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.