on one, overhead on the other--I can tweak each individually and then blend the 2 onto a single track. By isolating the bass onto one track I can boost the high's a bit in order to hear the snap better. And with the overhead I can cut the mid's and high's without affecting the bass drum. There may even be other tweaks I can do to get the overall drum set sound better. And then combine the 2 tracks onto one great sounding track!

Doing this adds more work to the project of course. And I guess the reason I've never really done this is due to fear of a loss of valuable tracks being available. But that's really not a real problem because as I have already written, I can bounce the multiple tracks onto a single one. I will start doing this with my next song which will be........not sure at this point.

I hope to be able to post the new and improved FINAL version of "It's Christmas" sometime tomorrow. I know Christmas 2013 is behind us but to me it's still Christmas and I continue to listen to holiday music and am actually in the mood to create some more original tunes for the season. Not only is Christmas music awesome but one great song alone can set you up for financial freedom. Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" earns him between $400,000 and $600,000 each year! Which means that since the song is from 1979 he's possibly as much as $15,000,000 over the years from it. I may in fact start off 2014 with a seasonal song I wrote some years ago and never recorded. I just want to set the tone for this coming year in terms of  devoting a lot more time to creating and recording new music and creating some sort of financial stability at the very least as a result of it.

And on a final note, today is the 29th and I still have not finished up "Call On Me." It's still possible for me to finish it up and release the album within the next few days. However I may be scrapping my plans to put out the album this year. It's really late in the year to release anything more than a song. But I do believe I will release it very early in 2014 and it will feature 10 tracks with perhaps a bonus track of my Christmas song.

Christmas Songs - Final Versions

Merry Christmas, readers!

Yes, it's Christmas and here I am blogging. The reason being that I have made some better mixes and masters of my Christmas tunes and I want to get them up here before the day is up because many people will not want to hear holiday music anymore after Christmas. Funny though, because I continue to play Christmas music well into February. I don't like winter very much so playing Christmas music throughout the winter months makes the season more tolerable for me. Besides, many classic songs labelled as Christmas music make no mention of the holiday and are really just winter songs. That's my story. Well, let me get on with this because depending on where you're reading this it may not even be Christmas anymore!

I made a few tweaks here and there on both songs. Most of it will not be noticeable. But comparing my finished products to what I hear on albums just makes me yearn for better equipment and/or funding to have my music professionally polished up.

So here they are.





Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them. Now off to working on my other goals for the remaining week of the year.

It's Christmas!

One of the hardest things about recording under not-so-ideal conditions and with not-so-ideal gear is coming up with a mixdown of the song which sounds satisfactory.That's the trouble I'm having once again. I usually end up making several mixdowns because after mastering each one they usually all end up sounding bad on one playback source or another.

I've already made a couple of mixes/masters of my new holiday song, "It's Christmas," and have not been pleased. I will try once again tonight. Have I mentioned how difficult it is to get a good recorded drum sound? Of course I have. But it's also pretty hard getting a solid recording of an upright bass. On a whim I decided to play my upright for this song to give it a little more of an acoustic sound and feel--a kind of 60's folk/jazz vibe if you will. I'm more of an electric bass player so playing this huge acoustic bass is completely different and physically demanding. This is the first song with vocals that I played upright bass on.

The bass track came out sounding pretty nice but quite weak on some notes. Even going back to some 60's tunes such as Roger Miller's "King of the Road" and Ian & Sylvia's "Rocks & Gravel" which both begin with upright bass intros and continue throughout, I don't hear any weak notes but rather solid consistency throughout. On the other hand, I did listen to "Stay" by Astrud Gilberto which also features upright bass and noticed some less audible bass notes being played. And when I say less audible what I mean is that there are certain notes that don't have that deep, booming quality. And the bass playing on "Stay" is a lot busier than on "King of the Road" and "Rocks & Gravel," so perhaps there are a lot more weaker bass notes being played. I just don't know what it is. I'm going to try working on tweaking that track a little more and see what I come up with. Not only for that reason but also because the bass overall is a bit too booming compared to those older recordings.

There are a few more things I'm going to play around with the attempt to come up with a final version that is most sonically pleasing to my musical ear. That will be later on tonight. For the time being, I have uploaded the 2nd version to Soundcloud and YouTube and it happens to be the version that will be featured on the "Justin Sane Show Christmas Special" tonight at 7pm CT on CNEU Radio; Christmas Eve on Insane Realm Radio at 5pm CT; day after Christmas at 10am CT on Digital Mayhem Radio; Friday at 3pm CT on Digital Revolution Radio; and a few other places after that.

Here it is on Soundcloud:



And here it is on YouTube:



Hoping I will have the final, best-sounding version ready tonight.

The Christmas Songs

OK, definitely waited too long to do this. Should have started back in October. I guess that's why some recording artists start making their Christmas albums in the summertime. But then again, they have the best of everything--the best equipment, the best singers, the best musicians, etc. They could roll out a full length album in a week start to end. I'm doing everything by myself with my limited skills and gear (and I'm very grateful for what skills and gear I do have). And the idea to do this didn't come to me until Thanksgiving which was rather late on the calendar this year.

Anyway, I tried recording the drum tracks for both "Silent Night" and "It's Christmas" last night and they just came out horrible sounding! I don't know what happened from the time I recorded drums for "Blow Your Mind" and "Call On Me" to now. I was very disappointed and don't have much time left to work on this before I send the songs off to "The Basement Tapes" show with Nick and Bootsy for their Christmas show tomorrow (Sunday) evening.

The drum track for Silent Night came out a lot worse sounding than the one for It's Christmas. I went back and listened to the drums on It's Christmas and I was able to tweak it to where it sounds okay. Plus I'm considering adding hand-clapping in rhythm to the song in order to give it somewhat of a live feel and cover up the weak drum sound. Also planning to add a few other sounds on top of the 6 and 12 string acoustics, upright bass and vocal that are already there. Maybe some harmony vocals here and there. I'm actually really excited about this song and the way it's turning out. I wrote it pretty quick and the arrangement is just kind of falling into place.

As I mentioned, I may have to settle for my Yamaha S90 keyboard drum sounds for the drum track to Silent Night. I tried tweaking the drum track that I did record for it but I made adjustments to the snare drum at the time and it just turned out worse. There is no hope for this track. If I had all day today to work on it I would try again. But my time is limited and I'm going to devote most of it to finishing up my very own "It's Christmas." Once both songs are done I will have them here. Off I go....

Goals for the Remainder of the Year

So as the title implies I am going to discuss what plans I still have to fulfill within the few short weeks left before this year goes into the books.

I had announced on Facebook that I was going to record a Christmas album (or several songs at the very least). I made this announcement on November 29. From that day hence I've been working on the same 1 song. So I believe it's very unlikely I'll be able to do a whole album before Christmas. Thus I'm going to set some more realistic goals for the remaining 20 days.

Here they are in order of importance:

First, I am going to finish up recording "Silent Night." I have a funky little version I have been working on since November 29 and all I need to do is lay down a guitar track and the drum track. The drum track will be left for last so I can finish up 2 songs in the same session. Saves a lot of work setting up the drum set and doing several takes to get a good sound.

Second, I'm going to finish writing an original Christmas song and begin recording it soon. Nothing long or fancy. The simplest stuff works best for Christmas music. Look at all the classics that have stood the test of time. Mostly all short and simple.

Third, I'm going to finish up "Call On Me." Yes, the song that should have been completed months ago. I have yet to record the bass track, harmony/falsetto track and some electric guitar here and there. No if's, and's or but's about it--this song has to be finished within the month and after the Christmas tunes.

Fourth and finally, I've got to release my first full-length album which I announced in September. I originally planned for October or November but time has been flying by and it's just not ready. And it won't be ready until "Call On Me" is finished. I also have to go back and create a new mix of "Tomorrow" for the album, and possibly a new mix of "The Rain" and "Now and Then" also. And I'll also have to decide how many and which tracks will make it to the album. If I had anything resembling a fan base I could have them vote for which songs should be on there.

Sound feasible? I think so. But only time will tell.

Finally on the Radio!

Here's something I should have written about sooner, but it just slipped my mind with so many other things going on.

A few weekends ago, my song "(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind" was played on a local radio station show in Missouri. I was contacted on my Facebook page by Nick & Bootsy from the KKID Basement Tapes show that plays local and independent music. They came across this song of mine either through here or on my Exit World Facebook page and were interested in playing it on their show. So I sent it and they played it. I wasn't able to listen to their show live at the time they played because it does not stream online. So I had to wait 4 days later when Insane Realm radio re-broadcasts the complete show online to hear it. It was a thrill when it came on! I have since sent them more songs. Hopefully they will deem them worthy enough to be played.

This is a milestone for me. It's the first time a song of mine has been played on FM radio by someone other than a personal friend or acquaintance. I've had a few friends over they years play some of my songs on college radio stations. WLUW, WZRD and WNUR have all played my music. So I was really excited when someone other than someone I know contacted me to air my song. Now I can confidently join ASCAP or BMI! (I probably won't. Not yet anyway).

So this was really cool and I take it as another sign that I am on the right path to a music career. Another really cool sign was when my YouTube video for "Another Morning What a Drag" took off for about a month and garnered about 1200 views in that short period.

On the other hand, I was really confident about "Blow Your Mind" getting successfully forwarded for a TAXI listing. The listing was for a Hollywood blockbuster that was looking for original early to mid 70's sounding music. I've been with TAXI A&R music company on and off for the last 10 years or so and this was the most confident I was in submitting any songs to one of their listings. It was to the point where there was very little doubt in my mind that this was going to be my big breakthrough. But today I received notice that it was rejected due to the lyrics not being universally themed. Funny, I don't remember the listing requiring universally-themed lyrics. Regardless, what I should have done was send just the instrumental track without vocals alongside the original. They did say the music was right on target and it was an 'excellent track.' Disappointing but I'll take it as a moral victory and be sure to send both vocal versions and instrumental versions from here on out, if possible--sometimes they specifically ask for either vocal songs or instrumental songs.

And I'm sorry to announce that I have made no progress on remixing some of my other songs and finishing up "Call on Me" for their inclusion on my forthcoming full-length album. But I still have time and it will get done.

Lastly, my YouTube channel name has been officially changed to Exit World. It is no longer AF14eva.

(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind

I finally uploaded my song, "(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind" to YouTube. Hadn't done much in terms of uploading my songs to YouTube lately because of the difficulty in trying to make videos that would complement the songs. I don't have the equipment or any willing volunteers nor do I want to 'borrow' other people's photos and videos out there due to copyright issues. So I finally decided on just making the video a still photo of the forthcoming album.

Even though "Blow Your Mind" has been out there on my tumblr and perhaps Soundcloud, I don't really consider it 'out there' until it's on YouTube. Additionally this is a great way to release a single to promote the album.due soon. (I'm not sure if they still put out singles before albums nowadays. I don't really follow the industry and I don't buy much new music. I do know that back in the 1960's and 70's they would sometimes put out singles before the albums they appeared on and other times they would release albums first then put out singles from the album. I never understood the latter because if you had the album you wouldn't need to get the singles. But I digress...)

I guess we'll have to go back to the days before music videos where you would listen to music and come up with your own imagery. So listen to the song and use your imagination:

Full Length Album Coming This Fall!!

I decided that I would release a full length album before the year is up. It's already mid to late September so that does not allow me much time. Especially since I plan on going back and remixing some of my existing songs. That shouldn't take an excessive amount of time as long as I dedicate enough hours to the task. Ideally I want it released no later than November. I already released a 6-song EP in late 2011 but it was a hurried effort and I ended up including an incorrect mix of one of the songs. Additionally, I created the EP without cover artwork so Record Union--the company I submitted the album with--used their own stock photo of a red dog. At the time it didn't matter because I just wanted my best music out there on Amazon and iTunes and Spotify. But this time around I will make sure to provide my own album artwork and the correct versions of my songs.

The reason I've waited so long to do this is due to the nature of my music. It's basically all over the place genre-wise. I have songs that sound pop, rock, jazz, r&b, indie, retro and some that are instrumental in different styles. The songs I ultimately end up including on this full-length album will in no way create a cohesive or thematic listening experience. It will be more like a compilation of an artist who has spent different phases of his career indulging in various styles of music. Perhaps someone like Beck. Or David Bowie. Or Brian Eno. Not sure. But I'm going to do this. And this album will include the best of what I've created between 2001 and 2012 and perhaps even a little something from 2013. I imagine my second full-length album will be more cohesive musically and will be comprised of material recorded over a much shorter period of time.

One of the songs that will be on this album is titled, "Where I Belong," and I just yesterday uploaded it to YouTube. Here it is:

By the way, the photo that accompanies the song in the video will most likely be the album artwork for this upcoming release. I think it looks cool. But getting back to this song--it's a song I recorded in 2007 so it's pretty old relatively speaking. The song opens with some low organ notes and and electric guitar. I was going for a dark feel there. The rest of the song features 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, 2 electric guitars, electric bass and drums. This song also has the distinction of being the very first where I sang falsetto on. Falsetto is something I've been using a lot more since this song and will continue to do so. I really enjoy falsetto in the modern vein of Chris Martin of Coldplay and James Vincent McMorrow to mention a few.

This song may have a bit of a country feel to it. Maybe alt-country to be more precise. But that's really not the sound I was going for. I was going for a combination of an alternative and power pop and hard rock sound and I think I succeeded in that mission.

I feel the drums came out well-recorded in this song. Not 100% content with it but one of the better recordings I've managed. And as you know, I judge many of my recordings by the quality of the drum set sound. At this time I have no plans to re-work this song in any way for the album release to come. I'm going to leave it with its raw feel and energy. I must also confess that it is not one of my favourite tunes but it does have its moments of what in my world I would call 'perfection,' including that little guitar solo after the first chorus. It is a simple part but the tone of the guitar combined with the notes played over the other layers of instruments is really in my opinion one of my greatest musical moments.

I will try to get more tunes uploaded to my YouTube channel and as I do that I will share them here. Also I will continue to update on my progress of the album release and perhaps even schedule an album release party  :}

The Ultimate Leslie Speaker Simulator

You might be wondering what Exit World is up to since not posting here for nearly 4 months. Of course, you might also not be wondering since this blog has only 1 follower and that individual is not much of a bloghead. Regardless, I have been sparsely working on my music. Trying to write some lyrics, finish up "Call On Me" and some other things all in between the many things that life throws at us.

Biggest bit of news I have is a newly acquired effect pedal: a Neo Instruments Ventilator pedal. By its name not even I could tell what it does. Only by its description in a Sweetwater catalog. It is a Leslie speaker simulator for keyboards and guitar.

Note: Those may look like jacks on the front of the unit, but they are actually the switches. The jacks are         located on the side of the unit.

My very first Leslie speaker simulator was a Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere MK II unit that actually had a real tube inside. I was mainly looking for that Leslie sound with a keyboard/organ. I had no interest in plugging a guitar into it. I don't remember using that thing much nor can I verify that I have any recordings featuring it. I do remember it being noisy though. It never gave me that Leslie sound I heard on many favorite tunes. That could've been because I was trying to use it through a $99 Casio keyboard from K-Mart. But that keyboard has some nice pure organ sounds. Yes, I still have it. I purchased it sometime in the late 90's. But that pedal I sold in May 2006. For all I know it may have sounded great with guitar.

I've tried other guitar pedals over the years that might give me that Leslie sound on organ. But they never really worked well. All that was resolved once I bought a Nord Electro 73. That wonderful keyboard featured fully authentic sounding Hammond organ with and without the Leslie effect. Not to mention amazing Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric piano sounds and a fabulous clavinet sound.

So that solved my longing for Leslie-organ. Some years later I developed a desire for Leslie-guitar after listening to countless songs from the 1969-1974 period. The last Leslie simulator pedal I owned before my current one was a Line 6 Roto Machine pedal which never really satisfied. It too had a missing element in the sound and that element was unique growl that came from the original Leslie cabinet. Needless to say I sold that pedal as well, and as far as I know Line 6 no longer makes this pedal. 

Then I found the Ventilator. I ordered one and it sounds absolutely amazing! This is a German-made pedal and it's absolutely wonderful. I was totally ready to send this thing back if it didn't give me that classic sound including growl that I've been seeking. But it came through and I'm completely satisfied. I even made a short video playing some lines from songs featuring this classic sound:

This pedal is very pricey as are all Leslie simulators. But when it comes to that classic rotating speaker sound, there isn't much of a choice. You can seek out an actual vintage Leslie which will surely cost plenty especially if it is in fully working order and in very good cosmetic condition. Or you can purchase a newly made Motion Sound brand rotating speaker cabinet which will also dig deep into your wallet. Or you can purchase one of these pedals, which among all the other brands available are pretty much similarly priced. Well worth it though if you gotta have that sound.

Early Percussion Instruments

Here are some photos of my early percussion instruments. These are the things I used on recordings during junior high and high school and before I ever touched a real drum set. I hadn't seen this items in years as they had been stored away in the garage after our move.

The plastic-reels-with-the-pencil-sticking-up-thing was my 'cymbal' stand. The reels were from 8-track tape cartridges. The actual symbol is not shown because I do not know where it is. It was never mine anyway. It was part of my mother's fancy crystal candy and confection dish. I used to borrow the metallic lid to use for recordings because it was the closest thing I had that sounded like a cymbal, even though it sounded nothing like a cymbal. But hey, it was round and remained suspended on the tip of the pencil. So it looked cool.

Those things are from trees that have pods that fall to the ground in the fall or spring or whenever it is. When they're dry the seeds inside are loose and they make a nice shaker sound. I used them as maracas and as snares underneath my 'snare' drum.

This was my tambourine made from little holiday jingle bells. Gave every recording an instant Christmas feel. Hence, I did not overly use it.

Here is my snare drum. Made from an old, red Fannie May (?) candy can. The bottom was cut out and I tried using cardboard, sheets of paper and plastic as the drum head. As you can tell, by the time I last used this thing I had settled on a sheet of plastic as the drum head. I also added those seed pods underneath to give the snare sound. My drum sticks were markers that no longer worked and a couple of paint brushes for that 'jazz brush' sound.

Finally, as far as my percussion instruments go, these were my toms. Just two coffee cans with plastic lids on top. The brown (or dark) one had just the top metal lid removed. The green one had both the top and bottom metal lids cut and were replaced by the plastic lid. This can also doubled as my bass drum. When I wanted to record bass drum parts I would play it with another non-working marker that had a lot of cloth wrapped around it to give a nice deep sound. Had to be recorded separately though. Could not play the snare, toms, cymbal and bass at the same time. Didn't have the proper set up. In my early recordings I didn't even use the bass drum option. It was just snare, toms and cymbal. Later is when I started using the bass in the way described. In the final stages of using this equipment I was just alternating between playing the snare and the bass just to keep it all in one whole track. When you're doing analog recording--and especially with cheap cassettes--quality starts going down very quickly as you add more and more layers of tracks.

So those items are part of my music history. I still have them and want to keep them as a reminder of what I used to do with much of my spare time when I was in school. Maybe they'll end up in a museum someday?

There is some other gear which I no longer have and others which I do. I'll have to post photos of them when I come across them.

Song For A Friend

Back in January of 2010 one of the kids from my youth group passed away at the age of 18 due to cancer. Later in October of that year as we were getting ready to commemorate what would have been his 19th birthday, I wrote and recorded a song for him. It was probably one of the quickest songs I ever wrote, as everything from the lyrics to the melody just came to me amazingly fast. At the time I had a Ten Shekel Shirt song, "February," in heavy rotation. That song was also about the passing of a person or persons. Definitely a sad sounding song but something really attracted me to it.

I had been listening to a lot of piano driven pop/rock songs at the time such as "Leaving Ninety-Nine" by Audio Adrenaline,  "Look What You've Done" by JET, "Bedshaped" by Keane, "Brighter Than Sunshine" by Aqualung and various others. So this song I wrote for my friend was styled on these aforementioned songs. At the time I was also interested in playing slide guitar so there are some slide guitar parts on this song.

I have changed the title of this song various times over the last few years. It started off as "Song For Chris" then "October 24" and currently it is "Song For A Friend." I have been flirting with the idea of rewriting the lyrics for a more generalized sentiment because I feel the song has a very strong modern pop feel to it and may even be the song that helps me break into the music biz. I don't know. But I do know that I have to be flexible and ready, willing & able to rewrite lyrics if I am serious about a career as a songwriter/composer.

This is one of my very few and rare songs that do not feature me playing the drums. Well not real drums anyway. I don't think I had my own drum set yet at that time and going over to my church with all my recording equipment was a major hassle, not to mention that it wasn't sounding all that great on the last few songs I had recorded that way. And this was a song I was trying to get done quickly so I opted to use the drums sounds from my Yamaha S90. Sounds authentic enough but not very practical for doing any kind of genuine sounding fills.

This song also features: piano (Yamaha S90); slide electric guitar; rhythm electric guitar; electric bass; vocal; and 'drums'. I used that blue Rickenbacker guitar I used to have for the rhythm parts.

There are also a few electric guitar parts with volume swells during the verses that I played on the Carvin. Here is the song:




Since I may end up rewriting the lyrics I don't think I will go back and fix up some of the 'too soft' vocal passages or some of the flatter notes on the high parts. One friend when first hearing the song said it sounded like The Beatles. Interesting, but definitely not the sound I was going for. You decide.

Now Until Then

I have an upright string bass (or double bass) that I don't use much in my recordings because I haven't gotten down how to play without frets yet. It is my own fault because I rarely practice playing it. But occasionally I do use it and there are at least 2 recordings of mine that feature it. It is also a very hard instrument to record well. I hear these modern jazz recordings and the double bass just sounds so rich and deep. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that mine is an $800 Chinese made instrument, while theirs are most likely vintage and cost thousands of dollars.

Here is a song titled, "Now Until Then," which I made in 2011. I was just fingerpicking away at my nylon string classical guitar and I came up with something I thought interesting so I recorded it and used it as the basis for this song. It features 2 classical guitar parts, a drum track and a double bass track. (I don't like referring to it as 'double bass' because drummers also have something they call a 'double bass.' So in order to avoid any confusion from here on out I will refer to the 4 string acoustic double bass as upright acoustic bass or just upright bass.)

This song has elements of jazz, folk and even classical. I wouldn't know how to categorize it. Actually most of my music is very hard to categorize. This one is no exception. Listen to it and decide for yourself:




I am leaning towards more instrumental music not only because it is more universal but also because it is very difficult for me to sing and whenever I do vocal tracks I end up doing so many takes and edits. It requires the most amount of time compared to any other instrument I record.

Well, here is another similar type recording. This one was made several years ago and pretty much fits the same arrangement as "Now Until Then." The exception being that steel string acoustic guitar tracks replace the nylon string guitar ones. Drums and upright bass are both here as well. This recording was really just an improvisation. I did not set out to make an actual song. I was just laying down some ideas, especially concerning the rhythm acoustic guitar. So the songs starts off well but really breaks down about midway through or later. I don't even really have an official title for it. But I will record an official version of it at some point.

This is one of those recordings that would not normally see the light of day, but I include it here because it has some interesting elements:




I am interested in acoustic music and would like to record a whole album just of acoustic string instruments. Would be nice to have a resonator guitar and also a banjo. But I'll make do with what I have for now.

Ambient, Mood & Movie Music

If I should not make it for any reason as a recording artist in my own rite, I would be more than satisfied making music for films or broadcast programs or even commercials. I enjoy writing lyrics and singing even though I find it incredibly difficult to sing on pitch, but I also enjoy creating mood music and letting the instruments do the 'singing.' I am particularly interested in foreboding or suspenseful type music, like the great sounds that can be heard on many if not all the crime drama movies and TV shows of the late 60's through the mid 70's. That stuff is classic. SWAT, Kojak, Mission: Impossible, The Mod Squad, The Mechanic, Death Wish and so many others featured such amazing mood music soundtracks. But I don't want to limit myself to just that era, even the sounds created during that time sets the bar in my opinion.

I have here 2 pieces of original work I created. This first one is more modern sounding and could be used in a variety of applications. It's just a 2 track recording and completely recorded on my Yamaha S90 synthesizer. It could best be described as New Age or Ambient. I'm not sure what other classification I could put this song under. Perhaps Soundtrack. I think Ambient fits best.

This is a short 2 minute piece that I made in 2011. It's different from anything I created up to that point and anything I've done since. It's just a synthesizer track plus a piano track. I call it "Open Sky."




I was going for a simplistic yet foreboding feel. I just completely improvised on the piano part.

This next track has a more 70s feel to it. No wonder with the Wurlitzer and Rhodes electric piano parts! But that's what I was going for. I think it is more than just background music when compared to "Open Sky." It does have more movement to it and a fuller sound thanks to the electric piano parts, electric guitar, electric bass and drumstick beat.

I don't usually start recording any song with drums or percussion but this one did begin with the drumsticks. I was working on another song at the time--probably "Blow Your Mind"--and took a break. I had the vocal mic hooked up to some serious delay and reverb and just started messing around with some drumsticks. I came up with the idea for the cool beat you will hear in this song. I tried playing it in time for about 2 and a half minutes so I could have a decent length recording. After I had that track down I just started layering the other parts on top. The parts on this song were more planned out than on "Open Sky." At least the first half of the song could definitely be used during an on-foot chase or pursuit scene and the second half during some suspenseful or revealing scene. But you listen and decide for yourself.




This is one of my newer projects having been recording just last year in 2012. Would love to make a whole album of just this 70's tinged mood/movie music. The good thing is the songs don't have to be long. They can be 2 minutes and under. Consider this a preview of an album to come then. Perhaps you'll hear this stuff in the theatre or on TV in the near future.

(Edit: I forgot to mention that on 'Coming Apart' there are a few additional percussion instruments I added on there courtesy of my Yamaha S90.)

Homemade Electric Guitar & Bass

My very first amplifier was a mini-amplifier that I purchased from Radio Shack:

This thing was the first step towards 'electrifying' my homemade stringed instruments. This was way back when. I had this game set made out of round aluminum or some other kind of metal that resembled a pizza pan. On one side was a checkerboard design, on the other was a Chinese checkers game board. The 'pan' opened up and stored all the game pieces inside. In essence, when the pan was opened up I had 2 pans. After I had no one left to play the games with, I decided to find a new use for these aluminum pans.

I had these pretty thick and oversized rubber bands that I put around one of the pans. The size of the rubber bands gave nice low tones when plucked--tones similar to that of other stringed bass instruments. But the tones could only be heard if the pan was placed really close to the ears. And needless to say the tiny amp pictured above was not going to reproduce any low frequency sounds. So I had to explore other possibilities for amplification of that instrument.

But what that amp did turn out to be great for was the other pan, which I also put rubber bands around. But these rubber bands were the more typical thin and smaller type. Not good for bass sounds. But good for tenor type stringed instruments!

So I used an old speaker that I pulled out of a broken radio or something as the pickup or microphone. (I used to save old speakers and parts from old radios or tv's or other things that no longer worked). The good thing about using a speaker was that it would lay flat against the back of the pan and remain held in place by the rubber bands. The rubber bands served a dual purpose--the musical notes and keeping the speaker in place. A typical mic would not cooperate as well.

I had wires going from the speaker to a 1/4" plug on the other end for inserting into the mini amp. And when I turned on the amp, VOILA! I now had the sound of amplified rubber bands! It wasn't very musical and it was difficult to get the right tones. But if there was a recording I wanted to make I would mark the rubber bands just where I had 'fret' them in order to get the proper notes. And if I turned the amp up all the way it really sounded like a distorted guitar.

Here is a little recording I made using that set up. Remember, this is before I actually had any real instruments whatsoever. I had no musical training or any lessons. And the recording itself is very old and originally made on very cheap Certron cassette tapes from the 80s and early 90s. This may be as lo-fi as it gets.




There is my rubber band electric guitar! If I can locate the whereabouts of the pans I will gladly photograph them and post on here to give a better idea visually.

I also want to include a snip of how the bass rubber band instrument sounded:




Very hard to get the correct intonation but for me it was super cool and exciting because I got to experiment with sounds and music!

(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind

I'm going to stop posting my songs in chronological order from here on out. Mainly for 2 reasons: first, like fine wine, my songs/music/recording abilities have improved with time. If I continue to blog about my songs in the order I made them, it's going to take quite some time before I get to my most recent material. Second, 2006 is the year I started working on more than just one song per year. And not having had kept good records of when I recorded my songs at that time, it would be difficult to proceed chronologically.

So today I will begin with my most recently completed song, "(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind," which I completed in 2012. With this song I was trying my hand at early to mid 70s r&b or soul. Other than most of my vocal parts I believe I successfully accomplished the sound I was going for.

As of the last few years when I started recording the drum tracks at home, I've been recording with the benefit of only two mics. I do have a set of drum mics which I have used on previous recordings. I've recorded with as many as 5 or 6 mics. But as I have compared the recordings made with 5/6 mics to those made with only 2 I have found the ones with only 2 mics sound much better. And so I've been recording with only an overhead Shure 57 and a kick drum mic. That is the case with this song.

In addition to drums, this song features: about 4 electric guitar parts (2 clean & compressed, 1 with wah, 1 with phaser); 5-string electric bass; Nord 73 keyboard (clavinet and Fender Rhodes parts); and several vocal parts.




I think the instrumental minute-and-a-half ending part can stand on its own as a sort of song itself. Featuring a little light improvising on the 'Rhodes' with a few bluesy guitar licks here and there. Could even be a theme for a retro TV show or sitcom. I really like it. There are some moments when everything comes together just right and feels like a group of guys gelling. Check it out for yourself.

Most Amazing

I've gone several days without posting. I apologize. Something unexpected happened but now I'm back. So let's continue with my next song, "Most Amazing."

This was my song for 2005. I was aiming for a different sound from "You Are So Good." I had started to listen to some other bands and more modern music and this is what I came up with. It's definitely a driving alternative rock song featuring several electric guitar tracks, an acoustic guitar, an electric bass, drums and vocal track. At the time, this was the first song that did not include any keyboards. It was also my first song to feature an e-bow. The purchase and use of an e-bow was the result of a strong influence by Marcus Beaumont of Hillsong on their 17 minute epic song titled "Highest." That is the song I could be found listening to/watching the video of almost all the time back then.

This song is also different from anything else I made up to that point in that I tried singing in a different voice during the bridge part. As I was listening to a lot of alternative at the time--The Calling, STP, Live, Creed, Staind, Jeremy Riddle (of Vineyard), Tony Sanchez (of Vineyard), etc.--and was influenced not only by the guitar playing but also the vocal stylizing. Took me a while to get it, but eventually the end result was satisfactory to me.




What was not satisfactory to me is the overall sound of the drums. They sound muddy. The snare especially. The toms I can barely hear. Short of re-recording the drum track, I'm not sure there's much I can do to improve its sound. Also the overall sound of the track is a bit trebly. In particular the vocals and drums.

The guitars used in this song include: the white Les Paul Studio I pictured in the last post; a black Fender Aerodyne Strat which I had for a few years and regrettably traded for an Epiphone Dot; and a Gretsch White Falcon used for the solo during the bridge. I have none of those 4 guitars anymore. Here are some photos of the Aerodyne Strat:

(All these guitars makes me think I should devote one post to all the electric's I've had over the years.)

I entered this song into another Billboard Songwriting Contest and it ended up winning an Honorable Mention by placing in the Top 500. This was the best showing for any of my entries. I even won 2 prizes which included a book and a pair of sunglasses.

Do I want to spend the time reworking the odds and ends of this recording? Not really. I feel it was just another stepping stone to where I am now. It's a part of the past that should stay there. To be honest, I have new and exciting musical endeavours I want to embark on. Going back and working on stuff from the past is regressing, not progressing. This song was great when it happened. But I feel it really pales in comparison to some of the stuff I have done within the last few years. In fact, it has not stood the test of time for me like "You Are So Good" has. I find myself always coming back to listen to "Good." I rarely listen to "Most Amazing." "The Moment of Truth" is another I keep coming back to, especially after I re-recorded the vocals.

You Are So Good

I don't remembering having recorded any songs in 2003. I may have been still working on polishing up some of the other ones. Not completely sure. But the following year I made an 'epic' song. Titled "You Are So Good" it was really a work of art for me and the best thing I made up to that point. Actually it still stands as one of my best songs lyrically and musically and is the first song featuring my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar:

I don't have this guitar any longer either. This was my first really good electric guitar. And it smelled good! Or maybe it was the case. I don't know. But something about Gibson electric guitars/cases. They have this aroma that makes playing even more enjoyable. Anyway, this was the guitar used in the solos for this song.

As I mentioned this song was recorded in 2004. But in 2010 I came back to this song and and added one more thing to it. In the early part of that year I purchased a Korg Micro Sampler.

Around that time I had become interested in sampling as a result of much listening to the music of Sigur Ros. More on that in a future post. But with this Korg I recorded an electric guitar part for the pre-chorus of the song. Then with the help of audacity I added that part to the song and I also reversed the part and added it as a layer over the piano intro to the song. And it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, when I released my EP I inadvertently did not include this new, updated 2010 version and instead released the original 2004 version. The original version is available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.

The instrumentation for this song includes: acoustic guitar; digital piano; electric bass; drums; several electric guitar tracks; tambourine; electronic keyboard (organ sound); and 2 vocal tracks. Here is the song:




This song also received an honorable mention in another Billboard songwriting contest. I don't have the exact details. I did perform this song twice at church with members of the youth group. To this day some of them can still sing the chorus.

The Moment of Truth

This next song has been the longest in the making. I started recording it in 2002 and only finished it in 2010. I was satisfied with the instrumentation and arrangement but the original vocals left much to be desired. Originally I had sung the main vocal an octave lower that what you will hear in this version. I didn't like it. It sounded too laid back and wasn't a good match for the subject matter of the lyrics.

I worked on the instrument tracks for much of 2002 and 2003. I was very pleased with the music itself and definitely felt it was my best work up to then. Even to this day it remains one of my favourite songs and I really love the semi-psychedelic folk rock sound I created on it. Even a fellow musician of the reggae/rap genre had shown some interest in sampling the instrumental version for his own music. As far as I know, that never came to pass however.

The drums on this song sound very good to me just as on the previous song. The overall balance of sound and instruments is also very good.

I recorded multiple takes of the vocal track but none every sounded right. So for years I left the song alone until 2010 when I decided to try something different with it. What I tried was to sing the whole song an octave higher than originally planned. To me, that gave the song a much better sound and a sense of urgency that complemented the lyrics. It also made it much more difficult to sing the chorus without going flat. Nonetheless, I think it sounds great. And I added a falsetto harmony track on the verses. Icing on the cake!

Instrumentation includes: acoustic guitar; several electric guitar tracks; electric bass; drums, electronic keyboard (organ sound); and digital piano. The electric guitar used in this song was my very first electric. It was an Epiphone Les Paul Special which I no longer have. I don't have any pictures of it either.

Here is the song:




Since this is one of my personal favourite songs and one of the best sounding ones, I included this song in my 5-song EP which I released in November of 2011. This song can be found on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and various other music websites.

I never entered this song in any contest mainly because I stopped entering songwriting contests in the mid 2000's and this one was completed in 2010.

On my next post, I will have another one of my favourite songs. It's a song that also took on a life of its own for a while and some people can even sing some lines from its chorus even to this day.

Next Song: Thank You (For Loving Me)

This is the first recording I made that I actually was pleased with the overall sound and balance of instrument mix. Even to this day I can listen to it and feel that the sound quality is pretty high. One of the measures for me of how good the quality of a recording is is the sound of the drums. In this song, the drums sound very good, from the snare to the bass to the toms to the cymbals. A badly recorded drum set sound can turn a great song into something pretty awful. I don't remember how many mic's I used to record the drums. Seeing how this is another one of the songs I recorded on the Boss BR-8 it is very possible that I only used 2 mics. The BR-8 has a 2 mic input capability and unless I used a mixer which would allow a greater number of mic's to be used (which I really doubt), that's all it was. It's not impossible to get a very good drum set sound with only 2 mics. I can to this day get a pretty solid recording of drums with only 2 mics as long as the drums are tuned well. I recorded this song sometime around 2002 and the drum sound still impresses me. To be honest, I'm pleased with all the instrument tracks. The vocal tracks needed some more work.

So this song was my second attempt at a gospel song. I called it "Thank You (For Loving Me)." I do believe this one was a lot better than "God of Love and Peace" in every way. It definitely showed progress on many levels. And it didn't sound country. Well, maybe still a little. But I blame that on the vocals. I don't think any of the instrumentation or guitar playing sounds country.

The guitar solo in this song is quite different from the solo in "God of Love & Peace." It's clean and loaded with reverb and delay. The electric guitar used for most if not the entire song was an Ibanez Artcore AF75 hollowbody guitar, which I no longer have. Here is a photo of it:

The instrument tracks include: a couple of electric guitar tracks; an acoustic guitar; electric bass; drums; electronic keyboard (organ sound); tambourine; and some vocal tracks.




This song placed in the top 1500 and won an honorable mention in the 12th Annual Billboard World Songwriting Contest.

First Gospel Song

Here is another song that would otherwise not see the light of day from a musical standpoint. I figure if I ever do become a paid recording artist or musician and I were to release the typical 'rarities' album that all artists now seem to have, this song would probably not even appear on there.

This is the first gospel song I wrote; 'gospel' being a generic term for any Bible based music. Just like "Autumn" before it, when I completed recording this song I thought it was quite an accomplishment and the greatest thing ever. Now, I can't really listen to it without cringing. Needless to say, I don't find myself listening to it often anymore.

I recorded this song in 2001 and though I was not going for a 'country' sound I realize that it does have elements of country music. I do enjoy country music from the 1950s through the early 1980s but I never really set to make any country-sounding music. I guess it's mainly the electric guitar parts that give the song a country flavour. Maybe the vocals, too.

The recording features a couple of electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, bass, drums, electronic keyboard (organ & piano sounds), tambourine and some vocal tracks. It was recorded with the Boss BR-8. Here it is.




I did enter this song in the 11th International Billboard Songwriting Contest and it placed in the top 1500 for which it received an honorable mention. I don't know how legitimate those contests were but I do have a few more awards I won over the years for some of the other songs I'll be posting here.

Unlike "Autumn" in my last post, I have never considered re-recording this song ever. This is one of those that will remain in the vaults of time and really only served as a stepping stone to much better things.

Autumn (The Recording)

Seeing how this blog is about my own musical endeavours I am now going to embark in the direction of uploading my own songs and recordings here. Another good reason for this slight change in direction is that I don't have any more tabs that fellow musicians want to see at this time.

One more reason for doing this is to just make my music available to anyone and everyone. Life is fragile and you never know what can happen. These are crazy times now more than ever. This can serve as part of my legacy. And some of these songs/recordings would never see the light of day otherwise.

So I'm going to start with the first real high-quality recording that I ever made. I mentioned this song in a previous post. It's "Autumn;" the sonnet that I turned into a song. I made several recordings of this song including some abbreviated demos dating back to I believe 1995. Regrettably, I did not document recording dates during those times so I cannot be certain of precise dates. The recording that is here on this post is the final one I made of this song and is from about 2001.

This was the first song I made on my new-at-the-time Boss BR-8 digital recording studio. It had 8 track recording capability and recorded onto Zip disks. And that did rather suck because Zip disks were expensive and had limited space. And his Boss machine only worked with the lesser-capacity disks which meant that if you were going to record on all 8 tracks the song could not be longer than about 6 minutes. In reality that meant about 1 song per disk. So yes it had its shortcomings but it offered a sound quality better than anything I had tried up until then.

The recording features both 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitar, a couple of electric guitar tracks, bass, drums, an electronic keyboard and a couple of vocal tracks. I believe that of these instruments the only one I still have is the 12-string guitar. The rest was sold or given away. The drums were not mine.




I was really excited when this song was completed. It took a long time to do so. There recording is not mastered because the BR-8 offered no mastering capabilities. It is just a mixdown of the tracks. But I have come a long way with my recording and production skills since then. As I continue to post my songs here--chronologically for the most part-- you will definitely be able to see the progress made over the years.

From time to time I do think about re-recording this song with some different arrangements. But the idea of redoing old songs is not something I'm really crazy about. I'd rather work on the new stuff at hand. Of course it can be a great project if I'm going through a spell of writer's block and there's nothing else to do.

On a side note, I'm glad I came across Soundcloud. I was looking for a stable website where I could upload my music and be able to embed it here and Soundcloud has turned out to be the best choice.

I'll be blogging here more often now and the posts will feature my songs and a little bit of history behind each one.

Social Media

Here's an idea that came to me and I just sat around a bit working it all out. It's a sort of poem. Yes, I do dabble in poetry and have for quite some time. And since I have not posted here in a while this is better than nothing.

Also, I'm posting it here because when it goes crazy viral, I want the original source to be duly noted as having come from my social media website(s).

You have filled my days with pound signs
And endless one-liners from across the time zones
Only spring and summer
Have brought forth more tweeting
But in the form of pleasant, dreamy bird songs
Some have gained a following
Some have gained notoriety
I have neither one nor the other
And now I say "Goodbye, Twitter"
And off to something more useful.

You gave me the dashboard but you firmly held the wheel
You allowed others to follow without actually stalking
Questions and answers
And rebloggings galore
I never really had to contribute anymore
The silliest of photographs
The strangest of micro-writings
At the end of the day it was all out of mind
And now I bid adieu, tumblr.
And off to time better spent.

You gave me a wall but then you tore it down
You replaced it with a line based on time
Had the opportunity
To like nearly everything
Without actually liking anything
The number of virtual 'friends'
Greatly surpassing actual friends
And bringing the realization: I don't really know my 'friends'
And now I say "Farewell, Facebook"
And off to more meaningful things.