23rd May 2010
Its too hot to record.
TECHNOLOGY - just don't get me started!
Everything is going wrong...even the telly and I don't even watch much of that!
I'll explain May entry when I am in a better mood.....
Peace.
Graham
26th April 2010
I have been in my new job for 16 months now and you would have thought that the novelty would have worn off by now, but it hasn't. I won't tell you exactly what i do, except to say that instead of fixing or selling phone systems and computer networks I now "help people to fix themselves". What a privalage!
It has been said that "the more you give, the more you get" and that is exactly true of this new job. Admittadly I have thrown myself into it - what did you expect though, I am still "obsessive and compulsive", but seriously there is real joy in seeing people recover, even if for some of them, their recovery is ever so slight.
I know that my days in telecomms and datacomms are over, so long as the charity I now work for can get the funding.
So, the real joy is definitely from being with these real people. But, there is another spin-off. My wife and I now only run 1 car (a small economical one) and I have a chinese economical scooter to travel to work on. Why is that a benefit? surely I have down sized and gone backwards? - but the reality is that I "feel" better, more fulfilled, satisfied even.
Music - at long last i have managed to NOT contribute a tune for the "collective" !
I am now seriously considering a new album - not a CD as CD's appear to be so yesterday now! - no, this one will be on-line and if I can retain my new found humility, perhaps the album will be given away for free? - there again, if I am shocked by the fantastic quality of the new songs, i might even try a record company! ha ha.
I have dozens upon dozens of songs ready to be recorded, however, as i did ages ago, I have once again gathered up the bits of paper that they have been written on and thrown them away!! --- This is my attempt at quality control.
Right, one other thing - if you regularly read this, why not send me an e-mail at bernamica@hotmail.co.uk and title it as "jottings"? hope to hear from some of you soon.
Peace,
Graham
3rd April 2010
At long last the "studio" is ready!
I've even gone out and bought some guitar stands and my babies are looking good!
When I get time and find the camera I'll post some piccys.
Software...blahhhhhhhhhhhhh
First mistake I made was buying a fast track m-audio sound interface - yes, I know this is hardware..but anyway, this box is ok, but can't accept incoming STEREO which I often need from my GR20, RC50 and RT123 for starters, plus any mixes I want to transfer from the Akai - I made the mistake.
2nd mistake was buying it from the production room in Leeds - that shop is always empty..not a good sign considering the tens of thousands they must have spent on the place, but anyway, they seem interested in you if you are gonna spend a fortune....
They were not interested in taking the m-audio box from me (part exchange for an expensive one) despite only buying it last Christmas and only using it about 3 times, so needless to say I didn't buy the interface that I know will fit my needs from them.
Software, well Reaper seems good, but despite trying hard and having a few friends try to help I just couldn't get it to render me a WAV file, so no good.
I am now looking at Sonar LE which I am going to try today and mental note to me, I think the software that best suits my needs and isn't too expensive is Sequel (Sequel 2 to be exact) - but I can't afford it at present.
All of this will now be put on hold as Holidays approach! - yippee, I am ready for one!
Stay cool,
Graham
6th March 2010
All contents of back bedroom have been removed and given away! bed went to a good home and 2 wardrobes are on their way to another good and welcoming home.
Carpet thrown out.
Wood effect lino arriving on Wednesday.
Sofa bed can only be delivered on Tuesday so needs to be stored "somewhere" before lino fitted.
White Gloss painting completed.
Emulsion (Terracota, apparantly) pained on the walls and "white emulsion" painted onto ceiling.
Electric light fixed.
Intesting post eh!
Well, I AM excited about this - a sofa bed and chest of drawers with TV and DVD player for any "guests" - probably mainly my eldest daughter and hubby and at the other end of the room 2 x IKEA woodeffect computer desks all fitted out with my MUSIC EQUIPMENT.
One downer...Wifey decided she didn't want me drilling holes in the wall for the guitars to hang there :-( blahhh, but! she has said I can buy some more guitar stands and I even caught her browsing e-bay for a multiple guitar stand :-) wow!
Then, there are no excuses... I will have to change my music making work pattern - I think I will probably retain that work pattern for my Guitarist Collective entries - not because they "don't matter" coz they do, but because those tasks give me inspiration and I love to see what I can do in a short period of time. BUT...I have written a few new songs that really need to be recorded well, they will take a lot of work and for once I am not going to rush, I am just gonna work at being a producer with my own material. However before I can truly do that I need to concentrate and properly learn Reaper.
So, today is my day off and as my music stuff is packed away I am going to see my beloved Leeds United & will be taking along 2 of my "clients" who although very appreciative of the free ticket are both Manche...no I can't write that name...and spurs fans!!!
That's after I clean up, coz I only finished painting last night.
One other thing- as well as being "intrigued by Moldover (www.moldover.com) here is a link of Deadmou5 a canadian DJ using "my" nano Kontrol.... I don't usually do links as they tend to die/change but here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF3yR-Dww1s
- not my usual taste in music but I really enjoy this and can see how he uses the midi controller to manipulate his song - watch the whole thing as it gets better.
Another link is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3_yXmIfmYg for something called the Kaossilator - a toy? - no, not really listen to what this guy can do with it and there is nothing else playing and all done in real time.
Just in case you think I've LEFT the guitar world, check this out, AMAZING skill!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yPEewaalik
Guthrie Govan - playing in 5/4 - beautiful guitar, beautiful playing and BOY am I jealous of his hair!
"marching on together"
Graham
("we are Leeds"!!!!)
20th February 2010
Here is an extract from a post I did on the collective today;-
This "finisher" "producer" thing : I have concluded that 99% of everything I do (and I create more music than I put on here) is done within 1 sitting. That can mean completed tunes recorded in 2 hours usually and for the more complicated songs with vocals then they get done in about 6 hours. The reason for this is that as I have said b4 my gear has to be unpacked and set up and then taken apart for each session and after 7 years of doing this (3 and a bit on here - collective) it has become tiresome.
Now...I have browsed my way through various home studio websites and seen that the vast majority have some kind of permanant set-up - going to DragonDreams studio last week didn't help either...  I was just blown away by the fact that we wandered into his room and everything was there, all waiting for someone to make music!
So after coming home from pauls (DD) and playing my new Yamaha RGX420S until my fingers hurt, I had a chat with the wife... and she agrees   - so I am writing this whilst having a well earned cuppa after removing 2 wardrobes and a bed from one of the bedrooms... the plan is to buy a sofa-bed so that "visitors" can still sleep on a bed in that room if the other bedroom is also occupied. There is a small chest of drawers and then the rest of the space is mine!
I will paint the room and change the carpet to a wood effect lino (lino really has "come on" these days!) and then I will fix my monitors to the wall and then hang my 3 guitars and my daughters acoustic on the wall and then set up my rack and sort out a "studio" - which will have REAPER and the AKAI at the heart of it.
All of this will be done in the hope that I can spend more time actually making music than setting up equipment! and hopefully that will give me time to reflect on recordings and then to "tweak" - ya never know, I might even get into re-amping!
Right, Tea is drunk and I am "in the zone" to get on with it!
17th February 2010
Wow! this morning woz icy, the scoot nearly tipped me off 10 metres from leaving the driveway.
MUSIC...I have to confess that I am a bit down music wise...sorry. I just arn't delivering what I want! - the problem is that most of my songs are all done in 2 to 6 hours all in 1 sitting. I am prolific and I am creative, but I need to spend more time on each song.
I am therefore going to dismantle the song "Don't look down" and dispose of the bits that "I thought I could get away with" and replace with proper versions. All of this will be in a new territory - I almost never re-work a song. This is my big change.
At the weekend I plan to master REAPER as the extra tracks will allow songs like this one to be made in a quality manner - presently everything has to be recorded linearly on 12 tracks and I am concluding that when I put vocals on I just can't manage with so few tracks. The midi controller adventure also needs to be mastered - my good friends on the collective are very helpful, but I need (repeat that Graham), yes, er, I need to get down to using it so that it all becomes 2nd nature.
Tomorrow night I collect a new guitar - Yamaha RGX 420S mmmm 24 frets, double locking wammy bar and a bypass switch, oh yeah and a breathed on slippery neck.
I'll post a piccy when I can.
Also...I need to post a few more streamed songs as streaming is where it's at, apparantly.
Now I've got that lot off me chest i feel most agreeable.
Peace out,
Graham
7th February 2010
What a task this was!
I spent Sunday morning fixing my Scooter (again) as I need it for getting me to work.
Wifey number 1 was out all day, so out came the gear - I really envy the boyz who have a dedicated room.
So, this song: it started with a nice little interesting 5/4 timing figure and then we got into a groove 4/4 with a few open strings and a ricky type guitar on a clean sound. This was the first time I tried an old recording trick where you double the bass with a guitar - easy for me as the variax plays the les paul guitar model whilst the GK pick-up on the same guitar tells the Roland GR20 to play bass - I liked it and it worked.
2nd big section is a Les Paul model still on a clean setting via the Boss Gt3 - I like this LP sound, reminds me of the rolling stones and led zep tones -(amazing actually when you listen back to those old songs and find they didn't actually use THAT much dirt on their sound).
There is a middle type section where I used a strat model with the out of phase pick-up setting, again clean.
Vocals.....hmmmmm not sure what i make of them, except to say that if this song does make it to the new LLEF album I'm gonna do them again.
Les Paul model does the solos with very dirty tones and a wah wah - the first part is me doing Frank Dunnery..... yeah.....then there's a classic rock country inspired lick, which then wanders off into wah-land via a nice couple of fast runs - during wah-land I nearly got lost and you can just hear me rescue it with a very late bend, then there's a final flurry of double notes, b4 the listener gets a rest. Then comes a Satriani pull off to open string type set of figures which ends the solos.
Drums ; I used a groove setting on the loop station and the trusty Zoom did its thing - again this would need tidying if i was to put this onto an album.
On the bad side, i resorted to AKAI as the laptop played up and i knew that this would send me into a spin if i continued.
Not sure if you are interested but here are the words to the song;-
Chorus
Don't look down : (repeated several times with harmony)
verse 1
So I set right off - just in time - journeys just begun.
How I love to start - adjusting my pace - Journeys can be fun
Look at the scenery - I'm taking it in - I'm taking in the views
No chance of traffic jams - just you and me- a journey for the few
Chorus
verse 2
NowI'm halfway through - half to go - will i make the end?
How the road is hard - my muscles ache - yet another bend
oooo and I'm soaking wet - soaked with sweat
Hot sun is beating down
Now i must grit my teeth, I'm digging in - my smile is now a frown
middle-bridge
The road is very long
I try to sing a song
The road is very high
I think I'm gonna die!
Chorus
Instrumentals
bedtime,
Graham
6th February 2010
What a task Oli Grunfeld set this month! The collective boyz have already posted 3 tunes and they have really set the bar high this month.
I was thinking of sitting this one out and I might just do that, but...I have just written a song - not a tune (instrumental) but a proper song. I do write a lot of songs, but not usually for collective entries - probably coz songs take longer and demand vocals and vocals are harder to record.
But anyway, the song is written.
Unfortunately it is in rather a high key and the problem with recording it is that if I resort to using a capo or try to change the key and use different chords, I know from experience that it will lose that "magic", so tomorrow is the day that I will try and sing it.
If I pull this one off and if the quality is right, then this song will go into my new project (a new album - maybe a CD, but defo an albumthat can be downloaded and that is what the LLEF website will be used for....eventually).
The song is great, but the challange is in the recording. Talking technically, I'm gonna use REAPER!!! so this will be the first proper song I have done that will be recorded on a DAW as oppossed to the Akai.
I hope that I can get a good guitar tone - thinking of using a rickenbacker model on the variax for the cleanish chorus bit and I think a Les Paul model or a 335 model will be used for the raunchy verses.
Vocals if done properly will have lots of harmonies.
Actually I don't like this trend of writing what I'm gonna do....it's far easier to write WHEN it's done!
I've also worked out a tapping section.....which will no doubt alert comments from da boyzz.
Stay tuned.
Graham
28th January 2010
Here is the news.
Scooter fixed, check.
Scooter gave me a slight bit of bother tonight, so needs a insywinsi slight tinker, leave until weekend when its warmer and lighter.
Ambiloop played with enough. It is a good little programme and my intervention on the user forum helped to get a new improved version published and a manual is on the way.
REAPER, now, here is the good news. I have been fighting shy of getting involved with complicated DAWs for years, however thanks to DAWIBA and DRAGONDREAMs from the COLLECTIVE, I have now managed to get REAPER working to the way I want it to work. Technically it can do everything I need and much much more, and technically at this point in typing, my nano controller still hasn't totally communicated with the programme, but we now know that it can and we know how - so i just need to find a bit of peace and quiet time to play with it. Correction, work with it.
Work and play, interesting words.
Talking of "work", my day job is really rewarding, we are having lots of fun and tears at the same time and my clients are getting their recovery.
My football team are having their annual blip and the associated rising of blood pressure is present, again. What a stupid thing to do, follow a football team, where you can't actually change anything!.... blah!!!!!!
Made a complete numpty of myself on "the forum" last night! blahhh, but it woz funny!
Take care, and enjoy the PEACE,
Graham
20th January 2010
Hardware recording was never as entertaining as this!
Up to now, all my recording escapades have been done direct to either a Tascam Porta One (in the sad hisssssssy daysssss) or my Akai DPS12 digital stand-alone-recorder.
More recently I have used my Boss RC50 looper to get loops going quick and this has been brilliant for composing. Apart from the ability to change voices via midi (which I probably never would do due to me being impatient and just wanting to get songs done) another advantage DAWs have is the ability to edit waveforms. Then came the moldover thing and the midi controller ideas, so....although I have been succesful with REAPER it is still a DAW that really demands some "work" to get the best out of it.
No idea how I found this but Ambiloop is my latest toy and it is free! www.ambiloop.com is where you can read about it and download it.
So, my to do list for the coming weekend consists of (a) fixing my scooter and (b) diving headlong into ambiloop with the korg nano Kontrol and knocking out some loops - hopefully (as I have joined another forum) I will be linking 4/4 loops with all kinds of nonesensical time signatures and maybe delving into polyrhythms!
I will sleep sweetly tonight, nighty night,
Graham
16th January 2010
Well I have to say that this is a record! 4 jots in a month, but the reason for this is because I am a bit angry.... Those of you who have been following my trip into PC recording will remember the plan....hmmm, we now have a new plan! - I went to the shop where I purchased the USB audio M-audio box and the korg nano and took my laptop loaded with Ableton live lite 6;-
1 They wern't going to allow me to turn it on as the PC had not been bought there!
2 I turned it on anyway and hooked everything up and asked if someone could help re the nano which wasn't working.
3 One shop assistant said that it wouldn't work with lite and I needed to buy Ableton Live six which was at £99 and then he walked off....
4 a 2nd assistant came over and told me that I really needed the full Ableton package and that he could do me a special offer at £248
5 after he left, another one came over and said that he had downloaded a driver onto his pendrive and could he load it for me - I said yes and he did, then after twiddles on the nano he pronounced that I needed the full blown Ableton suite, then....suddenly he said "wait!" and confirmed that it did work afterall!!!!!!!!!!
So... I then reiterated that the only reason I had bought these devices was that I could try them on Ableton 6 lite and then but Ableton Intro 8 at £99, so could they confirm that the intro does allow time sig changes of clips, so like this months entry is in 3/4 for the verse and 4/4 for the chorus... much head scratching later from the 4 experts and they all pronounced a resounding "no!" it won't work! - I have to buy the full Ableton 8 suite at £248.
A webfriend from the collective has offered me help with LINUX and something called sooper-looper.
After spending the entire day in 2 shops.... the other one was a guitar and keyboard shop where I had decided to buy a hardware sampler, but, after an hour of trying the Roland in-house rep couldn't get that to do multi time sig loops either! - you see, technology seems to be being driven by the most recent popular music, dance and hip-hop which is of course predominantly 4/4.....
So do I go LINUX? or do I try something else.... another webfriend who actually lives within 10 miles of me is presently running REAPER and that does everything I want! get this though, it is FREE !! - yes I can send them £50 after using it for a while and indeed I will if it does!
So for now... the plan is REAPER - next week I have arranged to meet Paul and a friend of his who is not a musician who plays real instruments but one of those new DJ/controllerist musicians and he is using the Korg nano units... so watch this space!
Got my honey home now from Spain, so it's time for bed!
Graham
14th January 2010
Whoa! Whats happening 3 jots in 1 month!
So one of my web friends (another collective muso) has a blog that carries the strap-line “adventures in recording” which I thought was good and positive.
Mostly my recording is full of adventure but just lately I have been bogged down in technology…hmmm WARNING! Slight diversion coming up!
So way back in ’79 I was a quick and eager telecoms engineer, I was one minute fixing switchboards (the ones you see in the old films with cords and an operator – 1070’s and PMBX4 if you’re interested!) then the next job I was climbing half a dozen telegraph poles to find the span of cable that had been blasted by shotgun pellets and had taken out the phone line to some irate farmer. Twas exciting! I had learned very quickly and passed technical courses that the ancient engineers (who saw me as a Johnny come lately), had been avoiding for years! Then came the onset of electronics, the dawning of digital but still 10 years before ISDN! – I lapped it up! I went on course after course, skilling myself up to the point where I was promoted to the dizzy rank of SFI0 – “special fault investigation officer” if you will. Loved it. Then came a family, the need to earn more money and so I passed exams and went into management…….blahhhhhh excitement gone, but the money was nice.
The point of this trip down Bernamica memory lane is that I couldn’t understand at the time why the older engineers were just lost with the new technology……
Now, with failing eyesight and the sudden need to wear glasses for reading and obsessive/compulsive tendancies, can I say that technology is doing my head in!!!!
Why do manuals not actually match what you are looking at?
Why is the quick set-up guide a complete nonsense?
But this is not confined to computers or music, no….. last year my missus said “the windscreen washers aren’t working” and I was despatched to fill the container, but upon investigation the container was full…quickly regurgitating my yesteryear fault finding I concluded in a “Holmes-like” manner that my good lady had kept pressing the screenwash button and the screenwash jets had iced up and so either the screenwash motor had packed in – because I couldn’t hear it when I turned the washers on, OR the fuse had blown, which was my bet as the fuse is meant to blow therefore saving a changeout of the electric motor, so simple, change the fuse….Upon finding the fuse box I realised that cars these days have fuses that are not easy to see physically if they have blown or not, no worries I still know how to use a multi-meter, but wait… the manual doesn’t show the same type of fuse box that I am looking at under a very cold bonnet. Why?
Eventually I fathomed out which was the fuse and tested it and voila! Found the culprit! Went in to celebrate my victory with a cuppa and to tell my wife how clever I am, to which she replied, “well just get it fixed, coz I need to use the car to get to the hairdresser”…so out I went again and reasoned that there must be a spare fuse, wrong again! – eventually I bought the right amperage fuse and fitted it! But… the screenwasher didn’t work and suddenly I don’t have reverse lights….My wife called the AA.
Now in the past I would have fixed anything on my cars with a decent toolkit, but this geezer got his laptop out…..50 minutes later he pronounced that all was well and started to pack his laptop away. I told him of my escapade and he smiled sympathetically…he then explained that as soon as you pull a fuse the computer in the car goes into a particular “designed In” procedure that basically means you are knackered unless you have a laptop, know the password and have the £2,000 software programme installed and up to date.
So now, I’m battling with midi and something called “drivers”….
I need also at this point to say a public “thank-you” to the merry band of Collective musos who offer loads of help and experience, thanks guys.
Like Millhouse from the Simpsons said “it used to be about the music, man!”
And another thing! Websites! There seems to be a thing going on where you encounter a new website and it’s as if the programmer has decided to give you a bit of fun by inventing the “find the button that opens the next page, if you can?” game, I mean, why???
Things are not like they used to be! – next month I might tell you about my adventure in fixing the coffee machine…….blahhhhhhhhhhh
Peace be with you, Graham
12th January 2010
Recording is back underway and the January Collective task has been done and posted and good feedback received already, thanks. This was done in my usual way by recording it onto my Akai DPS12 - a hard disc stand alone recorder - no PC or Mac in sight! - and this has been my way since way back, actually and before that it was a cassette tape based Tascam portastudio, porta 01 to be exact!
Anyway... as regular readers will know, I have been messing with Ableton live (lite version 6) which is software or a DAW to be exact - er, Digital Audio Workstation & I got a USB M-audio external soundcard or audio interface and a midi controller, however the laptop that I have been trying to use this stuff with is old and is probably infected with every virus known to your local IT hero....so I have been having problems, which remided me why I ditched the idea of PC recording yonks ago and went the stand-alone-recorderist route..... but I am a trier, I persevere, i don't quit, so I am hoping to get a mate of mine to "flatten the laptop" (I think that's an IT expression and not just a fit of rage) and then he will reload the usual windows boll****, sorry, windows suite. I will then either reload Ableton Live lite 6 or....and this depends upon my seductive skills...with my missus...perhaps I will be allowed to buy the Ableton Live 8 intro version at £99. If this goes to plan I will then be ready to really throw myself into DAW and particularly the Ableton method.
I am actually looking forward to this because it will herald a new method in Bernamica music, in fact actually I have plans to create something totally new and it will be under the LLEF umbrella.
Right, there are still a few issues with the method of streaming I am using on here and so I need to have a think about that as well, loads to do.
One other niggle...LINUX, the idea attracts me, one of the Collective gents swears by it and his recordings are excellent, but...support is an issue and I really am interested in making music, not really that excited anymore in making PC's work... hmmmm we will see.
Graham
9th January 2010
Well 2010 and back to work with loadsa snow! Actually I have been back to work for ages as I only got the 3 public Holiday days.
So, the studio has been wired back together and as so often happens stuff has broke in transit! (not actually a Ford Transit, just sort of "in" transit!). My compressor doesn't work anymore, blast!
Also, I have been trying to "go software" via Ableton Live lite 6 but it isn't going well at the moment! not even tried the 2 new bits of equipment mentioned in last post - computers eh!
Anywayzzzzzzz have a peaceful year,
Graham |
