Jingle Jangle Christmas
When I was younger (many years ago and more than likely before many of you were even born) I used to dream of being able to play all of the musical parts that I heard in my head onto some kind of mechanism that would play them back as I heard them.
View looking out from my parents house in Missouri
I used to dream about doing this while I lived at my parents house in Missouri.
Sitting in my bedroom, I would listen to the sounds in my head and imagine them being playing all together at once.
It was a dream that would not be realized until many years later when my friend Gary Powell installed a complete MIDI studio in his home and invited me to use it.
Gary let me use his MIDI studio to compose and arrange the sounds that I heard in my head starting in 1986. In fact, I recorded my very first complete MIDI CD at his studio and titled it “Family Portrait”. His generosity is something that I will always be grateful to him for. Words cannot express what that experience did for me and my musical growth.
Electric LarryLand circa 1998
Armed with this knowledge about the capabilities of MIDI and bursting with a desire to own my own MIDI studio, I purchased tons of my own MIDI gear for my use here at Electric LarryLand.
It didn’t take much for me to be inspired enough to write and record songs at my newly equipped MIDI capable studio. I wrote many many tunes during those days.
In 1999, I was inspired to write a Christmas song entitled “Jingle Jangle”. The tune was loosely based on a style similar to Mannheim Steamroller. However, it doesn’t really sound like them at all.
I’ll let you be the judge of what you think it sounds like.
Enjoy!
Jingle Jangle [3:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6713)
Family Portrait CD: Download (139)Cut That EQ!
EQ is an essential part of mixing used in professional audio work.
Most engineers will grab an EQ knob and start turning until it sounds right. And there is nothing wrong with that approach.
Generally, an inexperienced engineer will ‘add’ frequencies in an EQ device in order to make the track sound ‘brighter’ or give it more ‘body’ or any of about 10,000 terms people use to describe what they are wanting.
Example of #39;cutting#39; frequencies
However, an experienced engineer knows that the first place to start with EQ is to ‘cut’ frequencies.
The reason for this is that generally modern tracks are very ‘thick’ sounding and there is too much audio data for the amount of sonic space available. Cutting frequencies tends to ‘clean up’ a mix to allow for tracks to live together in harmony instead of fighting each other for space.
Another good practice is to roll off sub-bass frequencies in order to clean up the low end and make room for the Kick Drum or Bass Guitar.
Hi Pass EQ Example
I do this almost always for anything that might have sub-sonic frequencies that do not really need to be there for the track to sound right.
An example would be a vocal track… rarely (if ever) does the voice produce anything that is usable or necessary in that range. So using a ‘Hi Pass’ filter for vocal tracks is very common practice.
Example Background Vocals EQ setting
Finally, when cutting background vocals, it is a good idea to run them through a common group channel and EQ that group channel so that you conserve the amount of processing done by the audio computer and to place the background vocal parts in an area of the mix that does not compete with the lead vocal or backing tracks.
Notice that I have chosen to use both a ‘Hi Pass’ filter and also a ‘Hi Frequency Shelving’ EQ for the background vocals.
This has the effect of making the background vocals sound very ‘airy’ and keeps them out of the way of the lead vocal and other instruments.
Background Vocals and Tracks
Sony MCI JH-24 Track Analog Tape Machine
It is not unusual to record 24 tracks of instruments when doing a typical pop song.
But it is unusual to record 24 additional tracks of just background vocals. This is what was required for a song that I am currently working on.
In fact, there was so many tracks used on this song, that even when they were minimized in size to their smallest setting, and even keeping them in their respective folders, they would all not fit onto my 1600 x 1200 screen that I am using.
Here is a screen capture of my Nuendo machine with the song loaded. There are tons of tracks.
Screen capture with all of the vocal tracks used.
This simply could not have been done without spending tons of money to go along with the tracks before the advent of digital recording.
Thank goodness for digital!
And to top it all off, everything is being done on one computer. It’s my AMD 64 computer that I got from AMD as an endorsement.
Of course, it’s a very very fast computer, but the fact that it can even be done on one computer now simply amazes me.
I remember when you could only get 24 tracks on a 2 inch tape… and each tape cost $150 and you only got 15 minutes worth of recording on it.
Times have sure changed.
Another view of my Nuendo Screen with All Tracks (click on it to see full size)
Transfer Progress
The transfer from cassettes to computer is going very well.
I’m using an RME MultiFace audio interface to convert the audio into digital form and an older version of Samplitude to record the data onto my laptop computer.
RME Interface
It has come as a complete surprise to me as to how much data I actually have to transfer.
In my mind, I was thinking it was a few cassettes that had original material on them… but so far it has turned out to be over 35 cassettes and there are still more that have not been transferred.
For many years, I recorded ideas onto tape. Sometimes waking up in the middle of the night with an idea and then turning on the cassette recorder to document the idea I had heard in my mind.
Cassette Decks in Rack
Somewhere in the back of my mind I must have known that my writing efforts would have been heard by someone eventually… but my conscious mind did not think about it much. I just recorded whatever the idea was and basically forgot about it once it was on tape.
But thankfully, my years of ideas recordings are starting to pay off. I am using the ideas stored on these tapes as foundations for the songs that David Wilcock and I are using in our new project “Wanderer Awakening”.
It appears that there is enough material to make three or four completely new projects from these ideas. As I stated in an earlier post, this is a gold mine of song ideas on these cassettes.
I can’t wait for you to hear these songs. The chord structures are unique, the rhythms feel good, and the lyrics are embedded with concepts most people do not bother to think about.
Laptop Used to Transfer Recordings
This is truly my life’s calling. But I had not realized this until I started this transfer process. Everything leading up to this process has been about the preparation of these song ideas and their integration into structure that can inspire the listener into inevitable action.
This is a mouthful… I know. But an explanation will be coming.
More to come…
The Funkerater
Last Friday I played a gig with Karan Chavis at the Pebble Creek Country Club in Bryan Texas.
Pebble Creek Country Club
The gig was great and I met a bunch of great musicians whom I had never played with before.
After the gig, Karan told me she had a Christmas present for me but she had forgotten to bring it along to the gig. So I followed her and her husband Craig to their home to receive it.
Keep in mind that I have just about everything anyone would ever want when it comes to audio and video production here at my studio, but she assured me that I probably didn’t have this particular piece of gear.
I was curious, so I waited with anticipation as she went into her home and returned with a small thin metal object in her hand.
As she handed it to me I busted out laughing. It was a Funk Logic Funkerator.
Funkerater Algorhythmic Prosecutor
Why would I laugh about this?
Well, ever since 99.999% of all work done on audio and video has been handed to computers, the need for external processing gear has slowly and steadily shrunk to near zero.
This process has had the inevitable result of producing a bunch of blank spaces in the many racks that I have here at the studio. In fact, I have so many blank spaces in my racks now, that I actually make excuses for them.
But now I need not make excuses for at least one of the blank spaces in my racks thanks to Karan.
For those who don’t know, Funk Logic is a company that makes nothing but fancy blank panels. They look really really cool, but do absolutely nothing.
The knobs are labeled as seemingly meaningful names like “The Brady’s” or “Thumb poppin good” or “suck less” or similar. But the knobs do absolutely nothing…
And that’s the cool part!
Now, I don’t have to worry any more about at least one of the many blank spaces in my racks here at Electric LarryLand. I have something that looks cool and covers up all of the miles of wires that I have here.
Thanks Karan!
Goodbye Nakamichi
In 1990, when I had more money than common sense, I bought a top-of-the-line cassette deck from Nakamichi for around $1000.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a fantastic and great sounding cassette deck. In fact, in critical listening tests more people could not tell the difference between masters and cassette copies on most common listening environments. (you could using studio monitors, but not in cars)
Nakamichi Cassette deck
Since I have found essentially a gold mine worth of original material recently on cassettes, I have been transferring the material onto a computer while David and I have been working on other things.
Unfortunately, yesterday during one of the transfers, the Nakamichi stopped working. I had barely gotten 5 cassettes done and it was to be no more.
So I called my friend Stan Ginsel and asked to borrow his TASCAM 122 cassette deck.
TASCAM 122 Cassette Deck
Today, we’re gonna hook the TASCAM up and continue the transfers onto the computer.
We’re also writing a new song and will probably be the final full tune for the Wanderer Awakening project.
Four boxes of cassettes with original songs
I’ve been writing songs for most of my life… and when I write songs, I usually record them onto some kind of analog tape. Either reel to reel, cassettes, or micro-cassettes are my choices.
David and I need some more songs for our “Wanderer Awakening” project so I’ve been digging through some of the boxes I have at the studio with tapes that have original songs on them.
Typical Audio Cassette
It’s almost overwhelming the amount of songs that we have to listen to… I guess that is what you get when you’ve been doing this as long as I have.
But it’s been worth it!
There are been some real gems that we’ve found. Most of them, I had totally forgotten about until we pulled them out today… what fun!
The bad news is that my Nakamichi cassette deck died today. So while I was transferring the songs from cassettes onto computer for easier access, the Nakamichi decided that it would no longer work for me.
So my good friend Stan Ginsel came through and is letting me borrow his cassette deck for the rest of the transfers.
Thank you Stan!
David Wilcock is at Electric LarryLand
David Wilcock is here working with me finishing up the Wanderer Awakening project.
We hope to be able to post audio and video podcasts of our work sometime during the next 2 weeks, so be sure and subscribe to our RSS Feed to be notified when we do.
It’s exciting here!
Monday morning Podcasts
It’s Monday morning and I’m doing my Monday morning podcasts.
It’s something that I’ve been doing for a couple of years now for some companies here in Austin. I can’t tell you who they are or I would have to send Guido after you.
Basically it’s fairly easy and takes a bit of time, but it allows me to start my week off fairly easily while assuring that there is at least some income coming in for the week.
Things to do in the studio today include preparing a computer for mixing which will involve installing software, configuring and testing.
Other than that, it’s an easy day.
Mighty Seek Logo
I’m still having trouble with the podPress plugin for Wordpress. It is not working properly.
It acts like it is working, but none of the podcasts that I put up here show up in iTunes.
I run a Joomla site on my http://www.LarrySeyer.com website and it’s plugin for podcasting is working perfectly… so I’m fairly sure it’s not me.
And the guy that makes the podPress plugin states on his website that users have been complaining about some problems with it… so my guess is that there are problems with the plugin and not the configuration.
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