Track #4

Ah yes...this one is perhaps the strongest track on the album, maybe just touching upon a professional-level of production...great mix, good tonal balance, and a nice groove. The intro is rather ominous, as many of my intros seem to be, running through some unusual chordal patterns that shall go unnamed (because I don't feel like trying to analyze them). The bass line took lots of development to get right, but in the end, provided an excellent counterpoint. The percussion in the intro is one of the few areas where I employed a clip from a sound library. Going into this project, I expected that I would be using these pre-canned clips quite liberally, however, I could never find quite the right patterns or sounds. I was able to slow down and lower the pitch of this clip to make it work.

As the delay winds down from the intro, the main verse kicks in. I came up with this riff a number of years ago, but only recorded a short clip onto the 4-track recorder I had back then, and I kept this idea "in my back pocket" ever since. This clip also had the main ideas for the guitar solo plus drums, but no bass. The riff definitely sounds like some familiar song out there, but no one could ever name it, so I claim it as my own! I also surprised myself by coming up with a decent bass line here, although my playing is definitely lacking in a rhythmic and dynamic sense...many, many takes were required just to make it this good! The main riff is a mixture of three guitar tracks: "Rooster" patch on left - bridge pickup, "Acoustic" patch on right - neck pickup, and "Crunch" patch on center/bridge pickup. It took me a LONG time to develop a good sounding combination here, and the mixdown period was extensive.

The bridge/chorus (is there really a chorus in this song?) sounds very different than the original clip, as I added a jazzy octave melody over it switching to the neck/mid pickups on the Strat with the "Crunch" tone. The acoustic is emphasized in the mix, and a faint twangy fill is added, panned extreme right (labeled "way right guitar" on the track!) When the verse kicks back in, the neck/mid cruch tone serves as the lead guitar sound too...that "cool cat" sound.

Now for the lead: I used my "Rush Lead" patch to mix things up a bit, which I afterward thought was a big mistake during the initial mixing. However, it got to grow on me. Besides, there was no way I could re-record that entire solo and have it come out anywhere near as good as the original. The solo does quote Michael Schenker very liberally at times (all rock guitarists MUST own a copy of "Strangers in the Night" by UFO), expecially in the "turnaround" sections. Acutally, I am very proud of that fact!

The return to the cut-and-paste verse sounds a bit bland after such an extended solo, and in hindsight, I maybe should have bumped up the center guitar in the mix, or given it more overdrive, but I am still happy with the overall results.

The fadeout section reprises the percussion loop. The Rooster track in this section has reverb active in the guitar processor, if I remember correctly, for an extra-thick sound. I again used the neck/mid pickups for the Crunch lead in the center, and faded out with some Way Right guitar also (I think it was Crunch, with bridge pickup - I wasn't documenting details so well in the earlier recordings).

So there it is, submitted for your approval, one of my life's greatest accomplishments.

At least so far, haha.

Fiona Apple in Temecula

Fiona rocked the house last night at the Pechanga casino. She sang exceptionally well and delivered a very energetic performance. It's really incredible how she seems to express her music with every fiber of her being. I think performing is almost a kind of therapy for her (and for the audience as well!!) This show may have been recorded, as I noticed the microphones positioned to capture sound from the audience. I hope they captured video as well!! I'm so glad she decided to continue to share her gift with the world. All I can say is: BRILLIANT SHOW!!!

(picture not from actual show, and posted without permission)

Track #3

OK, I kind of slacked off this weekend when it came to shipping CDs. I did get in a couple of surf sessions and a bike ride though. It's been tough this summer trying to shed the winter pounds. Hmmm, I guess someone must be getting old? ;)

I also bought a new skateboard called "The Wave". It's definitely a new challenge! I get lots of looks on the Strand when riding this thing because it's so maneuverable. Check it out at http://www.streetsurfing.com/.

Now on to Track #3 - everyone seems to be either puzzled or amused by the title "Captain Quirk". Well, it came about when I created the original riff way up on the 17th fret. I used the middle pickup on the Strat, with the Bizkit tone again. I retained the delay in the GT-5 patch and programmed the tempo in Cakewalk to match. Now, whenever you save a new project for the first time, you have to come up with a file name. Since this was a strange riff utilizing the not-often-used middle pickup, I thought of the name "Quirk". This triggered my memory of an old issue of Cracked magazine (a competitor to Mad) that I had back in the 70's containing a parody of Star Trek. Of course, Captain Kirk was renamed Captain Quirk...hence the song title. In the context of my surf theme, it is more like a nickname you would give someone with a strange and unique style.

This was the first song I completed when I set up my workstation. It definitely took a lot of noodling to figure out the mode changes required in the solos (again due to my hack-itude). I was VERY pleased with the results however, and instantly shared it with a few friends, receiving some positive and encouraging feedback. This propelled me to complete the entire album. The first solo utilizes the Acoustic Simulator patch using the neck pickup. The final solo is with the Eruption patch on bridge pickup (but with delay/reverb turned off). In almost all guitar tracks on the album, reverb was turned off in the GT-5 and added using Cakewalk to enable greater production flexibility. The solos are made up of MANY separate clips that were trimmed out of many improvised takes. Overall, perhaps the song lacks a strong central melody or theme. However, every time I tried to incorporate one, the song seemed to get weaker, again telling me that the song was DONE.

I intentionally went for a somewhat harsh bridge in the middle section, as this is what I heard in my head at the time. This is perhaps related to the influence of early Iron Maiden and early Rush on my sense of musicality...both were characterized by very abrupt transitions, which I found highly captivating, both then and now. I really like the way the main loop starts back up after the middle section, with a smooth acoustic melody to ease back into the flow.

The choir parts were again created with the TTS-1 software synth. I think that embellishment made the song really special, perhaps imbuing a sort of haunting yet transcendent angelic aura (haha, I'm getting cosmic here).

...quirky indeed.

Ready to Ship!

The CD copies arrived from the duplicator yesterday. Other than a slightly green color balance (or did I get a dose of gamma rays?), everything came out great! Some you lucky people have copies in your hands already. Thanks for the Ragin' Cajun lunch..."will work for food", haha.

Track #2

"Ride at Dawn" quite naturally follows the sunrise image depicted in the intro: catch the first wave of the day, and get a great shot of adrenaline! The original title from the old demo tape was "Midnight Drive", which would have resulted in a rather large temporal (yum, tempura) discontinuity!

I opened the Cakewalk file to jog my memory regarding the recording of this song, and surprisingly, I only used five tracks! All guitar tones were my "Main Distortion" patch, bridge pickup, with tone control set at 8. Drums were TTS-1 once again, and bass was Amplitude processed...nice and simple.

I again stripped out the harmony lead used on the original demo, and only added some overdub on the sustained lines at the end of the intro. The melody and timing are slightly tweaked as well. It took me a while to get that time signature properly programmed...I guess I'm just a musical hack! I especially like the way the melody worked out at the end of each repetition of the lick...it projects a rather adventurous and exotic flair.

I am particulary proud of the guitar solo in this song, even though it is rife with cliches. I think it really captures a hard-charging, high velocity feeling, and is quite memorable in a melodic sense as well! I added extra reverb to the whammy-bar dip near the end to give it an instant of vintage surf-sound. I still play air-guitar whenever I listen back to it! The sustained notes in the end of the solo created quite a dramatic, almost melancholy conclusion, kind of like the end of a great ride. It somehow reminds me of some Led Zep song, but I don't know which one...maybe part of "Achilles' Last Stand"?

The solo then goes into an ascending section, and from there into a sort of chaos, kind of like a buiding sense of fear when you've gotten in over your head, and then getting slammed and tumbled around by some nasty wave closing-out, followed by the relief grabbing a lung-full of air. I definitely had to retune the Strat after that! The bass effects were added purely within the computer. I think I could have done something to jazz up the main riff when it comes back in after the solo, as it was just a simple cut and paste. However, whenever I tried to add something else, it seemed to diminish the song. I suppose that's how you know when you're done!

My only other regret about this track is that the bass is not prominent enough. I suppose a bit of parametric EQ would be warranted to give it a bit more thump. It's tough chasing perfection!

Just ask Seven of Nine.

Track #1

There was a major beach crowd today, despite the overcast. Being a late riser, the El Porto parking opportunities were not-existent, so I surfed with my two nephews a bit north of the Manhattan Beach pier. It was the first time out for the younger one - he will definitely be working out those "lat" muscles to prepare for next time! The waves were messy and closed out quickly, and I was only able to grab a couple of short rides. Of course, it was only soup for the kook!

OK, back to the music. I will post some background info for each track on the album. Track #1, entitled "Arise" only requires a bit of discussion, given its short length. Some of you will remember it as "Prelude" from my original 4-track tape from quite a number of years ago. I retained the basic chords of Am-Fmaj7-G-Dm, but lowered the lead an octave and used a cleaner tone with no harmony lead. The lead tone was my "Limp Bizkit" clean patch that I created to play "The One", and I used the neck pickup on the Strat. The choir and percussion were created with the Cakewalk TTS-1 software synth. The rhythm tone is my "Crunch" patch with bridge pickup. Whenever I recorded, I disabled the reverb on the GT-5 and mostly relied on the Lexicon Pantheon in the computer (convolutional reverb was used a bit on other tracks). All of the bass guitar tones were created in the computer using Amplitube with the bass plugged directly into the audio interface. Amplitube only worked well for bass, and I really didn't care for any guitar tones that I tried out. Therefore, I stuck to my Boss GT-5 for all guitar, with the exception of the intro lead in track #8, "Twang Opus". I tried to keep the Strat tone controls consistent throughout the album: Bridge 7, Neck 8.

Overall, this track created a wonderful "sunrise" impression and served as a great lead-in to the album. One friend who gave some early impressions (thanks Vinz) cited a "Spaghetti Western" influence. That was a very unexpected but relevant sonic DNA connection, and I took it as an extreme compliment! Just call me Ennio ;)