#digital | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#digital’

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 8 – Changing a Live Mix

Posted: March 23, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #lyrics, #Midi, #mixingboard, #music, #musician, #performance, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist

Obviously when you are live and there are a number of performers and hopefully a lot of listeners depending on you for a great performance, any change in the house mix can be immediate and usually have unintended consequences that you cannot predict accurately. Any change to the stage mix once the main speakers are pumping will not be known by the sound engineer. If you accidently send a lot of delay to the monitor for example, it will confuse timing of players and can lead to feedback and other audio beasts raising their ugly heads over and over. From the house board you will not be able to pinpoint where the beasts are coming from and what starts them – or calms them down for that matter.

A lot of those buttons look alike and in the dark it is easy to move something unnoticed. A number of times I have sneaked up on stage and listened from a few different positions to see what the band was hearing on stage. Then I could usually identify how to deal with that beast.

In the studio I can study some of the situations and find a solution when I can rewind and stop and try something and if that doesn’t work I can try this toy we just got in at the music store that is supposed to be wonderful and will solve all my mixing needs. With the audience primed and ready for a show, it is better to make smaller adjustments and see how it affects everything and then adjust a little more. If the location of the sound board is good representation of the venue and sounds pretty good, enjoy the view and mix as the band and performers deserve. I try to reinforce guitar solos in the mains, and I mean really inforce the solo. I make it so everyone will hear it, while keeping the other performers at a good foundation level. I make sure I turn it back down as soon as the solo is over. If there is a second vocalist, sometimes they do not have the power of the lead vocalist and might have a limited range. It can be hard to boost them to the level of the lead vocalist even if they are using the same equipment. Getting them loud enough in the monitor is usually the biggest challenge. You don’t want to leave a microphone turned up a lot in the monitors that is not used very often. It will pick up other instruments and sounds on stage and then push them back into the monitors…. It will probably not be loud enough to trigger feedback in the stage monitors, but it could create a boomy or foggy sound environment on stage and will make it harder for all performers to keep tight performances.

I also like to add effects to a live performance. If the band is playing cover tunes for example, I try to match the effects on the vocals and percussion sounds with those on the original recording. I usually keep the effects out of the monitors but have had situations where it went over well. More often than not, it makes it more confusing on stage. In either case, I make sure that when the song or section is over, I turn the effects level off. If the band members talk into the microphones during a musical break, they will be clear and understandable in the audience during the address. Then right back up when the next song or section begins.

When setting up the channels on the mixing console, I try to group instruments to make balancing all tracks easier. I keep vocals together, and try to represent placement on stage. If there is a lead singer center stage and a back-up vocalist left right and the drummer also sings, I have the channels on the snake match their positions when looking at the stage left to right, for example. If there is only one singer and I have open channels I do not need, I try to separate the vocalist from other channels in use so it is easy to find and easy to adjust. You will probably change the lead vocalist channel more than any other. The typical band might have a soloist – guitar or keyboards for example, and you will change the volume faders during the night. But you will probably not change the delay patch or change reverb on instruments. The vocals can benefit from minor changes throughout the night.

Think about it… the guitar player and keyboard player change their sounds literally from song to song. The vocalist does not have that luxury. Change the effects to enhance the vocalist. Too often sound gurus find one effect and use it all night. If you are not comfortable with creating or even changing effects with the available or on-board FX, that is understandable. Maybe we will cover that in later sessions if members find it helpful. If effects are new to you or you have not mixed a whole lot of events try the following simple strategy; add effects to the instruments that need it and not to any other instrument, and keep the volume of the effects subdued in the house mix. It should not overpower the stage sound or ‘dry‘ signal. Use short reverbs and delays for most applications. I bring in the effects into an open channel if available, rather than using the FX return knobs. This way I can easily see the level of the effect, I can route to the vocal group or bus if I choose and I can EQ effect independently. This to me also makes it easier to turn down the effects during music breaks or announcements.

Chopper – An Instrumental Song

Posted: March 18, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes, technology
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #digital, #guitar, #keyboard, #lyrics, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performance, #recording, #retro, #runningsound, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #Yamaha

When I first went to a music store near my town to see if I could get a job, I naturally went to a store I shopped in a bunch of times. I was one of the first customers to purchase a new keyboard that was starting to break all the sales records at the time. It used FM (Frequency Modulation) to essentially create or ‘synthesize’ new sounds not possible before, ……… and …… you could play up to 16 notes AT ONE TIME!!! You take that for granted now but that was a thrill for electronic keyboards (other than organs and all that).

So I went over and talked to the owner. He walked us over to the keyboard I had purchased and said, “can you program this thing?”. I told him absolutely and I can show him now how to create cool new sounds. He said, that was OK and I was hired. That started the sales portion of my journey. This song got the name and the main groove from the keyboard sound in that Yamaha DX7 synthesizer.

If you played individual notes in the right tempo, the thumping sound would build just right and you got this effect like a helicopter at a distance. I did write lyrics for this song, but I always hear it as an instrumental. For the early instrumentals, I was recording on the first computer for consumer electronics that had a built in MIDI port, the Atari and I had the 1040 ST. Again, that means nothing today, but this was space-age technology and had a lot of musical applications. I still have it (two, actually and two monitors) and it still works to this day. I can fire up the Atari and still play all these MIDI pieces as I did when they were written.

The drums are all programmed. In fact, everything is. All the sounds are triggered from the Yamaha DX7 and recorded via MIDI. Each time you hit play’, you are regenerating all the sounds to make this song. See the MIDI series for MIDIMike’s intro to MIDI by clicking here.

MIDIMike

St. Patrick’s Day – A Part of Me

Posted: March 17, 2015 in Holiday, MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #American, #audio, #band, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #family, #Irish, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #love, #lyrics, #Midi, #motivation, #music, #musician, #recording, #retro, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #St. Patrick's Day, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer

Speaking about lyrics that never become songs, etc., sometimes I write and record a demo or rough track of a song and it just never seems to go anywhere. Some of them do get resurrected, many don’t. For some it may be as simple as a tempo change or a different arrangement. Other times for me it is mysterious. In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, I would like to post lyrics to a song in the making. As this platform gives us access to followers around the globe, I do not want to leave anyone out, so please take this as intended. If I don’t mention your country, other people’s songs will!

Then in a later post I can bring in the recorded demo tracks. I like the lyrics for the most part and I love the idea behind the song, but it is not there yet. Maybe after a pint or two of Guinness and some suggestions from you I can finish this song. And of course, that could be a topic in and of itself. We hear phrases like “final mix”. Some people say there is no such thing. Others say you just have to stop at some point and let it go. Much of this may depend on your final goal. Are you a singer/songwriter trying to get a break and some air-time? Are you shopping for places your band can perform your unique style? Do you want to have a clean demo to send to your favorite artist? Is this a sound-track for video/YouTube? Do you make sound effects for games?

We can always say make it as good as possible but that is very subjective. Hire 50 sound engineers and you will get 45 different mixes (there are always people that look over your shoulder!) Tip for today; it takes a really long time to fix it in the mix even if you know what you are doing. It is much easier and preferred to get the great sound first, and then record it properly (using gain staging and other procedures mentioned earlier). When you record a great sound it will sound great. As a sound guy for a local band I would get compliments on the sound (House from the audience but almost always monitors from the band). I thank them and tell them the band sounds great, I just let everyone hear them.

“A Part of Me” © 08-2000 MSK

American Indians gave me my soul,

A spiritual guide for all living things.

Each man’s fate is his to control

Peace with Nature, the warrior sings.

A Part of Me belongs to all of Them

From the Germans strength was my first lesson.

Trial and precision as you master these.

Pride that’s passed down from son to son.

Built in each hand crafted Masterpiece.

Oriental neighbors have shown me the light

Truth, Balance, Eternal harmony.

The beauty of patience and delight

Traditions deep within history.

A Part of Me belongs to all of them.

I’m proud to be an American.

Sisters and brothers from every shore,

That’s what makes us Americans.

Part of Me belongs to all of Them

From the Irish I inherit my pride

I stand my ground and I will speak my mind.

I will honor the lands and the tide,

And I’ll never leave a neighbor behind.

My English side embraced nobility.

Dry humor in the face of foes

Hardy enough to capture the seas.

Portraits legends and heroes.

African Americans forced to become

A torn people of two nations.

Tribal tales and melodic rhythm

Passed onto the next generation.

The French helped me understand

Style and grace can be nurtured like wine.

To believe there is no better place

Life shared with friends, bread and wine.

A Part of Me belongs to all of them.

I’m proud to be an American.

Sisters and brothers from every shore,

That’s what makes us Americans.

Part of Me belongs to all of Them

Year after year

They want to raise their children here.

Because sweat blood and tears

Can amount to something here.

There’s a lot of people in my life

A part of Me belongs to all of Them.

Your song may be different and that’s OK.

Sing it with your fellow American.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 7 – Fix It Before You Mix It

Posted: March 16, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, MUSIC, music technology
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #logical, #lyrics, #Midi, #motivation, #music, #musicequipment, #musician, #performance, #recording, #retro, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #tech, #vocals

This is a good time to walk around a little if you can. If you have a helper that can baby sit the board for a while, slowly walk around the venue. Listen to the various instruments as you walk to different sections and notice how each area sounds as you pass in and out of range of the main speaker clusters. Listen again for areas that ‘drop out’, especially in the main audience areas. Talk to the host. Make adjustments and respond to their suggestions. Interact with the audience if you are good at that sort of thing.

Bring all that listening back to the sound board.

What adjustments can you make to improve the house mix? Is a player sounding great when you are right in front of the stage but fades quickly if you are back further or at the bar? Does the kick drum or one of the vocalists sound muddy and hard to hear clearly. Listen to each instrument again. Use the headphones and solo tracks do they sound muddy in the headphones too? If so, you might need to change the EQ settings or other audio processors, change microphone location, REPLACE the microphone cable!, put rings on the drum heads to stop heads from long ugly tones, hey, there is a lot of stuff that goes into making the band or performance sound good.

It can go wrong. I have gone up to drummers during sound check to ask them if they have any objections if I tune the drum heads for them before the gig. Far too many drummers don’t know how to do this and far too many more don’t know that you even can. If the kit is out of tune and generates all sorts of random harmonics and overtones, there is no way to get it to sound ‘awesome’. It can sound loud and it can sound full, but it will never sound good.

I have probably upset a few performers as well by asking that they tune their instruments before we start playing. One of the benefits of also being a musician in a number of bands is I can tell when something is out of tune. I don’t think I can get drunk enough that playing out of tune is a good thing, but there obviously are a few out there. If they cannot tell the difference that is worse than being too drunk, but we all sound and play better when everyone is in tune. Some bass players can’t tell any more so you have to politely step in once in a while.

In a large club in front of a packed audience, the lead vocalist roared into the microphone, ” I ain’t got shit in the monitors, sound guy, I got nuthin’ up hear at all…”.

I responded with a simple but effective test that I could do from way out in the audience. I reached up to the main faders and yanked them down completely before he got to the “…… sound guy, I got nuthin’ up hear at all…” part.

So he ended up with the band now reduced to stage volume. As he was saying …’sound guy …’ He was booming through the on stage monitors at an amazing decibel level. He apologized to me and the audience when I turned the mains back on and we rocked out the rest of the night. The house was loud enough that he could hear them more than the mains and he was not used to that feeling. That the sound guy would not have the vocals loud enough in the main mix and he would need to hear the monitors really loud on stage. He ended up really happy with the mix and did not have to scream all night over the band stage volume. Keeping things solid can include a number of unexpected challenges that are better met head-on, but these business relationships should also be kept friendly and cooperative.

Have spare cables for everything, even if the sound system does not use it. Power cables for devices and amps. Adapters for audio cables. Tape, markers and paper. I bring guitar cables and a few spare mic cables everywhere. Batteries. Small hand tools. Power outlet tester. Flashlights. Drum head tuning keys. Zip ties, the list could go on but session after session, someone will need those things for the show to go on and you will be the champion pro. You gain cooperation and trust for the next gig. Win win.

We all know the saying about weak links. When you have so many components – each connected with cables and software and processors, it can take a while to troubleshoot the system when you have a failure. Yes failure. If you are the sound guy or gal and things don’t work or it sounds bad, YOU are the failure! There are basic steps you can take and I can describe them in a generic way, but that type of advice will not apply to every system out there. No two clubs or sound companies have the same sound equipment. The best advice is to keep the number of links in any chain as low as possible. The more links, the more of them that could be or eventually become weak. It is not always practical to have a spare of every component, but finding local music and sound stores open in your area is getting tougher. If taken care of properly though, most professional PA equipment available today will last a long time. More on “Maintenance and Tips” in a future SLR series.

The Mystery of The Twelve

Posted: March 13, 2015 in Music Theory
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #Midi, #music, #musician, #petergabriel, #recording, #singer, #song, #sound, #soundman, #studio

If we look at the typical piano keyboard the visual impact is beneficial to demonstrate this big picture ….

You will eventually see the repeating pattern of white keys and black keys. The pattern repeats over and over. The piano is ideal because even though it is squeezed to save space, the keys and notes are linear; to the left the notes or tones produced get lower, and to the right the notes get higher. As we look to the center we can locate what is called ‘middle C’. We can use this note as a good reference on the piano because it makes the key of C Major easy to see and play. Other instruments will make it easier to see and play other keys. This has to be detailed later, but for now, if you start playing the middle C and then play each sequential white note, you are playing in C Major.

A simple count however shows there are 12 notes between each ‘repeat’ of the cycle or each octave visually displayed on the keyboard. That’s it. 12 notes and then it repeats. Now that doesn’t sound too mysterious, does it? The mystery comes in on knowing what notes to avoid. If you eliminate the notes that are not within the scale or key you are working in, it becomes like the key of C Major on a piano; you will easily see and play the right notes.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
C	C# Db	D	D# Eb	E	F	F# Gb	G	G# Ab	A	A# Bb	B

In the key of C Major, it would be a safe guess based on the above, to play white notes. It the simple chart above you can also see the numbers greyed that represents the black keys. In this example, the black keys are not within the C Major scale. For other scales and variations of scales, they WILL!

Generally speaking, if we are playing the C Major scale, playing black keys will not always fit in with the other notes being played. White keys have a much better chance of ‘fitting in’ with other notes being played.

Which reminds me of a joke about musicians……..

What is the difference between a jazz band and a rock band?

The jazz band plays thousands of chords to three or four people and the rock band plays three or four cords to thousands of people!

Lessons from the Studio

Posted: March 11, 2015 in Cover Tune Tuesdays
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #dreams, #drummer, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #lyrics, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performance, #recording, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #stage

In Euphoria at this time, I am the keyboard player and I do some back-up vocals and percussion.

I get to set up in the recording control room and listen to the studio speakers for monitors. I can look through the glass and see the other players; drums in isolation booth, guitar amp and bass rig in separate areas with go-bo’s and sound partitions avoiding spill-over. Vocalist was in place in booth, but we are doing scratch vocals now for the most part to keep the musicians on track. The studio is using reel-to-reels back then, but they are great machines and the board is more than I had gotten my hands on at the time. To let you know I was the performer here. I was not the engineer and I kept my mouth shut. [OK, maybe that was a hidden lesson if we think about it!]

To set up the story a little, when Euphoria plays live and the guitar player breaks a string (in our band this happens all the time and even our BASS GUITAR player breaks strings regularly!) we have to stop the song. The guitar players will grab another guitar or change if needed……

And no matter where we were when we had to stop playing the song, we started from the same place and continued the song to the end. So when we came into the studio, we knew what songs we wanted to record and in what order, but we also knew which part of each song should be on the demo. We did not want to record a bunch of full songs all the way through. When we were ready to record, the vocalist would call out what song and Verse 1 and 2…. Chorus 2……., Verse 3, Solo – then Verse….. Whatever it was that we wanted to record. We did not play all the way through and then have the tape ‘cut’ to those areas; it is all we recorded. We caught the sound guy off guard. He must have initially thought we were going to go way over time. As it happened, we did all the cover tune sections we wanted and had time over to play with an original tune the guitar player was working on.

Oh, yeah, there is still a lesson for the recording engineer in all this. He told me during a number of conversations (I asked about stuff after all, but I tried not to back-seat-drive the recordings) that he had struggled for two years on getting the drum booth tight. He had changed the drum heads multiple times. He bought more and more expensive microphones. He used the latest gates and processing gear. He moved everything up, down and sideways. He changed soundproofing a million times.

Here is what he said to me that day, “All this time I thought I didn’t have the right drum booth and gear. It wasn’t until tonight that I figured out that I just did not have the right drummer!”.

Unfortunately the other band members would not let me tell the drummer that for a long time in fear his head would get really big and explode!

Journey – Separate Ways

Black Crowes – Hard to Handle

Yes – Long Distance

Yes – Changes

The Who – Can You See the Real Me?

Shooting Star – Last Chance

Queensryche – Jet City Woman

Everyday Lessons of a Musician

Posted: March 10, 2015 in projects
Tags: #audio, #band, #charity, #digital, #dreams, #fan, #guitar, #journey, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #lyrics, #Midi, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #Queensryche, #recording, #runningsound, #Shootingstar, #singer, #song, #sound, #soundman, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #TheWho, #yes

I have always been into helping charities and volunteering for good causes. I entered a few tunes from a local cover band I was in (Euphoria) for yet another battle of the band contest sponsored by habitats for humanity and a local radio station. The bands would play in Eden Park at the very-cool Seasongood Pavilion. At first it looked like we might not even play, then the dust settled and we would go on to play last. The other bands were interesting and pretty good. We were hi-energy progressive rock and we played our short set really well and had a great time. We even made the goof of mentioning the wrong radio station’s call letters! Agh! I thought on that alone we might get overlooked. But they might not have heard the comment and in all modesty we were really good. We won a trophy – some unknown band member still has it hidden safely in some underground bunker – and recording time at a recording studio! For me, this was like candy.

We were awarded the prize and a limited time to go into the studio. We decided to use the recording time of three hours (yeah, kind of a tease and they probably figure you will run over and have to pay them for additional recording time) to record a band demo. Eventually we got a list of songs we wanted to do and had some discussions on what parts of the songs to feature.

As the time got near, it became more and more difficult to arrange schedules of the various band members (and lets NEVER forget the schedules of the family of band members!). So I told the band guys that this weekend was it. This is the deadline and if we do not go in a few days we will lose this opportunity altogether. After the whining and complaints, we agreed to go that Saturday, the last day before the deadline.

There are two reasons I bring up this story. A couple of good lessons keep this fresh in my memory. The following is the first;

Sometimes you have to lie. I knew we had another two weeks to record, but I also knew if I left it up to the band to schedule, it would never happen. Everyone wants to do it and everyone SAYS they will, but other things always happen and conflicts crop up at the last minute, and it is too late to save the project then. I knew how the band put things off and I did not want to miss my time at the ‘candy store’.

The second lesson was learned by the studio recording engineer. I will share that in the next post. Here is a bit of the demo we did in the studio so you can get an feel for the mix.

Journey – Separate Ways

Black Crowes – Hard to Handle

Yes – Long Distance

Yes – Changes

The Who – Can You See the Real Me?

Shooting Star – Last Chance

Queensryche – Jet City Woman

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 6 – Sound Reinforcement

Posted: March 9, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology, technology
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #drums, #equipment, #FX, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #Midi, #music, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #tech, #vocals

This is another term that is often misunderstood and the results can be unpleasant for the audience and performers as well. This does not prevent the error from happening over and over. It doesn’t have to happen to you. At first glance the term is quite simple. In its simplest form it probably means “turn things louder”. And that may be the most widely used interpretation. But the phrase is not, ‘Sound Forcement‘…… it is reinforcement. If something is loud enough on stage, ……… wait for it ………. It DOES NOT need sound reinforcement. In a small room, the trumpet probably doesn’t need much – if any – volume reinforcement. (certainly not in the stage monitors and little if any in the house mix) The guitar player with 10 Marshall stacks in a thirty seat room probably does not need sound reinforcement. Well then, what does?

Simply enough, anything that is not run directly through an instrument amplifier on stage. This could be the sounds from the keyboards or tone devices, vocalists, special effects FX (usually effects are used in the house mix but can also be sent to the monitor sends) and back ground or other media tracks including the ‘tape’ input for your stereo music player used in our earlier post.

We will do better if we use this definition for both sound systems we have pulled together for this event. On stage, do not add anything to the monitor mix that is already loud on stage. Again there are exceptions and many performers will argue this point, but I try to keep the monitor sends clear of anything I do not need to reinforce. If it is a big stage and members are far apart – absolutely add a little of an instrument to the other monitor mix. Everyone needs to hear the other performers. Just do not add to all monitor mixes if you use multi-monitor sends. Smaller stages there is little advantage in sending amplified instruments or drum set channels to the monitor mix.

Now, look at the balance from the house point of view. Can you hear the reverb on the snare drum and mounted toms clearly? Is one vocalist drowning out the others? Is that trumpet (or cymbal crash or tambourine or Kick drum) not in the mix during the solo? Can the keyboard player hear the monitors or instrument amp really good but no one in the audience can hear them? Can solo performances be heard clearly above the mix?

Set and forget. There are a number of input sources you will be able to set once and leave alone. The drums should be set up properly during sound check and should not need fader, pan, EQ or volume adjustments during the typical event performance. So the easy ones are drum and percussion kits along with some keyboards and other tone generators. Brass, string or choir sections can also be set. Most of these groups can be balanced during sound check and you will never have to mess with them for the rest of the performance. That allows you to focus on the variations of vocal performers, solo instruments and ‘guest’ players. Make sure if you turn the instrument louder during a solo or energy section that you turn it back down when the section is over. Otherwise it is a race to the top and others will need to turn up to hear themselves comfortably. Then the rest of the group has to do the same to keep up with the neighbors on stage. It can get ugly at the top.

In small clubs or rooms, there is very little need for large PA systems and huge speakers. In many situations you will do fine to let the stage volume fill most of the room. Sometimes all I have to add is the keyboards and vocals, with the effects thrown in on top. I might bring up a guitar or other solo instrument in the mix, when the rest of the time that instrument fader is off completely in the house and monitor mix. It simply does not need sound reinforcement there.

In some gigs, a player can be loud enough on stage that you cannot increase over-all volume using the house system. They are so loud that the PA for a small club will have little effect. I have been known to take players completely out of the house mix.

I use simple guidelines and want to ensure that any and all performers will be heard in the house. This includes each percussion instrument to various keyboard textures and sounds. I keep all levels in balance so one instrument or group of instruments does not dominate the performance or mix. I make sure band members know they do not have to play loud on stage. All they have to do is play good and I will make it sound great in the house. You play; let me crank it up!

Encourage Creativity!

Posted: March 6, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #audio, #band, #digital, #dreams, #guitar, #keyboard, #lyrics, #Midi, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter

Through these posts, I am not trying to cement chronological events into their proper place in time or to accurately credit performers and contributors. Some names will be changed to protect the stupid and I will name names with regards to privacy as the series continues. I am not drilling down to details as I share experiences, songs or events I have been involved in.

Many comments touch on sharing similar passions and the need to stare resistance in the eyes and push past it to practice, perform, write and blog. No matter where we are on the paths we have chosen, we can positively affect those around us. We can benefit from their experience as we grow from our own. It is the big picture that is difficult to see sometimes, and I hope to bring up topics that will help add a different perspective.

There are a lot of conversations to be had in our world. So much of sound reinforcement, songwriting, live performance and related arts appears to be magic to the casual observer. On the other hand, so much of it is science and that can scare off a lot of interested people. Thank goodness there are those like you out there that can shape the form out of chaos! You are the masters that can combine the art and the science and make it breathe on its own. You have a special way to communicate….. to others, yes; but more importantly to yourself.

One area I hear a number of discussions where people have a good feel for music, but do not understand the science or the art of it is in music theory. More on this in later posts and I will have a few friends chime in as well as we discuss scary topics like, scales, key, modals and rhythm. But to start this off at an easy pace think of this; in our (Western scales) there are only twelve notes to deal with!

Per request – Lyrics to “Our Bodies Move.”

Posted: March 5, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #band, #digital, #DollyParton, #dreams, #fan, #guitar, #KennyRodgers, #keyboard, #love, #lyrics, #motivation, #music, #musician, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #stage, #studio

Our Bodies Move aka FOR THOSE WHO WAIT” ^(c) 12/1987

Lyrics Michael Kennedy

Music by Ric Ahlers

So many people look for love and affection

Think they’re heading in the right direction.

They go searching through the heat of the night

Alone again in the morning light.

I’ve seen a lot of selfish devotion

Hopelessly lost in mixed up emotion.

Opening; then closing every door

Never know what they’re looking for.

CHORUS: I’ve never felt a woman feel this good before.

I’ve never listened to her whispers

Or knock upon the door.

Nothing to hide, nothing to prove,

Its love that makes our bodies move.

In the beginning there were many pretenders

Holding on ‘til everyone surrenders.

Strangling the love they create.

Love is For Those Who Wait.

CHORUS: I’ve never felt a man feel this good before.

I’ve never listened to his whispers

Or knock upon the door.

Nothing to hide, nothing to prove,

Its love that makes our bodies move.

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#digital’

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 8 – Changing a Live Mix

Chopper – An Instrumental Song

St. Patrick’s Day – A Part of Me

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 7 – Fix It Before You Mix It

The Mystery of The Twelve

Lessons from the Studio

Everyday Lessons of a Musician

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 6 – Sound Reinforcement

Encourage Creativity!

Per request – Lyrics to “Our Bodies Move.”

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#digital’

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: