audiot

again, i found a nice little video by Mr. Pincter (sorry, i’m still not able to provide links…), that nicely explains what a compressor does. those thingies can be found everywhere but lots of people still have no idea what they’re for. when i started out mixing my own songs i searched the net as well as different books, but all i could find was very theoretical, unnecessary complicated, dry and boring. so i hope this little video helps you in understanding it better, because it’s a good and practical approach. again he’s explaining it using Propellerhead’s Reason and again that doesn’t matter because it just goes for any compressor. by the way, if you want to know more about compression and see lots of examples, do a search on the terms “loudness war” and/or “loudness race” in youtube. those will take you to a specific corner of compressionland, but you should be able to get the big picture and understand how compression can be used in different ways. this is of course not for the pros out there, just for the folks who want to get the basic idea…

ps: i really dig the librarian-analogy!

yay! one small step for me and absolutely no step for anyone else. you decide if it’s a step for art…..and if yes, in which direction :-)

while the work on this site or better: the collecting of information regarding those little troubles i talked about still eats up my time, i got the news that “bankjob” is now no. 15 of the german reverbnation rock charts. by the way, it’s #14.188 in rock globally and #62.939 across all genres globally. although i have no idea why, this ROCKS !!! so a huge thank you to you guys and don’t stop now (with whatever it is you’re doing…), there’s only 62.938 steps to go! YOU CAN DO IT!

by the way, i have the feeling this site might be too much about me. if that’s the case, i apologize. i’ll try to include more other things – it was supposed to be a site about thoughts on music in general in the first place. on the other hand, it’s my site and i guess i should keep you informed about what’s happening – and the statistics are going through the roof this month, so maybe it’s just me feeling weird about being on display…

while i was searching for some tutorials about a few special things i wanted to include in the record i’m currently working on, i found this one here. it’s really helpful if you’re trying to mix your own stuff or wanting to get into the whole guerrilla recording thing. very basic stuff that works with every parametric eq. you might find it a bit annoying at first, but he does that to make a point – i’m glad i didn’t turn it off right away :-)

boo! it would seem that some browsers have a little trouble showing this site the way it’s supposed to look. the newest safari does fine, the newest firefox sometimes does as well, sometimes not… please bear with me as i’m kind of a computer moron. but hey, this site is online for more than a year now and almost without any problems. i really hope i don’t have to change the look again soon, because i really like this one and it took a while to find it. anyway, i’m sure i can work something out. hopefully it’s just some bug-problem for both those browsers and the wp-software are brand new. we’ll see about that. you should be able to read what i’m writing and if on your screen it looks a little fancy, see it as art and comment here to let me know. thanks!

yep, that’s right. for the first time i’m having a little trouble with wordpress. since upgrading to version 2.8 i ran into some minor problems. it’s mostly about writing new entries, there’s some features missing – i can’t apply links for instance. i’m doing some troubleshooting at the moment, hopefully you won’t even notice but at least it takes away my writing time for today, sorry. maybe i should get back to waiting a while before upgrading anything to a new version. why do software-people even bother releasing beta-versions when the final thing is kind of a testversion anyway? well, on the other hand the wordpress-guys did an awesome job so far with everything – so maybe i shouldn’t be too harsh with them. and in the end, it could of course turn out to be my own stupidity that caused this…

sorry, folks – but i’m in a ranting mood right now.

this is one of those days i regret it a little to do everything on my own, when it comes to recording, songwriting etc.

don’t get me wrong, this is the best freaking thing in the world and i’ve had very good reasons to make this decision. one of them being people who just talk and talk and never get something done. i remember this guitarplayer who wanted to record a few takes at home, taking the daw (digital audio workstation) with him – so nobody else could record anything. he kept talking about how this will be happening, how cool this is and so forth and that we shouldn’t do rehearsals for the time being because it’s best to fully concentrate on the recording. after six months (!) i asked him about some status-report an the answer was “i’m still working on the right sound” – he hadn’t recorded a single note. that’s when i decided to do things on my own. and regarding the creative process (including recording, mixing etc.) i’m happy with this, never had any second thoughts – i love it!

what i don’t love is the whole statistics stuff. there are dozens if not hundreds of sites you need to be on, there are lots and lots of tools you need to use, things you need to do – this never ends and eats up tremendous amounts of time.

i just found out yesterday, that “bankjob” the first song on “corner” (you know, the blue player, top of sidebar…) currently is no.16 of the ReverbNation rock charts for germany (hmm, since i upgraded to wordpress 2.8, some features are missing – including links for instance…). and that’s awesome! on the other hand, obtaining this tiny piece of information took longer than actually writing the song. and i haven’t even got to the whole social-networking-thing yet. that’s where a band has a huge advantage – you can pick one guy who does this, probably the one least involved in recording or songwriting activities. a whole band can certainly be much more efficient than a single person, but let’s not forget, most bands aren’t. there’s still one guy who basically does it all – which again is good for lone warriors like me…

anyway, i just wanted to write a little frustration off my chest regarding that neverending statistics war- ugh. now i’m getting back to work on “traitor” – time to do something of substance…

…back when there was really cool music in cartoons. i always loved this song, even the german version i grew up with. now here’s the original. enjoy:

i remembered this song because i heard a band play it live recently, how cool is that?

oops, i just noticed that i still owe you the rest of my singing-workout – sorry about that, i’ll finish it soon…

but now to the question above: “can i learn how to scream?” believe it or not, i get this one a lot - yesterday for example. but this is a special one because i need to give a different answer to you than to someone who asks me in person. so here’s the answer for you: yes, you can. but no, i won’t tell you how because this is one thing you’d definitely need a teacher for. trying to do this on your own is a really stupid thing to do because chances are you’ll damage your voice – maybe even permanently. don’t let anyone tell you, he/she could show you through the net or a book or something. it’s a lie! no, not even youtube. and maybe this is the right time to tell you: first you learn how to sing, then you can learn how to scream. there’s no reasonable way around it, no shortcut. screaming is not a separate thing, it’s more like a combination of techniques you’ll have to learn first – sorry.

now there are some other things to consider. first of all, you should know what you mean by ‘screaming’. i have no idea if there’s an official definition to this – i doubt it very much. by the way: as for official definitions, singing is quite a minefield! it never seizes to amaze me, how many terms are being thrown around that don’t even have a clear meaning. usually someone is just trying to get attention by using complicated sounding words – you know, like doctors do. then you should keep in mind that screaming only works if done at the right moment. you don’t want to go over the top with this, that’ll only reduce it’s meaning. and another thing: screaming, even if done properly, is not really the healthiest thing to do, voicewise – so now would be the time to decide if you really want to go through with this……….still there? ok, then i’ll give you my definition, or more like examples to check out for yourself.

for me, screaming is what the Manowar singer does all the time. yes, i know – you don’t have to like them. just listen to some of their songs and you’ll know what i mean. by the way, i liked this band a lot when i was younger, sometimes i still listen to them – it takes a certain mood :-) and make no mistake, the singer rocks – big time! you can also find a rather famous example in Deep Purple‘s “Child In Time”. this is what i call ‘screaming’, just to not mix up different things.

a lot of people asking that question mean something else, more like nickelback (nope, i refuse linking to them – ptui!) or similar stuff. but that is not screaming, it’s just singing with more power and a little ‘rawness’ in the voice. again, ask your local vocal teacher. now there’s some other guys who say ‘screaming’ but mean growling or whatever this is called. well, there really is a way to do this without hurting yourself, although it doesn’t give you the amount of control you might want. or you could just have lots of beer and grunt away – complete loss of your voice sooner or later along the way almost guaranteed. but in that case this might be considered a good thing…

hehehe, maybe i’ll tell you about the ‘growling-trick’ someday – but not right now.

i just finished recording rhythm-guitar for the first song of “traitor”, i played ten tracks, threw two of them away and kept the other eight – not sure if i’ll use them all, though. there are lots of bits and pieces for this new album i already recorded, but until now i wasn’t sure what this album would sound like. during the last few weeks i was messing around with all kinds of ideas but now it became quite obvious where this will go. this little tracking-session today made it very clear that this will be a straightforward, lowdown and dirty hardrock album.

the funny thing about this is, i stopped being a rock-musician years ago. and since then i’m listening to everything with the same amount of interest, i’m playing everything with the same amount of ‘being into it’. but beyond all that there’s some unfinished business i suppose. songs i wrote during my rock-phase for instance, like 15 years ago… i don’t even like those songs anymore, but i still love the feel of some of them or some parts, riffs, licks or whatever. and since that time, whenever i’ve picked up a guitar, some of those old ideas snuck up on me. so now i’m making peace with myself by finally doing a record with all that stuff – hoping those ghosts from the past will leave me alone at last :-)

nah, don’t gimme that “so, now you’re trying to palm off old and rotten stuff on me?” because that’s not what this is. there won’t be a single one of those old songs on the record, as i said before, i don’t like them anymore. i will, though, write new material with some of those riffs, ideas etc. included. what will mostly remain of the old stuff is the feel. suffice it to say i was quite an angry young loon back then. but don’t panic! i’m already thinking about the third album which will be completely different – again. this second one is basically about getting something off my chest and be done with it. on the other hand – recording this dirty stuff was kind of fun……………..

hold on, we’re almost there… this one’s about “catching up” – the 2nd song on “corner” (listen to it in the cool blue player to the right at the top of the sidebar).

this was of course inspired by Tom Waits, like a few others on the album as well. there’s this dark soundmess crawling forward, with almost no change throughout the whole song, and a distorted voice just telling this little story. the idea was not complicated at all, but putting it into practice was a somewhat more demanding task. again all sample based (except vocals) but there’s lots of them, about 5 different bassdrums – 3 normal ones and 2 orchestral ones (whatever those are called…), a complete drumkit, a few additional toms, two different kalimbas, xylophones, pan flutes, a bassoon, a synth-sound called ‘plucking teeth’. then a distortion device applied to some of the above mentioned instruments as well as the vocals.

there is a lot of automation going on in this tune, the faders move all the time, even if just little bits. when i started with that song, i figured this should be the easiest one because, hey, how hard can it be to create a soundmess? little did i know :-)  making a mess is a lot more difficult than i thought. for one, it’s against everything i ever learned and therefore well outside my field of expertise. no matter what i did, it sounded kind of organised, unbelievable. and it still is not as messy as i wanted it to be – i’m working on it… another reason is, everything about good music-software is designed to make a good sounding recording, from well sounding samples to the different processes you can use to shape the sound. of course, you can always go over the top with the settings but this often sounds just crappy instead of dirty, messy or raw. i plan to record some of the instruments i’ll use in the future myself to combine them with the sampled ones in order to get a somewhat messier sound, but for this album it was out of the question because there was very little time. and you can’t just set up any microphone anywhere, play your instrument and count on the recording to sound the way you want it to. chances are, again, it will just suck and not sound badass-like…

so instead of just throwing something together and guessing it would sound really bad (the good ‘bad’) automatically, it took a lot of experimenting and learning how to achieve such a sound. and that’s quite complex, because our brain is ridiculously skilled in recognising patterns of all kinds and that’s usually a good thing. but patterns are just the opposite of  a mess, meaning if you want to create a mess, you’ll have to work hard getting rid of any patterns along the way. ok, you may want to leave a few of them in there to have a rhythm of some kind for instance but anything else could easily become a problem.

as i mentioned, i’m just getting into this mess-making-thing and the song didn’t turn out the way i wanted it in the first place, because it is somehow based on patterns – but on the other hand, i like it. it would seem i need to create more mess-tunes in the future – a lot more….