Molton Blobs of Glorious Bliss

No later than 48 hours after discovering the Logic's supposedly blessed Pitch Correction plug-in, I had to acknowledge a dissatisfaction with its shortcomings. Another 24 past before I tripped over another fine discovery, this time on YouTube.

Like a sip of merlot after a month of grape juice, Celemony's Melodyne plug-in is a dynamic analog workstation that makes patty-cake out of even the most daunting of vocal editing tasks. How do I know? They offer a free test drive of the product, available for download from their website.

Though users of this demo are unable to save their edits, it allows a taste of all functions, including the amazing pitch shifter. This technology analyzes any inputted track, slices it up, and places a visual representation of the audio onto a piano-based grid. The resulting red and yellow daubs of sound, nicknamed 'blobs' by Celemony, may be individually slid onto the right pitch, or any other pitch for that matter, yielding on-key audio with virtually unprocessed sound.

So the company claims anyway; I had to see the magic for myself. I loaded the 75 megabytes onto my hard drive and popped in the chorus from a recent recording - one that I know has blatant pitch issues. About thirty mouse clicks later, my jaw hit the desk. There were vocals coming through the headphones that sounded a lot like my voice, only each note it sang was strong and perfectly perched on the notes of the song's key. Marvelous.

The demo of Melodyne presents a strong case for its hefty purchase price of $299. I wish today's test run would save so the readers of this blog could experience the miracle of Melodyne for themselves. For now, you can either take my word for it, or you can visit YouTube and type in Melodyne for a sample.

I only spent $80 for a used copy of Logic Express (yes, it is original software with serial numbers and install discs), so nearly $300 for a vocal editor workstation sends a few shivers down my cheap spine. As meaningful lyrics begin to emerge from the thin end of my pencil, I shudder increasingly at the thought of ravaging these songs with the destructive weapon of my sad little voice. A big purchase like Melodyne sure is tempting; I will have to think it over.

What you will hear below developed out of my excitement over the Melodyne plug-in, though it is completely raw, unedited vocals, as I am sure will be obvious as you listen through. The music is a simple, catchy groove and an extensive amount of nonsense vocalizing. The scratch recording also shows my first attempt at laying down any sort of live percussion: a Remo version of a djembe drum makes a cameo on this frigid February evening.

Sweetie Pie Day

I am not big on most holidays. My wife generally is, but neither one of us are pinned under the commercial spell of Valentine's Day. We skip the gifts/flowers/chocolates ordeal and instead opt to spend the day together doing something fun and maybe out of the ordinary.

Today we toured the Cyclorama, one of the world's largest paintings that depicts the events of the Civil War's Atlanta Campaign. A painting in the round that has the same square yardage as a football field, this piece took nine artists two years to produce. Its weight is around 10,000 pounds with a circumference of 358 feet.

This is all irrelevant to the point of this blog, except that this epic work dwarfs my tiny recording project and therefore gives me much hope. Surely if this group of ambitious creatives could render a milestone such as this cycloramic painting, so can I accomplish the goals of the Redline Project.

That's all for now. The Day of the Sweetie Pie is not yet over, and solo creative project blogs are not the most conducive to romance. So off I go.

I leave you with a minute's worth of groove I threw together yesterday. I intend it to become the foundation for some lyrics I wrote yesterday as well. Wishing everyone the warmest of sentiments on your candy message hearts.

Pitch Correction

A second post is in order, however brief, to illustrate today's real post below about the pitch correction feature.

What you will hear in the scratch recording below is a 45 minute pass at the concept, recorded in a noisy room on a handheld microphone without any pop filter. Remember, scratch recordings are not meant to be anything professional. This one is particularly rough, but it illustrates the power of Logic's features.

The particularly keen will notice that this recording appears in the right column list as 'Redline 015,' with 'Redline 013' immediately preceding it. That is because 'Redline_014' is a song in progress that may just make it onto the final project. It's under tight wraps, of course.

Everything you will hear by clicking below is my voice plus pitch correction with a touch of reverb. That's it.

Stepping Stones

I am one month and 13 recorded experiments into my brazen return to music. As I walked a friend through some basics of Logic Express two nights ago, it occurred to me that I have rounded up quite a bit of knowledge in a short amount of time.

Ask me how to send a signal to the sidechain of the EVOC Vocoder or how to dump samples into the ESX-24 Synth. Inquire about sending audio to a bus for effects treatment or boiling down all the tracks into a MP3 bounce. I will be able to explain, and the answer I offer will be at least somewhat more substantive than moose poo. Progress.

With each new effect, synth, and recording trick I tuck into the toolbelt, it is apparent that endless possibilities tempt the great danger of overproducing. A familiar ailment from my early days as a graphic designer, I used to smother my projects with every possible plug-in, from drop shadows to bevels, from inner glows to noise overlays. Sure, I could click buttons, but was I exhibiting any taste, any restraint, any thoughtfulness in my selections?

This is why you, the listener, are essential to the success of this initiative. In the scratch recordings posted here, do you enjoy the ones with a raw sound? Do you like any that have heavy voice effects or vocoding? Do you prefer the instrumental tracks? The found-sound experiments? The lighter songs?

Joining my continued efforts in songwriting and scratch recording, the next step for the Redline Project is to draft an overall approach for the final product; a set of guidelines that will steer the artistic direction of the final piece. There will be plenty more to which you can listen in the coming days, though the focus of this project will start to shift from experimentation to conceptualizing the actual album.

Now is the time to scratch on the Facebook group wall, bombard the email, click away on the 'comment' button. What's working, and what does not come together for you? What keeps you coming back for more? What sounds scratch away at your nerves? Sincere thanks for all who are reading along and offering feedback. The Redline Project is nothing without you.

Royal Flush

Here's a quick post to accompany an equally brief audio experiment. A further exploration in the concept of found sound, today's scratch recording features a variety of morning tones not commonly associated with music.

The recording commences with a brief sustained tone for each sample, and then the madness ensues.

In addition to digging further into the found sound concept, the recording available below represents my first sampling effort in Logic Express.

The basic plot of sampling:

1) Collect a variety of sound samples. In this case, all samples are new recordings, but sampling can utilize pre-recorded material as well.

2) Assign the samples to keys on a midi instrument. I routed these eight sound bytes to eight notes on my M-Audio Keyrig 49.

3) Play just as you would any keyboard instrument like a midi piano or drum set.

So simple, yet so brilliant. Logic Express, you continue to astound me with your seemingly endless capabilities.

Without further preface, I am serving up an aural slice of my latrine and kitchen: a shaver, a nose-hair trimmer, a faucet, a toaster timer and bell, and yes, the porcelain throne all resonate in symphony for your listening pleasure.

I trust that you will find the result fascinating and perhaps a touch grotesque. Bon Appetit!

Grounded

The past couple of days have given me a sense of growing hope that the Redline Project is starting to find a coherent direction for its recorded product. I am a person who emotes deeply and wrestles regularly with life's answerless questions, often to no avail. It is fitting that the music on the final recording will reflect these personality facets, and I am excited that they are starting to reveal themselves even in these early scratch recordings.

The feedback I have received regarding 'Slips Away' and 'Sing Silently' has been overwhelmingly positive. If you did take the time to write, please accept my sincere thanks. This project, music listeners, is for you. The final recording must speak to its audience, or it will cease to have one.

As encouraging as the past week's worth of songwriting, recording, and blogging all have been, I must confess that it all has me feeling a little heavy, and I am imagining that my readers are feeling the same. So permit me today to lighten it up a bit with a quick anecdote from the trenches of Studio Redline and a scratch recording of some electronica experimentation.

Early last month, I waxed melancholic about the endless frustrations of online message boards. Though the loathing generally continues, I am pleased to inform that I found an actual solution to one of the persisting problems plaguing my recording setup.

Here's how it all went down:

Each time I plug up my acoustic-electric Guild F4-CE or the Guild Starfire electric guitar on loan from a friend, I experience a horrid melange of buzzes, pops, static, and clown nose honks. After delving through stacks of digital drivel, I happen on a post with an intriguing do-it-yourself fix. The poster's idea smacked of the home repairs I have accomplished with duct tape in one hand and a caulk gun in the other. Perfect; worth a shot.

Simply strip a bit of plastic off the top and bottom of a long wire. Wrap one end around the exposed metal where the guitar cord meets the mixer and run the other down to the chassis of the computer. Buzzing problem solved.

Initially false. The cacophony continues. But I make an important observation: when I unwind the wire from the base of my desktop tower, the buzzing disappears. Why? Because I am touching the exposed copper threads. Apparently I am a grounded individual.

Fingers on wire equals no crazy hum or nightmare buzz. But I need both hands to play either guitar. I twirl my scraggly soul patch as I ponder my options.

Eureka! One simple maneuver later, I am adding acoustic and electric guitar tracks to the evening's musical experiment. Thank you, random message board poster. You have made my night.

So as you listen to today's scratch recording, you can thank my left gluteal muscle for the noise-free guitar lines. Yes, that's correct: I stuck that wire right down my pants and sat on it.

Mission accomplished.

The Shadows in the Room

It was one of those moments when something came together so strong, so powerful, so unexpected. I was thrown off balance.

Late last night I was attempting to add a second vocal track to a scratch recording of a song I jotted while up in the mountains this past weekend. If you read yesterday's post, and I encourage you to do so, you know that the lyrics I pieced together find their genesis in a harsh story that is all too true.

Midnight. Singing a harmony line into the mic, I forget where I am and lose myself in the truth behind the song. Glass shatters, screams, violence. The bandit snatches more from a little girl than a few valued possessions; he grabs her slumber, nabs her sense of peace and security. Through eyes that refuse to blink, she gapes at the shards on the floor, sharp fragments of life that was whole just moments ago. In time, the gripping panic will fade, leaving in its wake a dull nag that will not allow much needed sleep to come for months and months. Fear remains.

As I open my mouth to sing, I sense the shadows in my basement moving around me, whispering the evils of the world in silent groans. I tremble. A lone tear departs the corner of my eye, encouraging a flood of others to drip to the floor. I am sobbing, weeping. And the recording is lost.

Or is it? You decide.

What you will hear below is a solid distance from perfect, but it captures the essence of the song's purpose. I hope it will remind you that even in life's most fragile moments, we can find a shred of courage as we sing 'la la la' to the shadows in the room.

My friends Ruthie and Ian work with 30 kids in an adjacent community. They keep a blog telling marvelous stories of justice and mercy. If you like what you are reading here, you will enjoy visiting Refugee Arts.

Ring Ring Ring

Life is structured to take us away from anything important. Work shifts us from our families, scheduled obligations keep us from hiking trail, and our handheld devices beep and squeak until we are up to our ears in voicemails.

What began as song lyrics a few hours ago mostly ended up in the digital recycle bin. The sole salvage: a two-line bridge. Hopefully you will find it as catchy and addictive as I do.

The music posted below is as much a public service announcement as it is a scratch recording.

When your thumbs are purple from your Blackberry and you have killed more than a few minutes checking the latest twitches (or whatever they are callled), take a moment to reflect on the good food you ate for supper, the blankets that will help you forget the January chills as you sleep tonight, and the rest that will be yours when you wake tomorrow. Even when life is not so good, it is so good.

From Out of Somewhere

To say that something came out of nowhere is an existential impossibility. I do not make any claims to be a philosopher, but I am certain that all things germinate from other things. Tree to seed to sapling, water to cloud to rain, human giving birth to human. That's the way it goes.

Consider the sobering words from the book of Ecclesiastes (1:9)

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

If you have been following along, you are aware that songwriting daunts me. As I sat down yesterday evening for another wrestling match with the empty page, I remembered a conversation with an old friend and fine musician, Jake Armerding.

He composed a brilliant song titled Color You In that uses the names of various crayon shades to paint a picture (as it were) portraying a young, vibrant love. It is one of those tracks that makes you mash the repeat button twice so you can listen carefully 31 times. Right around repeat number 24 I knew I had Jake pegged. I could rattle off the entire story of a delicious youthful romance set in the backdrops of quaint New England townships.

No more than a week later, I inquired about the deeper meanings behind the song, to verify that my interpretation was on the money. "What did you mean by the words of this song?" I took the nonchalant angle. He thought about it, "I just wanted to do something with the colors... that's what I came up with."

Like a once-inflated piece of grape Bazooka, all the meaning I superimposed onto the track splattered to the floor with an alomst-audible 'pop.'

So there the truth was. His idea did come from somewhere, but a much simpler 'somewhere' than I had imagined.

I contemplated this as the cursor dared me yet again to type. So I thumbed my nose at the blinking demon, conjured up a relatively simple concept, and got to work. (I think I deserve some bonus points too for squeezing the word 'redline' into a verse.) Enjoy this first official attempt at lyric writing and the scratch recording that follows.

If you want to check out Jake Armerding's music, follow this link:
www.jakearmerding.com

Can you figure out the idea behind my first song? (Don't overthink it.)

________________________

SLIPS AWAY

v1
Footbridge over river
Sidewalk into square
Down to the basement diner
Thought you were waiting there

v2
Found a wallet in the back booth
With a card that held your sign
The only thing to do was chase after you
Had a time and a telephone line

v3
Red line to the garden
Green line to the shore
Blue line to the airport
Take the line to the end of the line

Chorus
Jamaica Plain is the name of the game
That you play with your fierce green open eyes
Say it’s luck of the draw that calls off the war
It slips away, it all slips away.

Editing Experiment

This is the first time I have posted twice in the course of a day. I could not bear the thought of adding a scratch recording or any serious commentary to my twisted, tongue-in-cheek attempt at songwriting humor (posted below if you have the stomach for it).

When you listen to the scratch recording attached to this post, you will probably be skeptical to learn that there were six hours between the first note recorded and the final bounce. Your surprise is fitting because the audio is nothing more than a brief guitar ditty that lasts a mere 98 seconds.

The reason for my excitement is because this recording is heavily edited with tools in Logic Express that 24 hours ago I did not know existed. Specifically, this minute or so of music is chock full of cross fades, punches, and pitch adjustments.

Numerous problems remain, and the overall sound is a far cry from professional, but this track represents the slow, steady progress that is needed if the Redline Project is going to be realized in a year's time.

Without prolonging the wait, here is scratch recording number 6.

Thumping in the Rain

Sunday afternoons offer the idyllic backdrop for snoozes, and the gray blanket of rain sputtering from Atlanta's cloudy heavens sings a lullaby. But the studio wafts the aroma of that new keyboard smell in my direction, and it is going to win the day.

What might be the perfect genre of music to compose and record on this bleak January weekend? When all I want to do is drift off to dreamland, there are no sounds I crave more than the thump and bump of a solid club track.

Not even remotely true. The quiet storm outside most likely finds me huddled under a blanket cradling a mug of green tea and spinning discs by the likes of Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Norah Jones, Amos Lee, Damien Rice... Bonus points if the tracks lull me into a light sleep.

I am an acoustic instrumentalist who has never touched a piece of digital gear. So why trance music today, or even at all? Among several other chotchkies in my closet of surprises, I am enamored by the sounds and textures of club music; so much in fact that when I made an initial move towards a musical renaissance six months ago, I bought myself two second-hand turntables, a mixer, and a pile of used vinyl. Visions of Sugar Plum Fairies clad in Dolce Gabanna moonwalked through my head as I contemplated a switcheroo from the common man to DJ Redline.

Didn't work. I was pretty terrible. The remnants of that misadventure sat in a tangle of wires on the living room floor until three days ago when a pimply high school junior handed me $210 for the lot.

There is a confession in all of this: I love dance music and I love to dance, though I know virtually nothing about either one. You are invited to have a gander at my first experiment with creating this sort of sound. This is my second scratch recording to emerge from the Logic Express engine, and I am pleased to report that the software did not stump me for hours on end as it did the first time.

Here are some specs:
Total Composing/Recording Time: 2 Hours
Software: Logic Express 8
Midi Input: M-Audio KeyRig 49
Audio Interface: Alesis MultiMix12 Firewire
Microphone: Audio Technica AT4033a

Where's Waldo?
Though it is not instantly obvious, I actually sing in this scratch recording. Can you pick it out the textures?

Vocabulary

With two weeks under the belt and 50 remaining to achieve the goals of the Redline Project, a brief overview of my recently expanded vocabulary is in order.

Automation:

What I thought it was:
Setting the old percolator to boil the coffee beans at 7:30 AM.

What it is:
A mixing process that remembers the sliding motion of the faders and repeats the movements on playback. (I used an automation function to make a fade-out at the end of today's scratch recording.)

Latency:

What I thought it was:
The uncanny ability my wife has to be four minutes tardy to just about anything.

What it is:
A measure of time delay experienced in a system. (Strike a note on the keyboard and you hear it a split second later than you had hoped.)

Delay:

What I thought it was:
The symptomatic phenomenon a husband experiences when his wife suffers from chronic latency

What it is:
An effect that adds measured echo to a sound or set of sounds. (A little delay went a long way to spruce up the keyboard and mouse tracks in scratch recording #1)

DAW:

What I thought it was:
An expression of frustration, nicely accompanied by the pounding of fists on a desk or other nearby solid object.

What it is:
Stands for Digital Audio Workstation. (It's a fancy name for music software.)

USB Keyboard Purchased at a Local Pawn Shop:

What I thought it was:
A piece of equipment that is identical in every way to a unit with the same model number acquired elsewhere.

What it is:
A worthless hunk of doo that causes headaches and emotional trauma and accomplishes nothing of its intended purpose. (I am grateful that this particular Pawn Mart, sleazy as it may be, agreed to accept a return within 24 hours.)

USB Keyboard Purchased at Guitar Center:

What I thought it was:
A piece of equipment that is twice as expensive as it should be that can also be acquired at a local pawn shop for a fraction of the cost.

What it is:
A piece of equipment that more or less works right out of the box.

Plug and Play

What I thought it was:
A concept describing the process of a user stringing a wire between a computer and a peripheral device and instantly having the ability to commence using said device.

What it is:
A marketing scheme that lures innocent consumers into a purchase resulting in three hours worth of reading mice type in a flimsy user manual and listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons pipe through one's cell phone earbud as a soothing voice expresses thankfulness over and again for 'your patience as all operators are currently assisting other customers.'

There you have it: two weeks of lessons learned. Below is another scratch recording - the first result of my adventures in Logic Express. I composed and recorded the song in the course of three hours, and I have to admit I was a little impressed. But the balloon quickly popped when it took another four to figure out how to export an audio file with decent sound levels. Blast.

The significance of this recording is not found in the meaning of the words or the complexity of the music. All of its components were kept simple and lighthearted in order to focus on the true goal of this particular effort: the creation of my first recorded song structure.

And yes, much of what you hear was inputted on an M-Audio KeyRig 49 acquired at Guitar Center around 7:45 PM last night.

Shopping Spree

The sale of some old turntables and bike bits gave some gas to the project budget, and I am pleased to announce that the basement studio is steadily piecing together.

Here is a breakdown of collected gear that is either ready to go or about to arrive:

Already here:

Alesis Multimix 12 Firewire
$200: from a CraigsList ad

Audio Technica AT4033a Condenser Mic
Free Loan: from a buddy's closet

Logic Express 8.0
$70: from eBay

Coming soon:

Epiphone Les Paul
Free Loan: pulled from a friend's living room wall

Total spent so far: $270

Though $270 is a significant hunk of dough, it seems a reasonable amount to invest in the start an adequate rig. There is more to buy, including a quality set of headphones and/or monitor speakers, and a solid microphone stand.

Logic Express 8.0 arrived yesterday in a stout, mustard envelope. With fingers crossed, I unstuck the seal. Purchasing used software is a precarious endeavor, and though I communicated extensively with the seller, I had a few needles on my nerves. In order for this copy of Logic Express to be a worthwhile purchase, it needed to be (A) the full retail version (not academic) with (B) install discs and (C) legit serial numbers. I tore the thick paper and took a gander: (D) all of the above - Score!

As Apple products often boast, the application dug itself into my hard drive without a hiccup. GarageBand is the musical version of building with Lego blocks; a little too easy to mouse around and conjure up a decent track. By contrast, Logic Express presents itself as a complex animal with seemingly endless facets that are anything but 'click for easy results.' Despite the complexity, I hope to have my explorations posted here in short order. Stay tuned...