Youtube Channels Suspended, New Christmas Song

Remember how in my previous post I posited that one of my youtube channels with millions of views and thousands of subscribers might serve as a new outlet for my own music? Not only was that true to some extent and actually a really good idea, now it's an impossibility as BOTH my channels were terminated just days before Thanksgiving. First they got my hugely popular channel and then took down my personal Exit World music and creativity channel as well.

I know who is responsible for it but I am not sure of the extenuating circumstances behind it. See, on this widely popular channel called JustGoodStuff I had many clips of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" programs that were well over 40 years old. They had been up for easily over a year or longer. I began uploading some clips after the 2 Twitch marathons that were broadcast in 2017 and 2018. I had recorded many of the shows while they were airing during those marathons. These clips were very popular and well-received. They were not necessarily the reason for the explosion in popularity of this particular channel. That was attributed to some Tim Conway & Harvey Korman clips from the Carol Burnett Show that I had compiled. My original plan had been to put together and upload 4 of these compilations at about 15 minutes each to resemble a game. The clips all featured Conway & Korman breaking character as a result of doing unscripted bits and lines. I think it only took about 2 months before the first video compilation hit a million views. The second video was uploaded shortly after the first and went the same way in terms of views. When my channel was suspended on Monday the first video was at over 2 million and the second at over 1 million. I have never had any videos do that well.

Those 2 videos along with an earlier Conway/Korman video I had uploaded and a segment from a 1973 episode of "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson also led to this channel getting an extraordinary number of subscriptions per day. In fact, I was actually annoyed at my phone going off so frequently with emails stating I had new subscribers all the time. 

It is possible that these videos and subscriptions played a part in the large number of views I was getting on the Mister Rogers videos as well. I'm not totally sure. There has been a lot of Mister Rogers stuff going on the last 2 years due to what would have been his 90th birthday, 50th anniversary of his show and 15th anniversary of his death. Not to mention the documentaries and movies that have been coming out about him as well.

So those videos were getting plenty of views and comments as well. Nowhere near what the Conway/Korman & Carson videos were getting but still a good amount of traffic. I was at 8150 subscribers and one of my most recent uploads was my own rendition of "Ding Dong Merrily On High" & "Gloria in Excelsis" which I combined into a medley and called "In Excelsis Medley". Within the 3 weeks it was up it had received over 200 views and had 9 likes with no dislikes. I would have never gotten those kinds of numbers on my own Exit World channel. So my initial conclusion had manifested. 

I also had a crazy thought. Why shouldn't I check to see if this channel could be monetized. No harm done, right? I mean, I wasn't getting my hopes up. I knew that most of the content on there was not mine but I was putting it together in unique ways or adding my own background music to some videos. I was almost certain they'd say no.

About a week or so after making the request sure enough the expected response came in. "No, you cannot monetize this channel." OK, at least I know for sure now. A few weeks later and all my work is gone. All the hours I'd leave the computer on overnight to upload a longer video trampled on and invalidated.

One more thing to consider: in the last 2 weeks youtube started talking about this thing called COPPA which is supposedly something that's 'meant to protect children.' Now every time you uploaded a video you had to check a box that declared that your video was either made for children or not made for children. Honestly speaking, I didn't like how the choices were worded. If you choose 'not made for children' does that mean your videos may be considered inappropriate for them and then you get unwanted special designation on the videos? And if you choose 'made for children' you're catering to them? So needless to say it was rather confusing. I decided the best choice for me was that my videos were not made for children.

Last week a number of my Mister Rogers clips were taken down and I received 2 copyright strikes. I wondered why they chose those particular videos and left all the others. I also wondered why I received one copyright strike for a single video and then another one copyright strike for 6 other videos. That didn't make a lot of sense. But I was still in the game. I had one more strike to go. I figured they didn't take down the other Mister Rogers videos for whatever reason so I left them up as well. And youtube had said that if I went to their 'copyright school' those 2 strikes would expire in 3 months. So I did it. All it is is a short cartoon you have to watch and then answer 3 questions about copyright that are discussed in the animation. I did it and passed and in 3 months I would be back to no strikes. Just to let some of my subscribers know though, I made one video with some of my own background music and some lines of sentences that basically let them know the position I was in and the chance that channel could vanish at any given moment.

And voila! On Monday morning I was informed via email that I received a 3rd copyright strike for the remaining Mr. Rogers videos that were still up and that my entire channel had been taken down. I know for a fact that there is no way to reinstate a channel that has content you don't own on it. So the milestones of subscribers and millions of views for the unique content that I had uploaded were all erased. What I was trying to most figure out was why. WHY NOW? I suspect the request for monetization of the channel could have had something to do with it. Also this COPPA thing. And the current hype for all things Mr. Rogers may have played a part as well.

As much as it pained me to get my channel shut down by the company associated with the man I considered a personal hero and whose program was something I could never get enough of growing up and even later on, the pain was even more debilitating when on Tuesday morning I received an email stating that my Exit World channel was also taken down because it was linked with the other channel. This was my own personal channel for my own music and video creations. Okay, I may have had a few things on there that weren't mine as well, but they were few and they had been there since before I created the JustGoodStuff channel. There were never any issues. I had never received any copyright strikes for those. If you'll remember, that channel was even monetized for a while until they changed their standards to better serve the elite channels. 

Pissed as I was, I finished writing a one and a half page letter which I emailed to the Fred Rogers Company (FRC). I don't expect anything to come of that but I wanted them to know that what they did was a very much anti-Mr. Rogers thing to do and that he would never object to the content of his shows being online because he believe in sharing and in fair use.

There is a possibility for me to get my Exit World channel back up but I have to appeal and send in this form to youtube or google or whoever the hell it is. I don't feel like doing it. I think it'll be a time-waster. They have the final say. Welcome to the free world. 

I had gone to a Mr. Rogers group on Facebook and announced what happened and said I was going to write the letter and asked for any ideas. This very un-Mr. Rogers-like group pretty much acted as my judge and jury with an immense amount of self-righteousness and undoubted hypocrisy. One who had copyrighted images from the recent Laurel & Hardy movie (among other things) on his own Facebook had the gall to say that I deserved what I got for using what didn't belong to me! Another one mentioned the Fred Rogers Company's right to sue me! Sue me? For what? Good luck with that!

I have no doubt these accusers and naysayers spent countless hours watching the videos I uploaded. But now all of a sudden they are armchair copyright attorneys and defenders of the rights of intellectual property owners. After receiving a rash of comments siding with the FRC, I finally called them all a strange bunch--certainly they knew nothing of who Fred Rogers really was; many have just jumped on the Rogers hype bandwagon--and told those who supported what happened to me that they themselves better be obeying copyright laws by not watching anything that's been illegally uploaded. Because, after all, if you're going to be self-righteous, then you'd better be righteous yourself. 

So I am not sure what I'm going to do. This did put a damper on the Thanksgiving Day anticipation. My initial thoughts were to abandon youtube forever and not use it anymore for anything. (I refuse to capitalize youtube any longer). But they're like the ebay of the video world. Where else are you gonna go to build that massive viewership and potential revenue? I still do have my ExitWorldTopic channel (or TopicExitWorld, whatever it's called) but that's fully controlled by CD Baby not me.

Most importantly for me now is to finish and release the new Christmas song I've been working on. I'd love to have my own channel to upload the video to but it's not an option at this time. When it's done and released I'll get it up on Vimeo and Soundcloud and wherever else I can find. Oh, and of course, ChristmasSongsRadio.com. They play my stuff and that might be the best place to get it promoted. By the way, the song is going very well and I should be done recording it in no more than a few days and then mixed and mastered and released with artwork. 

A New Avenue for My Music?

I have discovered something interesting. Other than my Exit World YouTube channel I do have another one that has a couple of videos with a million plus views and over 7,300 subscribers at the moment. The high number of views and subscribers happened this past spring when I created some compilation videos of a TV show. I had no idea I was going to get this sort of response. In fact, my first million-view video happened within just 4 weeks of uploading it. It is now at over 2 million and my subscriber count has skyrocketed from what it was before this video.

My discovery is this: anything that I upload to this channel immediately gets views and likes. Some of course get a lot more than others. But I have decided that I can use this to my advantage. I will upload some of my own original creations on this channel. Not the 'from the archives' material but my better quality material.

I have done so today. I uploaded my "In Excelsis Medley" recording from a few years back onto this channel and in about 12 hours time it has 75 views and 6 likes. There is no way it would have anything even remotely close to this on my Exit World channel. So it will be interesting to see where this goes and how many views it will have by Christmas. This may even be a way to get some sales for my music, though at the particular moment this track is not available for purchase anywhere.

I did not just upload the song, however. I took the cover of the Christmas EP I released some years ago and added some animated snowfall to it. A good visual helps promote any audio recording.

That's one bit of potential good news. In another bit, I was working on another instrumental song to use as background music for some videos. But the song was turning out so well that the thought came into my head to write some lyrics for it and turn it into a Christmas song. So I've been working on that and that's the route I'm going now. This will be a holiday tune perhaps for a single release or an EP release if I can get a few more songs recorded within the next 4-6 weeks or so. But I am really excited for this song particularly since I haven't made any new songs this year with the exception of the 2 that served as background music.

From the Archives: My First Recording Session with Special Guest, Part 1 (1989)

So my last post was about my very first song recording. This post will be about a couple of song recordings I did before that one with the assistance of my brother.

When I discovered the ability to record music via the overdub function of my sister's dual cassette boombox, I thought it would be cool to get some help recording. I quickly realized that the more overdubs you did the worse the overall recording sounded, not to mention the cheap cassettes and microphones I was using. So if I could get someone to record with me that would eliminate the need for twice as many tracks and thus preserve at least some quality.

I used to make deals or bets with my brother and they usually involved him having to record with me if he lost or as a result of some other exchange. In fact, to this day he still owes me several hours of recording even 30 years after the fact. But I came to enjoy recording on my own even if there was a sacrifice in sound quality.

My brother and I had no musical training. We never learned any instruments by this point. And I was thrilled to record stuff while he wasn't really interested. But we did have some sort of deal and at least I got these 2 recordings which I have preserved for all these years.

I can't be certain of the order but I believe both of these songs were recorded as follows:

1st track: drums-me; Casio PT-1-bro
2nd track; bass-me; guitar-bro

Around that time I used to have this huge dry cell batter that I had bought for some home experiments. When I didn't have money to buy AA batteries for the Casio I found a way to wire this dry cell to the AC adapter jack on the keyboard. But it wasn't a solid connection and so you'll hear the keyboard playing intermittently on both recordings.

That little guitar wasn't easy to play either because the way I had set it up to have the strings ring as best they could would not stay in place. My brother had even said that I gave him the bad instruments to play. Truthfully though the ones I played weren't all that great or easy to play either!

I had some idea of what I wanted to play on these songs and I told my brother to play whatever he thought sounded good with what I was doing. I changed the tempo a few times on the first recording just to mix things up a bit. I'm not sure what the inspiration behind the first recording was, but the inspiration behind the second recording was "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" by The Temptations. When you hear the second recording (will be featured on my next blog post) surely you will not detect any trace of that classic song from 1972. But if you listen deep enough you'll see that my drum beat was similar to the single bass drum beat of Papa, and my 'bass' playing was also a repetitive 3-note line. And on this recording I also used something to ride like a hi-hat cymbal. So the beat was definitely lifted from that song. The bass line was different but similarly repetitive. And as far as what my brother played, well, he wasn't into the same kind of music I was so he just played whatever on the guitar and keyboard to fulfill his part of our deal.

So these were my very first recordings along with the one I did by myself from the previous post. Some time after this I would get my very own stereo system--nothing terribly expensive with a single cassette recorder and 2 microphone inputs. The 2 inputs allowed me to start recording in stereo which was in those days a dream come true for me. Not only that but I also started experimenting with using other devices instead of those voice-tuned microphones in order to get better recorded sounds, particularly in my attempt to get better bass sounds from my rubber bands!

Holiday Music Production Underway

I have been working on Christmas music this year. Yay! This is the longest into the new year that I have ever worked on holiday music. So I am really serious about doing this in this new year.

So far I have been recording one song. I am envisioning it as being the last song on the album. The working title is "Christmas in the City" which was inspired by the Marvin Gaye instrumental of the same title. Basically this song's lyrics are, "Christmas in the city, looking so pretty." And it's just that repeated over and over with some occasional breaks for instrument solos. Originally, I planned to write this song with more lyrics--and I still may--but this version has turned out to be a reprise of sorts. So if I do still write another with the same title there will be more lyrics and the music will be slightly different. But I am having a great time with this one. I'm going for that late 60's/early 70's funky sound and thus far I have some Wurlitzer piano, a couple electric guitars, electric bass, sleigh bells and vocals. This will also mark my first song that features four-part harmony. Still plan to add some organ, minimoog and horns. Ahh yes, and drums. I would like to believe that I'll have the large majority of this song completed sometime this month. I really cannot afford to spend too much more time on it.

Which brings me to my next point....

Do I realistically have the time to present a full-length album by the holiday season for 2018? I have a solid 8 months to get it done. However I don't have another 8 or 9 songs all written and ready to go. That's where I need some improvement. Also, the summer months is usually when I don't do much recording because of the extreme heat of my upstairs studio. I am strongly considering having a small window-unit air conditioner installed just to keep it comfortable enough for me to do my work there. But I need to do as much as I can before that scorching heat arrives, as adding an a/c unit is nice but also another expense.

The good news is that I have ideas for songs. I just need to build on them. I have a tune I started working on last year which is where I first got the idea for doing some 4-part harmony. There are also two winter season songs I wrote quite some time ago and they would fit in nicely on this album. As a last-minute effort, I could make new versions of my two previously released songs and include them as well. That's an idea that just came to me now so I haven't given any previous consideration to it. But it may work. Actually it's a very real possibility!

One thing I have come to realize is that it's not very hard to work on holiday music once the holidays are over. It is just music like any other and as long as you stay focused and it does not feel irrelevant or out of season. I am just as enthused working on this as I would be on anything else I make.

There is plenty to do. Let's keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well and I can accomplish this labor of love this year.

2017 Is Almost Over!

Here we are in late 2017, two weeks before Christmas and I don't have much to say. This is the point--or rather even a few weeks earlier--where I would be writing about end of the year goals. This year I have none.

Yes, there is still that song "Something's Wrong" which is unfinished and I could probably easily finish up before the year is through. I really dislike going through a year and not having anything musically to show for it. So if I could get at least that done the year wouldn't be a total waste.

Also, two weeks is plenty time for me to do another Christmas cover, but in reality I don't have two full weeks as no one will be listening to holiday music beyond two exact weeks from today. Unlike me.

I had dedicated this year to working exclusively on holiday music but changed my mind along the way (again) and was caught up in other distractions, and believe me, this year there were plenty of distractions. Not too long ago I had even decided I was going to start writing--check this out--love songs!! Yes, love songs. I never really wanted to get into that genre but there are a great many benefits that come of it, some musical, some non-musical. Everybody loves a love song. And to tell you the truth, a lot of the best and most memorable songs are love songs. So yes, I will follow that road and see where it takes me.

In actuality I have about one week if I really want to do a Christmas cover. So I'd have to pick out a tune almost immediately and start coming up with an arrangement. I really hate not being able to choose from the entire pool of great holiday music that's out there. Nothing can stop me from making my own version of any song but once I publish it online is when potential problems can arise. Getting licenses and paying royalties is not my cup of tea. On the other hand, I did publish that version of "Hey Joe" I created a few years ago and never got a license or anything. The difference is that I never plan to include "Hey Joe" in any of my future albums, whereas if I do a Christmas cover you'd better believe I intend it to be part of a future official release. Thus, I guess I could record "Silver Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" and provide it as a free release on YouTube but it would never go any further than that.

Speaking of YouTube, for the first time ever I uploaded to my channel a video of me singing and playing "How Deep is Your Love" by the Bee Gees. Not the entire song of course. Surely no one wants to see me struggle through the whole thing. Just to do one verse/chorus required many takes and I'm quite surprised I played and sang rather decently. But it was in keeping with all my cover videos where I never do the entire song, with the exception of "Barney Miller."

But I will see what I can get done in the remaining nearly-three week period we have for 2017. And if I make any resolutions for the the new year of 2018 it will be that the year turns out to be my most productive in terms of recording and songwriting. While I didn't do much recording in 2017 I did get a lot of ideas for songs this year which, if I am diligent enough, will turn into a new album.

Something's Wrong

I've been working on recording a new song called "Something's Wrong" the last couple of weeks. It's all written out. I just have to make a few changes. I am going for a 60's garage rock sound on this song. The simplicity and lo-fi of some of those 60's recordings beat the over-production of many later recordings hands down.

This is going to be my shortest complete recording that features lyrics so far. Just under 3 minutes. There is no specific song that serves as an influence for this one. It's more of a sound thing that is the inspiration. As of right now I've got an arpeggio electric guitar track with tremolo and the electric bass track completed. Today I did a piano track just for effect and I may add another just to fill out the sound. Not quite sure yet. I am also looking to add an organ track and/or a minimoog one. Of course there will be vocal tracks--at least 2. And I will play real drums for this song.

Other than this song I have ideas for at least 3 other songs. I know musically what I want to do with them. I just have to write out the lyrics. At this point I am thinking they will all be relatively short songs at 3 minutes or less just to keep that 60's vibe going. Once I start to arrange the songs the times may change. I don't want to stray too much from that though because the longer the song the more time it takes to produce it. And if there's any chance I am to release another album this year I cannot spend a lot of time on long productions.

Ideally I think I can finish up this song in about another week or 2. There are 2 things which may not corroborate this. First, the vocals may take me a while to get right. Vocals are always a problem. Second, I'm not sure if I will record the drums as part of the sessions for this song or if I will wait until I have another song or 2 and then just record drums for all of them at the same time. I don't like keeping a song on the side that just needs one more component to it. If I could get a song done in a week or two then I wouldn't mind waiting to get drums recorded. But since I never have a certain timeline for getting a song done I could end up keeping an earlier one unreleased longer than I'd like.

Stayed tuned for updates.

Spring Update

So we're into the final third of April and I have not written any holiday or seasonal tunes! And to be honest, I don't really feel like it! I knew this would happen. I have not able to immerse myself into that genre of music as I had wanted to. But fear not--I have been working on other music. I have about four songs I am working on right now. One is lyrically complete and ready to start recording. The other three are more in the infant stages of writing. But I feel good that ideas are flowing. And at this time, I feel as though I'm going in the direction of shorter songs. The bulk of the music I love is pop & rock of the 1960's & early 1970's. If I had to sum it up into a range it would be 1964-1972. The majority of the hit songs of that era were all just about under three minutes long. So I'm probably going to keep them short and (hopefully) sweet. I'm also considering mixing all the songs in mono just to give the project that extra 60's sound. Some of my all-time favorite songs are in mono and only available in mono (as far as I know). Here are some of them:

Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds)

Gimme Some Lovin' (The Spencer Davis Group)

Can't Be Still (Booker T & The M.G.'s)

Ya Ya (Lee Dorsey)

Take a Heart (The Sorrows)

Down Home Girl (The Stones)

You Need Lovin' (The Small Faces)

Baby Don't Go (Sonny & Cher)

Barefootin' (Robert Parker)

Good Time Charlie (Bobby Bland)

I realize some of those may fall outside the specified range, but it's not an exclusive range. Anyway I'm not a huge fan of mono but it does give a recorded song more of a vintage, lo-fi feel. Plus, when comparing mono mixes to stereo ones of the thousands of songs I have in my library, the mono mixes usually sound louder and more balanced. Of course, that could have to do with mastering techniques as well. In the 60's most singles on 45 were punchy mono mixes made specifically to sound loud over the radio and on your home turntables. The Beatles released all their albums in both mono and stereo up through 1968. They involved themselves in the mono mixes and left the stereo mixing up to the studio staff.

I'm going to do this. And it's cool because I will still have access to make stereo mixes whenever the mood strikes or if need be. That's the difference between my recordings and the ones listed above. Many of those were recorded on two or three-track tape with the masters no longer available. Thus they are preserved for posterity in mono and nothing else. But it is fun to think about how they would have been mixed in stereo. I got used to a lot of The Beatles' earlier stereo output where most instruments would be panned to one side and the vocals on the other, with nothing much in the center. Those stereo recordings helped me better hear and figure out the different instrument parts so I could learn to play them. That's one of the reasons I prefer stereo overall--there is a lot more to be heard that mono mixes do not permit.

I think the four songs I'm working on will be interesting. If I can get really serious about finishing them up and doing a few more things I may actually have something to release this year.

'If I Told You' Recording Progress

Well, I am glad to say that recording of "If I Told You" has been well underway for the last several weeks. Yes, weeks. I wish I had what I needed to just spend hours at a time each day to record. I know for a fact that I would have a lot more recorded work and I would get my songs done a lot sooner. Like the Beatles, who would get songs done in day or 2. This business of recording 90 minutes today, 90 minutes tomorrow and then not the next day is just not cutting it. But that's what I have to work with now until things get better. And they will.

Regardless, I have some acoustic guitar tracks down, some electric guitar tracks finished and that's about it. Next on the agenda is bass and some piano. May add some synth later. Drums eventually. Vocals still need some tweaking. They were the first thing I started recording and still not satisfactory.

Today I will try to get the bass down. I'm hoping that goes smoothly. I don't have any special bass part planned out for this song. If I can get it done today I will revisit the vocals and try to redo some parts there. I need to get the vocals down as perfect as possible. When you're performing live it's OK if you sound out of pitch here and there but on studio recordings there is no real excuse for it. Of course, I have a real excuse and it's good, too. My excuse is that I'm just not a good singer and I struggle to stay on pitch. So I have to do take over take over take over days and weeks even to get not only the right pitch but the right delivery.

One thing I have noticed recently is that there are a lot of examples of some out-of-pitch vocal notes on professional recordings by big artists. I don't know if that's just a case of me looking out for bad notes or if I just have perfect pitch, which I know I do not have. It does make me wonder though whether I should leave some bad notes in my recordings or just keep doing hundreds of takes till I get them right. For the most part these out-of-tune notes I have heard by artists are minor and probably not noticeable to most listeners.

To give you an idea of what this new song I'm working on sounds like, here is a video I made of me playing a demo of it:




Inspiration for this song? As I wrote before, it is influenced by early Bee Gees material. I was just playing chords and singing some lines over them and it stuck. For a long time the song went largely unfinished. Just before I started recording it is when I wrote a second verse and settled on the chorus. It's not a very long song, but I managed to make the recording into about 3-and-a-half minutes. The recording itself will feature influences from the Bee Gees (again), U2, Phil Wickham, Charlie Rich & Gordon Lightfoot. Some people may be surprised at the idea that a song could be influenced by a pretty diverse selection of artists. Others may listen to the finished product and not hear any Charlie Rich or Phil Wickham (provided they are familiar with such artits). A long time ago someone asked me who I was influenced by and I answered The Beatles. He then told me my music sounded nothing like The Beatles. I guess there is a difference between being influenced by other artists and trying to copy other artists. I realize that in most of my music I never really tried copying anyone else. As much a fan as I am of The Beatles I do not like everything they put out there. I took the inspiration they gave me from their material that I did like and combined it with inspiration from other artists and put my own touch on it to create my own unique music. So I didn't mind that this person said my music sounded nothing like The Beatles. I never really tried to copy them. Then again some people have said some of my songs do sound like The Beatles. Again, it wasn't intentional. However, in the case of 'Paperback Writer' I may make a song which is heavily influenced by it and we'll see what people think!

Anyway it is time to go do some recording. Off I go!

Some Bruce Wisdom & Back To Recording

I've taken a bit of an interest in Bruce Springsteen and his music as of late. It all began with hearing one of his newer songs, "Wrecking Ball," on a local public radio station. Though it's from 2012 I never heard it before. I was immediately impressed with the song as I caught the song just before the part where he sings, "Hard times come, hard times go," over and over again. That part was followed by an anthemic chanting set to a very fast tempo and the song ended in this fashion. I checked out  the song in its entirety on YouTube and I also watched some of the live versions. Absolutely great song!

After that I starting checking out some of his older music and was doing some reading up on his career, songs and album. Today I watch an unauthorized biography on him and in spite of all the interesting history and detail of his pre-career and fame, there was one moment that I took away the most from. He was asked if there were any regrets and his answer was that he regretted not releasing more albums. He was so much of a perfectionist that it took so much time to record and release everything to his liking. As a result there were a lot of years where nothing was released. The reason I took so much from that is because I can fully relate to those sentiments. Needless to say, I am no Bruce Springsteen nor do I have a catalog of music anywhere near his, but I realize that my own sense of the need for musical perfection has led to a regret of not making and releasing more than I have up to this point. I know that it's a lot harder for me since I work alone and I face some unique challenges that he did not. But I should have done more. And that is why I have decided I'm releasing another album this year.

At the moment I'm nowhere near being close to having an album ready. But there's time, hopefully, and I am glad to say that I have started working on my first new song of the year. I have begun the recording process and I'm trying to get the hardest part done first--the main vocal. This is another one of my Bee Gees-inspired songs as was "Call On Me" from the Milestone album. I'm going to try to get this one completely recorded within a few weeks. The working title for this song is "If I Told You."

We Three Kings - A Christmas Offering

I have thus far released two versions of my new recording, "We Three Kings", out on social media. First I put one out there on Soundcloud which is this one:





This is also the version I have sent to ChristmasSongsRadio.com and is currently on their playlist. After listening many times to this version I went back and touched up a few things and remixed it. This 2nd mix I uploaded to YouTube a couple of days ago, although it is a fold-down mono version. Here it is:




To the average ear both mixes will sound nearly identical. Perhaps even to most listeners. But there are some subtle differences.

So why did I make a fold-down mono version for YouTube? Because it was quick and easy and gives it more of a vintage vibe. The way I arranged the song already gives it a 60's/70's feel. Putting a mono version out there adds to it. But it's not a true mono mix. Will I create a dedicated mono mix? Probably not. Making a stereo mix is hard enough and, as is usually the case, I'm still not completely satisfied with either one of the two I have already released. Still have a few tweaks to make. When I do decide to officially release a Christmas album I want only the best mixes & masters on it.

But that's what I have for now. I'd still like to get a new Christmas song written and recorded within the next two weeks. I guess it's possible but I don't know if it's probable. Fortunately, the last two original Christmas songs I wrote did not take very much time to spill out onto paper.

Or should I record another cover of a classic? That would probably take less time. I'm not sure what I'll do at the moment. I was actually planning to do a version of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" for this year. Problem is I was intending to mimic Kenny Burrell's 1966 version too closely. Not so much the arrangement and instrumentation used on his but the slower note phrasing and 3/8 time feel. I also considered making a medley out of this song and "We Three Kings." Finally, I decided on "We Three Kings" with a 4/4 time signature instead of its original 3/8 time.

Stay tuned for news of the next endeavor!

Recording Done, Now Onto Mixing & Mastering

The weekend is officially over and the bad news is that my recording of "We Three Kings" is not ready. The good news is that I got a very good overall snare drum sound--probably the best I've ever recorded. Took me three sessions to get the final drum track I was pleased with.

There is still plenty of work that lies ahead. As I wrote in the last post, I used four separate tracks for the drums. I now need to combine those four into one. Not because I want to have it all on one track only but because I have used more tracks than I technically have available. My recorder is marketed as a 16 track but in practical reality it only offers 12 tracks; 8 mono tracks and 4 stereo tracks which are counted as 2 each. And one of the stereo tracks cannot be used for recording on because its purpose is to act as the track onto which the mixdown is bounced onto. At the moment I have 15 parts of which I will have to bounce some. Putting the 4 drum parts onto one track and the four horn/brass tracks onto only two should probably do the trick. Plus I also have to clean up any noise on some of the guitar tracks. After that I will make EQ adjustments and create a mix of all the tracks. Finally, after I have the perfect mix I will have it mastered. But to all of you who do your own home recordings you know how the process goes.

I'll be spending hours doing all this tomorrow with the intention of having the song ready on the following day. After that is all complete I will try to figure out what I will do next. Anyway here are a few photos of my drum recording setup:

2015 Coming to a Fast Close

Gosh, it's already October! And yeah, I haven't worked on any music this past summer. I think now is a better time for me. Did I mention that where I do most of my musical work is extremely hot during the summer? It is and this past summer was no exception. It is much more conducive to creating now and I will get back to it.

I had toyed with the idea of recording an entire Christmas album this year. Obviously, that did not happen and it's safe to say it will not. I may yet make another new song and perhaps a few covers of public domain ones.

Can I still put out another album of non-Christmas material in 2015? I would love to! A goal of mine would be to release a new album each year. So is it realistic for me within the next 3 months to put together another record of original music? Most likely not. But I do have to crank up the gears in terms of creating music for the remainder of the year. I had plenty of song ideas this year thanks to a particular band I spent a lot of time listening to.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be releasing albums at the end of the year anymore. A Christmas album, sure. But otherwise, no. See, the thing with releasing an album in December is that the next year comes up in 30 days or less and then your album starts feeling old. So it's January of the new year and you start thinking, "I released my album last year," or "My album is from last year." And it was just a month ago but it still feels older than it should. Thus, henceforth I will be releasing albums in the spring or early summer. That will be the goal but I will not hold myself to that rigidly. I will allow myself the period from January to October of any given year to release a new record but will try to target specifically the March-June period.

There is nothing more thrilling to me than recording music. To be able to play back something--a moment in time--and listen to it endlessly is absolutely amazing. Playing live music is great too but most of the time live music is not recorded, whatever the setting happens to be. A recording can be played over and over again and it is what really sticks in people's minds. As someone who has played live many times I have felt those moments of musical ecstasy where everything is just so perfect and complimentary. But I have experienced that even more often through the magic of recording and manipulating sound. Maybe I should do experimental music! Well, I'm open to doing all kinds of music except the kinds I'm not open to.

Anyway, I am intent on spending the rest of this year doing some serious recording.

End of the Year Goals

Once again we are here in the final one-sixth of the year and I've got a plate stacked full of musical ambitions. Why do I do this? Not sure but I do know that there are some times throughout the year when I'm just not interested in working on my music. And it's not because it is some kind of a fleeting, semi-passion for me. It has more to do with a general malady of frustration and at times a quiet desperation at the thought that maybe--probably, in fact--this is not going to ever go anywhere. Those are hard sentiments to deal with and can be very paralyzing when it comes to creating or even forcing oneself to work on unfinished projects. In addition to that, I'm easily carried away by other interests I have and can easily devote hours to those things, which although not being bad things they are things nonetheless which will not necessarily take me where I want to go. Thus, another year almost over and quite the unproductive one at that.

So how do I make up for precious time lost? By creating a long laundry list of things to accomplish by Christmas. The list includes:

-Finish recording the new song I've been working on for release on the album
-Make final touches on some of the other songs for the album
-Release the album (by Thanksgiving)
-Record a cover of a traditional Christmas song
-Write & record a brand new Christmas song

What do you think? All this along with keeping my other interests/obsessions in check. I think everything but perhaps the brand new Christmas song is feasible. My top priority is doing whatever needs to be done in order to finally release my first full-length album by Thanksgiving. That means finishing up recording the song I'm currently working on which will be the 10th track on the album. I have just about 3 weeks to do that AND tweak some of the other songs. Once that is done I can devote the next few weeks to recording a Christmas song or two. I plan on doing my take on another traditional Christmas song. Something in the public domain of course so I don't have to concern myself with copyrights and licensing and all that holiday-spirit stuff. There most certainly are some contemporary ones I would love to do but many of my favorites are so definitive-sounding that I don't think I could add anything to them. And there's that issue of licensing. Public domain it is.

But getting back to the album.
I decided on a new, original tune to fill out the album. With that I don't mean to say that it's filler material. But I was severely lacking in terms of a solid 10th track. I tried going back and rewriting lyrics to some solid tracks I had; however those did not pan out well. If you keep going back trying to fix the old material you will never move forward and produce new material. I wrote that this new song is the 10th song but not referring to it in a way of significance. It is the last song I needed for a somewhat cohesive album, but it will also be featured as the last track on the album. It is a song of hope. Thus the project closes out on a high note.

Here is a tentative track listing. I am trying to pick the song order as if it were to be released on a vinyl LP:

Side 1
1. Another Morning (What a Drag)
2. Tomorrow
3. The Moment of Truth
4. Call On Me
5. Doesn't That Blow Your Mind

Side 2
1. You Are So Good
2. Where I Belong
3. The Rain
4. Erie's Song
5. We're Gonna Make It

In conclusion, as much as I would love to start tackling all those things at the same time, I need to first finish recording "We're Gonna Make It" in a manner which is quick yet as pleasing as possible to me. I do not plan to go all-out-production on this song so within several days it should be completed. Then, if at all constructive and possible, I want to go back and 'touch up' about 6 of the other songs. Some have very minor issues. Others have a bit more work. Some of those songs have been previously released on my EP a few years back so I would like for these to have a slightly different mix at the very least.

Well, it's time to get to work. And I don't mean wage-slavery-type work, LOL. I mean work that matters. The kind of work that each one of us was placed here to do. Mine is music. What's yours? I will provide more frequent updates on my progress. Thanks for reading!

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.

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.

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.