Some project ideas...

Well, I have decided to keep a list of songs I would like to make covers of -- partly to hone my skills, and partly because I think some of them would be sweet to remake, and partly so I have something I can work on while my original music is stagnating (ie. most of the time)

So, I figured I would keep a running record right here, along with my ideas for the instruments I would need to play each song as I envision them in my skull:

• Annie's Song (John Denver) -- Double-neck Bass/Guitar, with eBow
• Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog) -- Atari Synthcart, Mandolin (through guitar fx and tube amp)
• Eleanor Rigby (Beatles) -- Concertina, Atari Synthcart, X-Station & Vocoder
• Yesterday (Beatles) -- Casio SK-5 keyboard, AirFX, Bass guitar
• While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Beatles) -- Theremin, Atari
• Rocket (Smashing Pumpkins) -- Concertina, Atari, DD-55
• Mayonaise (Smashing Pumpkins) -- I don't know, I just love this song
• This Charming Man (The Smiths) -- This song is pure perfection as it is... I don't want to change anything, but I wouldn't mind learning Johnny Marr's jangly riffs, plus the bass lines in this sound super fun
• What Difference Does it Make? (The Smiths) -- Atari, Bass
• It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Dylan/Van Morrison) -- Casio SK-5, DD-55 drums
• Two Points for Honesty (Guster) -- Atari & Novation X-Station

(notice that I basically kept every song minimal, to only 2 instruments in general? Well, if I am playing by myself... that's the most I could possibly handle! A Roland PK-5 will come in handy to control any MIDI instruments -- the X-Station, Atari, or DD-55)

I also have a few mash-ups planned, although not sure if I have the software I need to easily isolate vocals, music, frequencies, etc:

• Crystal Method & Us3
• Peter, Bjorn, and John & Ali B's Y4K

Remixes:

• If I Am (Nine Days) -- Totally electro remix
• Gabriel & Dresden
• BT

I lied...

Remember that post I made about being "pretty much set" regarding all the gear I need?

Well, I lied.

The thing is, when I am coming up with songs I always start to get some semblance of the finished music in my head as it starts to come together. I think "Oh, you know what would be sweet? If..." and then the inevitable next thought it "oh, wait. I do not have anything capable of that sound/effect."

Now, even if money was no object I have extremely limited space to put all this crap, so some cool things (lap steel; harmonium) are just out of the question. BUT, I just had to buy this PAiA Vocoder, built into a toolbox and painted with a stencilled Cyberman from Dr. Who on it. How cool is that? I've been curious about the PAiA Vocoder for a while (ever since I sold my Micro-Q, which had my only vocoder) but it's over $200 to buy the parts and then you have to solder it and build it from scratch. So when this one, already built into a case for less than the cost of the parts, showed up with a DR. WHO STENCIL no less, it was a sign. And I am quite amazed that I am the ONLY person who even bid on it.

The thing is... I thought my Electrix Warp Factory vocoder would allow me to input my own formant and source lines (blending voice with, for example, a concertina), but it just doesn't seem to work that well. So... I will probably put it on eBay once I get the PAiA one; I don't really see a need for 2 vocoders, although the Warp Factory does a great job with making robot-sounding vocals and also has a "formant freeze" feature which is cool for electronic music. Still, it's such a hot item that I could probably sell it on eBay for more than it originally cost me.


I also decided I need a vocal processor. I can do some simple effects on the computer, but I'm thinking... well, I'd like to play live gigs at some point. Even if they pay me in nothing but espressos or Sparks. It would just be a fun way to get out, share my creativity, and contribute something small to the world. So... for that, I need actual hardware (not software, which is pretty much just as expensive as hardware for some strange reason.)

I looked at the TC Helicon VoiceWorks, but it's kind of expensive and does a little TOO much for me I think (do I really need to set up choral arrangements with my own voice? I want to have some vocal effects and processing, but I'm not aiming for that "almost realistic but can still tell it's fake" arrangement thing.) So, I've pretty much decided on the Antares AVP-1. This doesn't have a ton of features in it, but it will let me a few things I want... like the muffled lo-fi "singing through a telephone" effect (I used to have that on a Korg digital recorder/mixer, and it was pretty sweet) and will give me real-time autotuning for my mediocre voice... which can also be pushed to overkill for the "Cher effect" which is quite trendy and cliche now. But I still plan to use it.

Sweet Blogs

I have to post links to a few other blogs because they are flippin' sweet.

It is rare that I actually decide "Hey, I'm bored. I'm going to go read some blogs" but these never fail to deliver. They are sprinkled with content that is so random yet thematically-focused, and just all around 99% interesting... with enough content to keep me reading/watching/listening for hours. I honestly hope I never get through all of the posts they have, but it gets addictive so that day seems inevitable:

http://musicthing.blogspot.com

http://www.retrothing.com/

http://videothing.blogspot.com/

Accordion Wax

So, did you know that accordions are basically held together with beeswax? You can't see it, but inside it is used to mount the metal reeds with an airtight seal.



Since concertinas also use accordion reeds, I got the fun pleasure of discovering the joys of accordion wax when I picked up my concertina today and tried to play it. About 8 buttons produced no sounds at all. I unscrewed the end, pulled out the reed board, and... no reeds! Instead, there was melted wax goop everywhere and a few reeds rattling around inside. Great.



SO, the concertina is not functional -- just when I was inspired to use it in a song I am composing and recording (tentatively titled "Chaos Theory") Now I must create my own accordion wax (the only recipe I've seen indicated a mix of 90% beeswax and 10% pine resin) and figure out how to mount my reeds back inside the instrument. FUN! Maybe I should just open my own musical-instrument construction and repair shop?



P.S. I also have made zero progress on completing the theremin, despite the fact that I now have all tools and required components.



I suck.

DD-55 Madness

No, it's not the new game from Nintendo... but better!

My Yamaha DD-55 (secondhand from eBay, kind of like my life) showed up today and it is totally crappy awesome!

I plan to cram it somewhere on my ridiculously crowded video-game-playing music-recording desktop and rock it out ASAP.

How can two telescoping DA-SCAN-6 antennae bring a man so much joy?

So... they finally arrived. My two antennae I have been looking for these past several months in order to complete the building of my PAiA Theremax Theremin have finally arrived! The plan is this:

(1) build the Theremax into an old Atari 2600 (6-switch) case. I have already soldered together the Theremax and obtained the case.
(2) Also build the PAiA MIDI Brain module into the same case and wire it directly to the Theremax. I have soldered together this module, but I need to install a switchboard onto a plexiglass face plate to allow changing the MIDI channels. The idea is that I can quickly choose any CC (or series of CCs) to control via pitch or volume antennae, or a gate feature which is controlled by the rate of change of such, rather than the actual value. By doing so, I could use the theremin to do hands-off controls of pitch, LFO, effects, etc. when playing my keyboard or whatever. I could also use the Theremin to control MIDI-controlled lighting and such, which would be pretty cool.
(3) Mod the theremin with a few switches that will allow me to change the waveform and such for more variable sounds.
(4) Use detachable telescoping antennae so that I can make the unit more portable and easier to tune without opening the case -- just by adjusting the length of antennae... but this could also be a curse because it might not work very well :(

Anyway, the point is that my music lab acquisitions are almost complete. I've been fiddling with Ableton Live and need to become a little more proficient in that, but otherwise I have:

• My Atari 2600 which has been modded with Paul Slocum's SynthCart to use the Atari sound module as a synthesizer unit, Highly Liquid's MIDI2600 to allow me to send the note signals and information using MIDI-in from a keyboard, and 8BitDomain's A/V mod to send stereo-jack audio out and S-video/composite video output.
• Ableton Live for the audio recording, mixing, etc.
• A sweet (yet cheap) mandolin. Always nice. I love the mandolin. I named her "Elise"
• A sweet (yet cheap) concertina. I also love my concertina. Concertinas are so easy to play. I bet a retarded monkey could do it.
• "Dre." That is what I decided to name my totally ghetto 1980's Casio SK-5, which is a really crappy, low-end Casio keyboard that has a built-in sampling feature. You can use a built-in speaker or audio input to record a sound (sample) -- you can have two "long" samples (like 1.5 seconds or something) or 4 separate shorter ones -- and then you can play them at any pitch using the keyboard. But Dre is no ordinary SK-5... he was circuitbent by somebody and sold on eBay, so he has all these switches that make crazy glitch-pop and analog sounds. Plus, his middle-C key is sticking up for some reason, which is just his way of giving everybody the middle-finger. In short, "Dre makes the beats so goddamn funky." He is awesome.
• Ibanez Artcore guitar with retro vibrato-bridge. Since I don't play surf-rock, I don't use this much, but I will find a way. And it works nice with my Ebow.
• Novation X-Station. This thing has like a billion MIDI-assignable knobs and sliders which is totally pimp in and of itself, but it also has a built-in synthesizer which sounds freakin great. It is badass because it is totally an uber-keyboard plus a MIDI interface/controller and mixer all-in-one.
• Electrix WarpFactory which is basically a vocoder but has built-in "robot voice" vocoding capabilities.
• Alesis AirFX to be a total hands-on (hands-off?) audio processing pimp.

So... what I still need to complete my collection are:

• Yamaha DD-55. I sold my old digital drumkit, for two reasons: I am a piss-poor drum player, and it took up too much room. I decided to overlook reason #1 and focus on getting another digital drum kit (every song needs a beat, after all) that is super cheap and crappy but takes up less space. DD55 fits the bill.
• Roland PK-5: This is a set of pedal (floor) keys that is basically a keyboard you can play with your feet. Why is this important? Well... it's not. Unless I want to play live. Then I can play a rhythm or melody sequence on my Atari or X-Station or DD-55 and still leave my hands free to play guitar, Dre, Elise, concertina, or AirFX.

I would possibly also like to use a harmonium, lap-steel, and a double-neck bass/guitar (since I have no bass guitar in the mix right now), but those things will simply have to wait.