#studio | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#studio’

“B4 We Fell in Love” Things Don’t Really Change

Posted: June 26, 2018 in My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #family, #guitar, #inspiration, #music, #musician, #opinion, #performance, #personal, #poetry, #question, #questions, #recording, #song, #songwriter, #studio, #studioengineer, #vocalist, #work, #writing

Some of you may notice right away that this song is a little different. The beat is not the same as many other songs. I enjoy playing in different time signatures. Not too weird, but I like different beats and even tempo changes if done right. This song is played in 3/4 time rather than the more traditional 4/4 time. It gives it more of a waltz kind of feel to the measures. This is a straight forward recording with me and my Ovation 12 string guitar. There is a hint of a long reverb.

Castles To me, this is a rather sad song. I have seen many relationships that should last forever crumble in front of me. People that were dedicated and adored each other turned to bitter enemies. Mutual friends and family stuck with unpleasant decisions. Broken hearts and lives. Sometimes there are innocent and guilty, but not as often as you would think. The rooms themselves seem to whisper a sad tale. Even the pictures are affected by the loneliness and help tell the tragic but all too familiar tale. Using common excuses as cliche’s the chorus sums it up fairly well while the verses bounce from past to present.

This is not about the relationships that start out with lies or Jekyll/Hyde waiting for you. This is more about someone wanting to mold you. Over powering or just with persistence. These extreme situations would quickly spin out of control. Some that begin with love turn vicious. And as a reminder these are people that professed they loved each other not long ago. I don’t know how that is possible, frankly. Best wishes to you if you have ever had to deal with this situation.

“Hearts Of Stone” Poem Set To Music

Posted: June 22, 2018 in My Tunes
Tags: #music, #musician, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #studio, #vocalist

I kept hearing a melody line while reading the poem “Hearts Of Stone” I posted earlier. It is a haunting melody in many ways. The music behind it is sparse and supports the vocals with open space and fluid timing. The music seems out of place at first as the lyrics are happy, hopeful and even loving. On the other side of the chorus the lyrics take a darker look at the conditions many people live with. The minor key and slow progression of the instruments come into play and help paint a portrait of dismal human experiences.

As with a number of my original recordings, I wish I could sing the piece with power and passion the way it needs to be sung to convey the ideas in my head, but this is probably the best I can do. Close your eyes and pretend your favorite vocalist is singing. That MIGHT help lol. Comments suggested a rock song for the lyrics and I agree. I am playing with the idea and may have another version in the future. For now, here is my eerie version of “Hearts Of Stone”.

Heart-of-Stone

Lyrics to “Single Desire”

Posted: January 9, 2018 in My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #blog, #inspiration, #life, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #studio, #truth, #writing

“Single Desire” is one of my favorite original lyrics. I think a number of my songs get too “preachy” and sound like I know all the answers. I usually don’t know all the answers, but I sure have made a lot of mistakes to learn from. Single Desire takes another path. With fewer words than many of my songs it tries to paint images using sights from our normal day to day lives. I like using the sunset comparison as sunsets are one of the most beautiful things we get to enjoy on this planet. Yet in this analogy, they can be burned permanently into our hearts and minds. Sometimes the loss of beauty is the worst experience of all.

“Single Desire”

“Single Desire” (C) MSK 1988

You left your mark upon me

Like sunsets on fire.

Plunged deep into the sea

With a Single Desire.

Always got what you wanted

Nothing worked more than your charm.

As the hunter you hunted

Without thinking of the harm.

I never let you down

“But did you really care?”

I never put you down

“You just tried to keep me there”.

Once I had to follow:

Now I walk away.

You left your mark upon me

Like sunsets on fire.

Plunged deep into the sea

With a Single Desire.

I never let you down

“But did you really care”.

I never put you down

“You just tried to keep me there”.

Truth is hard to swallow

My Single Desire

Once I had to follow.

Now I walk away.

“Single Desire”

Posted: December 6, 2017 in My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #creative, #digital, #guitar, #Midi, #music, #musician, #recording, #recordingstudio, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #vocalist

MSK Yellowstone

Photo by MSK Yosemite

Burning Impressions That Last Forever

“Single Desire” was written in a time when I must have had a lot to say. The year was 1988. Once love has grabbed you it can burn deep. No matter how you want things to turn out, sometimes you have no control on the direction they take. You find yourself helpless at the time and unable to avoid mistakes that seem obvious even to you. Single Desire tries to describe the condition when adoration is not reciprocal. When you are not loved in return. Only one thing matters and nothing you can do will make it happen.

When the other person learns that type of control is in their hands, they have power that can turn lovers insane. He/She can make the helpless romantic into a tool that can be discarded when no longer useful. There is no cost to them. Displays of charm and hints of affection can destroy all resistance and common sense in the admirer.

We need to wait until the fire burns out completely before we can stop following and finally walk away. The problem is there is usually very little left to walk away with.

I tried to give this song a full arrangement as powerful as the lyrics (or the idea behind them) felt to me. I knew I could not sing it the way it required so I called my good friend and band-mate Gary Jefferson as I have many times over the years to do the vocal tracks. My wife Ellen does the chorus ‘response’ vocal parts. I used my keyboards and MIDI tone generators to do all the instrumental tracks including the drums, strings, brass and bass guitar parts, and invited my buddy Shawn Anderson to come over and lay down the lead guitar tracks. Harlen Lee, another great friend of mine, came in and added additional guitar parts. I really like the bass guitar line, and think the strings add movement and dramatic accents to the song.

Please give “Single Desire” a few plays to let it sink in and I hope you enjoy.

“Unchanging Moon”

Posted: November 6, 2017 in My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #guitar, #inspiration, #life, #Midi, #music, #personal, #photography, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #studio, #tech, #vocals, #writing, multi track recording, sequencing

Written 8-27-1982 by MSK and I recorded it around 4-1983.

The main melodic themes for this song were inspired by my Yamaha DX7 ‘tine’ sound. That sound (or patch) has been used in many professional recordings since the keyboard was introduced. The guitars and vocals are real-time of course, and everything else was sequenced.

Ann Ellis from my band The Personal Touch does the vocals on this one. I would play the main piano part and she would sing the lyrics until we got the timing and the feel the way we wanted it. From that point I sequenced the main piano part. Every time I play this song I play it as you hear it in this recording, but I play a different last chord. No two versions have the same ending, and I never know what the last chord will be. My wife Ellen and I worked on the backing sounds like the strings, brass and pads to make this a full sounding production. Once I had the basic piano parts and drums done, I don’t think we ever added a dedicated bass line as the song ended up sounding very full.

My buddy Shawn David Anderson plays lead guitar on this one and really drives home with the power and tone I was hoping for. The lyrics are one of my favorites. Not necessarily by themselves, but when reflecting on the emotions and events of the time. True multi-track recording capabilities gave me the option to create complex instrumental layers as opposed to the limited recordings I had been able to achieve from a four-track cassette deck!

I even sent this song to be evaluated by professionals. Among some of the comments it was suggested that the song was too long and that the intro went too long before the vocal lines were introduced. I have a version that starts when the vocals kick in, but this is my favorite version. I hope you agree.

Mara – Live Music Video Part I

Posted: October 2, 2017 in technology, Video
Tags: #audio, #band, #digital, #guitar, #life, #media, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performer, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #sound, #story, #studio, #tech, #video, #vocals

Mara – The Making of a Video

I usually did not have to search for new projects. There were plenty of musicians, bands and performers that did not have a lot of resources – or cash – when starting out. Working at the local music store chain, I was lucky to know some great players, writers, and musicians of all sorts. l am attracted to talented people of all kinds. I often wish listeners of my music would give me the benefit of the doubt that I gave to many of the people I met and came to appreciate. I realize my songs are not always ‘radio worthy’ or commercially viable, and always hoped someone would look beyond that and realize the songs I offered for what they could be if recorded professionally and marketed on a large scale. Maybe that day will still come, but back then there were a number of artists that I could help take the next step.

Word got out that I had an understanding of technology and could usually pick things up quickly. I absorbed owners manuals, dedicated time and when possible drafted other talented people to make projects work. One of the fun and exciting things I got to do was shoot and edit live musical band performances. MakeShift Kreations was an early company name I came up with using my initials: M S K. I believe this was filmed way back in 1988!!!

Using the same video and editing suite from the cable company available for local access channels that I used for my first conceptual video: “Walking Man” I learned how to use multi camera filming and video editing techniques. In some situations I offered to do videos for friends as this was a new (again, at the time!) medium and was very expensive for most bands. In Part I, I would like to present the video I made of Mara, a local band with highly talented musicians. My wife Ellen and I did all the camera, editing and post production work. These are their original songs performed live over a two-night period. It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot and had a great time.

Please use the following link to see the Mara: Part I video:

https://youtu.be/VwKz1Po4_XM

Cotton Song

Posted: February 23, 2017 in My Tunes
Tags: #creative, #digital, #keyboard, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performance, #personal, #recording, #song, #sound, #story, #studio, #studioengineer

Going With the Flow This is a calming piece based on the string sounds from one of the plug-ins on my recording software program. Sometimes a new sound or new toy can inspire themes, songs and projects. This is one of those situations where I am listening to new sounds and noodling on the keyboard to hear the new tones and to see how the patch responds to the keyboard and controllers. As I was listening to the new sounds, I enjoyed the string sound I was playing with and started recording the noodling I was doing. I played for about five or six minutes and stopped recording to listen back.

The first section I scrapped and the rest was rather pleasant (sometimes this is a surprise indeed!). While listening I started hearing harmonies in my head so I started recording on a 2nd track and used the same string sound to add another layer. After that I stopped. I like the mood this inspires. I am not sure why I called it Cotton Song, but I got the feeling of being in the South overlooking plantations. So it stuck! I did not change anything and mixed it down to what you hear in this post. Other versions of noodling or just playing with sounds rarely turn into a solid piece, so I have tons of snippets that have nice themes but to date have never been expanded upon. One of these days I will listen to other noodling sessions and I might make something out of them. For this song, have a cup of tea, sit back for a little bit and let your mind and body relax. Admit it… you could use that right about now!

Nothing Comes For Free!

Posted: November 30, 2016 in My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #creative, #guitar, #inspiration, #keyboard, #life, #music, #musician, #personal, #political, #politics, #recording, #recordingstudio, #song, #songwriter, #studio, #studioengineer, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer, #writing

I’ve admitted in earlier posts that I observe people a lot, and that I get a number of ideas for songs from watching other people; friends, family, co-workers, I steal from them all! I can empathize with people as they face challenges and triumphs in life. I try to understand what it feels like to be in those situations even though I myself might not be directly affected by them.

I also have some rather obvious political points of view. I can understand why there are those that do not always agree with my positions but in many cases I can still understand theirs. In this song I basically insult every group I can think of! As you are more than likely in at least one of these groups I apologize in advance. In a lot of ways, this song summarizes the items on my Love – Hate list. I hate things that should work but do not, and I really hate personal and corporate greed. The song uses a lot of references to things we would hear on the news, although it was written a long time ago. Unfortunately most of the issues are the same today!

Recording this song took a LONG time. We did rough mixes here and there changing this or that, but it did not feel right from beginning to end. Eventually, I think we rearranged some of the chorus/verse structure and it just fell into place. For some songs this is the agonizing part; all the components are there and sound good, but the piece as a whole just does not grab you. I might have even tried changing tempo on this one to get it right.

If this is not the first song I did using my new Alesis ADAT recorder it was one of the first. I was also transitioning from the Atari computer to a Windows machine, so not everything went smoothly! I played electric guitar on this one (I have a few guitars and do not know which one was used for each song but my guess this is either my Ibanez or a Yamaha 6 string) and did all the sequencing and drum tracks as described earlier. My wife does the vocal main lines. Using the limiter/compressor chain I described from other songs the vocals are recorded so they stay soft and spooky and a little eerie as the lyrics become more and more cynical. A bunch of family and friends came in and did the voice add-ons. You can hear both our daughters, my co-writing brother and a few neighbors help out with the spoken parts. I ‘sing’ the chorus.

The bass line in this one is particularly cool because it is my Oberheim Matrix 6 synth and it has this patch or sound that continues to play an arpeggio (sequence of predetermined notes) as long as you hold a key down. So the bass lines are done by holding one note for a while but hearing many notes played. We even got to play with one of the audio samplers from the music store and used it to trigger the ‘broken word’ parts. Once we got the arrangement right it was just fun to ‘decorate’ the basic tracks and add a little movement to the mix. Have fun with this one.

Live Sound Reinforcement Chapter 23 -Recording Live Rock Bands

Posted: September 9, 2016 in live Sound Reinforcement, Live Sound Reinforcement Series
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performance, #recording, #runningsound, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #stage, #story, #studio

MSK – Peter Gabriel Sting 1

MSK – Peter Gabriel Sting 2

MSK – Peter Gabriel Sting 3

MSK – Peter Gabriel Sting 4

In most situations when you want to record a performance, you might not have a lot of time to set up. The environment might not be perfect, and there are other needs than getting a great recording.   I have tried and been quite successful with a number of techniques. I will offer a few here for your consideration.

Getting a good mix from the sound board Mono Out or Main Left and Right Outs in a small or medium size venue is very easy to set up, but most likely to be disappointing. The needs of the audience in a live situation can be the exact opposite from the recording engineer’s. As mentioned in the beginning of this series, LSR is reinforcement. The sound person will amplify the weaker signals in the House or Mains; vocals – along with a LOT of effects, acoustic guitars, flutes, and even the drums. They might not need to reinforce the lead or bass guitar as much. So the board mix is heavier on vocals, effects, and keyboard in some cases. Not a great listen for most people. You can set up a sub-mix if the sound guru gives you access. If they run Left (Mono) like most venues, you can create your own mix using the Right Mono out. Using the pan for each channel, keep full signal going to the Left out, and pan toward Center position to send desired amount of signal to the Right out. You might want to isolate the guitar or bass, add a little toms if they are mike’d, but not heavy in the mix. You can mix the two outs if you record in stereo and get a great live sound. This will not give you a perfect stereo field, but most audiences do not remember concerts in stereo. The sound seems to come from the stage, not left and right cabinets in front of the stage.

I have also had luck with those portable stereo digital recorders available now for what I think is really cheap for what they do. You need to set them up correctly and take care of them but they are so easy to set up and you get great sound in various environments. If you have a SAFE place where you will hear more of the band than the audience (sounds easier than it really is) this is worth a try.

Co-Write a Song with Me – Update

Posted: May 25, 2016 in My Tunes, projects
Tags: #audio, #creative, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performer, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #writer

The following is version two of the song I posted titled: “Some People”. See the following link to review the post: https://midimike.com/2016/04/12/co-write-a-song-with-me/.

I do want to thank the brave participants and hope I reflected your thoughts for each verse. I added as needed and took out as little as possible to fit the melody, but much of your thoughts are intact. The first two verses and one other verse are in the original release. If you have not sent in your submissions there is still time, and I will add them in a final version. Everyone knows “Some People” LOL!

To re-cap, I posted the song and video for Some People asking fellow bloggers to write verses for a new version of the song based on the format of the original lyrics. Each submission blogger is credited for their writings above each verse as co-authors! Who knows, maybe another video is in order and authors could submit pictures for their verses.

bino32 says:

Some people are happy
A smile or two to spread
Some people, they feel blue
With cold steel pressed against their heads
Trembling like me?
Or dancing like you?

Charles G. says:

Some say it’s not their place
Others misuse the day
The faithful will say grace
Some have too much to say
A wonderful spot
To watch it revolve

None Other Then Hannah says:

Some beings are kind,
Generous to others.
While many are glued,
Haunt victims to the ache.
Countless overcome,
And show way of escape.

Ancient Skies says:

Some people are just people

not me but you –

longing for a reason to

not to be blue –

hey my brother hang in,

you can sing again –

it’s all about the tune you see –

but this life just ain’t free.

Some people are just people,

not me but you.

So sing that tune

to chase the blues.

tracihalpin says:

Some people are real
Some people pretend
Some people don’t feel
Which one are you?

atribeuntangled says:

Some people say they spread the love,

believe like them and rise above.

But if you stray and use your mind

you fall so fast and ties unbind.

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#studio’

“B4 We Fell in Love” Things Don’t Really Change

“Hearts Of Stone” Poem Set To Music

Lyrics to “Single Desire”

“Single Desire”

“Unchanging Moon”

Mara – Live Music Video Part I

Cotton Song

Nothing Comes For Free!

Live Sound Reinforcement Chapter 23 -Recording Live Rock Bands

Co-Write a Song with Me – Update

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#studio’

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