Okay, it’s more than take two, but I’m a sucker for a play on words/phrases. It is time to put “What Say You” away for a while.

This morning, using the bass & drum from the previous attempt, I set out to redo the vocals with additional lyrics and a bit less staccato (which my daughter noted that I seem to like – perhaps a hint).

There is a bit of silliness at tune’s end, but I feel it is a solid demo.

Celebrated a birthday, mine – in fact, this week which brought my first ukulele and a yodeling pickle – at least one of which will be featured in an upcoming song.

Here’s the What Say You demo:

-Eddie Wan

My next lyrical adventure, with the working title Saving Our Lives, was inspired partially by the terrible story of a 51-year-old man who texted that he was okay after the explosion at the airport in Brussels, only to be killed in the metro bombing. I happen to be turning 51 this week. I know that inspiration from thinking about one’s mortality has been just about done to well…

For what am I waiting? This is really nothing new for me. Every so often something happens that inspires me to strive to live “better.” That of course means different things for all of us. For me it’s partially to love better. Pastor Charlie – who married my wife & I many years ago and unfortunately passed from this world not too many years after that – impressed me as being someone who truly lived his life to serve others. While I don’t claim to be attempting to achieve that level of selflessness, I would like to step in that direction.

It also includes not being afraid of doing, and taking the time to do, things like making my album. Which may very well be selfish.

The proposed song initially plays with all types of saving (see the first “notes” below).

More than likely, I’ll slide back into the day-to-day. Maybe, together, we can give each other the support to do better. Unless, of course, you’re already at the level you want to be at – then kudos & send some positive vibes.

-Edventually

“Saving Our Lives”

I want to save your life

Saving the living for later
Quality (of) life

Life saving
Life savings

I can’t save your soul
I can only save your place
And that may be
My saving grace

Who will come to the rescue
Who will be our hero
Saving our lives

Worried about 

saving face
Saving time

Most of my recording sessions occur in the morning hours and are usually aided by a cup of “high-octane” coffee. Get-Up band-mate, & fellow home recording enthusiast, David Husted once recommended a craft beer as a recording studio tool and a Sierra Nevada Torpedo seemed to fit the bill nicely. (“Friend” me on Untappd – I’m GetUpBass – if you are so inclined.)

I toyed with the idea of taking the previous sketch of “What Say You” and copying and pasting the existing instrumental tracks for other verses and adding items for breaks/bridges and/or other segments, but I decided that I had “heard” something a little different so I decided to bake from scratch. Started with the slit drum, then a new (and improved?) bass part. Sang my song over it and experimented, to varying degrees of success, with background vocals. I even threw in a nod to Mary Poppins. Listen to the results via below, Soundcloud link.

Another eye-catcher this week was E-Home Recording Studio’s Tweet on the Fletcher Munson Curve my takeaway being that they recommend making your mix sound best at greater volumes. Kinda like hooking a fish, a listener hears something of interest and turns up the volume – reel ’em in – making sure you don’t lose them.

-LubricatEd

Spent time I hoped to be recording fighting with the setup of the  DAW Remote (Humatic TouchDAW) which I blogged of yesterday – some of the struggle was admittedly exacerbated by my barging ahead without fully reading the instructions.

Step 1: I purchased the TouchDAW app ($4.99) instead of going with the FREE version.

Step 2: Found out that I needed to install Tobias Erichson’s rptMidi Network Midi driver (software) on my laptop. Installed without that nasty Apple Bonjour software it had pre-checked.

Step 3: Fought with the setup and failed. Repaired the software so that it installed said “nasty” Apple Bonjour software.

Step 4: Still getting “connection failed” – re-read instructions & completed the steps I had skipped over.

Step 5: Still getting “connection failed” – being as I am an avid Android & Windows user, I realized restarting computer, phone & software one last time, before considering the dark, Apple side, might be a good idea.

Step 6: I have an app that remotely controls my DAW (Ableton Live 9 Lite)!

-Still AndrEd User

I spent a lazy Saturday morning on Twitter (@MasterEdTC)  & enjoying Obie’s company. Ran across a few interesting items: @diymusicbiz‘s Not Your Standard Quantize (2/25) & @ehrstudio‘s How to Set Up Your Room for Solo Recording

The thing that stood out for me from the latter was the idea of a DAW remote. Similar to my excellent investment in a headphone extension cord, the idea of an app for my smartphone that would allow me to start, pause & stop recording while away from the laptop is just, well, a bit liberating (These apps seemingly do more . Yay!). The one mentioned in the article, DAW Remote by EUMLab, is apparently not available for Android. The one I think I’ll try 1st is TouchDAW by Humatic.

The appeal, to me, of the 1st article is the idea of finding my own groove outside of standard quantizing – the author reinforces the importance of practice to accomplish this goal. There clearly is a difference between a loose, organic feel & just “poor timing.”

Looking to record tomorrow morning – more work on “What Say You?“.

NOTE: This is the 1st post done from my phone which has it’s limitations in this regard.

-Tech Ed

What a difference a day makes. Woke up with the new sound and title for “What Say You” in my head & was actually pretty much able to get down what I “heard.” With inspiration from Michael Franti’s “positivity” and a sound that’s, hopefully, reminiscent of early Joe Jackson (I could hear it being Blur-Ed as well), I punched out a bass part (starting in A) grooving with that keen metronome sound.

Then I used a wooden box drum from the Timber Drum Co. – a Christmas gift from my wonderful wife to supply some beat.

The vocalizations were pulled from my not-far-from-sleep memory of earlier morning with a few tracks of background added. I’m pretty happy with the snippet/sketch – here it is:

Positive Waves.

-Eddball

Earlier in the week I was struck by the New York Times – Politics (@nytpolitics)  continually tweeting that it was near impossible for Bernie Sanders to catch Hillary Clinton because of the delegate lead she has. Up until then, I though it was pretty much even. Ah, but that’s if you don’t consider “super” delegates. I had forgotten about their existence and it angered me as an example of how our elections and elected officials don’t really seem to be representative of the people. I know we’ve got a lot of differences in this country (wow, understated?), but, whatever your position on a given issue, decisions seem to be made without truly representing the views of those that are supposed to have a say.

Let talk/sing about it.

I sketched what I initially was calling “No Say” into “What Say.” Quick and dirty using the FourTracks Lite app on my old HTC Android phone. (Hear below). Lyrical ideas & chords are also available via downward scroll.

-Ed

What Say

D A C G

B A G

B A
No Say
Me Say
Here say
You Don’t say

Our non-representatives
Veto our vote

Super-delegates-false-ish
Seem something quite atrocious

go about with your business
go about with your life

Primary cause
Official

No se

Democra-say
Say-nator
Say-tan
Say-tiate

Elect
Caucus
Right

Added a short bridge to Fictional Life – which I may duplicate (with different words?). This was accomplished by recording the piano “after” the song was “over” (basically appending it). Then I cut it and pasted it after one of the choruses. I haven’t nearly worked out the phrasing in said bridge (which is a bit painfully obvious). I also “moved the notes” in the bridge as well to, somewhat, correct my miss-timed piano playing (you can change individual notes as well). This is all well and good for this track – to perpetuate the fiction, but I will attempt to be more “organic” with other tracks.

Re-sang over the percussion and piano from the latest sketch and am calling it the Fictional Life Demo.

Note: One minor annoyance with my DAW software. I thought I could easily highlight a bit of a track (specifically the vocals at the very beginning on this song) and amplify just that bit. When I tried it just amplified the whole of the track.

Not sure what song is next. Had a thought about a title “All My Flaws” with a few thoughts as to lyrical direction – stay tuned.

-Ed It

Awoke a bit early this morning and decided to fire up the “studio.”

Found where after-recording quantization hides in Ableton Live. I selected a midi track and clicked the “Groove” icon. It lists other things than quantization, but I’ll experiment with them another day.

You can choose quarter, eighth, 16th or 32nd note quantization (all are not available in some instances – & there are the same selections with a ‘T’ appended, don’t know what that means). I quantized the 3 midi tracks – cymbal, bass drum and piano. I think it is better, but I need to be more in time from the get-go.

Here’s the result:

This week was about drum practice. I tried a little bit midweek, but was having an issue where there was a small delay between pressing the key on my keyboard & hearing the sound. It made the already difficult task (for me) of staying in time almost impossible. I found that the problem was that I had the headphones plugged into my audio interface & the keyboard was going directly into the computer (my audio interface does not have a USB input) – I think the signal was journeying too long of a path. This morning  I simplified the set-up. Just the keyboard (for midi input) & the laptop. Yeah! No delay.

I used two midi tracks for drums. I did the bass drum first, then added the symbols (both times recording a small bit & allowing it to loop). They are very basic and would benefit from quantization. I then used the midi Grand Piano sound, included in my DAW, to lay down a simple piano track. I want to make this “swing” a bit and that will require some work.

The other thing I wanted to bring up, regarding the subject matter, is the fine line one treads when they write “in character.” I’ve discussed this among friends with respect to songs like Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” & Jill Sobule’s “Soldier of Christ.” Is there overlap between your feelings & the character’s? Where does the character begin & end?  While I do certainly watch more TV than I should, I do try to keep up on current events & am a firm believer that climate change is real and that humans have played a part in it.

End result? Another sketch with more of the lyrics worked in: