This is nothing more than my usual ramblings at people that keep turning on lights every time they come into the room and I am sitting in the dark. Then to add insult to injury, they leave the bright lights on when they go out of the room! AARRRGGGhh. Keep your big bright ideas to yourself.
Posts Tagged ‘#Midi’
Brighter and Brighter MSK 1980
Posted: April 11, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #ovationguitars, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #sound, #vocalist, #vocals
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Bookin’ MSK 1984
Posted: March 28, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #arpodyssey, #atari, #audio, #bass, #guitar, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #songwriter, #sound, #synthesizer, #vocalist
This song was originally a vocal jam to a new synth bass line I came up with using a sound I created on my Arp Odyssey. It just had a good tempo and a nice feel, so I called it the big ‘D’ jam. (yep, it is in the key of D). The vocal scat became repeated lyrics and the song became one of my first original contributions to the duo and later a trio I formed with my brother in law Ric Ahlers called ‘The Personal Touch’. Later I would use that section of the lyrics for an updated piece I called “Bookin’”, cause the is the main feeling when I drive and listen to the song. Not sure anymore what the lyrics are about. I know something about observations of beautiful women pretending to be unapproachable. What do you expect from 1984, George?
Music for “Reflections”
Posted: March 25, 2023 in My TunesTags: #cdbaby, #enemiesinyourhead, #guitar, #keyboard, #keyboardplayers, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #perigee, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #singer, #singersongwriter, #songwriter
A little while ago I posted a poem called “Reflections”. I recently turned the poem into lyrics.
This might be a good time to detail my recording process a bit. As I write and record my own songs, I am trying (in my mind) to create a working demo of the song. Something you can listen to and get a good idea of the song and it’s potential if performed and/or recorded by an established band or artist. Because I play most of the instruments on my recordings and I do most of the singing, I know there is a lot of room for improvement. I am not the best guitarist, pianist, or vocalist around, but I write really good songs. I get them ‘good enough’ and then I move on to the next song I am writing or to the next project I am working on.
When I post my songs they are fresh from the mixing board and have not been edited and cleaned up like a formal studio version. As with my new release on CDBaby called, “The Enemies in Your Head”, the versions available on-line through Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube Music, Pandora and the rest have been mixed but also mastered to make them sound a bit more professional.
“Reflections” will be on my next release, but if you use any of the services above and dozens more, you can listen to my music by searching for my name or CD names.
Hint: If you search for Michael Kennedy you will probably not find me. There are a lot of us!
If you do an artist search for Michael S ——- or —– Michael S. Kennedy you will see my releases. They are available for download and the entire CD sounds better streaming after the mastering process.
Any way, here is “Reflections”, hot off the press.
MIDIMike
Barely Perceptible MSK 2004
Posted: February 14, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #audio, #bass, #guitar, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #songwriter, #sound
A hard and simple look at the chances most people never have, even though choices are everywhere. Even still, thinking no chance will ever really come, we continue on. Friends would ask me to do some audio gig or help them get their gear set up. More than a few were acting as if they were in debt to me and owed me a big favor. That is where I came up with the first two lines. Then it was clear that for many chances would be rare, but sadistically many are available to others. The best chances you will ever get are Barely Perceptible.
Music for Pet the Cat
Posted: January 20, 2023 in My TunesTags: #cats, #guitar, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #pets, #poem, #poetry, #poetrypod, #poetrytolyrics, #recording, #songwriter
I mentioned in my first Poetry Pod that I turned the lyrics of my Pet the Cat poem into a song. I had a good time recording this one and tried to make it fun for kids to listen to. Maybe on a rainy day you will sing this song as you pet your cat, or dog, or frog.
Here is Pet the Cat for your family entertainment.
Deception is the Tool
Posted: November 8, 2022 in MUSIC, My Tunes, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #personal, #poetry, #Presonus, #recording, #songwriter, #sound
I have been busy and quite productive in spite of the world moving as fast as ever as I slow down. next year I will be 70, so everything I do takes a bit longer these days.
I have a few songs, a lot of poetry , some photos and a couple outside projects to show for it.
Here is a new song I can blame on too much time to think in between projects. Some darker themes throughout. More to come if I can find the time, even if the descriptions and personal stories are shorter than I usually aim for. Thanks for your understanding.
Pot makes me paranoid
Alcohol makes me cry.
If you ask me a question
I’ll want to know the reason why.
If we could do this all over again
It Wouldn’t Be the Same.
I’ve loved you forever
But it’s driving me insane.
Friends we know are complicated
And rarely ever try.
I told you I will love you,
Until the day I die. Until the day that I die.
Life becomes precious to those
Who see what lies ahead.
Each day becomes very special
For those who know they’ll soon be dead.
Take the time, the time is now
To look what’s inside your head.
I tell you over and over again
But you ignore what I’ve said.
Music for Enemies In Your Head
Posted: January 7, 2022 in My TunesTags: #lyrics, #Midi, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #poetry, #recording, #songwriter, #sound
I am working on a musical arrangement for lyrics I posted recently. It is not much right now. I have a piano and bass track using my MIDI keyboard, along with my vocal track for the melody line.
Here is to a great new year for all of us.
Counting Time
Posted: August 31, 2021 in Midi Series, Music Theory, Opinions and ObservationsTags: #countingtime, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #time, #zeroisanumber
As a musician I look at time a bit differently than others might. I am reminded of this when I see movies or videos of people working out and doing exercises. Even the simple ‘count to ten’ is often a reminder that most people don’t count time correctly.
It is easy to count ten items – you start at 1 (one) and stop when you get to 10 (ten). To sound it out aloud counting ten items would go like this…….
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. You do indeed have ten items.
But counting time is different. A second is not a single point in time but a defined length of time. If you followed the above approach you would end up with 9 full seconds as shown below. (if tied to a metronome or equivalent)
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10.
Use the dashes to represent the full length of each second. Total them up and you end up with only 9 full seconds, not 10. There are easy ways to break this habit.
Start with the number 0 (zero) when counting time. This will give us 0 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10.
Now, when you total the dashes you get ten full seconds. A lot of people count faster when counting up, and but more accurately when counting down. Like a rocket launch or New Year’s celebrations, this steady rhythm has been in our culture for a long time. Try it.
For items start with the number 1, but for time, start or end with the number 0. Each second, minute or hour lies in between each pair of numbers, not within the number itself.
Personal Touch conclusion
Posted: July 27, 2021 in Live Sound Reinforcement SeriesTags: #12string, #DollyParton, #forthosewhowait, #KennyRodgers, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #Michael s Kennedy, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #original songs, #ourbodiesmove, #ovationguitars, #recording, #ricahlers, #songwriter, #sound, #Yamaha, #Yamaha DX7, #yamahaRX7
As mentioned in the first post of this series, we played original songs in each set. Here is the only recording I am aware of for the song “For Those Who Wait”. We were touring in Corpus Christie Texas and I met with Ric in the afternoon to do a little practice and system fine-tuning. After we were settled he said, ‘hey, whip out the lyrics you are working on. I have a few chords I want to try. We worked for about half an hour going through his chords and arranging them into a song.
In very short time I came up with the melody and we were able to finish the song enough that we performed it later in the tour. I programmed the Yamaha RX7 Drum machine to fit the arrangement. Ann and I sang the lead vocals and Ric did everything else. In the picture above you can see the two silver discs on the lower section of Ric’s guitar. While playing guitar, he would touch one of the silver pads to make a cymbal crash sound from his drum machine and the other one triggered a pre-programmed drum fill pattern for each time he hit the pad. He also kicked bass pedals and triggered string or piano sounds. Pretty amazing when two out of three are just singing to get all that sound.
This is easily the best song I have co-written. Years ago I posted lyrics and said that I wrote this duo for existing country stars at the time. It was my hope to have Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers do this song. I think it would have blown the charts for the time. But who knows. I think we sounded pretty good.
Personal Touch 2nd set
Posted: July 23, 2021 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, UncategorizedTags: #Liveband, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #performers, #personaltouch, #vintage recordings
As a duo and later as a trio adding vocalist Ann Ellis, we tried to play popular current songs along with songs we wanted to play. As the Personal Touch we tried to play cover songs with an original flair. Often having Ann sing songs by male artists. She obviously had the best voice of the three of us so she often got the more challenging songs.
MidiMike 