Sonicsiblings.net

Greeting Gents… It’s been a while since I’ve spoken to, or even heard from most of you.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, eh?

Where in the heck is everyone?  I’ve been in Montana for coming about 8.5 years now, Phoenix for 3 before that, Charlotte, North Carolina for 1 year before that, and Austin Texas for 5 years prior to that.  I suppose there was the 9 years in Rochester NY too, but that was college so I’m not sure that counts.  Anyway, it’s nice to see you guys are still in touch and passing music around. 

I bought my daughter (who plays piano) an EMU 1616 midi station a couple years ago and she’s never really taken to it, so I grabbed it a couple months ago and have been trying to learn how to use Sonar LE.  With Todd’s help I’ve managed to learn the basics, although I still suffer from terrible musicianship.  Anyway, I decided to build a bass (picture enclosed) and start recording some ideas to learn how this whole thing goes together.   I’m using the percussion from my daughters Suzuki SP-27 practice keyboard until I figure out the drum kits in Sonar.  Anyway, here’s a few bars I put together just for grins…  Maybe someone will venture forth and record something good over it and send it back.

Regards to all and let me know what and how you’re doing this decade…         Kevin

My father’s lederhosen
Fat men in gum-soled shoes are creeping around in the basement
driving beets

When Im With You 2

Can’t explain how this song ends up sounding like 70’s southern rock.  Neither of us was greatly influenced by this genre in this decade. 

“Circus in my mind… I’m a clown I’m a fool… Tight rope walker kicks me from behind”   Great line!

Hey Manoog, I took the liberty of adding some energetic female vocals to back you up in the chorus parts.
She sounds a little smarter than you (snicker) which is interesting because these tracks were created from
your vocal tracks, all voice inflection is you raised an octave.  This is the same trick I used in John’s
“Down On Weighted Knees” using the Roland V-Vocal plug-in. 
The drums get a bit exuberant in the last chorus.  For example, you hear a snare, two toms, and a hi-hat
all at the same time.  Your average two handed drummer might consider this bad taste.

We had a great night of recording and it was a lot of fun getting these tracks down.  Let’s do it again soon!  All comments welcome…      Todd

My friend Adam wrote the song in the late 1980’s.  We played and recorded various versions of it during the early 1990’s.  My arrangement is somewhat true to the original, but certainly more modernized and richer in acoustic instrumentation in this version.  We had a lot of fun recording it at your house!  Thanks for all the work on this!  I will listen to it now.      Manoog


When Im With You
When Im with You 2 [Squeaky Clean remix]

In between watching the roller coaster of the Cardinals game, I had an
idea of this descending chromatic melody and tried to work it into a
song. I call it “Weaving”.

I’ve submitted this to some musician friends for review. I’ll likely come back to this song and fine tune it further. But I thought I would post it here for posterity’s sake. Enjoy!

weaving_mix_0708_01

Last night, Rene and I went out to the Rhythm Room to meet up with our friend Howard. He had recommended we check out the band Turn Back, O Man. We totally enjoyed the conviction that the vocalist projected in his singing and the complexity of the lyrics. The backup band meshed real well, with drums, bass, slide guitar and Hammond organ.

This morning, I woke up inspired. Late in the morning, I revved up the studio and started recording some tracks to midi. Rene made a cameo and we played a waltz together and sang a funny song about dachshunds.

Later in the evening, I stepped back into the studio and made another pass at a recording. In particular, I wanted to get a slide guitar into the mix, so I tuned my electric to an open tuning and picked up the slide and started to wail. Here it is:

I handed off the song, Down on Weighted Knees (from my last post “A New, Old Song Done Differently“) to Todd. I was so amazed at the beauty that he coaxed out of the song and the celebratory tone he created towards the end that I almost cried.

You can hear his mix of the tune here.

Here’s a blues ditty. I was humming it after a close brush with the Sarah Palin disaster (…now she’s gone and I don’t worry….). Ron sings it well, and Ithink the sound quality is really nice on this one. I recorded things low on the meters to avoid any clipping.  Check it out!sittin-on-top-of-the-world.

Here’s a new, old song done differently: Down on Weighted Knees. It’s based on a poem that I wrote back in the ’90’s. I want to release it under Creative Commons in such a way that it promotes collaboration. We’ll see how that goes. Here’s the first mix. No reverb. It may even be mono. But there’s an idea there. Partly inspired by the tempo of a Leonard Cohen song that I was reminded of by the folks at NPR’s All Songs Considered, partly inspired by the music of Beach House. Partly inspired by the lyrics. Hope you like it!

I recently got together with my friend Howard and we put together this blues.  It’s the first real song that I’ve put together using the BR864.  I may re-take the accordion part, but as a proof of concept, I’d say  it’s pretty good! The lyrics were lifted, real quick, at the last minute from a book on the blues. I’m thinking that they’ve fallen into the public domain.

Have a listen, and let me know what you think.

Thanks Howard, for all your help!

Before heading out to Marseille for the past two weeks, I got together with my friend Walt Lockley to make some music. While I was working on a mix of a different song, Walt wrote the lyrics to the song “Someday You’ll Find it Easy”.

This morning, during a cold-induced bout of insomnia I decided to put the words to music and record it. You may notice I’m using the same chords as “First Kiss”. Given this mother of all sore throats – and the meds I’m on to combat this thing – I kind of floated through this one.

Have a listen. Hope you like it!

It was just a matter of time until we got around to this one.  Ron and I learned this song just the other day, so take it as an early version.  Again, one take on vocals, guitar and mandolin, and then another by way of afterthought (some percussion) as we listened back.  I still feel hampered recording with the M-Audio Firewire 410.  The quality is comparatively good (as Todd would say…better specs than many other devices), but I need more simultaneous tracks so…. MOTU here I come, and it may be time for the dual processor Mac as well. As for this recording, I always wondered what this old traditional english folk song would sound like with middle-eastern dumbeg behind it.  Ron’s voice is perfect for it,  and I will continue to practice this one on the mandolin until I get more crisp on the leads.  Oh, and one lesson learned here, I upgraded to a better mandolin and had a luthier set it up for me just right, but notice how it does not sound as good on this recording compared to my others?  That’s because it has a fishman pickup system in it and I am recording jack to jack for the first time.  Previous mando recordings were done with a fairly high quality condensor mic.  From now on, I will go with the mic in the studio…or maybe both the jack and the mic and see what I get.  The lesson for me….the fidelity with good microphones will almost always get you a better recording with acoustic instruments.  I am still pleased with the upgrade though as the pickup gives me much more mobility to move around and enjoy performing.  We are just about ready for that open mic!   John Barleycorn