NOVEMBER 2010 UPDATE

Nancy and I are still on hiatus from arranging more shows. We've continued to attract more artists to the database, including hip-hop, electronica, and dance folks. A few of those are interested in helping with sound effects or adding atmosphere and texture to the background of a song. This will be particularly helpful for those looking to get a pop sound.

Old MacDonald
The highlight of the last month was the completion and posting of Old MacDonald. There is a lot of effort in this song and it shows. First I searched the web for free animal sound bites. It was actually more difficult than you might think. Many of the good recordings are copywrite and for pay. One group offers a CD with unlimited use for $499!! I should have recorded all my animals when I had the farm in upstate NY. I could have made more from that than my songs!

Anyway, I programmed drums which I spent about 5-6 hours. They are buried deep in the mix but I think the work really paid off, even though you can't really hear all the work I put in. You can feel it the way the song bounces along. I laid down guitar very quickly, but had to practice the mandolin an hour a day for about a week before I could play that so it felt good and natural. I used my synthesizer to put the bass and the banjo in and played both of those live. I decided which animals to do and spent hours cutting sound bites that I liked, cataloging and saving them. I cut the vocals including harmony in about an hour.

The majority of my effort went into getting my grandson's voice clips and mixing. We had a bucket of animals and I coaxed him into saying things. I have about 15 minutes taken over three sessions with him. It was really difficult to balance his bites because he did not stay still in front of the mic. Sometimes he was on top of it and even bumping it, while other times he was a foot or more away. I had to pull in the far stuff and back off the close stuff. I then cut out about 20 clips totaling about 1 minute. After choosing the clips I wanted, I decided where to place them in the song. I also had to add some speaking parts for me that went along with the clips. I did a lot of tedious cutting and pasting to get the clips to sound conversational. All in all I probably have 35-40 hours in this song spread over two months. I'm very happy with the result.

I've listened to literally hundreds of Utah artists posted on Reverb Nation, some on My Space, and some on Face Book. Not counting established acts, many are hobbyists like me, some are earnestly trying to raise their craft to a level to make a career. There are some very good voices, instrumentation, home production, etc. going on, but a lot of us are still trying to pull all of these together. That's one of our goals - to help people find others to compliment their strengths.

Here are a few real stand outs in my opinion:

Tim Pearce - www.reverbnation.com/timpearce Tim's music is very genuine, very refreshing and from the heart. He possesses true soul and it comes through in his writing, guitar playing, singing and overall performance. For home recordings, his production is very high quality as well. I can't put a genre label on his music other than acoustic. It's not folk, it's not rock, but it is personal and demands to be listened to on a personal level; a true natural talent. Someone I would consider an "artist' that has forged his on path in the tradition of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and others that defy categorization.

Dusk One - www.reverbnation.com/duskraps this rapper is intelligent and his lyrics show that. He has something to say and is inventive with his beats and background tracks. I particularly like his haunting slide guitar in “Black Lungs”. Unfortunately about half the songs on the site are collaborations with others. Skip those and go to his solo stuff. He is relatively clean as far as this genre goes, but as a warning there are a few explicatives. Also, his recordings are professional studio quality; ready for airplay. My endorsement is all the more meaningful as I am generally not a fan of this genre.

Steven Halliday - www.reverbnation.com/stevenhalliday marry Jack Johnson with Jason Mraz and you get Steven Halliday’s pop sound. He’s not really an amateur as he is on the verge of breaking out. He has an album recorded with full band arrangements in a professional studio and he has started playing frequently in Utah and Idaho. His weakness may be his songwriting, although its good can be trite at times. I’m confident he will mature as a writer. His vocal performances more than compensate for any weakness in lyrics. He has a very radio friendly sound.

Honorable mentions:

Cache Valley Cartel (CVC) - www.reverbnation.com/cvctheband these guys have a unique blend of pop/rock/hip hop/dance/funk. Songs are a bit catchy as well.

Audible Static aka Russell Elliot - “Hot Girls Aren’t Worth It” www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfBS-k3s2Lg and www.reverbnation.com/audiblestatic This song and video is a lot of fun! He is techno, his recordings are professional, but so far a one-hit-wonder on my charts.

Stankbot Tryanny - www.reverbnation.com/stankbottyranny OK, these guys aren’t that great (sorry fellas). Their songs are a bit immature and they have a real garage rock sound. But hey, they are pre-teens; the drummer is just 10 years old and wails away like John Bonham! (Salt Lake Tribune) They are also masters at self promotion, quickly rising to #1 on Reverb Nation and staying there; and featured on Reverb Nation's home page (quite a feat). In just a few months they have garnered some 15,000 registered fans, radio airplay, and courtship with record labels.

As for me –
I am recording “State of Confusion” and will be adding Blake Smith’s harmonica to my backing tracks. I will also be posting a couple of songs from the tapes I recovered. I recently posted “Carry On” and will shortly post “Get While the Getting’s Good” and “Gone, Gone, Gone.”

OCTOBER 2010 UPDATE

My database of area musicians continues to grow and I have identified quite a few that are willing to work with other musicians. Also a lot that will do house concerts. 

The last show was a lot of fun. Not attended as well as we hoped with only about 50 people, but fun. We had Randy Moser, Austin Jones, Half Cowboy, Sons of Other Mothers, and me. Everyone had some great tunes.

Randy's got such a cool feel and does not do predictable stuff with the guitar. He played exceptional clean.

Austin was solid! He has a great country voice and presence. I did not detect any mistakes. He played one cover but his originals blew that away, especially a tune titled "Six String and a Strap".

Half Cowboy really tightened up their act and harmonies were nice and tight. Really love "Saturated" and they did an awesome job.

Sons of Other Mothers were missing one son, but Alan Sanders carried the load very well. Their playing is always tight and Alan does such sweet things with the acoustic guitar.

I played fairly well but did flub a few obvious places. I played "Army Man" and "Blame it on the Woman", two songs I have not played for a while. I played a new one "State of Confusion" and Blake from the Sons joined me with his harmonica. That song was a blast.

We may not do anything until after Christmas. Meanwhile I will be focusing on the choir for Christmas and  I am recording a bunch of my tunes as simple acoustics exactly the way I perform them by myself. I've laid down "Blame it on the Woman" and "Army Man". I posted Army Man. I'm redoing "Blame it" in another key to see if it sounds better. I'm also working on "Old MacDonald" for a collection of songs from my grandsons. It will be called "Pop Pop Sings!"

Excitement!! There's gold in that there box!!! I found a box in storage full of old tape cassette recordings! I thought it had been lost forever. It is tapes of my original songs over the years, covers, practice sessions and work from my bands Millenium, Blackstone, and Man Overboard. Also some choirs I sang with, some collaboration with Dan Pellitier and Doug Parrish. And professional recordings of my dad's fiddle tunes and his bluegrass band Kinfolk!

Tapes piled all around the mixer! I'm transferring some of these to digital.

Most importantly I found 10 tapes of my "bits and pieces"!!! These are ideas and thoughts I put down over the years. There is over twelve hours of ideas! I'm sure this will get my juices flowing so expect a lot of new stuff to start coming out.

The stack on the right is my original songs, back left is covers, and the front stack is "Bits and Pieces"!

IDEAS!!!

SEPTEMBER 2010 UPDATE

I've decided to post once a month. This past month I've taken a new direction. I have long been trying to figure out what to do with my music. It's something inside me that I have always had to do and will just keep doing. I have to write and I have to perform and I want to improve. But I don't intend to make a living off music. You have to be great; better than great. I'm good at writing, good at performing, but not great. And I am old :)

I was inspired at Summer Jam West by Michael Azcon's story. He is an entertainment lawyer. As a kid he loved music, but he was not a good singer or musician and couldn't write, but he knew he had to be involved with music. He found out that there was a profession in the industry for lawyers, so he became an entertainment lawyer working with artists in that capacity.

So what can I do? Well, Nancy and I have seen some performers and songwriters that have potential. We have also met some very nice people. These people need to come together and help each other and take their songs, their recordings, and their performances to the next level. Perhaps a group might be formed that would have never met otherwise. I know for me that I can only get so far by myself. So our goal is to organize one concert a month to showcase performers and bring people together. We can all work on more than one project; help each other with writing, recording, etc.

I've sent invites to a lot of area musicians on Reverb Nation and had a fairly good response of about 30% joining up and interested. Are next show is again at the Larsen's big backyard this Friday 9/24. We've lined up Half Cowboy, Randy Moser, Austin Jones, Sons of Other Mothers, and me. I had hoped that Tim Pearce, Whitney Blaine, and JC Cody might do a few tunes and I could opt out if needed. But they have other commitments.

I've also been working on some older songs and one new one so I can play some fresh material this week. I will also be recording these in the basement in a live acoustic format before the performance. Hopefully I'll be happy enough with these to put them on the site. I will be pulling off some of the songs on the Reverb Nation site and putting up some new ones to keep it fresh.

Preparing set list for Larsen show Friday

I brushed off some older songs and I will definitely be playing "Hidden Meadow Song" which I have never played on stage before. It hasn't been recorded either. My voice isn't able to sustain the high notes in the chorus of "Coming Home". I can if I drop the guitar down a step or two, but I don't have enough guitars to have one ready in that tuning and I don't want to waste time detuning on stage. I'm considering "Where You Are" but I am reworking the bridge because I can't sing it the way it is written because a few notes are too high. Dang how age plays with your vocal range. However I met some vocal coaches at Summer Jam West that teach SSL (speech level singing) that say they can increase my range. I should take at least one lesson with Dean Kaelin.

Summer Jam West was a blast!

A lot of top industry people came out and spent valuable time visiting with us and teaching us various aspects of the music industry, production, singing, writing, networking, and on and on. There is no way I could have gotten all the personal time I had with these people through normal channels. I made some new friends and reacquainted myself with some old ones; a great networking opportunity. I don't have aspirations to be a star, but there is something in me that says I have to write and perform regardless and it is extremely rewarding to make a connection with someone through my music. Summer Jam solidified what my goals are for the next little while. Number one is to help build a thriving music community in Salt Lake. Number two is to keep learning about writing and production and perfecting the craft. I love it!

Lowdown Choices to make!

I've been playing with the compressor, reverb, and room effects on my TASCAM recording console. I'm getting some things that I like and some I don't. One thing I am learning about mixing is that the input signal needs to be good first. When I record my vocals I need to make sure I have an even line level. Lowdown has a few spikes in it and compression can help even that out, but it can only do so much. The more I record the better I will be at evening my vocals. This is also improving my singing all the way around and my mic control.

So I made about a dozen mixes of "Lowdown" and posted them on DropBox to get opinions. Check these three out and tell me what you like or don't like in these or which one you prefer:

1. Lowdown Choice #1
2. Lowdown Choice #2
3. Lowdown Choice #3

Mixing Mixing Mixing

Mixed several versions of "Lowdown". I mixed 4 of the takes, but I am working with only 2. One is a live take with vocal and guitar recorded together and one with the parts recorded separately. I've got 3 or 4 mixes of each one. I'm working with chaining effects and doing different things on each channel. I will be posting a few versions soon to solicit opinions about which sounds the best.

Photo Shoot and "Lowdown" Recording

Nancy and I went to old downtown Lehi today and met photographer Val Westover http://valwestoverphotography.com/ and he took a lot of photos of me with my guitar near railroad tracks at 100 East State Street. It's an abandoned warehouse sort of look. Nancy saw some of the pictures in his camera and says they look really good. He'll have them ready for us to look at in a few days. I'll be scheduling a studio session to get some press kit head shots. It was a 101 degrees out but I still had a lot of fun.

Recorded "Lowdown" last night. I played it live a couple of times recording vocals and guitar together, but I did not like the sound. So I recorded three takes of just the guitar and then added the vocal separate. Sounds pretty good. This is a slide guitar song so it is different from anything else I play and uses a technique that I am not very practiced in. I'm super critical and I hear a lot of things that can be improved in the playing, but it is what it is. I will mix it and post it to the site this week

LIVE PERFORMANCE - Video

This is a video from the Ashton performance. I hope you enjoy!!

CD is here! An on the website

The CD is finally available and was released last week in Ashton. It has been posted on the site www.reverbnation.com/stevewalker with the artwork and lyric book. Of course I still think the production and mixing can be better and I would like to do some things a little different, but at least something is out there.

Here are the great things that Andrew designed for us:

CD FRONT COVER

CD BACK COVER

LABEL PUT ON THE CD

I'm already recording more stuff. I have "She's My Girl" and "Mr. Barrett" done and I am working on "O Freedom." I am doing two versions of "O Freedom"; one is total acoustic just me and the guitar straight through with no punch-ins and the other is an atmospheric electric guitar version with a solid beat to it. I have three guitars in there and about ready to add some bass and vocals and just a little synthesizer. It's bee a lot of fun working on that one.

I am also organizing a house concert in draper with Half Cowboy (www.reverbnation/halfcowboy and Sons of Other Mothers (www.reverbnation/alansanders) that will be the 2nd or 3rd weekend in August. I'll keep you posted.

Great Show in Ashton, ID!

I had a really good performance in Ashton and Nancy and I had the opportunity to spend a few days with our kids and family. I felt real good, relaxed, my voice was warm and in great form. I'm particularly proud of my performance of "In Your Eyes" and the John Mayer version of "Free Falling." I was definitely in the zone and could really feel it. There was a large crowd of about 1500 milling around the park, eating watermelon and corn on the cob, checking out vendors, playing games; with about 200 hanging around the stage area. I borrowed a friend’s sound system (thank you Jeff Harris!) and the sound was sent over the whole place so everyone could hear. We sold a few CDs and gave out a lot of magnets. I will be posting photos and possibly some video in the next few days.

Great Progress With Promotional Materials!

Andrew has created some great designs. We have a slightly new look for the business cards and the blog banner. He is getting a large vinyl banner made I can display at shows. The CD Jacket and label are all set. The actual CD will show the new banner background which is a shot of the ocean off the Oregon coast that he took two weeks ago. The jacket will be black and white with the Last of the Troubadour "branding". The song list for the CD is set and I am reviewing the masters. That will be complete tonight. We have a T-Shirt design we are uploading to ReverbNation.com which can be ordered through my web site there.

It will all come together. By Friday everything should be done. We will be duplicating 25 CDs as a pilot for the show this weekend. I also have 50 magnet cards to give away.

Now all I have to do is practice for the show!

Pat's BBQ - I'm not telling her to shut up!

Nancy and I had some great pork and I played a few songs at Pat's BBQ last night. There's always some good talent there. Richard Parkinson played one of his songs that almost made Nancy cry. There is a young girl that has a nice voice which we had seen before (I should know her name). She has a song called "Shut Up" so when they told her she could play just one more I yelled out "Shut Up" and everyone around me just thought I was mean nasty and rude. What kind of person heckles a performer at an open mic with "shut up"? Anyway, she did not hear me and played something else. We talked to her afterwards, laughed, and she will play it for us the next time we are there at the same time.

So I performed "Peace Will Come", "She Cries", "Sweet Celebration", "Reason To Believe." My performance was OK except for the last song. I should always end with something I have down pat. I KNOW this but I guess I don't, because I played "Reason To Believe" without practicing and I had not touched it since recording on May 31. Doh!!! Boy, was it ragged, almost embarrassing. But good practice. Now all of my focus will be on the July 3 day in the park in Ashton ID!!!!

Great show at Summer Solstice Gathering!

To hear songs go to www.reverbnation.com/stevewalker

Played two sets of mostly covers. I played "Must Be Love" to close out the first set. Nancy took some photos and we had a lot of fun with some of our friends. A good time was had by all.

New Song Post And Mix

I recorded "Forever and a Day"  and mixed it last Thursday before work. I posted it on  my reverb nation site so you can listen to it. This is the song I wrote for Mike and Cathy's wedding. I already have recordings of my other songs I wrote for my other children's weddings. I need to remix "Today" but I'd like to get all four on my cd.

to hear this song go to http://www.reverbnation.com/stevewalker

PWOP studio to the rescue!

My good friend Carl Franklin over at PWOP studio in New London, CT (http://www.pwop.com/) has remixed "Reason to Believe" for me and it sounds so much better. I am still working on remixes of some of the other tunes and this one will help me get there.

Also recording "Forever and a Day" this morning. It's just guitar and vocal with a second guitar coming in at the bridge and through to the end. But the guitar needs to be played start to finish without a mistake; it can't be punched in because the guitar is constantly moving throughout. I have a really good take with just one flub. When I try to clean it with a punched in dub it sounds like a stutter. Well, all the greats in the early days like Elvis and Johnny Cash, they and their bands had to play everything perfect all the way because it was being mixed and mastered all at the same time. When they finished they has a record. It's even more amazing with guys like Frank Sinatra because they had to do it perfect with a huge orchestra all at the same time. So I shouldn't complain that I have this one part that has to be played straight through. I'll try it again in the morning.

Created web page at ReverbNation.com

I created a new web page www.reverbnation.com/stevewalker It has a music player so those of you who have not been able to download can hear some of the songs!

I also spent some time working on a drum track for "O Freedom" and playing around with amp effects for the electric guitar. More to come on that one.

More Mixing - plus a song post!

Mixed "Don't Let Me Down" tonight. This is a full band mix. Check it out! ---> Song Catalog

I am very happy with the sound on the guitars. I had a wee bit of help from Branson as an extra voice on the last chorus. I also remixed Reason To Believe because it still sounds a bit "boxed" to me. I experimented tonight with "ambience" settings on the voice. This new mix is what you get now if you link to the song.

Andrew and Steve Explore Mixing!

NEW SONGS HERE!  ---> Song Catalog

Nancy and I went to Ashton, ID this weekend to visit Andrew and Margie and I brought the TASCAM and speakers along. I haven't gotten any mixes I really liked; they all sound like I am in a box or washed out. When I try to get more depth I just end up with more "room space" and echo. We fiddled with knobs for hours to see if we could get better sound ... and we did! I have brand new mixes for "Reason to Believe" and "We Can Fly". We also remixed "Looks Like Rain", "Today" and "Us." I will rework “Looks Like Rain” this week with another verse. Nancy has a great idea to open the song with an instrumental chorus and finish it out with an instrumental of the bridge section. I will also be remixing "Don't Let Me Down", and "Roll Your Way", and "Today". I need to redo "She's My Girl" and play it just a little slower.

I played the guitar for "Reason To Believe" twice and spread the two guitars out left and right. It kind of sounds like a 12 string but it is two 6 strings. It was tough to play it exactly the same but I did it! I also modified the way I ended each chorus and trimmed this magnum opus down so it is less than 6 minutes.

The only major project left is to record an acoustic version of "Forever and a Day" for Michael and Cathy. Then my wedding repertoire will be complete.

Sweet Celebration is ready for a listen!

I mixed Sweet Celebration using the backing vocals from Kate, Carson, and Branson (thank you so much!). It's pretty thick with tracks and is the closest I've come to what I envisioned in my head. I wrote this in 1984 and it sounds like it should have been done in 1984. But hey, I like it and I hope you do too. I have an acoustic version of this I will record sometime. The lyrics are the same but it's totally different. It's fun to see songs in various forms of development and ideas.

Check this and all my available songs here: Song Catalog

I'm getting good feedback in person and email. Go ahead and post your thoughts here in comments so everyone can see - Steve

A very productive week!

Last Sunday I re-recorded the backing "choir" for Sweet Celebration with Branson, Kate, and Carson. It sounds so much better than a chorus of Steves (ha). I have backing tracks for "Reason To Believe" and "We Can Fly" done! They are just acoustic guitar but I am getting great sound with my two new Behringer condenser microphones. For Reason I played the guitar part twice which took a lot of practice (the week before) but I like the full sound. I think We Can Fly works with just guitar and vocal.

Today I worked on "O Freedom." As a writer I have my own favorites. This is in my top ten but I don't play it very often because I have gotten kind of a flat response. My friend Mark requested it if I could get it in the queue. I was flattered that he remembered it from so long ago. I have a basic drum track and I experimented with some atmospheric electric guitar and found something I like. I have plans for two guitar parts and the drums. I may add bass but we'll see.

I also have requests for "Hidden Meadow" (including Nancy as it is for her). It will take some practice to get the jazzy intro and finger picking clean (which is why I've been avoiding it). Also in the queue is "Rosemary Days"

Things are going a little faster now, at least technically. I hear arrangements of my songs in my head but have difficulty translating it to real sounds and things I can actually play. I can see how bands can spend every day for months working things out. It takes a lot of time experimenting with instruments, effects, sounds, harmonies to get something that seems to gel. So I will settle for the first decent thing I can get out.

My goal is to have a CD ready for the July 4th show in Ashton. So I got to get off the stick and make concessions. "Freedom" will be my last one with production for now. I have 9 that are finished and just need to be final mastered. Anything else I do will just be acoustic with vocal. I will need help from everybody deciding what makes it on and in what order.

I'm also starting to work on my web site (stevewalkersings.com) which I hope to be up by July 4th as well.

Thank you everyone for all the support. It really helps keep up the momentum and I appreciate it very much.

Saturday's House Concert

I was invited to play three songs for intermission at the Sons of Other Mothers house concert last Saturday. I played Must Be Love, Rosemary Days, and We Can Fly. People were impressed with We Can Fly because I played with a broken string. It broke while tuning it to an alternate D tuning (not standard). It was a drone string, meaning one that I never finger throughout the song but use to create a sustained ring in the background (similar to bagpipes). The lower string also does that so I didn't lose too much. With the string hanging off my guitar I just ripped right in and did the song. Wow! Steve can play with a broken string! Now I'm a guitar stud hero via smoke and mirrors.


Sons of Other Mothers played two sets of well rehearsed and well presented material featuring their unique blend of guitar arrangements. Very tasty indeed! Check them out at reverb nation.

Sons of Other Mothers

Posting Some Songs!

I've been blogging about songs but nobody has heard them unless they've seen me perform. A couple have never been performed live. None of these are finished but I'll throw some up anyway. After all, that's what this is all about, isn't it? Your comments will help me a lot. I am working in a vacuum. Any advice or input is greatly appreciated. Tell me what works and what doesn't. I added some vocals to "Looks Like Rain" but it really needs another verse. For now I repeated the bridge twice. I'm posting it anyway because I've blogged a lot about it used it to experiment with microphones and effects.

Must Be Love.mp3
Looks Like Rain.mp3 (co-written with Carl Franklin)
Us (For Carson and David).mp3
Riverton Boys.mp3
Mr. Barrett.mp3 (This is a true story. It upset me a lot)
Today (For Kate and Branson).mp3

Talk to me!

Drums are too loud!

I got my new Alesis SR16 drum machine and I've programmed a great drum track for "Don't Let Me Down". I ran it through my PA and recorded it with microphones to get a more real/live drum kit sound. It works great but Nancy told me she could hear and "feel" the drums coming up from the basement. That means my neighbors may have been able to hear as well. That's good to know so I don't try this in the middle of the night sometime! I also laid down one rhythm guitar track. I plan on another rhythm track, a bass, and a lead guitar for the cool riffs at the beginning and end and to sprinkle some pizzazz throughout the choruses.

4th of July gig coming in Ashton, ID

I will be the performing two sets at the Ashton, ID July 4th celebration. It will be outdoors sometime during the day. I'll get specifics later. They are expecting covers so I will play mostly those, but I will sprinkle in some of my own material.

Pat's BBQ performance

Attended open mic at Pat's BBQ hosted by Rich Parkinson from NSA. Played these songs:

See You Tonight
Heaven is You
Roll Your Way
Forever and a Day
Looks Like Rain

Word on the street is I was "zippidy-doo-dah-man" and tore through the songs at breakneck speed! I'll have to slow it down to normal speed next time around. I met some great guys who call themselves Sons of Mother's. We're going to try to collaborate a little and see where it goes. I could use another set of ears on my tunes.

Jam at Spectrum Studios

Had a great time last Friday, March 26 jamming out with some friends at a gallery party at Spectrum Studios in Salt Lake City. Several artists have their studios there and the gallery exhibits a lot of their work, glass, fish glass, metal, digital artwork, and animation, multi-media. There's some really cool stuff.

John Linkletter at OSHA has a band Stucco Dog and they could not make the gig, so he assembled some friends and we played for 2 hours whatever popped off our heads. Some of it wasn't so good, but there were some great moments. Everyone at the gallery had a great time. It was really good to be able to play with a group, which I have not done in a very long time. It was even better to have my wife, Nancy, there to adjust the sound to get a good mix and balance.

We stuck ourselves off to the side in the loading area. We are going at it with John on one of his trusty harps. Man can he blow some tunes! He's great with a harmonica. Behind me is Ben on bass and Cindy on drums.

I got some good use out of the electric guitar!

Look out for this guy! Fantastic crazed look. I'm probably wondering what the next chord is!

This recording sure takes a long time, but its great fun to see how things start taking shape. I got a good version of "Roll Your Way" on Wednesday with just acoustic guitar. It took many takes to get through without a flub. I fooled with a delayed slap back vocal effect in the mix and I have a couple of mixes. I rehearsed "See You Tonight" and "Don't Let Me Down" last night but I need to practice to play them right. I'm starting to think about the songs I will work up for a CD collection. I had singers here last weekend and did not record the choir section of "Sweet Celebration"! Doh!

Here I am in my comfy shoes working on "Roll Your Way"

Wailing it out!

OK! I've been making good progress. My synthesizer was damaged in the move a few years ago and will not retain anything in memory when it is shut off and I have to go through several steps to get it reset and working. So I have written these instructions and pasted them to the keyboard. This will save me a lot of time since I have been basically re-figuring it out every time I use it.

I have also mapped all of the drum note assignments in my Alesis drum machine to match standard midi mapping. This way I can take drum riffs from the internet and play them directly through my computer to the Alesis and hear what they sound like.

For "Looks Like Rain" I added a bass track and some piano in the bridge sections. I've been playing with a percussion track but don't want just straight drumming. I'm fooling around with the congas, timbale, maracas, shakers, wood blocks, tambourine, and claves. I'm going to add a little triangle to the bridge. It's sounding quite nice but it is hard to program the drums to sound realistic.

I still haven't recorded demo versions (just guitar/vocal) for the 3 songs that I don't have any record of. I will be recording tomorrow night and I'll take a break from the percussion and just lay down these tunes live with me and the guitar.

Progress Report - March 10, 2010

It's been really hectic so I have not recorded much, but did go to Disneyland! I've got a drum track programmed for "Don't Let Me Down." I know I should just record it to get it down, but I can't help wanting to work it up just a bit. I've rehearsed "Roll Your Way" but I'm not satisfied with the lyrics for the last verse. I'm going to lay it down anyway as it is the next time I get in the studio. I ran through "See You Tonight" a few times and there are some rough spots I need to work out before I record it.

I've got my computer files fairly organized. I have several hours of what I call "bits and pieces" which are basically ideas I have recorded over the years on cassette and transferred to the computer. I have cut these cassettes into separate mp3s for each idea. I also created a folder of lyric ideas I had written on the computer instead of my composition book. The recordings from band rehearsals with Blackstone have been cut up into individual songs and I separated the better versions into a "Best of Blackstone" folder. I also have all the recordings from Millennium. I think most, if not all, of these were recorded after I left the band, but it is mostly the songs we did while I was in the band and don't sound any different than when I played. I was only 16 and just did rhythm guitar anyway. I’ve got a picture of me from then that I have to post sometime. I guess I need to get a lot more pictures up. Maybe it’s time to start working on a real website.

Saturday Session - Housekeeping

Woke up at 6 am, showered, and went downstairs to the studio. Worked from about 6:30 to 11, then I had to take care of things in the real world. I finished cataloging all my songs and found only three that do not have any recorded version: "Don’t Let Me Down", "Roll Your Way (version 2)" and "See You Tonight (version 2)". I'll have to rectify that in short order. I also updated my recording chart logs for the last 6 or songs I have recorded. I ran across some idea clips and put them in the Bits and Pieces folder. This was all time consuming although it doesn't seem like much. My complete list of songs is now on the blog as a page under "Catalog" where I have attempted to list the year the song was written and a co-writer if there was one.

98 Songs total. When I figure out how to format the page better I will identify which ones are good enough to be played. I will also identify the ones I am going to record now.

I did get a chance to work on some vocals. I am still having trouble with the bridge in "Looks Like Rain". I think I will have to change the wording just a bit so I don't have to jump to that note with the word "rain". I played around with the choir part on "Sweet Celebration". When I can get it charted I'll get some vocals from my daughters and their husbands so it won't sound like a bunch of Steves :)

Catalogue

I've been rehearsing some of my cover songs, working on playing and singing. I have also been going through all of the computer files I have of lyrics, mp3s, imported cassettes, etc. I have a lot of duplicate records which I am consolidating so I have only one version of each thing. It was fun listening to some of the old Blackstone rehearsals (circa 1981). I figured out how to save all of the TASCAM recording data to files on my PC. So I have backed up everything off the TASCAM studio.

I am cataloguing all of my songs with an approximate year it was written and a co-writer if any. I'll post that once I have it compiled. A lot of the old songs aren't worth anything but the learning experience. But some of these old songs make it into new songs. And a song is never finished. Even while recording "Must Be Love", "Sweet Celebration", and "Looks Like Rain" I was changing a word or a line here and there. There's a good 25-30 I feel are good enough to play in public.

I plan on doing some more recording this weekend. I want to play around with remixing "Sweet Celebration" I definitely want to redo the choir stuff at the end so it doesn't sound like a bunch of Steves :) If I can transcribe it to notes I may get Branson, Kate, and Nancy to sing the choir stuff with me. I definitely need to scratch most of the other songs and start over.

"Looks Like Rain" demo

I have a good vocal-guitar demo of "Looks Like Rain". There is one place in the bridge that I'm doing something with the vocal that I don't like, but it captures what the song sounds like so I have a record of it. That's the main goal right now.

I got out my old Yamaha DX27 synthesize and fooled around with some of the basses but didn't find one I liked the sound of.

NASI Meeting

I spent a good part of the day in the studio. Wednesday I attended the monthly Salt Lake meeting NASI songwriters meeting. I had hoped to play "Looks Like Rain" and get feedback from the group but I didn't get the chance. There were a about 30 attendees and 12 or so wanted to perform their songs. The lesson part went to about 8:30 and I had to leave around 9. I listened to a few good songs and had to leave. Rich Parkinson gave a seminar on recording and gave me a good idea about using a mic behind the guitar. So that's what I did today. I put an SM57 and an AKG vocal mic in front of the guitar and my Audio Technica condenser mic behind my shoulder. I spent a few hours recording "Looks Like Rain" and I think I'm getting some of the best acoustic guitar sounds yet. Then I spent some time working on a second guitar part to make it fuller.

Monday's a holiday so I plan to record the two guitar parts and put a vocal track on it. It will be a good demo at that point. I've been thinking of drum and bass tracks for "Looks Like Rain" and other production and arrangements ideas. I have a synth thing running in my mind for "Us". I hope to spend some time programming some drum tracks on Monday as well. I'll start brushing off "Don't Let Me Down" and "See You Tonight" and reheasring them.

Basement Construction

This is the basement sometime in August 2009


This is the studio during construction:

This is the basement in November complete with the giant flat screen! LOL

And this is the cleaned and organized studio!

So this past weekend I did some recording.I wrote the song "Us" for my oldest daughter's wedding in September 2009. I had played it just enough to memorize it and had not played it since. I FORGOT the bridge and could not find the notebook I had written it in. I was in a panic about that because it has a lot of notes and ideas for songs. But I did find it and with some playing around on the guitar I recalled the bridge melody. Yay! So I recorded it this weekend along with a song I wrote back in 2001 "Peace Will Come". So that's two down! The songs left are:

Don't Let Me Down
Looks Like Rain
See You Tonight (2000 version)
Roll Your Way (2001 version)

When I get these down I will have 90 songs recorded. Statistically, I should have at least one or two you will like! In 1985 I recorded about 15 songs at Grace Recording Studios in New Haven, CT. I also had a 4-track cassette in the late eighties but I lost most of those tapes. Most of the songs were recorded using old cassette decks like these so the sound quality is pretty poor:

THE START

I've decided to start blogging to this blog that was set up six months ago. I keep hoping I can have everything ready and then put it up, but I'm finding it doesn't work that way. So let me catch you up to where I am today. Last August I attended the Summer Jam West three day conference and got fired up to really do something with my music. There were great workshops taught by industry professionals. I will post my Summer Jam pictures and more information later. I was in the middle of finishing my basement at the time (I will post some pictures of that, too) and was jazzed to get started as soon as it was finished. My son, Andrew (also an awesome singer/songwriter/guitarist) created the framework for this blog. Today is the first day I have signed in!

The basement was finished at Thanksgiving when the whole family descended on our home. It was wonderful! We had a fantastic time eating, playing Settlers, eating, playing Puerto Rico, eating... whoohoo! My studio area was filled with all of the stuff we previously stored in the basement (photos coming), so that became the next project. By Christmas it was emptied fairly well. Now all the stuff is in Nancy's camper in the garage. She's about ready to get back to restoring it, so the next project will be to organize the garage.

Despite having protected the room with plastic barriers, everything was very dusty from the sheet rock. The new project then was to clean everything and set up the studio. That is done! My equipment was never so clean. It's great. So I began recording.

First order of business was to pick songs. I went through all my recordings and identified six songs that have never been recorded in any format whatsoever. So I am making acoustic demos of those songs first. It's a bit frustrating because I have all these production ideas in my head, but I don't have a band, I can't play all of the instruments, and I am still challenged using all of the effects in the recording mixer. I have 100 times more recording and engineering gear in my digital workstation than the Beatles had when they made Abbey Road. So it's got to be possible to get a professional sound. My recordings are getting better.

I got the mixer in the summer of 2008 and immediately starting recording "Sweet Celebration" and naively thought I could get a release quality mix. It's got the guitars, bass, drums, cool piano, and the Steve backing choir. I'm satisfied with the vocal and very pleased with the guitar solo. It is washed with reverb and sounds like you are in the shower. I recorded several other songs with basic band backup and a bunch acoustic with me singing harmonies. They do demo the song, but are far from what I would want anyone to keep permanently.

Since then I've gotten better. I bought two professional recording microphones, studio near-field speakers, and upgraded the sequencing software to create drum sequences. But I'm not quite there. I recently recorded a cover of "Still You Turn Me Own" by Greg Lake so I can compare my recording effects (room space) to his and see if I can get close. I have about 10 mixes and it's getting closer. Once I have that, I can record acoustic vocal demos that will sound "real" and be mastered together fairly evenly. I've got about 15-20 songs I'll demo and want to eventually get full arrangements on.

We're moving forward!