Except to plug the electric in and jam out! That's what I did. Plugged my Les Paul into my Marshal and directly into my MBox. Fun stuff. Added some drums, did some mastering and I'm posting the result.
What I'm playing is a song that I wrote a while back that's always been played acoustically and drove several friends (and my wife!) crazy as I tried to hash through it. In fact I had different people tell me things like "would you just finish that damn song!" and "do you know how to play anything else?!"
I finally decided that no, I couldn't really finish and finally moved on, but its always been a piece that I wanted to do something with. I like this electric version and could see eventually turning this into something more polished and final.
Just a side note. Drums has got to be the toughest part of the recording process. Even with all the preset grooves you can get, drums are just such a pain!
The usual disclaimers apply - I know it ain't perfect.
On another note, please feel free to pass on this blog to anyone else who may be interested. Also, I'd be happy to hear more about what I should post about. I haven't posted much more than my home recorded stuff, but if people reading think that album reviews or tips and tricks would be helpful, I'd be happy to start posting those as well.
Journey_mix1
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Magic Music
This track came from a little goofing around on a microphone and some MIDI. My uncle does magic and was looking for something "mystic" sounding. I think this is a decent start. The drums need some work (kinda sounds a little corny), but it was fun to make. I should be adding more "magic" music before long.
I used ProTools and Sampletank 2.
Draco Take 1
I used ProTools and Sampletank 2.
Draco Take 1
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wedding Music
Last weekend I got married. It was an amazing experience and I'm truly lucky to have found the woman who I am now married to. Part of what was amazing was the music for our wedding. Since my wife and I are both musicians (my wife is a music therapist and sings really well), we made sure and had great musicians at our wedding. We also created a CD for guests as a favor. Music is such an important part of both of our lives that we wanted to include our guests as well.
Here are three songs from the CD we made for the guests. All three were recording at the home studio at various points in our relationship. From a recording point of view all three show an increasing maturity in my ability to navigate Pro-Tools and to make better recordings.
The Gift of Love
This was recorded for one of my wife's patients. The woman had requested a whole CD of hymns and this was one of them. We used a single AT8531 - one of those hanging condenser mics that you typically use for choirs. That's all. The guitar was my nylon Takamine Santa Fe and it wasn't even plugged in.
I've since lost the original recording (hard drive crash from a few years ago), and only have the final wav file.
In the end, I think this proves how important a great performance is to recording and how accidents sometimes have amazing results.
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
The first Christmas that my wife and I were dating we put together a Christmas album. Someday I will post the whole thing. Again, I was very new to Pro Tools and recording and understood very little about getting a good sound. However, as was the case for Gift of Love, my wife and I were at the top of our game musically. My apartment at the time had good acoustics and things just worked out well. We were using the same AT8531 mic and my Takamine Santa Fe was plugged in this time. I did master this recording a little bit recently just to bump up the volume for the wedding CD. Other than volume and a little EQ, the recording is the original.
Psalm 95 - If Today
This is another version of the responsorial psalm that was used at my wedding. This time I recording the vocals separately with 2 mics. One is my trusty AT3050 and the other is a small, dynamic microphone that was given to my by Cheri's grandfather - found at a garage sale. I should probably post pictures sometime. Its not a great mic, I don't really even know what it is - but its heavy on the mids and I feel like it beefs up the sound.
Here are three songs from the CD we made for the guests. All three were recording at the home studio at various points in our relationship. From a recording point of view all three show an increasing maturity in my ability to navigate Pro-Tools and to make better recordings.
The Gift of Love
This was recorded for one of my wife's patients. The woman had requested a whole CD of hymns and this was one of them. We used a single AT8531 - one of those hanging condenser mics that you typically use for choirs. That's all. The guitar was my nylon Takamine Santa Fe and it wasn't even plugged in.
I've since lost the original recording (hard drive crash from a few years ago), and only have the final wav file.
In the end, I think this proves how important a great performance is to recording and how accidents sometimes have amazing results.
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
The first Christmas that my wife and I were dating we put together a Christmas album. Someday I will post the whole thing. Again, I was very new to Pro Tools and recording and understood very little about getting a good sound. However, as was the case for Gift of Love, my wife and I were at the top of our game musically. My apartment at the time had good acoustics and things just worked out well. We were using the same AT8531 mic and my Takamine Santa Fe was plugged in this time. I did master this recording a little bit recently just to bump up the volume for the wedding CD. Other than volume and a little EQ, the recording is the original.
Psalm 95 - If Today
This is another version of the responsorial psalm that was used at my wedding. This time I recording the vocals separately with 2 mics. One is my trusty AT3050 and the other is a small, dynamic microphone that was given to my by Cheri's grandfather - found at a garage sale. I should probably post pictures sometime. Its not a great mic, I don't really even know what it is - but its heavy on the mids and I feel like it beefs up the sound.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
A church piece
If you're not religiously inclinded or don't want to hear any religious music, then just don't click :-)
This is a responsorial psalm I wrote. This is by no means a polished recording, I just wanted to get it down on tape. Yes, I'm singing. I hate my voice.
Luckily, I made sure my fiance was much closer to the microphone.
Psalm 95 - If Today
This is a responsorial psalm I wrote. This is by no means a polished recording, I just wanted to get it down on tape. Yes, I'm singing. I hate my voice.
Luckily, I made sure my fiance was much closer to the microphone.
Psalm 95 - If Today
Saturday, August 2, 2008
More from the home studio...
Jammin' 1 and Jammin'2
These both come out of the same sessions that I posted about on June 8th. Unfortunately, its taken me nearly two more months to get the things up!
The drums were the same track and so I realize that if you listen to them over and over it can get a bit stale. That might be a change for another time.
Jammin' 1 -
Rythm Guitar - Gibson Chet Atkins
Lead Guitar - Gibson Chet Atkins
Drums, Bass, and Organ - Sampletank 2
Jammin' 2 -
Rythm Guitar - Gibson Chet Atkins
Lead Guitar - Gibson Les Paul (out of tune, sorry)
Drums and Bass- Sampletank 2
BluesJam-1
Similar to above, I took a blues drum track and then laid down guitar parts over it. Because I was not in the house yet, I could not crank up my guitar and so the distortion is from a plug-in: IK Multimedia's Aplitude. I plan to have several more blues jams eventually and hope to add bass and maybe some other instruments eventually.
BluesJam-1
Rythm - Gibson Chet Atkins SST
Lead - Les Paul (more in tune this time)
Drums - Sampletank
These both come out of the same sessions that I posted about on June 8th. Unfortunately, its taken me nearly two more months to get the things up!
The drums were the same track and so I realize that if you listen to them over and over it can get a bit stale. That might be a change for another time.
Jammin' 1 -
Rythm Guitar - Gibson Chet Atkins
Lead Guitar - Gibson Chet Atkins
Drums, Bass, and Organ - Sampletank 2
Jammin' 2 -
Rythm Guitar - Gibson Chet Atkins
Lead Guitar - Gibson Les Paul (out of tune, sorry)
Drums and Bass- Sampletank 2
BluesJam-1
Similar to above, I took a blues drum track and then laid down guitar parts over it. Because I was not in the house yet, I could not crank up my guitar and so the distortion is from a plug-in: IK Multimedia's Aplitude. I plan to have several more blues jams eventually and hope to add bass and maybe some other instruments eventually.
BluesJam-1
Rythm - Gibson Chet Atkins SST
Lead - Les Paul (more in tune this time)
Drums - Sampletank
Sunday, July 27, 2008
The end of the Marked Men
The Last Show for the Marked Men
The Marked Men is a band that I have followed with a lot of interest for some time. The main reason being that my brother is the bassist. However, I've really come to like some of their stuff and will put their record on once in a while. The second and third albums were far better than the first in my opinion, and from the shows I've attended over the years, I've seen a band that has matured musically along with its members. And now, after touring the world, and seeing a lot of places and doing a lot of things that I'm jealous of, it all comes to an end.
In future posts I plan to interview my brother about his struggles with being a musician - and how he plans to balance working life with his musicianship. In fact, I may do a series of interviews with "part-time" musicians. I really struggle with the balance, and I really respect my brother for "going for it" - having the guts to make the band his first priority.
The Marked Men MySpace
The Marked Men is a band that I have followed with a lot of interest for some time. The main reason being that my brother is the bassist. However, I've really come to like some of their stuff and will put their record on once in a while. The second and third albums were far better than the first in my opinion, and from the shows I've attended over the years, I've seen a band that has matured musically along with its members. And now, after touring the world, and seeing a lot of places and doing a lot of things that I'm jealous of, it all comes to an end.
In future posts I plan to interview my brother about his struggles with being a musician - and how he plans to balance working life with his musicianship. In fact, I may do a series of interviews with "part-time" musicians. I really struggle with the balance, and I really respect my brother for "going for it" - having the guts to make the band his first priority.
The Marked Men MySpace
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Katy Perry
Lately there has been a lot of buzz around the song "I Kissed A Girl". The song is definitely catchy - "I kissed a girl and I liked it. The taste of her Cherry Chap Stick...", but besides that I didn't really think much about Katy. My fiance then recently heard an acoustic version of "I Kissed a Girl". Turns out its pretty cool (starts about 14 minutes):
I Kissed a Girl - Live, Kidd Kraddick
Some further searching on YouTube also revealed another very cool song. I think it relates very well to some people that I have known. A great acoustic version is found here:
Ur So Gay - Acoustic at SWSX
I Kissed a Girl - Live, Kidd Kraddick
Some further searching on YouTube also revealed another very cool song. I think it relates very well to some people that I have known. A great acoustic version is found here:
Ur So Gay - Acoustic at SWSX
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Sad news
I realize that this news was quite old, but I didn't even hear about it until recently. This is about the sad passing of Jorge Avendaño. He was the 6th grade band teacher at Zach White Elementary and several other westside El Paso elementary schools. I only had him in 6th grade, but he always remembered me throughout junior high, high school, and I even saw him when I was at UTEP and he remembered me. He was also the tuba player for the symphony.
I remember that he was very well liked. Just a very nice man and apparently generous as well:
Benefit for Jorge Avendaño
All I know is that he made band fun enough for me to continue. I know that a lot of people lose interest in music during school - I'll talk about my high school experience later - but suffice to say, I owe this man a lot. For me personally, he was my single point of introduction to formal music. I continued playing trombone through college and part of that had to be because when I first started it was made fun enough for me to continue. Sure, my parents encouraged me to play, but I was the one who had wanted to be in band, and I can only imagine that things would be much different had I not liked the first year.
The music world needs more Jorge Avendaños. People who are willing to take a group of 6th graders and teach them how to play an instrument and more importantly to make it fun!
Keep in mind, he did this year after year after year. I would see that as punishment. One would almost wonder what he had done in a past life to deserve this! He had to love what he did. Imagine what he had to listen to every day of his working life. Lots of squeaks and splats!
Thank you Mr. A.
I mean Jorge.
(He told me when I ran into him at UTEP once that me calling him "Mr. Avendaño" made him feel old)
I remember that he was very well liked. Just a very nice man and apparently generous as well:
Benefit for Jorge Avendaño
All I know is that he made band fun enough for me to continue. I know that a lot of people lose interest in music during school - I'll talk about my high school experience later - but suffice to say, I owe this man a lot. For me personally, he was my single point of introduction to formal music. I continued playing trombone through college and part of that had to be because when I first started it was made fun enough for me to continue. Sure, my parents encouraged me to play, but I was the one who had wanted to be in band, and I can only imagine that things would be much different had I not liked the first year.
The music world needs more Jorge Avendaños. People who are willing to take a group of 6th graders and teach them how to play an instrument and more importantly to make it fun!
Keep in mind, he did this year after year after year. I would see that as punishment. One would almost wonder what he had done in a past life to deserve this! He had to love what he did. Imagine what he had to listen to every day of his working life. Lots of squeaks and splats!
Thank you Mr. A.
I mean Jorge.
(He told me when I ran into him at UTEP once that me calling him "Mr. Avendaño" made him feel old)
Sunday, June 8, 2008
A few samples
I'm going to point a few samples of music that have come out of my "studio" over the last year. I'm working on putting together a timeline of my recording, but haven't gotten there yet. So here is just a smattering of things I've done over the last year and some notes about each.
Jammin 3
Jammin 3 is just one of a series of jams I put together about a month ago. It all started with me grabbing a drum track and laying down rhythm tracks for the chords to Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Knockin has always been a favorite jam tune for myself and friends and since I was more focused on getting more full songs down on tape, it worked well.
This was a more acoustic version - rhythm and lead guitars are both my acoustic Takamine, there's a second rhythm track that is a Gibson Chet Atkins SST, and the drums and bass are both MIDI. I found the drums online (don't remember where) and I recorded the bass myself.
My fiance and I put Stay down roughly a year ago. I had just gotten my new mic (AT3035) and we were playing around one night to test it. Turns out it was a good take. I wanted to add drums, but since we did it without metronome there's some time problems (your genius gutiarist over here doesn't have the best rhythm in the world), and so I went back and manually added MIDI drums. I also added bass via MIDI, but this song is in a tough key and there's mistakes there. One day I hope to redo this song from scratch, but this was a fun take and still sounds pretty good.
1) With the exception of the vocal part, I wrote and recorded all the other parts. The piano, the bass, the cello, the guitar. I wrote the music in Finale Notepad and then exported to MIDI for the piano, bass, and cello. The guitar parts were recorded with microphone and my fiance put the lead vocals over it.
2) Its a solid recording. I cut and re-recorded and rewrote parts until neither me nor my fiance could stand it anymore. In fact, I had gotten to where I hated this recording until I left it alone for a few months. I thought there was too much reverb, just didn't sound right ect. Now I can listen to it and appreciate it for the original vision - a church sung version of O Holy Night. I have gotten some comments that it sounds a little "over produced" and I'm sure my fiance and I will rework for another Christmas sometime, but in many ways I wanted to "overproduce" it - I wanted lots of parts, I wanted lots of instruments, I wanted big church reverb and I accomplished all those things.
Jammin 3
Jammin 3 is just one of a series of jams I put together about a month ago. It all started with me grabbing a drum track and laying down rhythm tracks for the chords to Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Knockin has always been a favorite jam tune for myself and friends and since I was more focused on getting more full songs down on tape, it worked well.
This was a more acoustic version - rhythm and lead guitars are both my acoustic Takamine, there's a second rhythm track that is a Gibson Chet Atkins SST, and the drums and bass are both MIDI. I found the drums online (don't remember where) and I recorded the bass myself.
My fiance and I put Stay down roughly a year ago. I had just gotten my new mic (AT3035) and we were playing around one night to test it. Turns out it was a good take. I wanted to add drums, but since we did it without metronome there's some time problems (your genius gutiarist over here doesn't have the best rhythm in the world), and so I went back and manually added MIDI drums. I also added bass via MIDI, but this song is in a tough key and there's mistakes there. One day I hope to redo this song from scratch, but this was a fun take and still sounds pretty good.
I would have to say that this is one of my best overall recordings to date for a number of reasons. It was recorded at Christmastime of 2007.
1) With the exception of the vocal part, I wrote and recorded all the other parts. The piano, the bass, the cello, the guitar. I wrote the music in Finale Notepad and then exported to MIDI for the piano, bass, and cello. The guitar parts were recorded with microphone and my fiance put the lead vocals over it.
2) Its a solid recording. I cut and re-recorded and rewrote parts until neither me nor my fiance could stand it anymore. In fact, I had gotten to where I hated this recording until I left it alone for a few months. I thought there was too much reverb, just didn't sound right ect. Now I can listen to it and appreciate it for the original vision - a church sung version of O Holy Night. I have gotten some comments that it sounds a little "over produced" and I'm sure my fiance and I will rework for another Christmas sometime, but in many ways I wanted to "overproduce" it - I wanted lots of parts, I wanted lots of instruments, I wanted big church reverb and I accomplished all those things.
Welcome!
Welcome to Rob's Studio!
In the inaugural post for this blog, I'm just going to talk briefly about my purpose in creating this forum and to list out what I hope this blog will become.
At the end of the day, I just want this forum to be fun and interesting. I want opinions and comments about my recordings and what I post. I want to hear from others - whether you are a home recording artist or someone who enjoys music. I am an amateur. I don't do music full time, but I am very passionate about it. I think we as a society have lost the idea of amateur music and amateur musicians - I want to proudly declare that I do music on the side, I have a day job, I was NOT a music major, and I still enjoy every minute of it!
In the inaugural post for this blog, I'm just going to talk briefly about my purpose in creating this forum and to list out what I hope this blog will become.
- First and foremost I'm going to use this as a forum for posting my home recordings. I'm always happy to hear comments and suggestions on my recordings and I encourage others who are recording at home to send me what they're doing.
- Second, I hope to post about the music I'm listening to lately, and especially how its influencing my recording. Sometimes its more about how good a certain album sounds or what things I hear in a album that I don't like. I also want to post about artists who aren't well known.
- Third, I hope to post about the little bit of music theory that I know and how to apply that to songwriting and recording. I became interested in building chords and theory in high school when I was first learning guitar. Even though I never majored in music, I took enough guitar lessons - both classical and jazz - in college to learn a fair amount of theory. What I'm finding out is that theory is elusive for many musicians, even trained ones! I hope that I can post some hints and tips that have helped me over the years.
- Fourth, I will talk about my opinions in music. I played trombone and tuba all through college. I was not that good, but enjoyed it. It wasn't until high school that I started playing guitar and my musicianship REALLY took off. I have some strong opinions on what music education has becomes and the sad shape of adult musicianship that exists today.
At the end of the day, I just want this forum to be fun and interesting. I want opinions and comments about my recordings and what I post. I want to hear from others - whether you are a home recording artist or someone who enjoys music. I am an amateur. I don't do music full time, but I am very passionate about it. I think we as a society have lost the idea of amateur music and amateur musicians - I want to proudly declare that I do music on the side, I have a day job, I was NOT a music major, and I still enjoy every minute of it!
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