This is an early recording of a Cincinnati band “Chakras”. I recorded them back when I used the ADAT digital tape recorder. It does not have the ‘bling’ of modern recordings but I think you will enjoy the performance.
https://www.facebook.com/chakrasrock
MSK Studio
Part of the challenge in writing songs is how difficult it might be to convey a particular feeling or message to studio musicians. All players should be heading in the same direction, playing the same tune, moving at the same tempo and so on. Creating soundscapes must be a lot like painting. Drawing the lines and forms are one thing, but which color is best? There are so many available yet each one conveys a unique mood or feeling. Sounds can be like that. We asked a guitar player/friend of ours to come up with guitar tracks for a project I was working on. This was for a cable TV project looking for sound tracks for an automotive enthusiast series. We wanted to give the guitar parts a bit of mood setting so we asked him to create tracks that would generate the feeling of …
an engine or racing car, crunchy, powerful
drive – movement – acceleration, fast, fluid
Using basically no more than the above “instructions” he gathered toys and used the word imagery to shape the sound and the playing style for these tracks. We used the same list to come up with the basic tracks for the song. This song is an adaptation of a song I wrote a long time ago and we called it The Big D Jam. I originally composed this song using the Arp Odyssey synthesizer. I programmed a pretty cool sounding bass patch and came up with the bass line and skeleton of the song. This song in its original version was performed when I was with The Personal Touch years ago. If it was a rockin’ crowd we would let Ric Ahlers jam a bit on the solo parts. I put some simple lyrics to it and it was a really fun song to play out. Recently I pulled it out of the song closet and re-wrote the chorus. I also used new software plug-ins from my computer for all the sounds. This was amazing for me because I have all this fancy gear with cool sounds and I am not using them at all. In this post, I wanted to give you an idea how the song progressed. The new sounds are just amazingly clear and natural. I will post in the near future the complete mix with vocals and effects. When the sounds and the performance match the request or target, the song seems like it was made to order.
MSK Yellowstone
Photo by MSK Yosemite
Burning Impressions That Last Forever
“Single Desire” was written in a time when I must have had a lot to say. The year was 1988. Once love has grabbed you it can burn deep. No matter how you want things to turn out, sometimes you have no control on the direction they take. You find yourself helpless at the time and unable to avoid mistakes that seem obvious even to you. Single Desire tries to describe the condition when adoration is not reciprocal. When you are not loved in return. Only one thing matters and nothing you can do will make it happen.
When the other person learns that type of control is in their hands, they have power that can turn lovers insane. He/She can make the helpless romantic into a tool that can be discarded when no longer useful. There is no cost to them. Displays of charm and hints of affection can destroy all resistance and common sense in the admirer.
We need to wait until the fire burns out completely before we can stop following and finally walk away. The problem is there is usually very little left to walk away with.
I tried to give this song a full arrangement as powerful as the lyrics (or the idea behind them) felt to me. I knew I could not sing it the way it required so I called my good friend and band-mate Gary Jefferson as I have many times over the years to do the vocal tracks. My wife Ellen does the chorus ‘response’ vocal parts. I used my keyboards and MIDI tone generators to do all the instrumental tracks including the drums, strings, brass and bass guitar parts, and invited my buddy Shawn Anderson to come over and lay down the lead guitar tracks. Harlen Lee, another great friend of mine, came in and added additional guitar parts. I really like the bass guitar line, and think the strings add movement and dramatic accents to the song.
Please give “Single Desire” a few plays to let it sink in and I hope you enjoy.
Mara – The Making of a Video
I usually did not have to search for new projects. There were plenty of musicians, bands and performers that did not have a lot of resources – or cash – when starting out. Working at the local music store chain, I was lucky to know some great players, writers, and musicians of all sorts. l am attracted to talented people of all kinds. I often wish listeners of my music would give me the benefit of the doubt that I gave to many of the people I met and came to appreciate. I realize my songs are not always ‘radio worthy’ or commercially viable, and always hoped someone would look beyond that and realize the songs I offered for what they could be if recorded professionally and marketed on a large scale. Maybe that day will still come, but back then there were a number of artists that I could help take the next step.
Word got out that I had an understanding of technology and could usually pick things up quickly. I absorbed owners manuals, dedicated time and when possible drafted other talented people to make projects work. One of the fun and exciting things I got to do was shoot and edit live musical band performances. MakeShift Kreations was an early company name I came up with using my initials: M S K. I believe this was filmed way back in 1988!!!
Using the same video and editing suite from the cable company available for local access channels that I used for my first conceptual video: “Walking Man” I learned how to use multi camera filming and video editing techniques. In some situations I offered to do videos for friends as this was a new (again, at the time!) medium and was very expensive for most bands. In Part I, I would like to present the video I made of Mara, a local band with highly talented musicians. My wife Ellen and I did all the camera, editing and post production work. These are their original songs performed live over a two-night period. It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot and had a great time.
Please use the following link to see the Mara: Part I video:
Going With the Flow This is a calming piece based on the string sounds from one of the plug-ins on my recording software program. Sometimes a new sound or new toy can inspire themes, songs and projects. This is one of those situations where I am listening to new sounds and noodling on the keyboard to hear the new tones and to see how the patch responds to the keyboard and controllers. As I was listening to the new sounds, I enjoyed the string sound I was playing with and started recording the noodling I was doing. I played for about five or six minutes and stopped recording to listen back.
The first section I scrapped and the rest was rather pleasant (sometimes this is a surprise indeed!). While listening I started hearing harmonies in my head so I started recording on a 2nd track and used the same string sound to add another layer. After that I stopped. I like the mood this inspires. I am not sure why I called it Cotton Song, but I got the feeling of being in the South overlooking plantations. So it stuck! I did not change anything and mixed it down to what you hear in this post. Other versions of noodling or just playing with sounds rarely turn into a solid piece, so I have tons of snippets that have nice themes but to date have never been expanded upon. One of these days I will listen to other noodling sessions and I might make something out of them. For this song, have a cup of tea, sit back for a little bit and let your mind and body relax. Admit it… you could use that right about now!
As we moved the song “My Heart is Silent” forward, I wanted to give you an update in the process. New chord structure keeping some of the vibe from the first version and new vocals and you can see how quickly songs can change from the original concept. The last version had a female vocalist and this time we hear from a friend of Mack. His name is Carlos and he has a smooth ballad vocal style. Again, this is the first vocal attempt to give us an idea how the song feels with a male vocalist and more of a structured feel to the verses.
We decided to go with a spoken intro for the first verse. I like the way it opens the song and allows us to build the vocals as the song progresses. Oddly enough, a lot of the lyrics went back to the original as the song structure fit the words a bit easier. We also considered doing a male-female duet. No final decision yet and we are still thinking about back-up vocals to enhance some of the lines from each verse to drive the end of the song as it builds up.
I added MIDI string parts after the piano intro. The drum parts and bass guitar are also all MIDI generated coming from the computer. I added a low-key rhythm guitar part during the chorus and later verses. Once we have the vocal parts finalized we may add other instruments as the song progresses toward the end.
So what do you think? Male vocalist, female or duet?
What other instruments do you ‘hear’ in the final version? Saxophone? Brass? Orchestral? Lead guitar?
Do you like the spoken opening verse rather than jumping straight into the melody?
Here is the latest rough mix of “My Heart Is Silent”.
As Part II of this series I will post the rough version of the heart of the musical components starting with the Piano and basic arrangement of the new song, “My Heart Is Silent”. © 2016. Click here to read Part I.
For the Piano we are using an 88 wood weighted keyboard controller. It is an older Yamaha KX88. As you will remember from the MIDI series posted earlier (LINK) the KX88 makes no sound at all. While it has the play and feel of a real piano, it sits on a keyboard stand and I use the MIDI OUT to connect through a router I have straight to the computer. In future posts I will go into more detail on how the sounds are generated and what I am using to get each sound. We recorded a few passes and because this is MIDI, I had the ability to move pieces around as we focused in on the arrangement.
The piano player listened to a glorified ‘click track’ I created with a MIDI drum controller from my Alesis Control Pad. It has 8 assignable trigger pads and a cymbal trigger that can be set to trigger sounds from any MIDI device, but again I am going straight to the computer and using internal sounds for the drum parts. This way we can record the piano part with the correct tempo even though there are no other instruments recorded yet. This also makes editing easier if everything fits within the measures. When we rearranged the sections I ‘cut and paste’ parts from one place to another just the way you would with a Word document. This makes life much easier for the recording engineer (yours truly). If this was recorded with a microphone and without the click track it would be awkward to work with.
The KX88 also has sustain and volume controller pedals attached, so to the piano player it acts and feels quite natural. Mack E. is my partner in creating this new song. He read the lyrics I wrote to “My Heart Is Silent” and asked if he could take them home and work on the music. This is a theme he has had in his personal arsenal for a while. He played a bit with the tune and came up with a melody for the lyrics. We worked on the arrangement until we were happy with it and here is the rough version of the piano chords. We will add other instruments and vocals later but for now we have a good foundation for the song so we can build support instruments to fill out the song.
I guess I never really came up with a name for this tune. Sometimes I will write lyrics and give it a working title. I do the same thing with musical pieces I am working on before there are dedicated lyrics assigned to the tune. As I continue to work on a piece, the name often changes when chords are matched with a set of lyrics. On rare occasion it happens at the same time, and that process is a little different – and easier! This is one of those weird situations where I never got to either, and this has always been referred to by the date….. March of 1990.
March in this case also has a double meaning. It is the pull away from the Winter season where I live. The steady movement of new life. The pace of growth that cannot be stopped. The instrumental tries to match that drive and frantic pace of the season. Driving rhythms, collage of melodies, bouncing themes – and then to dynamics and a reflection of what is now past. Then back to driving growth. That is what I think about as I listen to this tune. Even now, heading to Winter, I feel that March pushing forward.
Back to the Atari 1040 ST, I am sequencing all parts for this tune. I believe I added a new tone module from EMU called the Proteus 1. This was an amazing machine and I have not found anything as good and simple to use as the Proteus series. It was really cool for two major reasons in my opinion. 1) the sounds were just awesome for the time and there were lots of sounds on board. 2) the operating software used was just made for MIDI geeks like me. It was very simple and allowed the Proteus 1 to create splits, layers and zones, but it easily allowed you to access all 16 MIDI channels at the same time. I could write a few articles on this alone, but for now it meant you could assign a different sound to any or all of the 16 channels independently. As described in the MIDI series, this was great because you could use channel 1 for piano, channel 2 for organ sounds, channel 3 for strings, channel 4 for brass or orchestra sounds, 5 for flutes, 6 for sound effects, 7 for guitar sounds, 8 for solo instruments, 9 for the bass guitar sound, 10 for the standard drum channel and still have channels left over. Playing out in bands and in the studio with this was just a dream.
“Rainy Day”
Cruisin’ down the avenue
Raining in the lightning.
Listening to the radio
Cruisin’ in the darkness.
Peddle down, let’s burn this town
Fire from my tires.
Reflections in my rear view mirror,
I will find tomorrow.
Comin’ down the avenue
Raining and the lightning.
Reflections in my rear view mirror
I will find tomorrow.
Go for ride real late at night
Rain comin’ down like it usually does.
So I turn the radio to the right
Playin’ the same songs as the other night.
So I slammed the door and I left for good
Now you find me driving in your neighborhood.
Don’t explain it to me, it’s well understood
Everything you do for me is for my own good.
Turn ‘round the corner I’m still losing my mind
So I punched it down and left it all behind.
Tryin’ not to cry I push it all back
Racing fast to nowhere on a one way track.
No colors at all, just the burning headlights
And the crackling of lightning tearing into the night.
People ask me what I do at night
I tell them only one thing makes me feel all right.
It makes me feel all right.
Lyrics by Michael & Ellen Kennedy
Music by Michael Kennedy
(c) 1986
MIDIMike’s Reviews Are Coming Soon!
As a result of requests from fellow bloggers and ReverbNation members, we are just a few weeks away from launching the new MIDIMike’s Reviews Site. This site will be dedicated to reviewing original music and creative writing submissions every week. I assembled an amazing team of reviewers to work with me and they are also excited to help with this new project.
I have been writing and performing for decades, but recently I struggled to get my material professionally reviewed for my on-line presskit. I have seen a number of artists struggle to acquire this simple but necessary stepping stone. Several of you have asked me for opinions on your material and I want to make that advice available to everyone. I want to be able to give back to all of you for the support and encouragement you’ve given me over this last year.
MIDIMike’s Reviews will be free and honest. I will be posting the reviews on my http://www.midimike.com site (which has thousands of views per month) and on the upcoming review site. You are also welcome to use the review for your own website/blog/presskit when referencing MIDIMike’s Reviews as the source. The individual review posts are not guaranteed for all submissions, but every submission will receive feedback from us. I enjoy raw talent, but the submissions should be presented as professionally as possible. Your creative works will be handled with the utmost care and you retain full ownership. HOWEVER: You must guarantee you are the sole author and have full permissions to publish these works.
If you are interested in having your material reviewed, please e-mail: midimikesreviews@gmail.com
Music – You may submit a song or an album for review. Please send a link to the material in full and any additional presskit material or websites (if available).
Poetry – Please e-mail the poem or poems in full to the e-mail address with any websites/social media (if applicable).
All levels of experience accepted. (If you have any questions, you can also e-mail them to us at midimikesreviews@gmail.com)
Please keep in mind; I do what I can, but sometimes life gets in the way. Please be patient with us while we get this up and running. I tried to avoid as much legal jargon as possible but there are exceptions, exclusions and I have the final say on what reviews will be posted and for the content of the reviews.
On a more pleasant note, I get to hear a lot of great music from new bands and artists before they become wildly famous and read great poetry before it’s professionally published! Thank you for making the first half of 2015 a blast, and it is just getting started!
MIDIMike
MidiMike 