Taking Note

When I first started making music with my friend Ralph all those years ago, the recording process (8 track Fostex for those tuning in late) was onerous to the point that we didn't really take many notes. Our songs were scribbles describing sections on a single sheet of paper which as far as I know got lost just as quickly as they were scribbled. But then we were kids. Our ideas of rock and roll did not include taking notes.

Then when I started making electronic music I had a brief desire to take notes but I soon realized that pretty much everything is in the DAW session. And when I graduated from Garageband, I found that the "pro" DAWs had some kind of note taking facility. Which, frankly, I rarely used aside from noting some chord info since re-figuring out chords from MIDI piano rolls is tedious (but even that is gracefully handled by some DAWs).

Had I stayed electronic and entirely in the box the story would probably end there. When the guitar came, things changed. Sessions failed to capture chords, pickup switch settings, stompbox settings and so on. Then there was the issue of practice. I'm still not comfortable using guitar player and my name in the same sentence. It didn't take long before I wouldn't bother firing up a DAW for practice. Of course then I would tire of practicing and slip into exploring musical ideas and chord progressions. Ideas would get lost. Or they would morph from one day to the next because my mood would be different or I couldn't remember the exact rhythm I used the day before.

So I started keeping a notebook. And every now and then I would stop everything and scribble some notes. Of course, this can be hugely disruptive and you have to invent a language for yourself (it's one thing to write down Cm7 but quite another to write down a specific voicing and picking pattern and so I ended up leaving coded hints to myself).

Then I got a looper pedal. And my explorations would become multi-hour affairs where little to nothing got written down. Worse, I could not remember the first 4 or 5 layers of the loop I built. I was certainly enjoying myself but my recorded output went to near zero because there were no notes and because there was no time left (real life calling).

Many suggestions were offered but none seemed to really stick. My friend @sudara suggested video'ing my sessions. Put a camcorder on a tripod and give 'er. Mmm, good idea but I never did it for the usual host of reasons. Then one day, he tweeted about using Photobooth to record the video. Genius! For those that don't know, every Mac comes with a built in camera and an app called Photobooth which everybody uses for a little while to take some goofy funhouse style pictures of themselves until the novelty wears off. Well it can also record video too. Huh.

Today the RPM Challenge started and this evening I set out to work on what will be my third RPM album. I did not really have any ideas that I was working on and I was short on time so I figured I would just looper noodle. Before long, it was going and I suddenly realized that I should be at least taking video. So I fire up the Photobooth app, start recording and return to my noodling. After about 12 minutes I checked and the result was brilliant! Not only did I capture the sound (from my audio interface, so reasonably good quality) but I caught my playing visually too so that I'll be able to later see what I was doing even if I don't take written notes (which I did as well).

My process is still far from ideal (one improvement, filed under someday, will be to figure out how to add a mic to my setup) but this very simple hack will help me to take note of the notes. Very stoked.

Thanks @sudara!


The video above is a few minutes of the 12 or so I shot.  I missed the creation of the loop and I'll probably frame it better to focus on the hands more but hey, was my first time.

Cranial Vapour Lock

When I was younger I used to "roadie" for a bunch of local musicians who were busy on the wedding and corporate party circuit. While I was overworked and underpaid I did get a bit of an education. One of the things that I learned was that sometimes a good song was made great by an inspired performance. And while the players that I worked with were all phenomenal musicians, the sublime performances were rare and special.

Fast forward to my own performance Sunday at our twice yearly "recital"... To date, each time I played in front of the students and other family of my music school I have played something new. Typically built on a musical idea from the very week of the performance. This time, I decided to repeat. Of course, I very much wanted this performance to be better than the first one.

Instead, I got what what retired CBC hockey commentator called "cranial vapour lock." Early in the performance, I had trouble "seeing" the scale shapes that I was soloing from. At one point, after flubbing a transition, I even couldn't remember which buttons on the looper pedal to stomp. I don't think the performance was a disaster but because of the brain freeze, the bad has been maginified to biblical disaster proportion and the good? Was there any?

Explaining this to my friend Sean, consumate professional musician that he is just smiled and said, "just like golf."

I would end on that but for those that don't play golf, the lesson is this.  Golf can be a fun game even if you lack skill right up to the point that you start really trying.  Then it can quickly become maddening.  In short, just relax.

And so I take a breath and wait for the damning evidence to appear on youtube.

What do you mean there's no undo?!?

I had a disaster. I have been getting along nicely with my GT-10.  I even made my own preset. I loved that preset. It was becoming my sound. My precious.

The other night, I had a few. I decided I needed another preset and that I would derive this new preset from my precious.  So I poke at the buttons to copy the preset. Without so much as an are you sure, I copied the shitty preset I wanted to overwrite on top of my precious. Now I have two shitty presets and my precious is gone. Crack the manual, look in the index for Undo.  Futility in action.

Of course, because I'm a typical lazy-ass, I never actually used the supplied patch librarian software.  So it's gone. Gone. Gone. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks.

So today's lesson in the rock and roll school of hard knocks is make sure you have a backup. That may take different forms for different kinds of gear but when you need to get back something you created months ago you'll be thankful.

[Edit: minor typos]

Ceilings Count Too

Just a quick update on my acoustic treatment project.  In a previous episode, I had built 5 panels.  Until this weekend, I had only hung 4 of them.  I postponed hanging the last one because I had to do something with the ceiling light fixture that was almost directly over my listening position.

This weekend, I went to the Home Despot and picked up a few knick-knacks to finish the project.  These were a hanging lamp, some wood-screw eyelets, some hooks and drywall anchors.

First, I took out the existing ceiling light fixture, and replaced it with the hanging lamp (which incidentally was chosen because it was cheap at $30 not because I have any delusions about my interior design skillz).  I deliberately did not cut the length of the cord down, instead ran it over to a hook I anchored in the ceiling a few feet to the left.  Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, I did this work with the power off.

With the light out of the way, I set myself to the problem of hanging the panel from the ceiling.  I had been mulling on the problem for a while but still only had a fuzzy idea about how this was going to work.  First, I drilled some pilot holes into the panel boards close to the corners and screwed in 4 eyelets.

Now, I had no confidence that I'd be able to put four hooks into the ceiling in exactly the right spot for these four eyelets.  It is one thing to be exacting with something on a workbench, it's quite another to be exacting while standing on a chair, driving anchors into drywall over your head while trying not to knock anything over (see I wasn't going to dismantle the studio again for this).  Anyway, I put four drywall anchors into the ceiling at around the right spots and put the hooks into the anchors.

Next, I took some wire (of the sort you find on the back of picture frames) and, consulting the interubez for knot tying lessons,  I made four pieces with loops on either end (about 10cm long).  One end loop on the eyelet, the other end to be hooked onto the ceiling hooks.

Can I hear the difference?  That would be a resounding yes.  Countless times have I read the words, "tighter sound" and wondered that actually meant.  Now I know.  Tighter is exactly the right adjective.

GAS

Gear acquisition syndrome. Seems to be a problem many people have but it is particularly pernicious among musicians. Magazines and other blogs telling us of new toys that feed the fantasy of musical magic. Different people lust after different things. Some lust after the perfect vintage guitar or amp, some lust after modules for their synths, others collect stomp boxes, and others (like me) collect software.

Of course, when you get a new toy, there is a kind of responsibility to learn how to best use it. Sometimes this is relatively easy (a new guitar will not pose a huge challenge) and other times it's a huge investment (as in moving from Garageband to Logic). In the latter cases, the siren song of GAS will start to call before you develop mastery over the new toy. Soon the new toy becomes an old-new toy, and eventually just an old toy.

I have been lusting after a new effect from Electro-Harmonix called Freeze (to say nothing of their other super sexy stompboxes). This lust has been growing for a few weeks now. Until this weekend. I was waiting for my computer to churn on something or other and I started pushing buttons on my GT-10 (Boss). I'll spare you the details but the GT-10 has whole bunch of effects (maybe 42ish) and one of them is called "Sound Hold". Played a bit with it and damn if it didn't do what (I think) Freeze does. Shit's been under my nose the whole time! The only thing to do is break open the manual (OMG where the fuck is the manual?!?) to figure out how to map one of the pedals to the hold function... Fast forward a few minutes and I have something close to what I had imagined.

Damn thing has been in my studio for more than a year.

So while you're all drooling over the press releases from NAMM, consider taking the ideas and possibilities presented by new gear and ask yourself if you can make something similar with the tools you already have. You just might surprise yourself and save a few bucks at the same time.

But really, who am I kidding.  I'll end up buying a Freeze soon enough.

I have become one of them

As I sit in a local Starbucks, shortly after sunset on New Year's Eve, waiting for my progeny to finish their progeny stuff it seems as good a time as any to write one of those reflective, retrosoective entries that fill the tubez at this time of year. Fuck that.

I will, however, talk about one really cool thing from the past year...

2010 is the year I went pro.

Actually that's not the cool thing. The cool thing is Ramen Music. Ramen is the brain child and dream of Sudara Williams and its aim is to deliver a curated feed of good music to subscribers all while giving most of the money to the artists involved.

One of the ways in which Sudara differs from me is that he actually gets stuff done. I know it hasn't always been easy for him but he's building something cool and deserves a lot of credit.

So as a New Year's gift to you, I offer my links to the first two issues:

Issue #1
Issue #2

Happy New Year!

The sharp eyed will notice that one of my tracks appears in the inaugural issue. Thus my "pro" remark.

Acoustic Treatment? Hell yes!

I recently renewed my 2 year sub to Sound on Sound magazine.  Each month they have a column entitled Studio SOS where they go into someones home studio and make it better.  Without fail, one of the main things they do is apply some kind of acoustic treatment.  I have been reading this for over two years now and done nothing myself.

Sure I'd been thinking about it.  Even talking about it.  Even promising myself not to buy anything new until I did some acoustic treatment.  But it was work.  I'm a messy guy and this involved some cleanup, some money, and some time.  All major impediments.

The mess before

My room is fine, I'd tell my self.  This is a hobby.  I don't want to deal with mineral wool or fibreglass.  Auralex is really expensive.  Bass traps are even more expensive.  And did I mention my room was fine?

Chatting with some friends online, I learned of a green insulation alternative called Ultratouch made of recycled denim.  Hmmm.  Some searching on the Intertubez led me to a supplier within semi-sane driving distance.  Their website listed a bag of the stuff containing 5 sheets of 24"x48" (x8" thick) for under $90.  This started the wheels turning...

So over the holidays, while my fellow Canadians rushed around insanely looking for Boxing week deals on TVs and other crap I finally got my ass in gear and went to visit Eco Building Resource to have a look at this Ultratouch stuff.  (Apparently, I 'm not the only musician type to have come through there)  Wasn't long before I had a big bag of the stuff in my truck.

Next stop, a fabric store.  After wandering around like an idiot, I asked somebody for the cheapest black cloth and ended up with $15 worth (5m of black broad cloth).

Next, I went to a hardware store and got some cheap board (1/2"x5 1/2") and had it cut to the 2 and 4 foot lengths I would need.  I also needed a staple gun and some vapor barrier (plastic sheeting).  Spent another $60ish there.

Then took a break for some oysters with my sweetie (fade to black).

The next morning I realized that I'd proably also need some L brackets, screws and some anchors for the hanging.  After dropping another $30 there I was ready.

As you might expect, not all the wood was exactly the same length, so I took some time to identify pairs that we closely matched.  Then banged in three finishing nails on each corner and had a box.  I then drilled pilot holes and screwed on the L brackets.  Without these brackets, the box would be flimsy and the nails would easily work loose.  And the pilot holes keep the wood screws from splitting the boards.

Now with a completed box, I stretched out a double layer of vapor barrier over the one side and stapled it down.  I bought super cheap vapor barrier which was quite thin so I ended up doubling up.  I suppose I could have something else here, like that stuff you see on the back of your sofa but I wasn't that smart.

Next I spread the cloth on the floor (I had previously cut it to size) and put a sheet of the insulation onto it.  I then lowered the box over that.  I could now staple the cloth to the box.  I arrived at this order of operations after wrestling with the first one a little (first one, I put the insulation into the box, put the cloth overtop and then had to flip the whole thing without it all coming apart).

After building all five panels, I set about worrying about how and where to hang them.  I decided that it would be best if I hung them in "landscape" with the 4 foot side being horizontal.  I put anchors into the walls and a screw into the anchor such that it protruded about an inch then simply hung the panel on the screw.  Totally sleazy and definitely not earthquake proof but hey, we don't really much of that here.

I now have 4 of the 5 panels hung.  I still have to work out how to hang the final one from the ceiling but that's going to involve doing something creative with the light fixture and thus will wait for the next surge of energy (which may never happen).

So I'm out around $200, my back is sore, was it worth it?  ZOMG!  Yes!  I'm sure you've all read the audio geek terms about improved stereo separation etc.  I'm going to try to say this in English.  The difference is profound, amazing, fill in your favourite gushing adjective here.  First thing I notice is that I can hear bass.  Previously I was thinking that someday I'd need a sub(-woofer).  Bull cookies.  I have loads of bass, I just couldn't hear it before.  I might even have too much and will need to think about bass traps.  Not sure yet.  Second thing I notice is that I can hear without straining where things are panned (ah, so this is what they mean by improved stereo imaging).  Finally, I'm noticing new details in music I thought I knew.  Presumably that's because those details aren't being masked/buried by early reflections...

Quite simply this is the best $200 I have spent on this crazy journey.

The slightly improved mess

Studio kitteh