"If it itches then scratch it" WTF

OK I dunno how I came up with a name like that for a song. I guess it was the first thing that came into my mind. So how did this song come about? Well it took me longer than usual. I was playing with the Korg NanoPads the other day, I had loaded the 808 emulator(whatever you call it) in Ableton. But for some reason I thought that the 808 would sound good with a simple guitar riff. I ended up with a blues riff in G. Why G? Well I think that its a little brighter(warm and happy) in G. I usually like to play blues in the natural key of A.

So I had a drum beat which sounded fun then like I said I laid down a rough guitar track. By this time I had a few ideas in my head. The first idea was that I really like the sound that MGMT has right now. To me it sounds like a really full sound with the distorted guitar and the very significant keyboards. I decided to use a clean sounding guitar for most of this song, although I used a little distortion and a lot of flange on one guitar track. I used two synth tracks. One was an Absynth sequence preset I really liked that I tweaked a bit and the other was an Ableton synth that was a distorted bass sound.

I wanna talk about the bass guitar part for a bit. I have been playing regular six string guitar forever, but I have really taken to the bass since I bought my American Jazz Deluxe last year. I think I was not born to play guitar but I might have been destined for the bass. I can't believe what I've been missing all these years. I used to think that the bass player was just an ornament on stage(and it seems as if some bass players are). I never realized how important it was, and how much fun it is. So anyway after I got the drum track and a rough guitar track down, I put it on a loop and played with the bass till I got a really cool riff.

Once I had the drums, guitar and bass, I spent some time playing with different synths till I got the sounds I needed. Then I took a break for about a week. Not because I wanted to, but because I was kinda stuck. Then this afternoon I went back at it. I started by re-recording the guitar parts. Just to make them sound more crisp, I used a different pick up this time. I guess I was inspired by the death of DJ AM(more about that later) to get on the turntables. I found a few basic vocal samples and scratched them up a bit. I know I could have done better(a lot better) but I wanted to get it done so I can listen to it for a week or two and figure it out. Anyway here it is. Enjoy. The more I listen to it the less I like it. I'm gonna redo it and spend more time on the scratching, as I know I can do a lot better. I tried to do it in one take like a pro. Next time I've got a plan, you might call it cheating but I'm gonna use a sampler to make some of the scratches the same notes as the song.I also need to improve on my rhythm on the turntables.

Guitar Hero for actual guitar?

The picture has nothing to do with this, I saw the video below a few months ago and had totally forgot about it until I saw it on stumble upon today. Basically it's "Guitar Hero" on a real guitar. It promises to teach kids guitar and turn couch potatoes into guitar gods. So will it really catch on? Well that depends on a few factors: What system/OS will it be on? Will it work? Will people want to play it? And last but not least, can people afford it?

So in the video the guy plays it on a PC. Granted its not a Mac only(5% market share) so they have a few potential customers out there. But will it be available on Wii, Xbox and most importantly the future proof PS3. Think about it for a second, most kids and certainly most parents do not want the hassle of installing it on a computer and the playing it on one. Most kids and parents want the convenience of a plug and play game console.

Will it work? Well there have been many attempts in the past to try and digitize the guitar. To not only take a guitar note and turn it into digital audio, but to interpret that note for what it is. Usually when we play guitar we play more than one note. The program would have to sort out these notes. Just like a midi signal it would need to know how hard we played the note and for how long we played it. There has only ever been one company that has been successful at making guitar equipment to get even close to any of these goals and that is Roland. Problem is that after you have gone out and got that nice $1000 guitar, then you need to spend another $1300 on the Roland system. So I'm not sure how Disney is going to come out with this state of the art system at a price that will have the soccer moms lined up around the block.

Will people want it? Well that depends on the first two questions. If it will work on a game console, if it actually interprets the note correctly and if the price is right then of course people will want it. And even at a few hundred dollars it would be a better investment than guitar hero or rock band. Question is, how can they do all the above for a few hundred dollars? Maybe technology has made it possible but you still need a guitar and audio interface along with the game. A guitar or an audio interface can fetch a few hundred dollars by themselves. So I still not convinced that any company can make a decent attempt at this for under $1000. And at that price I don't see the soccer moms lining up.

Mobile Recording

I would like to one day have a home studio and a mobile studio. Right now I'm trying to compress everything down to size in order to be able to take it with me and make music anywere I want. I pretty much have everything in place. In these pics you can see everythin except the monitors. I have a set of Samson monitors right now that are really heavy. Ideally I'd like these Genelec's, they only weigh 3.1lbs and 48 watts total. That is totally amazing and the dimensions aren't bad either. Only thing holding me back is the price.

Anyway in these pics you can see all the stuff I managed to fit into my backpack. The backpack is nothing special, just a regular North Face book bag. I laid everything out on my bed when I was done to show how much stuff it was. I took the pics with my phone so I hope they aren't too blury.

Some crappy pics that I took.

Here are a few pics that I took.

Pics of my Bass

When I bought my new bass last year, Katie took a bunch of pics of it. I think they look really cool. Here are some of my favourite ones. Here is Katie's website with more pics.

The sound of new strings

I had just changed my strings and was checking out the sound. I used Amplitube to model a marshall stack to get the Fruciante tone.

Top 10 guitars

I just read this really interesting blog post. It's about the 10 most valuable guitars. Long story short, the most valuable guitar in the world is the "reach out to Asia" strat. It's a novelty guitar signed by a bunch of famous people but never played or used to record by anyone famous and it's not a "first" of anything either(i.e. first electric, first strat, first les paul, tele with serial # 001). So I loved the post, the writer did some good research and it's a must read for guitar buffs.

Anyway here was the comment I left. It's a bit long but I put some thought into it. For example if I could choose one of the guitars or if I had as much money as Paul Allen(Microsoft) which one would I choose:

As a owner of a strat for going on 18 years now(my second strat a black 1997 american series strat)if I could have any guitar on the list? I would take either Blackie, Lenny or the '68 Hendrix strat. Although the "reach out to Asia" strat looks nice, I see it as more of a novelty item. The other guitars were used to create history and can be heard on some of the greatest albums of all time.

I also noticed a few guitars that were absent. They have most likely not come up for sale yet so we'll see: Clapton's 1964 Gibson SG "Fool" Guitar, Jimmy Page's '62 EDS 1275 SG, any of EVH's 5150's, Les Paul's original gold top standard(the one he always played, sadly now that he has passed I'd imagine this could be up for grabs and might break the record), the guitar that Brian May built as a kid, Willie Nelson's nylon string Martin "Trigger", either one of John Lennon's epiphones(Casino or acoustic J-160E), McCartney's Violin Bass, Rory Gallagher's worn '61 strat, one of the rare "Nocaster's"(only 60 produced in 1950-'51) and I could go on. If one of these were to come to market and someone with the money and desire were to come across it? If I had Paul Allen's money I would probably pay a whatever I had to pay to get "Blackie", I have always liked to tone of that guitar. I even have my own version(http://imgur.com/yY0U9.jpg). But you did some great research and I really enjoyed the read.

Update on my surf rock song

I kinda gave up on the surf song thing. I recorded a few things then got a bit confused. It's all like weird minor scales that I'm not used to. Anyway I'll have a surf song before the summer is over. I just need time to work on the scales and the intricacies of surf rock before I put it out there.

Which brings me to my next point. When I started doing this recording stuff I would put anything out. But now I'm developing a high standard. I don't want to put out anything that I'm not proud of and I want to make sure that each recording is an improvement over the previous one. If only I could sing, my music would sound so much better. I played around with some vocal software like auto tune(which I didn't like), Melodyne(too complicated) and Waves vocals. Waves was fun, I read an article from a magazine, played some chords then put the magazine article in the appropriate key. It's amazing what technology can do.

Trying to record a surf rock song

I have been working on a surf rock song the last couple of days. The scales are a little different so I'm still working it out. Hopefully I'll have it finished by the end of the weekend.

How I made a pop song using Ableton.

This is a song I recorded over the last 3 days. It started out just being a basic guitar riff. I wanted it to be structured: verse, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus. It ended up being three minutes long. I forgot to change the default bpm from 120, but it sounded fine so I left it in place. There are only two guitar tracks on this song. One track for rythm and just one for lead. I usually use at least three guitar tracks, sometimes as many as five. I recorded the guitar parts in only a few takes, probably seven or eight takes total for both tracks. I used one of the Ableton synths for bass. I put a appreggiator on the bass to give it the tight rythm. Also used two other Ableton synths for a total of three synths. I'm no keeyboard player but I'm starting to get more comfortable playing them. Besides anyone can play them if they are just programming them to play midi. I think if I can do a few more well structured songs like this that I'll start writing lyrics. Hopoefully one day I can get someone with a decent voice to sing over them. This song is very much a pop song, the way the synth plays the bass give it a pop song feel. I might record it again with my Fender American Jazz Deluxe to see how it sounds. And I might take out the sawtooth synth. The sawtooth kinda annoys my ears a bit. This was my first real song recorded on Ableton Live 8 Suite and it is a huge improvement over Live 7. I used the Ableton synths, usually I'd use Bass Station but it was causing Ableton to temporarily freeze up so I stopped using it. The chords are C, G, Am, C, G, F for the verse, F, G right before the chorus, then C, G, Am, F for the chorus, the bridge is Am, F, Am, F, G, G. I made the drum track using drum racks in Ableton, I just used the Nanopad to get a feel for what I wanted then cleaned it up a bit and added the ride for the chorus. Other than that there is not much else. I hope to use this as a music diary to keep track of how I made a song and to help me look back for reference.

Here is the link to the song on Reverbnation.

My Favourite Music Sites

These are the sites I like to go to to get info or whatever I need related to music. First for info on software I like KVR. I get a lot of info from all my friends at Reddit, specifically wearethemusicmakers on Reddit. I use Reverbnation to post my new songs. I've also started to post stuff on SoundCloud. Facebook and Twitter are the main social networking sites that I use. I have a Myspace but rarely ever check it. To shop I like Musicians Friend because of their 45 day money back guarantee, also like Zzounds because they are in NJ and everything is overnight. American Musical Supply is a good place to buy stuff too. I never use that mp3 download site for idiots, you know the company that makes computers and phones for retards. I do like to use Amazon mp3. For computers and most things electronic there's only one place to go Sonystyle.

My wishlist.

Well this is a list of things I need, want or just lust for: Martin 1 Series DC1E, Rode NTK Tube Mic, one more Rode M1 to make my pair complete, KRK VXT 8 monitor, JBL EON 515(2) and 518s(2), Novation Remote SL 61 key midi controller and Superior Drummer VST. I guess thats it, so I'm only about $7000 short of the complete ultimate setup. I'll probably settle for cheaper versions of all these items. Like KRK RP8's instead of the VXT's and so forth. But I'll get by for now.

I just wish I could make money from music like I did when I was in a band. Not a whole lot of money, just enough to buy a new toy every couple of months. I figure as long as I keep practicing and recording more material that eventually I'll get better. Maybe someday I can do music for something and get paid to do it. I can really tell the difference in my recording over the last few months. Hopefully it improves more in the future.

My Gear and software.

So here's my setup: Sony Vaio laptop VGN-FW490CTO 3.06ghz Core 2, 4gb RAM, 320gb 7200rpm HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon 4650 w/1gb gddr Ram, Presonus Firebox, Korg Nanopad, Korg Nanokontrol, Novation X-Station, Rode M3, MXL 990, Shure PG 58, Samson Monitors, Roland TD-3(mostly upgraded to all mesh kit), Roland SPD-20, 2008 Fender American Jazz Deluxe, 1961 Gibson SG Reissue, 1999 Fender American Series Strat, Yamaha Acoustic, 2003 Fender Hot Rod Deville 410(with hot tubes from JJ Tesla), Various Boss Pedals, Ibanez Tube Screamer, 2 Pioneer CDJ 800's, Pioneer DJM 700, JBL EON 1500 Speakers, American DJ Lighting Stand and fixtures, Ableton Live 8 Suite, Cakewalk Sonor Producer 8, Guitar Rig 3, Amplitube 2, Amplitube SVX, Waves Platinum, Native Instruments Absynth, Massive, FM8, Battery, B4, Pro 52, Rob Papen Albino/Predator, Korg Legacy Cell, Melodyne 3.1, Novation Bassstation/V-Station, Izotope Ozone 4, FXpansion Guru, Toontrack EZdrummer and many more that I can't think of right now.

Anyway I'm gonna post my wishlist a little later. I guess that price of all this stuff runs into the ten's of thousands of dollars. But it is worth every penny. I learned years ago that you have to spend a lot of money on musical instruments. You get what you pay for, if my intunation is messed up on my guitar I can't play it. Therefore a cheap guitar with bad intunation is a complete waste of money. Wheras an expensive guitar that I play every night will save me thousands of dollars in the long run. How? Well I will stay in and work on new songs all night instead of going out and blowing a hundred dollars on bullshit, and having a hangover the next day. But note that I have been playing guitar for 22 years now, so I didn't just aquire this stuff overnight.