123115 Allen recorded drums on Windy and
Corky Finds Something. We replaced
the two SM57 overheads with a single
Rode NT1-A.
Shannon added some harmonies
to Windy.
123015 Allen Johnston is back in town so
I'm hastily recording some demos
for him to drum on. Going to try
to at least get the first two parts
of Windy down.
121815 Talked a bit with Paris about how
the mixing was going. He is
happy with what he has finished
but a little overwhelmed by what
remains. One issue is that I gave
him too many bass tracks to sort
through. He is also spending a
lot of time tweaking drums so I
probably need to invest in something
that will let me put the 4 mics on
their own tracks.
We are now looking at late January
or even February before he is
finished. This gives me time to
either pick up a copy of Illustrator
or find a graphic artist to do the
CD artwork.
121715 It didn't occur to me until today that
the iMac dying also means that I
cannot finish the artwork for
Juiceboxberries.
121615 iMac died. Gruesome question mark
on a folder when the comptuer boots.
This means I need to hunt down
another one before we can start
working on new songs in earnest.
121415 Mailed off Industrial Debris MIDI files.
121315 The Mac Pro sees the Behringer mixer
so once I learn Pro Tools I can, with
enthusiasm, abandon Garage Band.
Having fun with the Pro Tools plug-ins.
It is a blessing that this was not in my
hands while the last album was still
in progress because every song would
have a Hammond organ and an ARP
loop.
121115 Was able to figure out how to record a
MIDI file in Pro Tools. Sent a test
to Paris and all is good. Will record
an earnest version of Industrial Debris
this weekend.
120815 Loaded Pro Tools onto the Mac. My
first test will be to create MIDI
files for Industrial Debris. Next, I
need to find out which mixer
interfaces will work with this setup.
1206315 Prepping some one-part demos to take
to our road game on Thursday.
Introducing (all temporary titles) Shaking
off the Sand, Daytime, NowHere and
New Guitar Song. Also working on
marrying the Cowboy Whistling Song
with Windy.
120515 Still not settled on an album cover.
I like the dead mouse. Michael and
Dave like Faith in her pink bathing
suit. The half-dozen people that I
have shown the options to like the
birthday cake.
120315 Got together and learned Dingus and
nothingood.
113015 Finished Little Something and
sent a reference file to Paris.
Processed the files and have
them ready to hand off tomorrow.
I still need to marry the artwork
and text with the template and
procure a barcode.
112815 Whittled Little Something down to 65
tracks, which includes loads of extra
takes. Re-cut some lead and backing
vocals. I have a couple of more ideas
for tracks for tomorrow and then I just
need to sequence the song for Paris
on Tuesday.
112715 Celebrated Black Friday by paying
full price for a 2nd pair of Direct Sound
EX-29 Extreme Isolation Headphones.
112617 "Do They Know It's My Birthday?"
A fistful of chords and words and
I've finally got the anthem I've waited
so patiently for.
112515 Paris thinks he can have the
album mixed and mastered by
Christmas.
"How can you suppose that
anybody knows you're not a hussy
anymore?" Christian is really
starting to grow on me.
111815 Juiceboxberries is nearly
out of our hands so we
set up and played for a few
hours tonight.
111615 Tried tracking some different
grooves for Little Something.
Also recorded some tick
tocks and clicks. Will comp
tomorrow and track a few
more vocals. Handing off
the other 3 songs tonight.
111515 Trying to figure out a way to
record the next album in
Pro Tools so that there are
less post-tracking issues.
I think the cheapest way
to get off of Garageband
while still using an old
Mac (OS X Leopard: 10.5.8)
is to get Pro Tools
LE 8.0.5, which only
requires an Avid interface
(MBox 2 or 3 or Digi002
Rack/Digi003 Rack) as a
dongle. This would be a
$200ish investment.
111315 On, Tambourine and Falstaff
are on a thumb drive waiting
to be handed to Paris. Now
to start listening to Brought
a Little Something Down.
111215 Finished padding out the
tracks in On. Decided to have
a couple more cracks at the
vocals. Talked to Paris about
switching to Pro Tools for the
2nd album.
111115 I'm running out of time
for creating MIDI piano
parts for Industrial Debris.
The link below points to an
application and will convert
the AIFF to a MID file:
http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/getting-a-midi-output-from-garageband.1385/
110915 Parts added and On reference file
sent toParis.
Going to re-record bass
and guitars in Tambourine.
I've also decreed that On
is finished so will send a
refence file to Paris and then
start prepping it for mixing.
Planning on submitting
Tambourine and Falstaff
tomorrow and On in about
a week.
110615 Tambourine reference file
mailed off even though I haven't
finished prepping the tracks yet.
I will get it done by Tuesday.
110515 I think I am going to retract
my earier recommendation of
swallowing a fistful of poorly
chewed salted cashews
before recording vocals. Ack.
Decided to take another stab
at the lead vocal in Tambourine.
I recorded 12 takes after
tracking some high harmonies.
My voice started to give out
after take 4 and by the end
I was barely able to croak in
key but kept recording. I
think I like them. They
sound a little different than
my normal whelp.
Going to do my whoopdangist
to get Tambourine done by
the weekend and to Paris for
mixing on Tuesday. That will
leave On and Brought a Little
Something Down to finish.
110415 Had a nice hang out with
Michael and Dave. We haven't
gotten together in a month or
longer. Agreed that when Juice
Box Berries is done we will
work up the 7 songs live, just
to play together again.
We worked through some
business decisions. We
settled on using CD jackets
vs jewel cases. I showed
some alternate covers that
I had mocked up and I think
everyone still likes the woman.
I may try to offer a few more
choices before we sign off.
Michael had a listen to the
French Horns in "On" and
the new chorus in "Industrial
Debris".
For some reason our talking
business turned into telling
sad stories about our school
days. Lonesome Petunias.
Falstaff ready to go.
Reference file sent to Paris.
May add a few more hisses
and sizles to Falstaff before
sending it off. I also want
to explore a way to extract
MIDI files from Garage Band.
110315 Talked to Paris about my
challenges getting him a MIDI
piano file for Industrial Debris.
I was secretly hoping that he
would say "Well, don't you
worry your pretty face, I'll
find a way to use the piano
tracks you gave me.", but
he didn't. Not even close.
Falstaff just needs a reference
file and a notes file and it is
ready to go. I will have one
last listen tomorrow.
Added a few more
tick tocks to Falstaff before
getting ready to prepare it
for submission to Paris for
mixing. At this point I always
do a quick save to a thumbnail
drive before saving the project
under a new name so that I
still have the full version
preserved. During the backup
to the thumb drive GarageBand
started reporting errors which
resulted in all of the tracks
getting corrupted and deleted.
Fortunately I had done a backup
yesterday so repaired the disk,
restored the project and re-cut
the tick tocks. Now to try to
get this ready to hand off
tonight.
I really dislike this part of the
process. I just want to make
up songs and track parts so
its challenging to stay motivated
during this part of the game.
Having crud go so terribly wrong
after I finally committed to
getting something done is
almost comical.
110215 The drums for Falstaff
have been troubling me.
There are a lot of
percussive sounds
happening in the song -
tambourine, congas,
maraccas etc. and the
drums get in the way.
Or, as I finally determined,
the cymbals are getting
in the way. Went to a
snare, kick and toms only
pattern (see Girl for Samson's
"Meri") and it came out
nicely. Recorded 3 takes.
Spent too much time
trying out soft multitrack
recorders with MIDI
capabilities. I just need
something that's simple to
use. I only need one digital
audio track for reference and
one for a MIDI piano. I also
want to hear the MIDI track
along with the digital audio
track. I know that I've
downloaded programs that
claim to do this but can't get
all required functions to work
on my computer. Again, this
is all because Garageband
won't output a proper MIDI file.
I think I may have better luck
finding someone with a nicer
piano and dragging the
the MacBook and a couple of
microphones over to record
a few takes.
103015 Given the choice of comping
drums and creating some album
artwork mock-ups, I didn't comp
drums.
102915 Tried some different drum patterns
for Falstaff. Also diddled around in
the vintage image collection for an
alternative cover for Juiceboxberries.
102815 Watched game 2 of the World Series
with Michael and Joelle. Talked a
little about the artwork for the album,
how I'm getting cold feet with the
current mock-up and am thinking
about some alternatives. Michael
was supportive as always. Also
debated the merits of jewel cases
vs jackets and determined that we
both tilt slightly towards jackets.
102215 Wandering south for a week.
102115 Expenses coming into focus:
$250 for mastering
$80 for digital distribution
$280 for 100 CDs
-------
$570
101715 Dave recorded some French Horn
parts for the outro of On. We set
up in a bathroom. The R0DE SM6
pointed at the bell and a SM57
in the tub pointed at the tile for
reflection.
101515 Tried some low-fi DAW to see if I
could knock this off. Tried Reaper
and Anvil and was unimpressed.
Tried the lite version of MultitrackStudio
which works great but has bursts
of noises in the MIDI files rendering
it useless.
Got Sonar loaded and after some
fisticuffs I was able to get it to see
the M-Audio device AND eventaully
see a signal. It even records the
signal. What it does not do is create
sound. No MIDI sound during
recording or playback. This is so fucky.
This is like needing to climb to the top
of a mountain where I will find a map
that will lead me to a key that will
unlock a safe back below that holds
life-saving medicine, and not being
able to find any shoes. BTW,
carelessly typing the word MIDI can,
on occasion, result in typing MOFO.
101315 Going to load Sonar on the PC and
create MIDI files that way.
Tried using the Edit/Add to Loop Library
option. It created AIFF files in the User/
Library/Audio/Apple Loops/User Loops/
Single Files directory. Supposedly the
MIDI info is imbedded? I guess I'll try
another application.
I should change the name of this site to
How to Record an Album Using a
Wheezing MacBook and Comically Out-
Dated Version of GarageBand. So, new
challenge: Gargeband does not export MIDI
files in any way that's easy or useful. Off
to find time-sucking workarounds.
After slaving away on the keys, Paris is
requesting a MIDI performance because
the piano is "out of tune and boxy". Back
to the phones.
Reference file for Industrial Debris
sent to sweet Paris along with this sober
note:
"Bringing this tonight. It will be the
stoutest test of our bond. I included
multiple takes (you don't want to know
how many tracks) of everything,
especially my trembly (it's how you
express vulnerability, asshole!) vocal.
America won't get it but I feel like I can
get away with writing a bad ballad
because I have a history of writing bad
non-ballads. Plus I used a masculine
character instead of a female. Sorry
the vocal is so loud in the reference file.
I can assure you, that is not my dream."
Cut a couple of pretty good piano tracks
for the chorus of ID.
101215 Tracks padded, renamed, reference file
created and notes file created. I may
take one more stab at the loose piano
part in the chorus tomorrow before
handing it off to be mixed tomorrow
night.
Answer to problem below: paste
a blank region in the gap and then
join.
Got close and hit a snag. Fun fact,
if you put a split in a region and slip
edit a space or cut out the space,
re-connecting the two regions with
join appears to resurrect the deleted
data. Even if you don't want it to.
101115 Made myself keep grinding away at
this song and finished padding all of
the tracks. Just need to name the
files, write mixing notes and make a
reference .mp3 by Tuesday night.
Got about half of ID padded for import
into Pro Tools. As usual, none of the
AIFF file names match the track OR
region names. Would love to figure
out a way to force Garageband to use
either one of these options as the
audio file name.
During my work I unearthed the original
demo bass part which works nicely with
Dave's bass part during the C section.
100915 Made good progress this afternoon.
Just need to join all of the regions &
pad them so that they start in the
correct spots when imported into Pro
Tools. Also need to make sure the AIFF
names are meaningful. Most likely a
weekend project.
Learning, again, that in Garageband,
re-naming the track and/or the region does
not impact the name of the AIFF file. At
least not in any useful way. I think the
lesson is to give the track an appropriate
name right at the start.
While finishing up ID this afternoon
I want to conduct an experiment. I
want to determine if the quantizing
(letting the computer correct timing
and tuning issues) results are
actually written to the AIFF files or
if it only occurs during playback.
Logic suggests that the effected
results are saved but I want to see
for myself. This isn't critical, I just
want to understand the process.
I also decided that I should give
Paris the original version of the
chorus (or B section) along with
the new version. It makes
creating the Pro Tools-ready files a
little more complicated but options
are good in this scenario.
I need to make a page with a list
of things I've learned about
Garageband. I want to run the disk
utility on the MacBook soon and
have already forgotten the process.
Searching for it in this sad tangle of
verbiage is daunting.
100815 Industrial Debris: I have all of the
verse and chorus vocal tracks
(sending 12-14 takes), drums and
piano ready to go. Tomorrow I'll
go through the backing vocals and
bass parts. Only death (me or Echo)
will prevent me from handing this off
on Tuesday.
100715 Thank you Matt Simon for the
phrase "Burdensome and
unnecessarily sinister..."
More takes of drums on bass
for B section of Industrial Debris.
I like where it's going. May take
one more stab at the piano
(sadly, NOT my weakest
instrument) and then start
calling tracks crap and candy.
Note - I think that's the part I
dread the most. I suspect I
changed the feel of this section
just to put off having to comp
tracks! J'Accuse!
100615 Not much time to spend recording
today. Tried several takes of
fluffier bass parts during the B
section in Industrial Debris.
100515 OK, I was possibly over-optimistic
about getting Industrial Debris
done by the weekend. Today I
recorded some more vocal takes.
I also tried some different synth
bits during the "chorus" and
cut some triplets on the piano
and new drums to give that
section a little more swing.
We're coming up on 5 months
since we created and started
developing these 7 songs. If
we can get them in the can in
2 months that will be a month
per song. Take out some of the
learning curve time and we should
be able to churn them out even
faster in the future.
100215 Recorded several good vocal takes
of Industrial Debris. I had a good cry
beforehand (did not make the vocal
more vunerable) so Paris will be mixing
out sniffs, snorts and sighs in-between
parts.
100115 Figured out how to get the barcode
for the artwork. Shooting for having
Industrial Debris ready to submit
for mixing by the weekend.
093015 Need to discuss production options
tonight. Of course we'll use
Disc Makers. We can get 100
CDs (jacket or jewel cases) for
about $300 shipped. That number
bumps to about $500 for 200 CDs.
200 vinyl records for $1,700. Once
we decide I can start learning Adobe
Illustrator in earnest.
Cleaned all of the sf2 files off of the
MacBook except for the Ensoniq
files and ta-da, all four collections
work.
Want to have Michael and Dave sing
Ringo-background vocals to the A
section of On tonight. I'm thinking
that the right wobbly chorus effect
will make them sound like a mellotron.
This is one of those times where
some combination of sounds that
already exist in the song suggested
this idea. Like you can almost
already hear it.
092915 Created some patterns to be used
for loops in Brought a Little Something
Down. Locked the tracks and then
saved the project to see what I would
end up with. Interleaved stereo files
in a folder named Freeze Files.
Next, I tried soloing one of the tracks
and exporting it. Also an interleaved
stereo AIF.
092815 Added a few more vocal takes to
Industrial Debris and more B & C
drum takes to On. Industrial Debris
should be about ready to comp and
clean up tracks for Paris. Falstaff
and Brought a Little Something Down
are just waiting on horns and
Tambourine is waiting on mandolin.
On, the first song created on the
MacBook, is going to be a bit more
complicated. It is actually 4 mini-
songs recorded sequentially in
one project. I think I'm going to
break the song up into 4 projects
to make cleaning up the tracks
and importing them into Pro Tools
more manageable.
Summoned the courage to try loading
the Ensoniq SF2 files on the MiniMac
to see if I would have better luck.
It instantly recognized and played
banks from all 4 files. Elated, I loaded
the mellotron SF2s and everything
else I had on hand into the
Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks/ folder
so that I could finally explore some
other sounds. Not only did they not
work but now Garageband only
intermittently recognizes the
Ensoniq files. Baffled, I removed
everything but the Ensoniq sound files
and now they are working consistently
again.
I'll next need to consider how to get
soft files to the MacBook by converting
them to "real" files. It appears that there
are 2 common methods: locking the
track or soloing and exporting it. The
issue with the solo method is that I
think it will create an interleaved stereo
AIFF.
092515 Added more vocal and drum takes on
Industrial Debris.
092415 Got my hands on a MiniMac loaded with
Adobe Illustrator C5. Now I begin the grim
process of making imagination stay in the
lines.
092315 Listened to everything to get a feel for what
songs are finished and which still need parts.
Decided that:
Falstaff - done
On - needs loads of love
Tambourine - re-sing, add guitars and mandolin
Brought a Little Something Down - needs horns
Industrial Debris - Dave replaced a bass part
and I'm re-cutting vocals
Talked about buying Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress,
CorelDRAW or Adobe Photoshop so that we can do
our own album covers.
092215 Handed off the first two songs to be mixed.
092115 Added a few more Ahhh and Verse Harmony takes
to Sultan Eyes.
092015 Sultan Eyes is now ready to be mixed. Need to
re-do one of the verse harmonies before handing
everything over to Paris on Tuesday.
091915 I think I'm going to get Sultan Eyes padded and
renamed this weekend so sent Paris a reference mp3.
Sent Paris a refence file for We Don't Do That and
started the process of padding with silence and
creating meaningful file names for the 34 tracks.
Had strangely intermittent luck clicking on a region
and giving the audio file, not the track, a new name
in the editor at the bottom of the screen.
The padding process went well. I would copy
a quiet second from a region in the track I was
working on, paste it at 0, click on the track
header to select multiple regions and then join.
Yesterday I learned that Garageband keeps the
original name of a track for the AIFF throughout
the recording process. These file names are
often not useful, espeically if you were cavalier
and assumed that renaming them within
Garageband later would actually change the name
of the sound file. So, this weekend I'm going to
experiment with making new tracks with names
helpful to the mixer and copying the corresponding
track data into the new tracks.
091815 Addendum to the issue with JOIN that I brought
up yesterday. I had copied a bit of a track
called Metronome, which was the output of an
actual metronome, placed it at 0 and tried to JOIN
it to drum track, guitar track etc. JOIN was grayed
out in the menu so something was wrong. Today, I
copied a bit of silence from one of the drum tracks
and was able to JOIN it at 0 to both the drums and
guitars. The regions that I am joining ARE on the
same track but they are many measures away from
one another. I thought that was the issue yesterday.
Here's what I learned about how the files in the
Garageband MEDIA folder are named.
1) A sound file maintains its first saved name. If
you rename a track in Garageband later, the AIFF
will still retain is original name. Choose wisely.
2) The # in the file name is the take number.
` 3) If you add another region to a track it will be
named the same as the original file but with
an incremented take number. Guitar#01,
Guitar#02 etc.
4) If you JOIN two regions in a track the
original tracks disappear and a new track is
created with the original track name and the
word "merged" - Guitar merged. Initially the
take numbers are scratched.
091715 First, my idea for adding a second of silence to each
track so that Garageband would write out a full track
was good. It was very good. But it doesn't work.
Garageband writes different recorded moments in a
single track as multiple tracks. So, if I added the
second of silence to a drum track Garageband creates
a second of silence track and the drum track. It does
not concatenate or combine the two tracks in the
media folder. And you cannot use the JOIN optin to
connect them because JOIN wants the files to be right
next to one another. I would have to create a long take
of silence and then paste it at the start of the track and
slip edit it to the start of the take. Then I could JOIN
them. Super fucky indeed. More testing tomorrow.
091615 Very good session. Dave added a sexier version of the
bridge bass part in Sultan Eyes. Michael and Dave
added chorus vocals. Dave and Michael both added a
harmony to the "holed up 'till fall" line in On.
Played with the Share option on Dave's computer and
it didn't do what I needed. On the way home I had an
epiphany while staring vacantly into the street lights -
all I have to do is add a second of anything at the start
of every track and it will pad the track with silence!
Then I can just use the Garageband project files. Will
experiment with this approach on the morrow.
Freeze Folder experiment is a fail. While it DOES
consolidate the tracks so that they all start at zero
it still writes out the AIFF as interleaved stereo
instead of mono. So, back to seeing what a later
version of Garageband will offer.
Must buy some new drumsticks today. Mine are so
splintered that bits of wood are accumulating on the
mixer and on Echo.
One last thing to try before using a newer version of
Garageband to export the files for Pro Tools. The
link below claims that locking the tracks you want to
export will put the consolidated (common starting point)
files in a folder called Freeze. The downside is that you
lose the file names. Will experiment with this this
afternoon.
091515 Re-recorded guitars and bass in chous of Sultan Eyes.
Also added more takes of the chorus drums and tried
a different pattern for the new loose bridge.
This is one of the starkest issues with digital recording
other than the quality of the sound. I was spending
loads of time trying to edit a drum measure that didn't
feel right. It's a little tricky because I can only record
4 channels onto two tracks so I can't isolate individual
drums and cymbals. After 15 minutes it occurred to
me to just sit down and recut the part. I got it and got
it good in a single take. It took about 5 minutes,
including prep.
Because Garageband 08 exports an interleaved stereo
track vs mono I'll need to find another option for getting
the tracks to Paris for mixing in Pro Tools. Decided to
try importing into Dave's newer version of Garageband
and testing some of the export options.
091415 Found a less Ramones-y approach for the chorus of
Sultan Eyes. Well re-record bass and guitars tomorrow.
Looks like the best option for consolidating the tracks so
that they are all the same length is to disable all of the
effects and plug-ins, zero all of the panning, and export
the tracks one at a time. We Don't Do That has 51
tracks and probably 20 or more are unused takes so this
is painful but doable. It will be interesting to see what it
does to the file names.
Learned a little about Garageband AIFF naming convention.
If you have 10 tracks you'll find 20 AIFFs in your project
folder (MEDIA). 10 will be the actual raw audio and 10
will start with a "." to denote is as some kind of information
file or something. In Gargeband 08 the file names are
truncated with a hash tag (#).
I need to find a way to may all of the tracks start at 0 in the
timeline. With a common starting point Paris will be able
to easily line them up in Pro Tools. I don't know how to do
this.
Recorded additional takes of verse and chorus vocals for
We Don't Do That.
I was hoping the SAVE AS trick would clean up unused
Garageband tracks but nope. I think there is an option
for this in later versions. I haven't a later version and will
have to outwit the machine.
091315 Gave all of the Garageband tracks in We Don't Do That
meaningful names yesterday. Later, I looked at the Media
folder and realized that Garageband, using some system
that I don't understand, seemingly randomly truncates the
names of the AIFF files. Some retain the full name and
others are truncated beyond recognition.
091215 I learned today that when you delete tracks in Garageband
they are only removed from the project interface. The
individual AIFF files are not removed from the Media folder.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to use SAVE AS to save the song
as a different name to see if it drags along the extraneous
files.
Naming tracks so that they
are useful to Paris. No fun.
We Don't Do That =
We Done Did That. Let
Paris know that it was finished
and asked him if he would like me
to delete unused takes to ease
the conversion process or leave
them in for comping.
091115 To-do list for next 10 days:
We Don't Do That
think about vocal phrasing in chorus
looser piano in outro?
balance drum transition
Falstaff
clean up extraneous takes
sign off on bass
On
take another stab at lead vocals in A-B
replace synths with clarinet, cello etc.
arrange end of B section
Brought A Little Something Down
another pass of drums?
Tambourine
take another stab at lead vocal
work on B section
Industrial Debris
take another stab at lead vocal
Sultan Eyes
rethink 3rd passage of solo
sexier rhythm in chorus?
091015 Comped bass parts from last night. There are some synth
parts in On that I want to replace with a clarinet so I'm
soaking a reed. Speaking of comping parts...
090915 Very productive session. Dave added a nice bass part for
the solo section in Sultan Eyes. He also added better takes
for the A & B parts in On and the outro of We Don't Do That.
Kevin and Rachel popped by to hang out with Michael and
Joelle.
Jezebel recording mandolin parts for Tambourine.
090815 Talked to Paris a little about the mixing process. His plan is
to import (a friendly sounding word for what will most likely be
a brutal manual process) the files from Garageband to Pro
Tools.
I just thought of the line "the hounds of hoo-ha" so I pretty
much own that now.
090715 Decided to put a 12 measure solo in the middle of Sultan
Eyes. Not quite the the same process as yelling into a mic
"Dear friends, let us add 12 measures here for a solo.
1, 2, 3, 4..." Ghosted out a feel I like with the Kent Americana
and a noisey octave pedal.
090415 Chipped away at Sultan Eyes. Played the latest version for
Michael. Ran out the clock eating cheap tacos, drinking Mojitos
and watching a documentary on the Wrecking Crew.
090315 Added a sample of Sultan Eyes to the sounds section. Yes, I've
dropped When the Lever Breaks (You Better Moot) as the title.
It hurt AND it left a scar.
Steve Neal dropped by and added harmonies/backing vocals to
most of the songs.
090215 Joelle's birthday party.
Spent a couple of hours adding a new bass part, guitar (Fender
Bronco!), drum part and vocals to When the Lever Breaks
(You Better Moot). I really need someone to boss me around.
090115 Decided to write something new today instead of working on the
CD. Partially constructed a song with the working title When
the Lever Breaks (You Better Moot).
083115 Goodbye, Meri.
082915 John sent me electric and acoustic slide guitar parts for
Tambourine.
Steve Neal coming on the 3rd to record some vocals.
082815 Thought of a title for the EP that I liked last night and played
around with a mock up for the CD. Used
slides_17_faithmodeling_faith_6.tif and copied the bottom
border to create a fill so that the layout is square.
"Johnny Marie & the Lonesone Petunias" using Free Style
Script and #ACA0B9 as the font color.
"juiceboxberries" using Rockwell Extra Bold with juice as
#6D7659 box as #C8A5BF and berries as #FF016D
Colors used for song title Rockwell fonts #C2A0B6, #E9E6E4,
#A8AEAC, #9A5E4E & #DBCFC4
Michael approves so just waiting on feedback from Dave.
082715 Wasted more time trying to figure out the procedure for
repairing a hard drive on a Mac. You have to do it from
the startup disc but you can't just put in the startup CD
and reboot. You have to hold down the C key during the
boot process and then do the repair from the Utilities.
Wasting time trying to manipulate banks of multiple Sound
Fonts using an external MIDI controller. The M-Audio
Keystation will recognize a few of the files. I fired up the
Juno-106 and it only sees 0,0 of any of the banks. Is this a
Garageband '08 issue? Is it because I am using MIDI cables
that terminate in USB connectors? Is it a SF2 issue? A
Roland or M-Audio issue? Am I being punished for trying
to use samples? Maybe I should be.
082615 Lost chunks of the work I did yesterday with this seemingly
innocuous error message "invalid regions changed". What
actually happened is that one track was replaced with portions
of another and 6 takes of vocal tracks were gone. I'm going to
try saving this Garageband project as a different name (which
it was due for since it's still using the working title) and see if that
resolves the problem. Repeat to self "I'm not having to buy tape.
I'm not having to buy tape."
Update: So, doing the "Save As" to a different file name at least
stops the error message from popping up.
082515 Made some lyric mods for the B section of On so recorded
it again. Recorded two takes of drums for the B and C
sections.
082415 Recorded a fistful of vocal takes on the A and B sections of
On. You just don't know if something magic is giong to
happen unless you hook up a mic and fire up the computer.
Nothing magic happened.
John still sending me guitar tracks for Tambourine and
Industrial Debris while I send him confusing and conflicting
suggestions. "Imagine an ant that has a heavy cast on two
of his six legs, caught in a spider web made of pale blue cotton
candy that is lightly animated every 5 seconds by one of those
rotating fans on the lowest setting. I don't mean the lowest
factory setting. I'm talking a modified lowest setting. That's
what the last note should sound like."
082015 Finally added a demo sample of Industrial Debris to the site.
Sent a full AIF file off to John McConnell to play with.
Learned another little Garageband 08 trick: I was importing
.WAV and .AIF files by dragging the files into a set-up track
in the project. Wasted step. You can actually drag them
into the blank gray space underneath the last track header
and it will automatically create a track using the file name.
Got some Spaghetti Western solo options from John last night.
It took some wrangling (do you see what I did?) to import them
but done and done.
081915 We just listened to the songs last night and talked about what
to do next. Dave brought his chum Mike by and we had a nice
time chatting with him. The evening ended in everybody
having a go at the viola and cello for fun.
Popped open Tambourine to do some last minute mixing with
John's guitar part and got the gut-wrenching "track not found"
error message. It couldn't find the Spaghetti Western bass
track. I found it in backups. We're doing this with 2008
technology, folks. Those of you in the front row WILL get wet.
Got 3 decent takes of drums down on Industrial Debris. Set
up the piano with the Rode and a 57 and had a go. Recorded
another lead vocal take.
081815 John sent me the .wav files for the cool crunchy guitars in the
outro of Tambourine. How do you import .wav files into a
Garageband project? You can't copy and paste them. You
have to drag them to an available track. They are converted
to AIF files when you save.
Getting close on the drums for Industrial Debris. I realized that
I'm rehearsing the song. That's why it's taking so long.
Bought a fistful of 1/8 to 1/4 stereo jacks so I can avoid a
repeat of the great Pioneer Headphone Disaster of 2015.
Hazard of recording in your office: shelf is jostled and a
foam ear plug tumbles down and upon the top of a printer
where it finds the single entrance to the inside and tumbles
in never to be found again.
Added a blips from the BOSS DB-60 metronome to help me
with the piano in Industrial Debris.
081715 John McConnell sending Tambourine tracks for feedback tonight.
I was really determined to at least get drums down for Industrial
Debris, and perhaps vocals today. Really struggling as I've never
really drummed on a piano-based "ballad" before. Decided to
listen to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Someone Saved
My Life Tonight" because "piano-based ballad" + "drumming"
= "Nigel Olsson". Run the figures yourself. You'll come up
with the same answer.
Johnny Marie & the Lonesome Petunias website domain is now
JohnnyMarie.com
081615 As we pile tracks upon the 6 songs for the EP, I am trying to be
courteous to poor Paris who will have to paw through the chaos
in order to build a pretty song during the mixing process. I am
trying to use meaningful track titles and employing Garageband's
little list of icons. (Note to P: I can't tell the difference between
the little guitars and the little bass guitars.) I'm also putting a
blank track at the bottom of every song titled "Archived Tracks"
and shoving all extraneous takes below that so that all he is left
with are the winning bits. I'm leaving the unused tracks in the
song so that he can cull a bit here and there if neccessary.
Highly likely.
I misplaced (lost) a critical adaptor for the 2nd set of phones
yesterday for Rachel's session and had to use a vintage pair
of Pioneer SE-50 headphones. Later that evening I kept
discovering little bits of black something or other in my hair and
on my face. Yup, the insulation/foam from the Pioneers is
deteriorating. True to my nature, I have a backup pair of SE-50s
should I ever get in this situation again.
#itceasestobehoardingifonediesandyouonlyhaveoneleft
Did you notice that I no longer mention sound fonts and MIDI
controllers? Day 8 of an uneasy truce.
081515 Rachel came over and recorded harmonies on most of the tracks.
Posted a fresh version of Tambourine on the site.
081415 Sent Ala Fries (The Sinclaires, Intermission, The Catherines,
Chemical Wedding, Boudoir) a mix of Falstaff in an .aif file so
that she can track some parts. Ala and I used to play with Allen
Johnston (This Jungle, Secret Society) who was here about a
week ago recording drums. We also played with artist Jill
Fetterman (Boxes of Love, BCR, Short-Term Memory) who
died on the 12th of this month. Jill was a wonderful artist,
great musician and a priceless friend.
Scheduled Rachel Thompson to come over on Saturday and
record some vocals.
081315 Comping parts from last night. Getting ready to e-mail an
.aiff file of latest Tambourine mix to John McConnell for noodling
consideration. He'll import it into something on the PC side,
add parts and then just export the single track of his work for
me to import back into Garageband. It's a not-awful time to be
alive.
081215 Dave and Michael experimented with some ooos (sharing a mic,
as always) during the Spaghetti Western section of Tambourine.
Michael, Dave and Shannon added the jazz hands "What's it all
about?" harmonies. Michael recording some keyboard tinkling at
the end of On. Dave had a run at the bass part for Tambourine
after a wonderful dinner courtesy of Joelle, Shannon & Michael.
Added some cymbal builds to Tambourine. Also tried some
gallops with a tambourine lying on a floor tom head.
081115 Worked on bass, drums, vocals and tambourine for Tambourine.
Added some cymbal and rim shot bits.
081015 After John left I had a go at the lead vocals and drums on
Tambourine
John Bara came over and tracked conga parts for We Don't
Do That, Falstaff, Brought A Little Something Down &
Tambourine. Single SM57 six inches above and center.
Pictures were taken.
Going to try to finish vocals, drums and guitars for Tambourine &
Falstaff today.
080915 If you see a story about a mall shooting, rape, serial killer
basement/torture shenanigans, child molestation, porn or
scandal involving bribery, the perpetrator is nearly always
a male. Frequently a white male. I don't understand why
males are allowed to drive cars and own guns, much less
run for public office.
#gunsdontkillpeopledudesdo
080815 Kevin loaned me an M-Audio Keystation 49e 49-key MIDI Controller
to manipulate the SF2 banks with on the MAC. I am now
able to successfully cycle through the presets in Sonatina
Symphonic Orchestra but still not the ENSONIQ. Additionally,
Garageband records the MIDI signal, but not the actual
selected sound. This paragraph needs a cute one syllable
summary like "Sigh." or "Poop." but I like surprise endings.
080715 OK, I put samples from some of the 6 demos on the Sounds
page. I think that at this point, since the site contains a blog,
pictures and music samples (known as "content") I will remove
the "Proper website, sounds and debut EP coming soon."
sign from the door.
I think what's tripping me up on the SF2/Mac issue is using
the soft keyboard (Apple K!) that comes with Garageband.
Going to try a proper MIDI Controller this weekend and see
if that changes the game.
080615 The 1204USB came so after set up I labored over getting a
good drum part down for Falstaff. I got close but was really
suffering from ear fatigue as the song is a bit shrill. Will
remix tomorrow and have another run at it.
Added a Sounds page to the website. No reason why I
can't get up a few samples of what we're working on in the
next day or so. (Begins new quest to convert AIFF files to
MP3s. Hoping Audacity will do it. It's like I'm looking for
reasons not to track parts. "Listen all y'all, it's a sabotage!")
080515 Didn't do the must-do. Spent all of my tracking time
dicking with SF2 conversions. I can't get Garageband to see
any of the ENSONIQ or Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra presets
after splitting up the banks using Polyphone. It's actually not
that important for the project but it is absurd and I hate being
told what to do.
Must-do for the day: add a sturdy blip on all of the tracks to
usurp the timid click that comes with Garageband. Of course
I could use a kick drum loop or something but over the years
I have developed a Pavlovian response to the harsh bleep of
the BOSS DB-60 metronome.
080415 Upgraded the Behringer Xenyx 1204 to a Behringer Xenyx
1204USB which comes with compression and of course a
USB connection which will allow me to take the TASCAM
interface out of the loop.
Also bought a MIDI to USB cable so that I can at least use
some of our dead synths as MIDI controllers. I discovered
that Garageband won't recognize SF2 bank files that contain
multiple sounds. It will play the first sound in the bank and
that's it. I have some alternatives for breaking up the files
manually using Polyphone but am hoping that a MIDI
controller will recognize the full potential of the files. I have
an ENSONIQ soundfont collection that has some potential
to be entertaining.
Dave's Yamaha monitors sound great.
080315 Allen Johnston stopped by and had a go at drums on We
Don't Do That. He's such a lovely drummer. We toyed
with playing a straight beat through the 1st half of the song
and then going really loose at the 2nd guitar solo.
Dave brought over some Yamaha HS80M monitors to get me
off of doing rough mixes with headphones. He also brought
a fresh box of VALOMILK Candy Cups!
080215 Juno 106 died yesterday so Michael dropped off the
Roland D-20. And the D-20 promptly dies.
Blog is up. You can almost smell the sawdust, hear the
bearded lady playing the harmonica, and see the tent
sagging over the frayed trampoline.
080115 Got a little closer to getting a good signal/good sound
from the Ludwigs. Using a Shure 57 on the snare, two
Shure 57s as overheads and a Shure PG52 on the kick.
May add the Rode somewhere for a room signal.
073115 Lengthend the Spaghetti Western B part in Tambourine.
Hoping Dave can deliver a trumpet solo. If not, it will be
me adding whips and harmonicas.
073015 Introduced Tambourine. Listened to some of the other
tracks to see where we stood. Decided that we love
each other. Moment is documented by drunken cell
phone photographer while we sway unsteadily just
out of reach of the streelight's helpful glow.
072915 Had another go at the vocal for Bee Miner/We Don't Do
That.
072815 Set up Johnny Marie & the Lonesome Petunias
Facebook, Gmail and Twitter pages. Put down the
guts of Tambourine.
072715 Got a little Behringer XENYX 1204 mixer for recording
drums.
072315 Added bass and some backing vocals to Industrial
Debris courtesy of Dave, Michael and Shannon.
072115 Paris said that he would mix the EP when we are
finished tracking. He has a long history of polishing
my turds.
072015 Played Michael Industrial Debris. Learned about using
Apple-A and Apple-T to insert measures in a timeline
in Garageband.
071915 Working on Where Did All the Cowboys Go?/Industrial
Debris.
071715 Had another run at on vocals for Where did all of the
cowboys go?
071515 Rode NT1-A came so tracked some parts to test it out.
Ran Dave through the paces. Considering Johnny Marie
and the Lonesome Petunias for our moniker after Dave
mentions discovering "Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion
Patch" while sorting through some old 78s. May have
also agreed on an image for the EP cover.
071415 Worked on On guitar solo.
071315 Worked on We Don't Do That guitar solo with
Les Paul.
071215 Worked on We Don't Do That guitar solo with
an old Kent semi-hollow body guitar.
071015 Borrowed a friend's Rode to re-record primary vocal
tracks on On and We Don't Do That.
070915 Worked on comping bass parts.
070815 Made up We Don't Do That. Dave recorded all of the
bass parts for On AND a stand up bass part for We
Don't Do That. He took the cello and viola home to
tinker with.
070715 Thinking of Johnny Marie and the New Petunias for
Petunia.
070615 Recorded some acoustic guitar and piano takes for
The Wall.
070115 Added scratch drums to The Wall. Put finishing touches
on On to show Dave and Michael tonight.
062715 Amp simulator pedal came so messed around with On
some more.
062515 Comped vocals on The Wall and added some parts to
On.
062415 Good Petunia session. Dave tried some bass parts on
The Wall and then he and Michael sang some background
vocals.
061715 Michael and Joelle co-hosted for an hour on KKFI today.
061615 Brought Extreme Isolation headphones home from the
studio. Should help greatly with recording drum tracks.
061515 Worked on On.
061415 Worked on Am/On.
061315 Worked on comping Dave and Michael's vocals. Put
down some parts for the Am/On piano bit.
061115 Michael and Dave did backing vocals/harmonies for
Falstaff, Puff Adders and The Wall. They shared a mic
for all 3 tunes.
060315 Worked on Falstaff. First Petunia session actually
recording something.
060215 Worked on Falstaff. Michael bought a MacBook so
that we can share files.
060115 Worked on Falstaff. Played it for Michael.
053115 Worked on Falstaff. This song was built on a bass
part.
052815 Bought a Mackie ProFX12 mixer with Michael to interface
with the Mac.
052015 Worked on Brought a Little Something Down.
051915 Put some more tracks on the Brought a Little Something
Down.
051715 Worked on the scratch tracks for Brought a Little
Something Down.
051615 Finished the rhythm scratch tracks for Brought a Little
Something Down.
051515 Michael bought some good KRK Rokit monitors.
051415 One of our last live rehearsals before switching to
recording-only mode.
050815 Worked on drums for Puff Adders.
050715 Recorded some passes on the drums with Puff Adder.
043015 Was able to figure out a way to load Dave's Puff Adders
bass line on my Mac so we're good to go. Just copied
the file from the project Media folder and imported it into
Garageband.
042915 Dave gave me the bass line for Puff Adders. Have to
upgrade Garageband before I can import it. Fail.
042615 Worked on Wall scratch vocal.
042315 Currently rehearsing Pool, Come on Out, Brought
A Little Something Down/Talk, Wall, Puff Adders,
Little Shootin' Elvis, Monkey Island and I'm Hiding A
Slave.
041515 Petunia practice.
040915 Petunia practice.
040215 Petunia practice while Shannon and Joelle
hang out.
032615 Petunia practice. Dave brought over a bass to play
with Joelle.
032015 Bought a MacBook and a Tascam USB interface. The plan
is for me to work up demos as a frame for new songs and
then we'll replace all of the demo bits with permanent parts.
031915 Petunia practice.
031215 Petunia practice. Brought Come on Out and Brought a
Little Something Down.
030515 First full session as a 3 piece.
022615 Personnel adjustments. Co-founder leaves. Now a 3
piece which means I move from drums to guitar.
021115 Moved gear to Joelle's.
020815 Drove over to meet Joelle and check out the space.
All good.
012115 Need to move the troops to a new rehearsal/recording
space. Michael mentioned going to Joelle's.
073014 Michael's first session.
043014 Dave's first session.
073109 First meeting with co-founder.