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Being snowed in tonight gave me great impetus to put my new tower through its paces and get one of these contest winner pieces done. Here's "Pinch Me", for 
randomonlooker...
He provided me with a link to lyrics for this one, and for some reason I didn't feel comfortable asking why they might be significant. I didn't know the person who had written them, or really why they had been written in the first place. I had the very odd feeling of interloping, of being somewhere where I shouldn't be. Rather than ask, I decided to let my trepidation inform the song.
As a result, I think I raced through this one. There are really no musical breaks or interludes; it just starts with singing right away, and when I ran out of words, I ended the piece rather precipitously. It might have turned out better if I had parsed out a better approach to verses, bridges, and the chorus, but to do it properly I think I would have had to ask some questions of the people involved.
All I really wanted to do production-wise was to get my system (DP 7 on a Macintel 8-core) up and running with two of my must-have plugins, BFD 2 and Ivory. I didn't have a template set up so everything took quite a bit longer than usual. I got frustrated with BFD because it seemed to be missing some kit pieces, but Ivory purred right along. ProVerb, DP's built-in convolution reverb, seemed to be completely lacking in factory impulses and I spent a good 15 minutes cussing at it until I took a guess that it wouldn't load any impulses unless the input was assigned. I bequeathed it a stereo bus and it came miraculously to life, as if it had simply been waiting for tardy me all along. Erp. For the first time ever, I tried bouncing down the entire mix without first rendering the BFD and Ivory outputs to disk; amazingly, it worked just fine. Freaky. The whole system was wonderfully responsive and the processor barely broke a sweat; the only problem I had was a crash early on, caused by too much BFD kit-piece-swapping without having saved the session recently... a foolish mistake I still tend to make with some regularity.
For the first time ever on an FA submission, I tuned up my vocal a bit in selected places. Since this is supposed to be a prize, I wanted to clean it up a bit and make it more presentable than my usual rough vocal takes.
Ah, I'm done talking about it. Either there's a song somewhere in there, or there isn't.
Lyrics shoplifted from
shortwings, btw.
randomonlooker...He provided me with a link to lyrics for this one, and for some reason I didn't feel comfortable asking why they might be significant. I didn't know the person who had written them, or really why they had been written in the first place. I had the very odd feeling of interloping, of being somewhere where I shouldn't be. Rather than ask, I decided to let my trepidation inform the song.
As a result, I think I raced through this one. There are really no musical breaks or interludes; it just starts with singing right away, and when I ran out of words, I ended the piece rather precipitously. It might have turned out better if I had parsed out a better approach to verses, bridges, and the chorus, but to do it properly I think I would have had to ask some questions of the people involved.
All I really wanted to do production-wise was to get my system (DP 7 on a Macintel 8-core) up and running with two of my must-have plugins, BFD 2 and Ivory. I didn't have a template set up so everything took quite a bit longer than usual. I got frustrated with BFD because it seemed to be missing some kit pieces, but Ivory purred right along. ProVerb, DP's built-in convolution reverb, seemed to be completely lacking in factory impulses and I spent a good 15 minutes cussing at it until I took a guess that it wouldn't load any impulses unless the input was assigned. I bequeathed it a stereo bus and it came miraculously to life, as if it had simply been waiting for tardy me all along. Erp. For the first time ever, I tried bouncing down the entire mix without first rendering the BFD and Ivory outputs to disk; amazingly, it worked just fine. Freaky. The whole system was wonderfully responsive and the processor barely broke a sweat; the only problem I had was a crash early on, caused by too much BFD kit-piece-swapping without having saved the session recently... a foolish mistake I still tend to make with some regularity.
For the first time ever on an FA submission, I tuned up my vocal a bit in selected places. Since this is supposed to be a prize, I wanted to clean it up a bit and make it more presentable than my usual rough vocal takes.
Ah, I'm done talking about it. Either there's a song somewhere in there, or there isn't.
Lyrics shoplifted from
shortwings, btw.Category Music / Pop
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 113px
File Size 1.62 MB
Wow, excellent! Seems like you used at least three percent of your computer's potential to the fullest!
And the outcome is just, well amazing!
Thanks!
Oh I have no idea why the lyrics were written either, I'm pretty sure it's just for laughs, but I'm not the person who wrote them!
Your variations are on their way, problem is that you still haven't told me your preferred instruments!
(that is to say the musical sketches are done for a few variations, I just need to orchestrate them and write a few more)
And really, this is a sweet, sweet song!
And the outcome is just, well amazing!
Thanks!
Oh I have no idea why the lyrics were written either, I'm pretty sure it's just for laughs, but I'm not the person who wrote them!
Your variations are on their way, problem is that you still haven't told me your preferred instruments!
(that is to say the musical sketches are done for a few variations, I just need to orchestrate them and write a few more)
And really, this is a sweet, sweet song!
Actually, lyric wise, the words have no value to me, in fact I barely know the people it has value to (or if it has any value to them), but since I like doing things for others,
or getting (be it buying or winning in this case) things for others, this was a good call!
Anyway, I've been playing it for a good portion of the day, and thank you again for making such a nice song!
or getting (be it buying or winning in this case) things for others, this was a good call!
Anyway, I've been playing it for a good portion of the day, and thank you again for making such a nice song!
An outstanding showcase of your new equipment!
I'd like to mention that you use some very odd harmonies and chord changes from time to time, and I'll admit I had a hard time wrapping my ears around the chorus. You know the bridge from "Mrs. Brown, you've Got a Lovely Daughter"? It was like that. Musically weird, but fitting somehow.
I'd like to mention that you use some very odd harmonies and chord changes from time to time, and I'll admit I had a hard time wrapping my ears around the chorus. You know the bridge from "Mrs. Brown, you've Got a Lovely Daughter"? It was like that. Musically weird, but fitting somehow.
Oh, Herman's Hermits! A particularly sweet guilty pleasure there. Brownie points for you!
A lot of the negative criticism I get hangs on the chord progression issue. I'm told I could write more "hit-worthy" songs if I limited my harmonic palette. And I really have tried to write my share of three-chord (or even two-chord) wonders. But I rarely feel like any of my three chord songs are worthy of the ages; they end up sounding tired and rather banal. I work with people who actually do have a knack for writing three-chord hit songs (some of which were actually on the Billboard charts in the '70's) and they really do have an edge I seem to lack. I connect with the niche; they've connected with the masses. Therein lies the difference.
Sometimes I tell myself that I don't need the skill of simplicity; Steely Dan didn't have it, after all. Then I hear a track like "Chain Lightning" and realize that yeah, they actually did, I just didn't notice it.
A lot of the negative criticism I get hangs on the chord progression issue. I'm told I could write more "hit-worthy" songs if I limited my harmonic palette. And I really have tried to write my share of three-chord (or even two-chord) wonders. But I rarely feel like any of my three chord songs are worthy of the ages; they end up sounding tired and rather banal. I work with people who actually do have a knack for writing three-chord hit songs (some of which were actually on the Billboard charts in the '70's) and they really do have an edge I seem to lack. I connect with the niche; they've connected with the masses. Therein lies the difference.
Sometimes I tell myself that I don't need the skill of simplicity; Steely Dan didn't have it, after all. Then I hear a track like "Chain Lightning" and realize that yeah, they actually did, I just didn't notice it.
True. I know one of the Beatles in particular (can't remember which) thought a lot of their songs sounded "out of tune" due to all the blue chords they used.
A guy I look to for music theory (and who bears a passing resemblance to you) is Rob Bourassa. He can take the tired old 1-4-5 and even 1-4-6-2 progressions and turn them into jazz masterpieces through chord substitution. He has a whole YouTube channel devoted to guitar "lessons" where he shows you which chords to change, and why. The guy makes it all look so simple.
I do have to say, I generally like your chord progressions. I'm a sucker for cheese, charm, and song and dance routines.
A guy I look to for music theory (and who bears a passing resemblance to you) is Rob Bourassa. He can take the tired old 1-4-5 and even 1-4-6-2 progressions and turn them into jazz masterpieces through chord substitution. He has a whole YouTube channel devoted to guitar "lessons" where he shows you which chords to change, and why. The guy makes it all look so simple.
I do have to say, I generally like your chord progressions. I'm a sucker for cheese, charm, and song and dance routines.
I'm still not sure how I'd expand it, to tell you the truth. None of the sections have that "repeat me, repeat me!" feel that is the hallmark of a "hooky" song. This thing's like a Bonsai tree; it simply resists getting any bigger!
I do remember being young enough to be emo, although we didn't call it that then. And oddly enough, I wasn't doing very much singing. I spent those particular years trying to be the next bebop trumpet god, a reclusive and misunderstood figure. We see how well that turned out.
I do remember being young enough to be emo, although we didn't call it that then. And oddly enough, I wasn't doing very much singing. I spent those particular years trying to be the next bebop trumpet god, a reclusive and misunderstood figure. We see how well that turned out.
It probably has to do with having come of age in an era when tuning after the fact wasn't even possible, and analog tape limited the amount of takes you could do. Like everyone, I really do try to get in tune as I can, but I like to present my vocal abilities, such as they are, unaided and natural. If I needed to do an impromptu live performance, I'd like to think that it wouldn't be too far under the mark I set for most of the stuff I upload here.
There probably isn't anything wrong with it; hyper-reality has been the trend ever since Les Paul and Mary Ford started recording "music which can't exist in nature". Still, perfection rarely enhances anything I write, which is why I'm looking at some new equipment...
http://www.moogmusic.com/moogerfoog.....oduct_id=21374
Yeah, April Fools is over, but I can still imagine the sounds which would emanate from this puppy...
http://www.moogmusic.com/moogerfoog.....oduct_id=21374
Yeah, April Fools is over, but I can still imagine the sounds which would emanate from this puppy...
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