#digital | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#digital’

Peddle Down, Let’s Burn This Town

Posted: September 1, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #atari, #audio, #creativity, #digital, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

“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

My Chance to Give Back to YOU

Posted: August 19, 2015 in Reviews
Tags: #audio, #band, #create, #creative, #creativity, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #genres, #inspiration, #inspire, #lyrics, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #singer, #song, #Song review, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

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

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 19 – To Dream the Impossible Dream

Posted: August 10, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #bass, #digital, #dreams, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #livesoundreinforement, #microphone, #mixingboard, #monitors, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #runningsound, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #stereo, #synthesizer, #tech, #technology, #volume

Think of the stage as a speaker sitting in front of the audience….. sometimes the club or venue actually looks like a box where the performers are positioned. You have the low-end Bass Guitar, Kick Drum and Floor Tom and maybe keyboard sounds or textures. You have the Guitar and Vocals in a mid-rangy area and at the upper end you have symbols and higher range Guitar and Keyboard sounds. All inside the same box just a blasting away at different levels and pointed in all directions.

Now you have a better understanding of the challenge of making these various chunks into a tasty audio stew!

For the best way to present music to the savvy listeners of today, we do what has been done for decades. In the stereo image, you want to create a “room” or “place” for the listener. We have become comfortable with the very low end sounds coming from both speakers at about the same volume. This places the sound to the center of the listener’s field.

We like the vocals or in most cases the melody line to be in both sides equally, again placing the singer in the middle of the left-right field. We are fine if other instruments or singers are more to the left or right as long as the main sounds are where we expect them. We usually place big speakers on either side of the stage facing the audience…… usually in front of the stage and performers…. But as mentioned above this is not a finely tuned speaker cabinet by any means. The components are not necessarily proportionally balanced in volume or location. Setting up the Stage and PA system with this in mind can help reinforce the natural stereo image out in the audience.

Now that I have made a connection that is awkward if not confusing, even though the PA system in all likely hood is a Mono mix coming from both sides or columns of speakers, the listener still hears this as a stereo field. They want the low-end sounds or tones from the center of the stage. Typically the drum – the Kick Drum to be specific for this example – is the most used and most amplified instrument in band situations or where you have audio media. The Bass Guitar player is usually next to the drummer. This helps them keep tighter timing and solid beat, but also supports the stereo image of the listener.

Guitar and other amplified instruments on stage can be heard more from their side of the stage than from the other as an easy example, even if the volume through each side of the Main is sent the same level signal. If keyboards are on the opposite side of the stage from the guitar and also uses a monitor or amp, standing closer to them in front row can make it seem like the keyboards are too loud and those on the other side of the stage think the guitars are somewhat overbearing. It won’t stop them from standing there though! As you get further away from the front of the stage or if the venue is very large, this stereo effect has less and less meaning to the listener. Still, as a rule, most sound systems do not place low-end PA cabinets (or dumps) on one side of the stage and the mid or hi-end cabinets on the other side. It can be however, advantageous to place the low-end dumps in the center of the stage or along the front-center stage area. To make this more inclusive, it is also more comfortable to hear low-end tones coming from an elevation point lower (on the floor, for example) and the higher tones or frequencies coming from higher points (mounted above the stage or on tall poles).

If the volume on stage becomes to strong a level it will negatively affect all the above and more. To reinforce another post of mine, musicians just need to worry about performing great – we sound geeks will make them sound good and loud! I keep dreaming.

It’s Easy To Die – It Doesn’t Get Much Darker Than This

Posted: July 23, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #creativity, #death, #digital, #effects, #harmony, #inspiration, #itunes, #keyboard, #lyrics, #Midi, #music, #musician, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

It may take a few times through listening to this one. A number of my songs might seem quite alien at first. I hope you let them grow on you. (OK, that sounded kinda creepy LOL!) This is a textured song where I did all the sequencing and drum programming. There are no guitars on this song. Most of this is Atari days using the Proteus 1 tone generator an the RX 15 drum machine. I also use sounds straight from the keyboard(s) I use as controllers. In this case it is the Korg Trinity V3. Other than the vocals, everything is recorded via MIDI and plays back live sounds from the keyboards and tone generators (along with effects and other goodies). From start to finish this is a dark piece. Sparse percussion with a rolling sequenced bass line. You have heard my wife before on “All Night Long” and “What I do at Night” and this is another one of her gems. The intro and break vocals are from Phyllis Ann, who toured with The Personal Touch and sang on “The Touch” and “Our Bodies Move.” As the song begins I try to use multiple melody lines in various instrument voicings to lay the chordal structure. Plucky guitar sounds come from the Korg. Slow trance – lulling you closer. Then the message; “Who’s Following You?”. But the subject quickly settles on the main issue; death. Too many of us are waiting for that dream.

“It’s Easy to Die” (@) MSK 1990

I wonder, I wonder who

Who, is following you.

It’s easy to die

You just close your eyes.

And then once the dream begins

It will never end. My friend.

Don’t put up a fight

Just follow the light.

It’s not too hard

And once the dream begins

It will never end.

Chorus:

It’s easy to turn

Your life into lies. My friend

And once the dream begins

It will never end.

Walking Man Part 2 – Pack A Lot Of Punch

Posted: July 4, 2015 in projects, Video
Tags: #atari, #audio, #band, #create, #creative, #creativity, #digital, #dreams, #guitar, #Midi, #music, #musicequipment, #musician, #performance, #personal, #recording, #retro, #song, #sound, #story, #studio, #tech, #video, #vocalist, #writer

For this project, we needed a few volunteers and some inexpensive themes. We took advantage of the resources available. Ric worked as an auto mechanic so we started there. I made a couple cameo appearances but the story is about working hard and no time for creating and performing (you have heard this theme before !) During the Jeep ride up the hill you do not see the driver (Gorgeous George…) but he is still in the Jeep as Ric appears to be pulling it (and metaphorically his career) up the hill. George is pulling in and out on the clutch so there is real tension and sometimes Ric is literally being pulled back by the Jeep. Who needs acting skills!

When we moved to the live Personal Touch segments it is the duo before Phyllis Ann officially joined us. You can see Ric is kicking bass pedals and controlling an accompaniment system. On his guitar you can see him tap two silver round pads. The one triggers a drum crash from the accompaniment system he is controlling. The other pad triggers a drum pattern change to a drum roll for as many times as he taps the pad. He is the lead vocalist for the song and yes, he is also playing guitar…….. I am playing my Arp Odyssey, a Yamaha electric piano and my Yamaha DX7 and doing back-up vocals in this video.

For this I think we went into the club the day of our regular performance and shot the raw video segments for the Walking Man video. We played other tunes for other projects but there is no real audience and we only had to set up once to do the video shots and perform later that night. I try to be within budget (usually none….) and also with no wasted effort!

For a duo, we packed a lot of punch. Not only because it was just two of us in the beginning, but also in the space we could fit. We had no live drummer or bass player. I could play guitar and sing and when I was not playing guitar (and indeed, in some songs I would play guitar and keyboards) I could play keyboards and/or control the drum machine that I programmed.

Ric sang and played the guitar and almost all lead guitar parts as he also controlled the accompaniment system that had preset drum patterns, bass pedals, and a foot pedal and switches that let him add backing instruments like strings or piano sounds and at the same time determine if the backing instrument chords were played Major, Minor, 7th etc. We fit anywhere, as long as they had tall ceilings LOL!!!

The Walking Man Intro

Posted: July 1, 2015 in projects, Video
Tags: #atari, #audio, #band, #brother, #create, #creative, #creativity, #death, #digital, #life, #midimike, #motivation, #MTV, #music, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #project, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #runningsound, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #tech, #video, #writer

Believe it or not, MTV started off as a media outlet for – VIDEOS! It was not what it is today. Music videos were still relatively new and there were not that many out there but they started being produced in numbers once MTV provided an outlet for them. The Chicken or the Egg thing all over again. I did not own any video equipment, but I was familiar with photography and music, so it was a natural interest for me. Back then, cable companies were starting to set up monopolies in various cities throughout the US and we were in the Warner Amex territory. As part of their agreement with the city to provide cable and other services, Warner Amex made some of their equipment and channels available to local citizens. They provided training and allowed non-profit citizens to go through camera and editing training and once completed you could schedule use of their equipment to create content for viewing on their Public Access channels.

I was one of the first (my card was # 000090!!) to sign up for the training classes. I would borrow their equipment and film bands and live performances, family growing, along with a number of other projects.

My first project was to make a video that introduced the idea and benefits of the Public Access program, (we hoped if we had a complimentary message it would be good for PR and relationships with the people that administered the program, (we were right). and a music video idea we had been working on. This is by definition low-budget and is dated by equipment and resources available today. But it was a learning experiment and was a lot of fun. To do a lot of what we did it took a bunch of planning and trial and error. I had been playing keyboards for a very short time and there are a bunch of mistakes, I was new with the video editing and production, but not this was not bad for the first release. Usually, I am also the cameraman, but filming my own band required additional operators. I edited the video from the collection of raw tapes and a live performance of the song.

This video features my younger brother as the narrator and the music is from the duo I was in at the time called, “The Personal Touch.” The intro theme is a musical piece called “The Big D Jam”. The video is based on a song the guitar player wrote called “Transaxle“. We took vague ideas and filmed them all. Then edited them into something semi-cohesive! There are a bunch of funny stories that went into the making of Walking Man but I will spare you for now. The end credits use a song of mine introduced earlier called “The Pleasure Tax“.

As with many of these blasts from the past, there are lots of good memories and a number of painful ones. Looking at this video again so many years after, I see my youngest brother Chris in his healthy days doing the narrative part introducing the musical video before health problems including throat cancer took their toll. This is when we thought we would last forever….. there was no end in sight. We do not last for ever. For him, the end was so close to the beginning. We all have our vices, but with legal ones like tobacco and alcohol killing people every day, we all know someone that has been affected by the results. Here is the real message we should be sending; These drugs may not kill you. You will not lose ten years of your life. You will survive – and grow old – and suffer – for decades, with a disease that is eating you from the inside out. I am glad I was there to help him a little as he faced the end. I would have given anything to find another path for him, but he knew where he was going. It did not stop him and neither could I.

Lost Love Lyrics

Posted: June 26, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #create, #creative, #creativity, #death, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #family, #father, #goodbye, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #journey, #life, #loss, #love, #lyrics, #microphone, #midimike, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

*Please see previous post if you are interested in the story behind why I wrote this song. *

“Lost Love” 86 bpm © MSK 6-2004

We’d been together just a little while

Each day melted into the other.

Daylight through the evenings we danced,

Completely consumed by one another.

As life went on our love got stronger.

My friends thought that it would never last.

I know all things come to an end.

Just didn’t think it would be so fast.

It’s been a long number of years now gone

How many more I don’t really know.

Everyday I try to say good bye,

but For some reason I just can’t let you go.

And he said, ‘son, if ignorance is bliss,

You must be a very happy man’.

Memories of your Lost Love might never go away,

But everyone else you love can.

Father and son, we were never far apart

Through ups and downs, good and the bad

We stood so proud; laughing together.

I’d wait forever but you won’t be back.

When my sister died I found myself crying.

Weeks upon weeks and still to this day

I realize I’m thinking about her

As I’m wiping my tears away.

Son, if ignorance is bliss,

You must be a very happy man.

Memories of your Lost Love might never go away,

But everyone else you know can.

Share what you have, help those in need

Focus on the people around you.

Ask us for help, talk to your friends

You’ll feel so much better when you do.

It’s been a long number of years now gone

How many more I don’t really know.

Everyday I try to say good bye,

But for some reason I just can’t let you go.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 17 – The Ins and Outs

Posted: June 22, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology, technology
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #create, #demo, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #effects, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #microphone, #Midi, #midimike, #mixingboard, #monitors, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #performers, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #reverb, #runningsound, #signal, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #tips, #vocalist, #vocals, #Yamaha

Most of the connectors used for outputs will be 1/4″ male jacks. These can be for ‘grounded’ (three-wire) or two-wire cables. To make this part confusing, the cables can be made or changed with adapters to almost any connector type. For long distances we prefer grounded or three conductor-wire cables as the third wire is used to take common signals from the other two wires, and ‘dump them to ground’. Common signals would be interference and noise as the plus and negative wires are carrying the signal from the board. The result is good signal with low noise introduced. Guitar and keyboard cables typically go shorter distances and typically have a higher or stronger output signal than a microphone for example. The cables in the snake will use three wire grounded shielded cables even if they are 1/4″ male connectors.

So we might expect to have an XLR connector for the Main Outs to the Main House power amps, but this is not a guarantee. If 1/4″ jacks are provided it is recommended to use grounded three wire cables.

Most cables will provide a male connector on one end and a similar but female connector on the other end. Male connectors are often used to connect to In-Puts and Female connectors are often used to connect to the Out-Put. The male connector of the microphone cable connects to the mixing board In-Put and on the other end the female connector will connect to the microphone out. Generally speaking there is little advantage plugging an in to an in or an out to another out. I like to state the obvious LOL!

The mixing board will give us a Main Left and Right out, and probably a Mono Main Out. These will be connected to the Main or House power amps. During an event, the amps are usually turned all the way up and the House volume is ultimately controlled by the Main L-R faders on the mixing board. This is why it is important to turn the Master Volume Faders on the mixing board all the way down whenever connecting or disconnecting equipment or making dramatic changes.

Depending on the board size and configuration you may also have a 1/4″ Direct-Out for many if not all input channels. (this is REALLY cool for recording and a lot of other creative uses…) These can be really handy for independent channel recording, triggers, audio effects and alternate mixes to name a few. Basically connect these to external recorder, processor or triggering gear as needed. I will give some examples as the series expands to other main topics. You will also have a number of Sends that are used for a variety of tasks and have different names, but with a few configuration details are for the most part the same thing. Effect Sends, Monitor Sends, Auxiliary Sends, Sub Sends are splitters; they split the signal – keeping the one going to the House or recorder – and allowing you to send a lot or a little of that signal to the Send of your choice using the Send knob. As in the Monitor amps and House amps, the volume knob will ultimately be used to send the proper signal level to the external (and internal) devices or effects. If you ‘send’ this to a digital delay, it may also have its own input and out put level knobs.

You may also have a two-track input and/or out put. This is for playing stereo audio devices and for a straight stereo record out option. Handy to listen to practice tapes, intermission music, PA system tests and other performance related media.

American Indian – An Instrumental

Posted: June 10, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #American Indian, #atari, #audio, #creative, #demo, #different, #digital, #equipment, #FX, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #keyboard, #midimike, #mixingboard, #motivation, #music, #musicequiptment, #musician, #Native American, #observation, #opinion, #performance, #performer, #personal, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #writer, #Yamaha

I don’t mind acknowledging that I am different than a lot of the people I know and hear about.

I am PERFECTLY OK with this. I know my music and lyrics are not the typical main-stream songs blasted everywhere. I will not appear on any searches. Growing up and watching all the Westerns and TV shows, I never – not even once – wanted to be the cowboy or the soldier. I identified with the ‘good guys’ as most kids do, but to me the cowboys and soldiers were not the only good guys. I identified more with the American Indians living with nature rather than conquering.

I am not sure what exactly inspired this song when I started it. I often think about music videos and how that could help explain through images some of the themes in this musical piece. Possibly the new toys that could make sounds that added less traditional Western culture ideas and more ethnic and international instruments. I also like contrapuntal rhythms and themes, so you will hear a lot in these pieces.

Appreciation and Perspective From “The Touch”

Posted: June 5, 2015 in projects, Video
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #Cassette, #creative, #demo, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #effects, #guitar, #keyboard, #livesoundreinforement, #microphone, #Midi, #midimike, #mixingboard, #monitors, #music, #musicequiptment, #musician, #performance, #performer, #personal, #perspective, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #technology, #vcr, #video, #videographer, #vocalist, #vocals, #Yamaha

I want to give you an idea of perspective on some of the articles I have posted and will continue to post going forward. This is the first video I have posted and while it is rather BORING, it is so informative at the same time. I guess I have recorded original tunes since the very late 1960’s. I recorded everything. I deleted a lot! But I recorded everything I could. I experimented and adjusted and re-did and failed a few more times than I succeeded in the early days to be sure! I also got into photography and then into video recording. I practiced the mundane over and over until I got the exposure right, then with video until I could zoom and focus manually. I joined the photography club in high school and learned to develop and enlarge my own pictures – something I thought was close to magic back in the day!

I shared earlier that I used (and still own!!!) what I think was the first personal computer to come out with built in MIDI ports – The Atari ST! I used a software program back then to record the MIDI tracks and I could generate SMPTE time code and send a signal from the Atari to sync it up with recording machines (I had the Yamaha 4 track CASSETTE recorder during most of this). When I talk about old technologies and how we used to record songs (or develop pictures…) It is hard for some to understand the challenges we had and the lo-fi quality of the final mix or product.

I want to use this video as an example of many things I refer to in this blog. In this video, you will see what I saw when looking at the Atari computer monitor when I was playing or recording tracks. Keep in mind this is all MIDI equipment available years ago. The song I posted earlier will now be stripped of all guitars, vocals, effects and additional live sounds you heard on the full mix. As you watch the video you will hear the sequences being played back live into the VCR input. I took the monitor video out and connected to video in of the video recorder so this is a straight feed for both. In the recording software, each “instrument” has a separate track. Drums are all on one track with additional percussion sounds on different tracks, and as a reminder, each note (as triggered from my DX7 keyboard) represented a different drum/percussion sound coming from a drum machine. You can hear the metronome from the Atari ticking away in the back ground as it is set to record. As each track plays you can see the musical notes light up depending on the intensity of the track information. You can also see the tempo of the song, the names of the tracks and the measures and beats as they click by.

The main piano sound is probably familiar to many of you even if you are quite young. It is the classic Piano Tine sound from the Yamaha DX7 synthesizers. This video should also give you a sense of quality and resolution available at the time. It might be difficult to hear the difference in song recording quality today, but we are all familiar with video resolution and HD cameras and large screen TV and computer standards available now. Just think how this applied to the audio quality back then and then play some really old songs you grew up listening to. It gives a better appreciation and perspective for some of the classic songs that seem to live forever.

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#digital’

Peddle Down, Let’s Burn This Town

My Chance to Give Back to YOU

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 19 – To Dream the Impossible Dream

It’s Easy To Die – It Doesn’t Get Much Darker Than This

Walking Man Part 2 – Pack A Lot Of Punch

The Walking Man Intro

Lost Love Lyrics

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 17 – The Ins and Outs

American Indian – An Instrumental

Appreciation and Perspective From “The Touch”

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#digital’

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