Sunday, September 23, 2007
My Burning Kiss part 2
I finally got a program that allowed me to record Flash audio, like that used at Jamstudio.com. The Freecorder toolbar. I used it to capture the audio of the song I wrote using the site's browser interface, so that I could record a vocal over it. Had to play with the settings a little as sometimes the audio would lower in pitch, or I just get static, a problem I had with a few other programs like Audacity.
Once done, I imported the wav file into Sonar and recorded a quickie vocal.
Here 'tis.
I'll put it on the shelf for now. Record it proper later.
Once done, I imported the wav file into Sonar and recorded a quickie vocal.
Here 'tis.
I'll put it on the shelf for now. Record it proper later.
Labels: My Burning Kiss, Sonar, web apps
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Above It All part 7 (The newest final version)
Given permission by this song's author to exploit it, commercially, I revisited Above It All and found some things I wasn't comfortable with. Most notably, my voice. So I decided to polish it up a bit, along with a bunch of other songs from the past couple of years or so, for a new album. If I was gonna charge money for it, I might as well make it sound as good as I'm able, right? The original mix will remain free, as well as the separate instrument tracks, should anyone else want to tackle this tune, either for covers, remixes, or whatever.
Those tracks, which are found on Archive.org, were the basis for the new mix, since I couldn't locate the disc I thought I burned (they may actually be on my hard drive, somewhere on the Agnula partition). I downloaded those and imported them into Sonar. I'd normally blog the same day I record or work on a song, but I hadn't felt like it over the last couple of weeks. I did take the following notes, though...
April 14th, 2007
Recorded new lead vocal. Didn't care for the old one. Recorded harmonized "oohs" for the
choruses. One set, then cut and pasted two more times.
April 17th 2007
Cakewalk FX Reverb into an effects send bus. For bass acoustic, 1 electric guitar track, and vocals. BlockFish Compressor and SpitFish de-essor onto new lead vocal track.
Eq'd a bass boost on the bass itself.
April 20th 2007
Spitfish on one of the background vocal tracks. Cakewalk FX Expander/Gate on lead vocal. Cut out silences on various tracks. Almost finished.
April 27th 2007
Lowered volume a little. Added Sonitus: FX Gate to a harmony track on the first chorus to
reduce some hiss. Did the same to the bass and acoustic guitars, but also used Sonitus FX:
Equalizer to remove hiss from the instrument sounds themselves.
Currently, this song can be purchased from the PsychoVoyager Music Store at the top of this page. It won't be submitted to any of the major music e-tailers until a full album is put together.
As of this writing, you can listen to the whole song on MySpace. It can also be streamed at the Podsafe Music Network. Due to it's being recorded at 48000kh or whatever it is, and a bug in Flash, the song plays slower than it should at Podsafe. I actually like how it sounds, so I'm not changing it yet. Plus I don't feel like re-encoding it. The Myspace and PsychoVoyager Store version play at the proper 80bpm.
Those tracks, which are found on Archive.org, were the basis for the new mix, since I couldn't locate the disc I thought I burned (they may actually be on my hard drive, somewhere on the Agnula partition). I downloaded those and imported them into Sonar. I'd normally blog the same day I record or work on a song, but I hadn't felt like it over the last couple of weeks. I did take the following notes, though...
April 14th, 2007
Recorded new lead vocal. Didn't care for the old one. Recorded harmonized "oohs" for the
choruses. One set, then cut and pasted two more times.
April 17th 2007
Cakewalk FX Reverb into an effects send bus. For bass acoustic, 1 electric guitar track, and vocals. BlockFish Compressor and SpitFish de-essor onto new lead vocal track.
Eq'd a bass boost on the bass itself.
April 20th 2007
Spitfish on one of the background vocal tracks. Cakewalk FX Expander/Gate on lead vocal. Cut out silences on various tracks. Almost finished.
April 27th 2007
Lowered volume a little. Added Sonitus: FX Gate to a harmony track on the first chorus to
reduce some hiss. Did the same to the bass and acoustic guitars, but also used Sonitus FX:
Equalizer to remove hiss from the instrument sounds themselves.
Currently, this song can be purchased from the PsychoVoyager Music Store at the top of this page. It won't be submitted to any of the major music e-tailers until a full album is put together.
As of this writing, you can listen to the whole song on MySpace. It can also be streamed at the Podsafe Music Network. Due to it's being recorded at 48000kh or whatever it is, and a bug in Flash, the song plays slower than it should at Podsafe. I actually like how it sounds, so I'm not changing it yet. Plus I don't feel like re-encoding it. The Myspace and PsychoVoyager Store version play at the proper 80bpm.
Labels: Above It All, buy my stuff, covers, Crystal Walters, downloads, effects, Sonar
Saturday, March 24, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 6 (finished!)
Played around with various settings, levels, etc. Added automation to the fifth vocal track, so that it plays during the laughter at the beginning, fades out and re-appears during the final chorus through the end. Used the Classic Compressor and the Classic Phaser to punch up and then crazy up that track a little, and then played around with panning it back and forth, but decided to simply pan it far right.
I fixed the reversed conga and bongo sounds in Audacity. I didn't want to spend the time figuring how to do it in Sonar. The sounds end sharply with a click, so I removed the clicks by selecting the segment of the audio and then faded the sound out at the very end. It probably wasn't neccessary, but I also normalized the wav files (These were the original exported files from PSP Rhythm). I deleted the audio in the Sonar tracks, inported the altered wav files (drag and drop) and then split the tracks. When I fixed the audio, I only faded out one instance. The same notes play over and over throughout the song, so I took the fixed parts, split them apart from the clicky bits, and then Groove-clipped them (an Acid like feature where you can take a one bar phrase, drag and stretch it to loop as much as needed).
Muted the woodblock and closed high hat sounds. The high hat wasn't needed and the woodblock couldn't be heard and there was no need to force the issue.
Added one of Cakewalk's own reverbs to the snare, which isn't very snare like, but whatever.
Played some more with levels and whatnot till I was relatively happy and then mixed down the audio.
Opened up the audio in a new project. Might not have been necessary, but again, I was too lazy to find out. Applied Classic Compression (used the "mix down" pre-set) and Classic EQ for just a wee bit o' tweaking.
The finished song can be bought at my little store at the top o' the page. You can also listen to it at my Podsafe page which is a higher quality than the version on my Myspace page and closer in quality to the sold version.
I fixed the reversed conga and bongo sounds in Audacity. I didn't want to spend the time figuring how to do it in Sonar. The sounds end sharply with a click, so I removed the clicks by selecting the segment of the audio and then faded the sound out at the very end. It probably wasn't neccessary, but I also normalized the wav files (These were the original exported files from PSP Rhythm). I deleted the audio in the Sonar tracks, inported the altered wav files (drag and drop) and then split the tracks. When I fixed the audio, I only faded out one instance. The same notes play over and over throughout the song, so I took the fixed parts, split them apart from the clicky bits, and then Groove-clipped them (an Acid like feature where you can take a one bar phrase, drag and stretch it to loop as much as needed).
Muted the woodblock and closed high hat sounds. The high hat wasn't needed and the woodblock couldn't be heard and there was no need to force the issue.
Added one of Cakewalk's own reverbs to the snare, which isn't very snare like, but whatever.
Played some more with levels and whatnot till I was relatively happy and then mixed down the audio.
Opened up the audio in a new project. Might not have been necessary, but again, I was too lazy to find out. Applied Classic Compression (used the "mix down" pre-set) and Classic EQ for just a wee bit o' tweaking.
The finished song can be bought at my little store at the top o' the page. You can also listen to it at my Podsafe page which is a higher quality than the version on my Myspace page and closer in quality to the sold version.
Labels: April Fool's Day, buy my stuff, downloads, effects, online retailers, PSP Rhythm, Sonar
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 5
I'm extending my deadline for this song to this weekend. Probably Saturday. Work and stuff getting in the way.
Didn't do much today except replace the kick drum track that replaced a previous kick drum track. I didn't like the way it sounded, so I went back into Hydrogen and loaded the second drum set. There were two already loaded in the program and more available here. I'll download those others at some point, but the one I found did just fine.
I kept the Nyquist EQ settings, mostly, though I tweaked it a little.
When I solo a couple of the PSP Rhythm instrument tracks, I hear a slight click at the end. These on sounds that were reversed, so they fade in and then stop suddenly. In the mix they're not really noticeable I think, so I'll leave them alone for the most part, except near the begining.
Next...
Didn't do much today except replace the kick drum track that replaced a previous kick drum track. I didn't like the way it sounded, so I went back into Hydrogen and loaded the second drum set. There were two already loaded in the program and more available here. I'll download those others at some point, but the one I found did just fine.
I kept the Nyquist EQ settings, mostly, though I tweaked it a little.
When I solo a couple of the PSP Rhythm instrument tracks, I hear a slight click at the end. These on sounds that were reversed, so they fade in and then stop suddenly. In the mix they're not really noticeable I think, so I'll leave them alone for the most part, except near the begining.
Next...
Labels: April Fool's Day, Hydrogen, Sonar
Monday, March 19, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 4
The guitar editing from the other day left a wee bit of a gap on the right side of the stereo which I fixed by a little cutting and pasting. It was time I did something about that kick drum track (imported from PSP Rhythm) which had some mild pops and clicks in the background.
Sonar has something called Session Drummer, but I didn't feel like figuring out how it works right now, so I looked into something more familiar. First I tried Hammerhead, but didn't care for it's sounds, the deepest of which was almost as crackly as the one in PSP Rhythm. I remembered Hydrogen and thought I might've read that there was a Windows version. I was in luck, so I downloaded it, programed a quick loop, imitating the original track and exported it.
The Hydrogen Kick was a different sound, but I figured it would do just fine. Once in Sonar I Groove Clipped it and stretched it the length of the song and then EQ'd it with NyquistEq5. Then I went and cut all the spaces in the vocals, where I neither spoke nor sang (but cleared my throat once or twice) and then exported to mp3 so I can listen to it a million times on my PSP before making my next move...
Next...
Sonar has something called Session Drummer, but I didn't feel like figuring out how it works right now, so I looked into something more familiar. First I tried Hammerhead, but didn't care for it's sounds, the deepest of which was almost as crackly as the one in PSP Rhythm. I remembered Hydrogen and thought I might've read that there was a Windows version. I was in luck, so I downloaded it, programed a quick loop, imitating the original track and exported it.
The Hydrogen Kick was a different sound, but I figured it would do just fine. Once in Sonar I Groove Clipped it and stretched it the length of the song and then EQ'd it with NyquistEq5. Then I went and cut all the spaces in the vocals, where I neither spoke nor sang (but cleared my throat once or twice) and then exported to mp3 so I can listen to it a million times on my PSP before making my next move...
Next...
Labels: April Fool's Day, effects, Hydrogen, plug-ins, PSP Rhythm, Sonar
Saturday, March 17, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 3
Edited a small bit of the first guitar track (near the beginning), taking out a few notes that were kinda sloppy, time-wise. I played around with VST effects after reading this article on effects chains for vocals, which also touches on a bunch of freebies in that area. I downloaded a bunch and tried a few out on a vocal or two and the second guitar track.
For the main vocal (in this case the fourth vocal track - I don't know if I'll end up using this one or the fifth), I used the Spitfish de-esser, Floorfish noisegate, the Classic compressor, and Bionic Delay. I'm not sure if I really need the first two. I'll play around with them some more. My use of the Bionic Delay is a tad bit over the top with the ping-ponging (though not too excessive), but I can't resist it. Used the Compressor on the "trickster god" bit at the end and then for the guitar I duplicated the track, so I could keep the naked sound, and then play with the effected stuff independently. I used the "Uhhh" preset on the Classic Phaser, and then threw the Bionic Delay on top for some funkadelic bouncing around. Sounds a bit like whales or something. I like the way it's shaping up, so far...
Next
For the main vocal (in this case the fourth vocal track - I don't know if I'll end up using this one or the fifth), I used the Spitfish de-esser, Floorfish noisegate, the Classic compressor, and Bionic Delay. I'm not sure if I really need the first two. I'll play around with them some more. My use of the Bionic Delay is a tad bit over the top with the ping-ponging (though not too excessive), but I can't resist it. Used the Compressor on the "trickster god" bit at the end and then for the guitar I duplicated the track, so I could keep the naked sound, and then play with the effected stuff independently. I used the "Uhhh" preset on the Classic Phaser, and then threw the Bionic Delay on top for some funkadelic bouncing around. Sounds a bit like whales or something. I like the way it's shaping up, so far...
Next
Labels: April Fool's Day, effects, guitar, plug-ins, Sonar
Saturday, March 10, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 2
Rehearsed some funk/blues guitar earlier this evening (actually March 9th, but it's after midnight, now) to play around with some ideas and to warm up my hands before recording. Was going for that Jimmie Nolen/Catfish Collins/Prince "chicken grease"* sound, kinda. That I don't play a fraction as well as any of those guys isn't much concern to me, so much as I get a rhythm appropriate to the track.
I recorded two guitar tracks with my Peavey Vortex 1 plugged in directly to the Lambda USB box. Any effects would be added later. The second track was to replace the first, but certain elements were played differently, and I think they'd go well together, panned apart (and edited where necessary). I considered overlaying one more track over the bridge, but I'll hold off on that right now. From the sound of things, it may not even be necessary.
I'm giving myself a deadline of March 21st, to finish this recording and then drop it on MySpace. Should be plenty of time.
*Also called "chicken scratch".
Next...
I recorded two guitar tracks with my Peavey Vortex 1 plugged in directly to the Lambda USB box. Any effects would be added later. The second track was to replace the first, but certain elements were played differently, and I think they'd go well together, panned apart (and edited where necessary). I considered overlaying one more track over the bridge, but I'll hold off on that right now. From the sound of things, it may not even be necessary.
I'm giving myself a deadline of March 21st, to finish this recording and then drop it on MySpace. Should be plenty of time.
*Also called "chicken scratch".
Next...
Labels: April Fool's Day, funk, guitar, Sonar
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 1
This song was recorded last year as a quick demo using PSP Rhythm and Audacity. I've decided to pretty it up a little (and then move on to some of my other favorites from the last couple of years). I explain why I'm using Sonar this go 'round, below. I haven't completely sold out, though. Not yet, anyway. I've signed on as a subscriber to Ardour to help ensure that it makes it to 2.0, and hopefully beyond.
-----------------------------------------------
A couple of days ago I imported the saved audio tracks from this song, created in PSP Rhythm into Sonar. I'd exported each instrument as a separate wav file, to allow greater flexibility in mixing the song when it was done. I tried initially to change the audio to 48 kHz, 24 bit (in Sonar), but it seems to apply to new projects, and I'd already started this one. By the time I'd realized that I was still in 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, I was already underway and didn't feel like re-importing the PSP Rhythm files.
The VGA Kick-Low end (bass drum) track has some crackle in it that originates in it's source, the sample in PSP Rhythm 4. It'll have to be replaced, but that won't be difficult. I'll come back to that later.
My condensor mic, the MXL 990 was plugged in to the Lexicon Lambda USB interface, so I got started on vocals. I recorded four full takes before I was satisfied with performance and input levels. Then did a harmony take on each chorus and the ending.
I ended up using Sonar on this song because I thought I could reduce the tempo, record a vocal, and then speed it up to normal, but end up with a slightly sped up chipmunk voice ala Prince's Camille voice (Housequake, U Got The Look, etc.). However, it's been years since I'd used Sonar or Cakewalk Pro Audio, I didn't remember how to do this. I wasn't sure I had actually done this before on digital audio. Tape, yes, but that was a while ago. So I changed my mind and started top go back to Ardour in Agnula. But then, I made an impulse purchase of the USB interface mentioned above. I haven't yet gotten it to work with Agnula Linux, and the Cubase LE it comes packaged with, produces noise, instead of playing back music (I'll figure that one out later). So I'm back in Sonar (6), and thought I figured how to do the pitch thing without a plugin.
Audio stretching is available in clip properties, so I selected it on each instrumental track. Then I slowed the tempo from it's original 125bpm to 100, and then recorded a vocal. Unfortunately, the pitch in the tracks don't change, unless you tell them to, so I ended up singing the song in the same pitch, and didn't get the effect I was looking for. It did come out kinda interesting, in that there was a weird doubling effect on parts of the words I was singing. I haven't figured out if I'll keep it.
I tried it again, this time changing the pitch in the backing tracks to -5 and then singing in whatever key that was. Restored the tracks to their normal pitch, applied audio stretching to the new vocal part and then upped the pitch +5, and found that it sorta, kinda worked out, but not as a lead vocal.
Added two more harmony tracks, and then a separate spoken track for the trickster god bit at the end. The roll call appears on all the main vocal takes. In the demo, this bit appears both in the bridge and at the end. Here, I've taken it out of the bridge to make room for some guitar playing.
I'll post the song when it's done. Hopefully in a week...
Next...
-----------------------------------------------
A couple of days ago I imported the saved audio tracks from this song, created in PSP Rhythm into Sonar. I'd exported each instrument as a separate wav file, to allow greater flexibility in mixing the song when it was done. I tried initially to change the audio to 48 kHz, 24 bit (in Sonar), but it seems to apply to new projects, and I'd already started this one. By the time I'd realized that I was still in 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, I was already underway and didn't feel like re-importing the PSP Rhythm files.
The VGA Kick-Low end (bass drum) track has some crackle in it that originates in it's source, the sample in PSP Rhythm 4. It'll have to be replaced, but that won't be difficult. I'll come back to that later.
My condensor mic, the MXL 990 was plugged in to the Lexicon Lambda USB interface, so I got started on vocals. I recorded four full takes before I was satisfied with performance and input levels. Then did a harmony take on each chorus and the ending.
I ended up using Sonar on this song because I thought I could reduce the tempo, record a vocal, and then speed it up to normal, but end up with a slightly sped up chipmunk voice ala Prince's Camille voice (Housequake, U Got The Look, etc.). However, it's been years since I'd used Sonar or Cakewalk Pro Audio, I didn't remember how to do this. I wasn't sure I had actually done this before on digital audio. Tape, yes, but that was a while ago. So I changed my mind and started top go back to Ardour in Agnula. But then, I made an impulse purchase of the USB interface mentioned above. I haven't yet gotten it to work with Agnula Linux, and the Cubase LE it comes packaged with, produces noise, instead of playing back music (I'll figure that one out later). So I'm back in Sonar (6), and thought I figured how to do the pitch thing without a plugin.
Audio stretching is available in clip properties, so I selected it on each instrumental track. Then I slowed the tempo from it's original 125bpm to 100, and then recorded a vocal. Unfortunately, the pitch in the tracks don't change, unless you tell them to, so I ended up singing the song in the same pitch, and didn't get the effect I was looking for. It did come out kinda interesting, in that there was a weird doubling effect on parts of the words I was singing. I haven't figured out if I'll keep it.
I tried it again, this time changing the pitch in the backing tracks to -5 and then singing in whatever key that was. Restored the tracks to their normal pitch, applied audio stretching to the new vocal part and then upped the pitch +5, and found that it sorta, kinda worked out, but not as a lead vocal.
Added two more harmony tracks, and then a separate spoken track for the trickster god bit at the end. The roll call appears on all the main vocal takes. In the demo, this bit appears both in the bridge and at the end. Here, I've taken it out of the bridge to make room for some guitar playing.
I'll post the song when it's done. Hopefully in a week...
Next...
Labels: April Fool's Day, PSP Rhythm, Sonar
Monday, February 26, 2007
I Think Agnula Might Be Dead...
No news, no updates, no nothin' lately (except a change of domain due to a "miscommunication"). If I wasn't lazy, I could figure out (maybe) how to update some of the programs, especially Ardour which I understand has to be built from the source. But I'm not trying to do that right now.
Ubuntu Studio looks interesting, but isn't due till April. I'll try it out once it's released, but until then, I want to re-record my song, April Fool's Day. I need to be able to play around with pitch, and I don't know how to do that in the version of Ardour included with Agnula*, so I'm gonna play around with Sonar temporarily(?), and see where that gets me.
This project will end a fairly long, creative dry spell for me.
Assuming I get started...
* Feb 28th 2007 Been away (From Agnula) for awhile. Forgot about the LADSPA plugins. I'd rather be able to slow the tempo down, record the vocal or guitar and then speed up to normal tempo for that effect. I know I've done it in Cakewalk, but I don't feel like relearning that software, so I'll play around with the plugins in Agnula, for now.
Ubuntu Studio looks interesting, but isn't due till April. I'll try it out once it's released, but until then, I want to re-record my song, April Fool's Day. I need to be able to play around with pitch, and I don't know how to do that in the version of Ardour included with Agnula*, so I'm gonna play around with Sonar temporarily(?), and see where that gets me.
This project will end a fairly long, creative dry spell for me.
Assuming I get started...
* Feb 28th 2007 Been away (From Agnula) for awhile. Forgot about the LADSPA plugins. I'd rather be able to slow the tempo down, record the vocal or guitar and then speed up to normal tempo for that effect. I know I've done it in Cakewalk, but I don't feel like relearning that software, so I'll play around with the plugins in Agnula, for now.
Labels: Agnula, Ardour, DAW, distros, Linux, Sonar, Ubuntu
Saturday, February 26, 2005
untitled part one...
This song (untitled at the moment) started with a beat created in Hydrogen. Initially, I wanted to use this with Rosegarden, which is both a MIDI and audio sequencer which also imports Hydrogen song files. Things were going well with that (for a different song - Thinking Of You), until my attempt to record a third track of audio on top of two drum tracks (from Hydrogen), and two acoustic guitar tracks. Anytime I pressed record, the song would start in the middle of the song. I couldn't find a way around this, so I gave up on Rosegarden for the time being. The song was re-recorded in Sonar in Windows (needed to be done and e-mailed on Valentine's Day). I had some problems with Sonar, since I hadn't used it in while, but while not great, the job was done. I continued my Linux experiment with Ardour, which is an audio multi-track which doesn't do midi (I gather).
There's supposed to be a way to sync Ardour with Hydrogen using JACK, but I've not figured out how, even after reading this. I'm using Hydrogen 0.8.2 (instead of 0.8.1 mentioned in the link), I think, and the Jack transport slave option seems not to be available in audio preferences.
I'll figure it out eventually. What I did instead was something like what I used to do in Cakewalk/Sonar with the Hammerhead drum program in Windows; I'd program the beats first, then separate each instrument and export the patterns to wav files. Import the wavs (one for each instrument) into the Cakewalk tracks where they can be looped, edited and panned into some sort of arrangement. Here I did the same with Hydrogen, though some patterns contained more than one instrument. These were panned in advance of being converted to wav. The wavs were imported into Ardour's sound library and then placed into tracks 1-12. Those tracks with panned instruments were placed with right and left on separate tracks.
There's supposed to be a way to sync Ardour with Hydrogen using JACK, but I've not figured out how, even after reading this. I'm using Hydrogen 0.8.2 (instead of 0.8.1 mentioned in the link), I think, and the Jack transport slave option seems not to be available in audio preferences.
I'll figure it out eventually. What I did instead was something like what I used to do in Cakewalk/Sonar with the Hammerhead drum program in Windows; I'd program the beats first, then separate each instrument and export the patterns to wav files. Import the wavs (one for each instrument) into the Cakewalk tracks where they can be looped, edited and panned into some sort of arrangement. Here I did the same with Hydrogen, though some patterns contained more than one instrument. These were panned in advance of being converted to wav. The wavs were imported into Ardour's sound library and then placed into tracks 1-12. Those tracks with panned instruments were placed with right and left on separate tracks.
Labels: Ardour, Hydrogen, Ménage à trois with robots, Sonar
