Buzzie's RockBand Blog

(image is of iPad as control surface using Digital Performer, cool huh?)

Yesterday I bought my first drumkit. It’s the least satisfying thousand bucks I’ve ever spent, partially because I don’t play drums, and partially because I kinda dread setting them up… but…

I now have drums!

So today I’m recording drums with my old buddy from Blue Cartoon, Barry Simon. And a couple things I won’t have to worry about today.

1. Mics for real drums
2. Getting good drum sounds
3. A drummer with an attitude

I picked up a set of Roland’s V-Drums, and man have they come a long way! Now I can record Barry’s performance in both sounds and midi. Then if I want to “collective soul up” my song I can simply replace the “wilco-trapkit” with the “heavier-things-kit.” Viola!

Barry can even run the recording session with the iPad.

Let me know if you want to hear some daylies. (grin)

@jmacofearth

Posted in: in the studio, songwriting by jmacofearth / Tags: barry simon, blue cartoon, digital drums, drums, former blue cartoon drummer, getting a drummer, in the studio, in the studio with Buzzie, live drums, new recordings, recording buzzie, recording drums, roland v-drums, v-drums

No Comments

Today was one of those days. I was looking for a song. I was full of it. I had an idea of where to start.

I got clear of my obligations around 6pm and headed home to get on with it. And then technology got in the way.

I really wanted to start with a drum pattern, a ROCK drum pattern and build the sound from there. So I opened my mac and started loading WIN7 under parallels so I could run Sony’s ACID PRO, where I store a lot of my drum loops. And nothing worked right. I could not get WIN7 to access the web so I could serialize and activate a new version of ACID PRO.

Okay. I moved on. I opened iDrum, a drum loop program for the Mac, no parallels and WIN7 needed. And also no inspiration.

All right, punt on the drum pattern, let’s go straight to the guitar. And jumping back from technology a bit further, let’s get the Taylor warmed up. No electronics just wood and steel. And… it literally took me 15 minutes to find a guitar pick. (I’ve just moved into a new house and my studio is not even close to being unpacked, but this was ridiculous!)

So I found the pick and tuned the Taylor, oh about an hour and a half after I started my tune quest, and I was finally strumming the first chords. It would’ve been easy enough to give up, move on, do something else. But when I put the capo into the 3rd position something connected. A tone, a feeling, the crisp cool air coming in from the open sliding glass door, the little dog at my side and the cat looking sulky at me from the carpet.

And just as the first verse was coming together my phone went off. And magic of the universe it was the person I was *sort of* writing the song about. And I just kept on writing and texting and writing and singing. And though this person was 20 or so miles away, and couldn’t know that they were in the middle of a songwriting session, there was something inspiring about the interconnectedness of it all.

@jmacofearth

Posted in: songwriting by jmacofearth / Tags: a new song, acid pro, always the drums, challenges of writing, conspire, drum loops, drums, inspirational, interconnectedness, keep going, magic of the universe, my phone went off, songwriting, sony acid, the process of writing

No Comments

The Same Thing (click to play or download free mp3 file of this song)

wake up baby, I can’t sleep
must be the ghosts I keep
everywhere I go, they’re around again
when I think i know, here I go again

i’m in a tailspin
i’m in a daydream
i’m falling again
fallin for the same thing

kiss me baby i’m all right
as long as you’ll be here each night
every time I go, you’ll be round again
and when I don’t know, you can pull me in

when all the life i’ve left behind me
trips me up from time to time
i reach for you when the pain is blinding
i’m getting closer all the time

john mcelhenney ©2001 all rights reserved
(ascap) happy mac tunes

< back to lyrics index page

 

Posted in: lyrics, songwriting by jmacofearth / Tags: are you feeling anything yet, buzzie, buzzie lyrics, free buzzie download, free MP3 download, happy mac tunes, john mcelhenney, the same thing

No Comments

I used to sing this NO TIME by the Guess Who at the top of my lungs back in middle school days. I’m not sure who I was leavin or where I was going. I most distinctly recall, a pool party, at the end of a six week summer camp excursion in New Mexico, and this entire album was playing. It was a boys and girls at the pool mixer. And this song always reminds me of that feeling. I guess I was saying goodbye to all the cuties, in my mind. Or being the rockstar, in my mind. Either way, this song IS SUMMER and LONGING for me.

Picking up the guitar, clipping the fingernails, and figuring out how to record again. All to give this song as a gift to a friend who’s birthday is TODAY. While he won’t want you to say hello directly, if you are a blipper, you can find him under the alias @adamofdallas.

The next video you see, or mp3 file depending on the day’s work, will be for you and your son. Have a great day today AC!

@jmacofearth
permalink:

A few more shots of the studio space in the waining moments of a Sunday afternoon.

And with props to my friends on blip.fm @adamofdallas and @ladypn for continuing to push me back into creation mode. Thank you!

And an inspirational song I heard last week during #sxsw. I could not recall the name of the band or the song. But today I found it, thanks to a blip from someone else. Not the correct song, but the name of the band. The THERMALS. Here’s the song Let It Go.

Posted in: songwriting by jmacofearth / Tags: @adamofdallas, @ladypn, a recording space, blip.fm, blipper, finding recording time, guess who, i'm HUGE on blip.fm, let it go, memories, no time, recording studio, summer camp, the guess who, the thermals, the time to sing, the time to write, thermals, thermals let it go, top blipper

3 Comments