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:

I had a thought and tried to implement. Since the song is about living a fictional life, I figured I’d make it all fake – no “real” instruments. I messed around with some midi organ & such – then tried a little midi symbol.  I did not save any of it.

The whole time I was hamming up the singing a bit towards a lounge-lizard sound. I ended up with another sketch – just vocals & midi piano (complete with flubbed lyrics).

The tip jar is out on my keyboard.

-Lounge LizzEd

A quick hit before the day job.

“Fictional Life” has been stewing & it boiled over into my waking state early this morning. I heard it as a Francis Dunnery-influnced sound, then worried it might go to far toward;s Neil Young’s Sugar Mountain.

Here’s a rough sketch with the current idea in full below.

Fictional Life

Don’t read biography
Or watch documentary
it’s all a bit too life-like
For me

Ignore reality
It’s a blissful play
Living the Fictional Life

Fictional Life
Fictional Life
Who needs the truth
in a Fictional Life

I just say no
To climate change
In fact, it’s fiction
Science is to blame

my mind’s made up
Mad about it
Trading facts for Fictional Life

There’s no audition
I’ve got the leading role
The part’s the whole of my

News is too hard
I want easytainment

It’s not a lie
Just pretending
Escaping all the time
I’m not really here

Immerse myself
In a world
That’s not

Character role play script(ed)
Set the scene
Let’s act it out
Make my directorial debut

TV program
It’s a novel life

Virtually
Augment
Reality

Future Psychic Girlfriend demo has been put to bed. Had the idea to make it a New-Wave, Devo-ish track (partially, I think, because I heard Midnight Oil’s “Power and the Passion” while waking this morning), but, as things tend to go in the studio, it ended up pretty much completely different.

I did some midi drumming – working with three whole keys on the Casio/midi interface control this time. Then I added bass – finally put the mic to my Standel bass amp. I gently infused it with a little jagged guitar – a somewhat reggae feel? (I don’t like reggae, I love it.) Completed with some “warbling” & the sound of two hands clapping (not thrilled with the hand clapping). The result is kinda chunky, but I think it trucks along fairly well. Feel free to judge.

-Ed Judicated

Determined to record midi drumming, I approached my computer. I again tried to get a drum pattern going using the method described in the previously referenced tutorial, with no luck.

This part just ain’t happening:
“Play C3 on your MIDI keyboard, or hit the computer keyboard’s “A” key. You will hear the corresponding drum sound immediately, and again once every bar. Every note that you play will be captured in the new pattern and played once every loop cycle.”

I hear the drum sound, but it does not repeat or record. Perhaps it’s because I have the “lite” version. I decided to just hit record on the track – like I do when recording any other audio track. Voilà! It records what I play. One teeny step forward. I picked a sound that I liked for a possible 80’s sound for Future Psychic Girlfriend and tapped a single key on the keyboard for the proposed (possible?) length of the song. I said in a previous post that I was going to have some fun with this one. That said, I preceded with a quick mess of guitar, organ, & two vocal tracks, each panned to a separate side, with reverb & compression. I make no apologies for the “Crazy Love Mess” mix  linked to below.

-MessEd Around

I see a lot of (sea?) change coming in 2016. I will do what I can to help make it positive change.

The world lost Bowie. I have been a fan since I can remember & had the privilege of seeing stops of two tours – Glass Spider & Sound & Vision. I know him only through his music, but was certainly saddened by the news of his passing. The incorporation of almost any style into the various phases of his career is probably what I admire most.

As I joked about the Trump song with my Get-Up band-mates, I was reminded that I need to start practicing the band material as the yearly Farmhouse weekend in April “approacheth.”

Today started with me grabbing my phone & jotting a few ideas down. I’ve included a bit of lyrics to a new song, Fictional Life, below.

Then it was time to tune the guitar, look to Google Drive & bring Future Psychic Girlfriend back into my consciousness. It’s more of a snippet than a full song right now, but hear ye the start:

The lyrical beginnings of “Fictional Life” (as promised from “above”):

Fictional Life

Don’t read biography
Or watch documentary

TV program
It’s a novel life

It’s not a lie
Just pretending
Escaping all the time

Virtually
Augmented
Reality

I was thinking that maybe my holiday song,”The Christmas Door” was already a Hallmark or maybe Lifetime Christmas movie, but when I searched it, I found a painting by Nita Leger Casey.

I’m placing it on the back burner (but not on the fire) for now – maybe I’ll finish it for next Christmas.

I decided to take a little time to try some midi drums. I hooked up my keyboard to my laptop via USB and found an Ableton Live tutorial to make the attempt. The good news was that the software recognized my keyboard & I was able to hear drum sounds when I hit the correct keys. That seemed to be the end of my success for the moment. Even though I saw some that some information was saved in the midi track within the DAW, I was not able to play it back.

A little frustrated, but I’ll get it.

Be well.

-Sticks Bejzak

P.S. About the image up top: Obie dragged an elastic bandage out of our bedroom – maybe he thinks he’s a Saint Bernard.

A handful of years back, we spoke of having a holiday door decorating  contest at work. I had an idea to not only decorate the door, but write & perform an original song as well – The Christmas Door.

I wrote some lyrics which I “resurrected” (sorry, I know that’s more of an Easter term) from my iPod Touch. Still had a bit of the melody I had in mind in brain, so I did some work on the lyrics and recorded a quick sketch on my old phone using the FourTracks Lite app.

Enjoy the season all!

The sketch: