#musician | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#musician’

It’s A Good Thing He Wasn’t Home That Night

Posted: July 26, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #create, #creativity, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #harmony, #inspiration, #inspire, #loss, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #thanks, #thankyou, #writer

With your help and a lot of other social groups and individuals, we have helped raise money to help my friend John try to recover from the house fire that happened while he was away. He still has not been able to get home to see the damage and to make plans for the immediate future. I really want to thank all of you for great comments, spreading the word and financial support. My guess is a number of people that do not know him offered support in a number of different ways. I am frankly proud and grateful of the way this blog community responded. Thank you again!

As many of you know I have been a musician for many years and met John when he was hired to work at the same music store I worked in. It is kind of funny as you get older you can talk of personal experiences in terms of DECADES!! Just saying.

Back on track, I wanted to give you an idea of the damage from the fire and the amazing group of local friends that organized without instruction and worked extremely hard to recover as many personal belongings as we could – and the restoration work that continues; and frankly, is really just at the beginning of that phase. I wanted to give you a picture. But we all know that is impossible. You cannot describe the lobbies in Las Vegas hotels or what it feels like in the middle of the ocean to someone that has never been there. We try. We get close. They get the idea, but until you have similar experiences it can be hard to know what those and many other things in life are truly like.

I have been to his house but I still do not have the big picture. The closest I can get is reliving the feeling I had when I came home from one of those rescue missions….. I walked up to my front door and as I started to put the key in the lock I thought; what if all of this is gone? In the difference of a day……. Memories gone. Pictures gone. Music gone. Furniture gone. Everything. Gone.

With those thoughts in mind and my keys in my hand, I wrote this song. I thank all of you for sharing, in so many ways. And while I am at it, thank you for allowing us to share with you.

http://www.gofundme.com/johnvaneaton

https://midimike.com/2015/07/11/please-help-spread-the-word/

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.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 18 – Small Club/Venue Environments

Posted: July 21, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series
Tags: # mixer, #amp, #audio, #band, #bass, #creative, #daughter, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #livesoundreinforement, #microphone, #mixingboard, #music, #musician, #performers, #runningsound, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #tech, #tips, #vocals

I spent a lot of time in smaller clubs with crowded stages and audience sizes varying from handfuls to standing room only capacity. The challenges come from each of them and have different resolutions. In some ways, I think the large clubs and outdoor events are the easiest to set up and run sound for. If it is a big stage or large arena, you turn everything up so it is in the main mix or no one will hear it. The smaller clubs you don’t necessarily put a microphone on every instrument. You cannot out-power a guitar player with a stack of cabinets. You might not be able to set up independent or multiple Monitor Mixes (stage mix for performers) and many times you have to share monitors (the cabinets or speakers themselves in this case…) between performers with various needs. Add keyboard player(s) or a horn section and it quickly over burdens the PA or sound system.

Setting up the stage with a few solutions in mind can help in each of these situations. In smaller clubs you might not have many options for the arrangement of musicians on stage. Some restraints may be obvious at first. Some will catch you off guard. Knowing what you are up against though can trigger steps to prevent problems.

These are basic but can avoid a lot of small-headache issues:

Place snake closest to center of stage if that is closest to where instruments/vocalists are positioned. Shorter cables are better if they allow performers needed mobility.

Make sure you know where the AC power outlets are. It is a drag to set everything up and not be able to plug in your power amps. (I also recommend bringing long heavy-duty extension cords for versatility)

Try to plug all stage instruments and PA gear along with the mixing board and external sound gear to the same AC breaker box.

Try to plug all lighting or other powered systems to a separate AC breaker box. (If it does not connect to the mixing board to make noise; plug it into another breaker box)

Use balanced (three wire cables) whenever possible. (I have been caught by 1/4″ audio jacks without locks getting knocked out in the middle of a gig more than once and hate anything that does not lock into position. rant now over)

Keep stage volume as low as possible (this is a couple posts all by itself!)

Consider cross-firing stage instrument amps like guitars and bass – rather than pointing at audience.

Make sure sound board is in the best sounding location and also close enough to the stage to connect snake and all gear – especially if you have to route the snake around the outside of the event area for safety or other reasons.

Cables are the first thing to go wrong even when properly handled and maintained. Bring a lot of SPARES.

Turn all power amps (including ones that are built into the speakers OFF or all the way DOWN when connecting or disconnecting gear. (there are shortcuts and general exception practices we will detail later).

Turn all recording gear OFF or down all the way until all devices and channels are connected and tested.

Make sure speaker cables (Mains and Monitors) are long enough to reach the power amps. I bring two long length sets of speaker cables and two short length sets (no matter how many total speakers I have, I will have two full sets….). If one side of the stage is where the power amps are, I use the short cable and the other one might require the longer cable. Sometimes you need both long cables. If I need a spare, I have two!

Drum risers could need low end cuts and even gates to reduce unwanted tones and resonances.

Color Code anything you can. Cables, Mic stands, Monitors, In-Put Channel labels or External gear/boxes. Make it easy to identify in low light. Green microphone goes with green cable goes to green snake plugs into green channel….. I also add a number to make larger sessions manageable. Vocal green 1, 2, 3…. Drum blue 1, 2, 3….. Brass white 1, 2, 3……

Not rocket science, just some thoughts. But if you get in the habit of considering these and other tips each time before you start hauling in equipment into a new venue, your set-ups will become quick and routine, even if the environment is new. If you keep all your gear in one place there are short cut power-up and power-down sequences I will detail soon.

Update and Appreciation

Posted: July 16, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #charity, #create, #creative, #creativity, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #inspiration, #loss, #love, #lucky, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performer, #performers, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #thanks, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

I wanted to give everyone an update on my musician friend John (whose house was damaged in a fire). Lots of effort and a lot of good news, even in this sad event. John will be in town soon and will be able to look over the damage and take inventory of the surviving furniture and gear. Until then Alisa has organized the gofundme project http://www.gofundme.com/johnvaneaton which has raised $10,000 so far in less than a week. I think that is going to make a big difference in the next few days and weeks.

There are a number of people still working on cleaning and restoring items that were rescued in the search and recovery phase. Once John gets to look at the various projects, he will have a better idea of how to get back on his feet. We hope to have information from the team that is working on organizing a benefit soon.

https://midimike.com/2015/07/11/please-help-spread-the-word/ this is the original post about these events.

I’m also in the process of writing a song about the events using some guitar chords my wife was playing with recently and a little jam I was working on. Thank you all for getting the word out and helping as much as you can. I have come home from those salvage missions and realize everything that I have could be gone in moments. I am not rich, but the music and memorabilia would be irreplaceable. I will need them when memory loss really kicks in!

This song is for John, everyone who donated money and time to help him and all of you really cool bloggers. I’m going to post the lyrics first while I polish the song, but it will be up shortly.

“A Very Long Night” © 7-13-2015 Lyrics MSK Music MSK/ELK

Traveling for business

He is often out of town

From country to country

One city becomes the next

It wasn’t until he got the text

With pictures from the news

That he knew this was the beginning

Of a Very Long Night

He wasn’t home when the fire started

Everyone says it could have been worse

As we watched, broken hearted

Each tear became another verse

Unable to return any time soon

All my friend could do was watch

Phone calls and e-mail

The news from home was grim.

Some say it was best for him

Being out of town.

Some say it was best for him

He didn’t see it burn down.

Some say it was best for him

Not to see the damage from the flames

Some say it was best for him

As all that water did the same

It was a good thing he wasn’t home that night

It was a good thing he wasn’t home all right

It was just the beginning of a Very Long Night.

Pauline – Yesterday

Posted: July 14, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #birthday, #cancer, #death, #family, #father, #goodbye, #life, #loss, #love, #mom, #music, #musician, #personal, #songwriter, #story, #writer

Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. The first birthday since she passed away last December.

I spend a lot of time blaming my mother – and parents in general for my musical interests and open minded philosophy. They each gave me a lot. But my parents divorced in a day when that was not accepted or supported. Six children and single mom. Everything was a struggle. During all of the less fortunate times she managed to plug away toward her goals with her gentle influence. We would do a lot of things other kids would not dream of and she encouraged many of them. But we never wanted to hear her say to us she was disappointed in us……. Having her disappointed was the worst punishment imaginable.

There is no way to know how she guided each of us through early years and then through puberty, early teens and inevitably into kids who knew it all. I am just now putting them together piece by piece, here and there. When my younger brother Chris got really sick I lived close and visited regularly. I was his medical power of attorney and took care of his end of life affairs. Radiation, Chemo, feeding tube, surgeries. Emergency rooms to ICU to Hospice he never lost his smile and wonder. He appreciated everything. At the end I described him as mentally, financially, physically and emotionally exhausted. It takes resources to fight back and he just did not have enough left at that time.

My mother also found out she had a number of cancers. She chose not to take the normal treatments. She chose not to have the normal tests. She chose me to help her with end of life like I did for Christopher. She did not roll over and play dead if that is what you might be thinking. She read and stayed up on current events. She exercised and researched better foods and diet. She got out and enjoyed the change of each season and the change in weather.

Pauline was more interested in making us comfortable and taking care of her extended family than she was in complaining or moping. She controlled her pain and as it got really bad she wanted to be able to have final word; to be able to think and communicate for fear she would have a stroke or complication and not be able to tell them not to resuscitate her. She feared being a vegetable more than anything. She was smart and educated and proud. That was something she did not want to endure. She did not.

When I grow up, I want to be just like her. Birthdays don’t mean much to me – ask my kids – but this one did. Happy Birthday, mom.

Sharing Loss – Please Help Spread The Word!

Posted: July 11, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #charity, #daughter, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #help, #life, #loss, #music, #musician, #personal, #piano, #signal, #story, #studio, #studioengineer

I have shared a number of experiences that have been about loss. Unfortunately, when you get older, you have more experiences watching the achievements of a life’s work and loves dissolve. There are many types of loss and a personal friend of mine has been going through a very difficult time. I just needed to share my experience and thoughts. Over these posts I have often mentioned working at local music stores and the benefit of knowing some awesome people. One of the friends I worked with for years and formed a great partnership “co-owning” the music store with all those years ago has had a devastating loss. As social media is …. he found out from friend’s texts and e-mails that while he was traveling, his house burnt down. His job is demanding and a lot of people depend on him to be there. He could not get home and as we all need to do from time to time; he had to rely on his friends and family (many times they are the same thing). He is still away and has not seen his home other than on the news and through social media.

I would like to let you know that we have successfully completed the ‘search and rescue’ mission. We got anything we could out of the building during the days of rain with holes in the roof. It was a scramble with trusted friends. We hauled ass and a bunch of other things. Some musical instruments are damaged beyond use or repair and some have hope of restoration or managed to remain untouched by the whole thing! He is a musician and like me has an insatiable love for art, music, friendship and making the world better than it would be without us in it. This has got to be devastating. For me, carrying out each old and precious instrument or piece of gear, had a deep impact. Others worked on his art and personal belongings. I have heard their stories and all have a deep sense of loss. No one was hurt. Many things can be replaced. But as the fire and then the water took their toll, a lot of his life’s work did dissolve.

We are working now on cleaning and saving as much as we can. As my daughter Alisa, who runs my blog, practically grew up in the music store and all my friends, she has known John Van Eaton almost her entire life. She is creating a positive use of social media and spreading the word through this and other avenues. We will have a number of benefits to raise money and support to help him work through this until he is able to come home and the resources he will need once he returns. I will post more info as details come in and thank you – fellow bloggers – for letting me share this with you. The sharing allows healing.

For more details or to contribute to his fund, see below. MIDIMike

http://www.gofundme.com/JohnVanEaton

Your Heartbeat Mimics the Music You Listen To

Posted: July 10, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #creativity, #genres, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #love, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performers, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #Song review, #songwriter, #sound, #vocalist, #vocals

Hey everyone! While the question is open and I still hope people continue to post their most influential artists and bands at https://midimike.com/2015/06/29/who-do-you-love-influential-musicianbands/ , I want to thank everyone for participating. I have listened to a ton of new music. With some I was familiar with the artist and others I was not aware of at all! Even the bands I knew of, the suggestions were songs I had not heard before but were probably the best the artist recorded. I would like to summarize the lists you posted and make a condensed suggestion article once I have listened to each suggestion a few times. What music and band we like tells a lot about us in many ways. This is a good community and we share a number of qualities and talents. We have our own pulse. A common foundation that is very cool.

The Value of A Musician – A Cautionary Tale

Posted: July 8, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #audio, #band, #bass, #creativity, #guitar, #inspiration, #itunes, #journey, #keyboard, #love, #motivation, #music, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #piano, #recording, #runningsound, #singer, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #story, #studio, #truth, #vocalist

As a member of a cover band, I was given the opportunity to add something to my personal profile on the band web site. I added a statement that went something like this; “we will play anywhere for free…..we just charge to move the equipment in and out”!

If you think about it, you would have to pay an awful lot of money to have ‘professionals’ move that much equipment. Then they have to pack it all up and take it back at the end of the gig. I have played keyboards, guitar, percussion and back up vocals in most of the bands I performed with. Sometimes I also ran sound at the same time! I was carrying so much gear for myself that I probably had more than the sound guy! Once you haul equipment out of your house (I did not have duplicates, so what I used in the studio I had to tear down and take to the gig, set it up, tear it down, take it home and set it up in the studio again) and set up the gear you are all hot and sweaty and exhausted and now get to play for 4 plus hours, pack it all up and take it home. Ahhhh, the glamourous rock and roll life. Knowing all that, I think most people would be amazed at how little the local band playing the bar scene gets paid for all that work. Maybe it is confusing because we call it ‘play’. If I figured out an hourly rate I would probably get really depressed!

We also had to practice, individually and as a band. No weekends free…. you get home at 3 or 4 in the morning and have to recover most of the day, then you play that night and do it all over again. I always worked at a day job and still do, so this was about all the free time I had. Now time for family, writing and recording projects and hopefully a little time in the sun.

Is it fun? Absolutely. I am an introvert and very shy in public, but it is a thrill to perform with great musicians and have the audience appreciate what you are doing. I would not give it up, and if I were a bit younger I would still be out there. At one point I told the band members that I would quit gigging out when I turned 50 – or my van broke down, whichever came first. My van did break down first, but our light guy fixed it himself for free. So I kept playing out. Way past 50. I recently stopped because tinnitus (a ringing in the ears from long exposure to loud sounds) got pretty bad in the last few years. I only play out for special occasions these days, but it is still a blast.

Girl from Arlington Heights

Posted: July 6, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #cdbaby, #create, #creativity, #dreams, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #love, #lyrics, #motivation, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

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

This is another acoustic guitar song with me as the vocalist. This is a true story that I took creative license with and made into something more than it was for the effect. This song really is about me getting a ticket while driving around town. This was many years ago, so the details are always suspect, but I was driving local roads and might have been distracted but as the traffic ahead of me slowed and then rapidly came to a stop …… I didn’t! Unfortunately I ran into the car in front of me – at very low speed – but to fast and to late to stop in time. The police officer gave me a citation for ACD, which I suspect, most of you safe drivers might not know what that is! Around here that stands for Assured Clear Distance. It is the driver’s obligation to make sure to have enough distance between you and the vehicles ahead of you to stop in time to avoid doing what I just did. This was my first accident and it was all new to me. While I am waiting to get my citation and then reviewing the event afterwards I thought ‘how am I going to explain this?’. So I came up with a rather funny romantic embellishment and wrote a song about this experience. The song also has an interesting intro and break. A number of my songs will have unusual time signatures. For the musicians out there, send me a message if you know what time signature I used.

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!!!

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#musician’

It’s A Good Thing He Wasn’t Home That Night

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

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 18 – Small Club/Venue Environments

Update and Appreciation

Pauline – Yesterday

Sharing Loss – Please Help Spread The Word!

Your Heartbeat Mimics the Music You Listen To

The Value of A Musician – A Cautionary Tale

Girl from Arlington Heights

Walking Man Part 2 – Pack A Lot Of Punch

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#musician’

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